“It’s much too soon to tap the state’s Rainy Day Fund.”
That was Gov. Chris Sununu’s response on WMUR earlier this week to new state revenue projections.
State revenues are below projections in a healthy economy. That should be a wake-up call to anticipate now, rather than to react later.
Next year, the state tax on interest and dividends will be zero. This year, it’s 3 percent. Last year, it was 4 percent. That tax brings $160 million into state coffers, as I understand it.
For tax year 2023, our household paid $1,400 to New Hampshire on our interest and dividends. That’s roughly $117 a month, less than our electricity bill or our phone/internet/TV service.
It’s hardly a confiscatory tax. I can’t imagine that people like us would leave New Hampshire because of it. I doubt it would cause people considering a move here to change their plans, either.
Eliminating the state tax on interest and dividends is a solution in search of a problem. To me, it’s a move that aggravates budgetary pressure.
New Hampshire government is not, by any means, profligate. Rather, it’s penurious – penny-wise and pound-foolish.
State officials pat themselves on the back and advertise New Hampshire as a low-tax state. But that assertion is disingenuous, to put it nicely.
Basically, the state shifts the tax burden to local governments, whose primary revenue source is the property tax. Furthermore, the state’s hand is deep in the pockets of municipal governments. It siphons off its cut of local property taxes. It grudgingly returns a pittance of the lodging, meals and entertainment taxes collected by local governments. In a way, it acts like a mobster extracting protection money.
Then there are the various fees. Call them what you will. A tax by any other name is still a tax.
Last but certainly not least, the state taps with gusto into the federal till. At the same time, to burnish their bona fides as fiscal conservatives, state officials decry the bloated federal budget and ballooning federal debt.
New Hampshire residents don’t want or need a Rolls Royce state government. We need and deserve a government like a Subaru Crosstrek – reliable, practical, affordable, versatile – to handle our needs and invest in our future.
Speaking for my husband, Tom, and myself, let’s leave it at this. We can afford to pay the interest and dividends tax. Anyone who must pay it can also easily do so.
I would like to know if anyone anywhere in this state who pays this tax actually complained about it. If such a person or persons do, in fact, exist, here’s what I would say right to their face: “Stop whining; we all benefit from the greater good.”
