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(As today's visitor might say, This is a big freaking deal. - promoted by elwood)
In addition to the tax cuts the GOP-controlled has passed this term, they have secretly inserted a revenue trap into the budget that will take years to remove. The House is cutting the budget of the DRA (the agency that collects taxes and other revenues on our behalf) by 30%. It is reducing DRA's staff by 43%, and in the critical audit division that targets the rich and corporations it reduces the staff by 50%. The House did this knowing that every dollar spent in auditing brings in at least 15 dollars in additional taxes. Taxes that are legitimately owed based on current law, not new taxes.
This little budget trick will have a long term impact on state revenues even when these radicals are voted out in 2012. It has taken years to do the recruiting and training needed to put together an effective and efficient tax authority. This budget throws away all that work by firing close to half the staff. Once DRA's staff is gone, it will take years to rebuild the organization. The only beneficiaries of this wanton act of destruction will be the largest tax payers in the state who know the green light has just been turned on to escalate their tax avoidance schemes.
The people of New Hampshire have the right to expect that, no matter what the political philosophy of the legislature, it will at least act as good stewards of the state's interests. This under-cover destruction of the state's ability to raise revenue is utterly against our interests and is a scandal. It's hard to overstate the recklessness of this move. I wonder if any of the media will bother reporting on it.