AFP: Vermont's Tax-And-Regulate Agenda Highlights New Hampshire Advantage

By Evan Lips, NH Journal

New Hampshire and Vermont, eyeing each other from either side of the Connecticut River, may boast soaring mountaintops and share a mutual skepticism of flatlanders.

But that’s where the similarities end.

The “New Hampshire Advantage” was at the forefront of a discussion Thursday night moderated by Americans for Prosperity deputy state director Sarah Scott. The story of the Granite State’s historic refusal to inflict an income tax on its residents added a new chapter this spring when Republican lawmakers tried to convince their Democratic colleagues to adopt an amendment permanently banning any future tax proposals.

There were 158 Democrats who voted against the proposal.

And while a permanent income tax ban has yet to be enshrined, the political climate in the Granite State indicates there won’t be any more Democratic-backed income tax proposals approaching the legislative finish line in the near future.

Democrats in Vermont, meanwhile, are pushing to have the Green Mountain State follow in the footsteps of Massachusetts by inflicting a tax hike on the state’s top earners.

“It’s crazy to me that New Hampshire and Vermont can be so close geographically if we have those two very different cultural attitudes towards income tax,” Scott said. “In New Hampshire, we have had a lot of talk about an income tax over this last legislative session, but not to bring in an income tax.

“Actually, the conversation has been, ‘how are we going to permanently ban having an income tax in the state?’”

Joining Scott on the panel was Clara Morrison, executive director of the Right for Vermont Foundation, a pro-free market nonprofit think tank, and AFP Northeast Regional Director Ross Connolly.

“Lawmakers in Montpelier so far are not getting the memo that we need to cut taxes if we want to see some growth,” said Morrison.

Connolly recalled that New Hampshire hasn’t always been the only state in New England without an income tax. Up until 1991, Connecticut also featured zero income tax. New Jersey up until 1976 also lacked an income tax.

“They didn’t have an income tax, they didn’t have sales taxes, they just had high property taxes, and their excuse was, well, to offset high property taxes, let’s pass an income tax,” Connolly said. “But now, if you look at any of the rankings, New Jersey is ranked one of the highest in the country for overall tax burden and Connecticut is not far behind.

“Outside of New Hampshire and Maine, every New England state is in the bottom 10 for overall tax burden, which means they have some of the highest taxes in the country.”

The differences between New Hampshire and its New England neighbors do not stop with taxes.

Energy policy is also a key difference, although all three panelists noted that over-restrictive regulations in states like Vermont and Massachusetts severely impact New Hampshire.

Connolly pointed out that the inverse is also true.

Electricity generated by New Hampshire’s Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant, which came online in 1990 just as nuclear power plants in other New England states were facing the chopping block, powers half of the businesses and homes in the Granite State.

Boston “would go dark” if not for Seabrook, according to Connolly.

“The largest solar farm in New England is in Maine, and the total energy output for that one solar farm would not power the John Hancock building, the largest building in Boston, for a single day,” Connolly said.

Additionally, radical policy proposals that would die a swift death in the New Hampshire Legislature appear to be flourishing elsewhere in New England.

Morrison cited efforts by Vermont progressives to try and enact a new mileage tax on electric vehicles.

“Because after they pushed so hard for everybody in the state to get an electric vehicle and incentivized the heck out of them and then realized, ‘oh my gosh, we’re not collecting as much money from our gas tax now,’” Morrison explained. “They now want an electric vehicle tax, where every time you get your car inspected, they will note the number of miles that you’ve driven since the last time you were there, and you’ll have to pay whatever fee per mile that you’ve driven.”

Morrison also noted that Vermont’s last nuclear power station, which was taken offline in 2014, had been responsible for producing nearly 72 percent of the state’s in-state electricity generation.

“All these states closed nuclear plants and thought they were going to power places with low UV indexes like Vermont with solar,” Connolly said. “I’m sorry, but you will never convince me that it is environmentally friendly to just bulldoze Vermont forests and put up black solar panels everywhere.

“That is not a way to power the future.”

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.