From a reader:
To your Mr. Vermont; talk about not doing your homework! I was born, bred, raised in NH. Yes, the property taxes were complained about and generally considered high. This was due in part to NH’s status as a vacation state and was a way to get MA, NY, CT and other peoples to help pay for the government since they used the roads plenty on their summer and weekend trips. We also were considered to have “high tolls” by most locals, though one trip on the NY interstate or the Garden Parkway will certainly tell otherwise!
I now live in Maine, which is TAX HELL for a NH girl. I love Maine’s sense of community, the natural settings can’t be beat, with plenty of both coastline and mountains, and am generally happy here, but for the bleeping taxes! Our property taxes are the same as NH at least in mid coast to southern Maine where most of the population resides. Our excise tax is way higher, we have a sales and income tax, and a bloody “government” for every little town and municipality no matter the size. That means that if you live in a town with 526 people, you’ll still have your own fire, police, etc. instead of “sharing” costs with another town right next door (which NH does).
Even our liberal magazine, Downeast, recently ran an article on Maine vs. NH, what do our neighbors do so differently that we don’t in the area of the State economy.
1. NH sets a budget and sticks to it. Yes, I know that it is unheard of, but in NH, if you have say a $20 million budget, than all monies outgoing from the state treasury must not exceed that. Things will get trimmed because there is an acceptance to stick to the budget. NH does not live on credit, unlike the rest of the country.
2. NH politicians have always had to take the “tax pledge”. Even Shaheen had to in order to win. No income or sales tax. They recognize that if they’ve found a way to pay for everything over the past 200 years without one they can probably continue to do so.
3. NH sets off as much of it’s costs as possible with high hotel % taxes, etc. to take advantage of a “consumption based” tax.
Goes without saying that we don’t do any of this stuff in Maine, much less in Vermont. That’s why NH is business rich.