The Coalition of NH Taxpayers
www.cnht.org
September 28, 2008
For Immediate Release
The Taxpayer’s Worst Enemy
At the end of each two-year legislative term, many groups publish scorecards rating each member of the NH House of Representatives.
Some even give an award for top Legislator of the Year.
The Coalition of NH Taxpayers is a taxpayer watchdog group that advocates for fiscal responsibility in government and lower taxes. Although we do not endorse candidates, we do not hesitate to point out those who are friends or foes of the taxpayer.
As bad as this past legislative session was what with over 25 new taxes or tax increases realized, and an impending deficit of an undetermined amount, things could have been worse if certain legislators were to get their way.
CNHT would like to bestow its own award for the 2006-2008 Session. This dubious award, “The Taxpayer’s Worst Enemy”, goes to Catherine Mulholland (D), who represents District 10 in Grafton County.
She earned this award for the sheer volume of bills she sponsored during the 2006-2008 session, bills which introduced new taxes or proposed increases on current taxes, or took the power of the vote away from the people.
For example:
HB 0925-2008 which:
I. Taxes property which is not primary residential real estate at twice the rate of primary residential real estate under the local property tax.
II. Establishes a luxury sales and use tax on motor vehicles costing $30,000 or more and any item costing $10,000 or more.
III. Establishes a tax on entertainment admission charges.
IV. Establishes a tax on gambling winnings.
V. Expands the definition of tobacco products subject to the tobacco tax.
VI. Changes the method of calculating the beer tax to a method based on price rather than volume.
VII. Establishes a tax on estates exceeding $3,000,000, excluding certain farm property.
VIII. Establishes a payroll tax on businesses with payrolls exceeding $10,000 per week.
IX. Changes the rate of the statewide enhanced education tax.
X. Dedicates revenues from the taxes established in this bill to the education trust fund.
Then there was HB 0820-2007, a bill which would have established a tax on candy, HB 0891-2007, which would have established a fee to be paid by beverage manufacturers and distributors, including bottled water.
Additionally, Mulholland was the sole sponsor of CACR 0007-2007 which proposed a constitutional amendment to make the positions of County Treasurer, Register of Probate, County Attorney, Sheriff, and Register of Deeds and appointed rather than elected position.
This was just a part of the overall tax outrageousness that went on this past session. There was a bill which asked for the establishment of a committee to study implementing a “bedroom” tax on residential dwellings. That’s right, HB 0398-2007 proposed to study the feasibility of a tax on the bedrooms in your home. But surprisingly, Mulholland was not mentioned as a co-sponsor of that bill.
As a result of the past two years of legislative outrageousness, NH now faces between a $158-$495M deficit, has passed the Shoreline Protection Act — a huge private-to-state land transfer, and most recently, effectively in secret, managed to push through another huge transfer of the wealth with a $10M State Heating Aid Bill.
Clearly Mullholland has shown herself to be part of this problem.