Farrington: We Don't Need Permission For A Sales Tax Holiday In The 603

By Sam Farrington, NH Journal

Last weekend, our neighbors in Taxachusetts celebrated their annual “sales tax holiday” — for two measly days. Bay State politicians “so generously” grant their citizens a temporary reprieve from the 6.25 percent sales tax — provided, of course, their purchases stay under a bureaucratically mandated price cap and fall into the correct legal categories.

Here in New Hampshire, we laugh at the bureaucracy.

Thanks to the New Hampshire Advantage, we don’t need the government’s permission for a sales tax holiday. We don’t have to scramble, panic-buy or rush. In the Granite State, every single day is a tax-free holiday: 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. No sales tax. Period.

Meanwhile, Taxachusetts treats its sales tax holiday like a big deal. Furniture stores and warehouses blitz the airwaves with commercials and ads. People rush to do their back-to-school shopping and buy appliances. But when the clock strikes midnight, like Cinderella’s magic at the ball, it all vanishes.

That contrast is living, breathing proof of a fundamentally different political philosophy. Massachusetts believes your money belongs to the government, except for two days when politicians generously lend it back to you before finding new ways to pilfer your pockets. New Hampshire believes your money belongs to you, not stuffed in the coffers of state government.

The New Hampshire Advantage does not exist by accident, and it does not survive on autopilot. It exists because Granite Staters send Republicans to Concord to serve as state representatives. And right now, Democratic politicians want nothing more than to dismantle that advantage piece by piece.

Every legislative term, House Democrats introduce a predictable parade of tax hikes. This year alone, they filed and supported more than $3.98 billion in tax hikes affecting Granite Staters. From the ground you stand on to the paycheck you use to feed your family, Democrats wanted to raise taxes by $2,824.99 for every man, woman, child and retiree in the state. They look across the border at Massachusetts not as a cautionary tale, but as a policy blueprint.

When people say, “No one would ever pass a sales tax in New Hampshire,” they forget how close we are to that becoming a reality. A sales or income tax doesn’t fail because of some vague cultural sentiment; it fails because a working Republican majority stands on the House floor and votes no.

Records matter. Votes matter.

If the wrong party wins a majority in Concord, that 365-day sales tax holiday disappears. The nearly $4 billion in proposed tax hikes that Republicans killed over the past year would suddenly become the starting gun for the next legislative session. At that point, bragging about our tax-free culture won’t be a point of pride. It will be a memory.

We cannot take our competitive edge for granted while our neighbors to the south drive north every weekend just to experience what we enjoy every day.

When we talk about putting the New Hampshire Advantage on offense, this is exactly what we mean. We must protect what makes us unique and send lawmakers to Concord who understand that low taxes are the engine of our state’s economy.

While people in Massachusetts waited in long lines to catch a two-day break from their own government, take a moment to appreciate what we have built in New Hampshire. Then make sure you support the state representatives who defend it year after year.

Whether we get to brag about our 365-day sales tax holiday at this time next year depends entirely on whom we send to Concord this fall. Let’s keep New Hampshire free, prosperous and tax-free 365 days a year.

Rep. Sam Farrington is a Republican representing Rochester in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. He wrote this for NHJournal.com.

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.