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John Stephen is going to fix NH

by: susanthe

Mon Jul 12, 2010 at 19:19:51 PM EDT


John Stephen announced his plan to "fix" NH today. I remember the last time Stephen wanted to fix NH, by turning Medicaid into a block grant, modeled on the TennCare program. (remember Granite Care?) It seems he still wants that, since he's advocating for a "managed care Medicaid Program" which is what TennCare is. Another thing TennCare is - is nearly bankrupting the state. Facts don't seem to have any bearing on John  Stephen's pursuit of a truly bad idea.  
susanthe :: John Stephen is going to fix NH
Stephen also went on about how NH's business taxes are too high, and he'll ensure we have the lowest business taxes in the region. I hate to be the one to break it to him - BUT - we already do. According to the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, on a scale of 1-10 (one being best) NH ranks 34th. Not the best, and not the worst. The best in New England, though.

Don't these guys ever do any research? Hell no. That would muck up the chosen narrative.

One thing Stephen didn't mention, because Republicans never do is NH's over reliance on the property tax. We may rank 34th in business taxes, but we rank in the top 50 for property tax, according to Forbes.

Merrimack County ranks 19th in the nation for the highest property taxes.

Cheshire County ranks 22nd.
Rockingham County ranks 29th.
Hillsborough County is 34th.
Grafton County is 38th.
Strafford County is 43rd.

Remember - these numbers are higher than some counties in NY, NJ, and California.

It sure would be refreshing to hear a NH Republican honestly address our REAL tax problem, but that would interfere with the NH GOP mantra (copyrighted in 1788): NH DOESN'T HAVE A REVENUE PROBLEM - NH HAS A SPENDING PROBLEM!!!!

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When you think about how many counties there are (4.00 / 1)
in the US, those prop tax numbers are really just jaw-dropping.

birch, finch, beech

3,140 counties - (4.00 / 3)
Linky.

[ Parent ]
A couple more details (4.00 / 1)
You'll see lots of these high biz tax assertions, fed by Papa John's NHGOP web site.

Will Smith, one term Republican Rep from Rye/New Castle:

We now have one of the highest business taxes in the nation.

Jeb Bradley's version of it is,

New Hampshire still has the worst corporate tax laws in the nation according to the non-partisan Tax Foundation.

But when you go to the web site of "The Tax Foundation," a conservative anti-tax research organization who's purpose is to provide data for Republicans, you find that, under Democratic leadership, New Hampshire has become the seventh lowest state business taxes in the country! .  

And according to the US Census Bureau, New Hampshire has the 4th lowest tax burden per capita in the country.

Republicans will continue to press on the budget in this campaign.  Democrats have the high ground here but need to approach the debate with confidence, data and simplicity.  


All these plans (0.00 / 0)
to "fix" us remind me of something I ran into online today: Underpants gnomes!  How to make a profit:

Phase 1.  Collect underpants (substitute your idea here)

Phase 2.  ?

Phase 3.  Profit!  (substitute fix NH)

I was thinking about this while listening to all the claims of a secret way to create jobs we are getting from the other side.  I never hear anything about how they are going to do that, so it must be a secret.  Or they have been watching reruns of South Park.



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