Mack: New Hampshire's Income Tax Kabuki Theater

By Jonathan Mack, NH Journal

In traditional Japanese Kabuki theater, actors wearing exaggerated makeup use dramatic gestures and still poses in productions that purposely eschew realism. The plays typically explore morality themes or historical political events. This is done against a backdrop of the plucking sound of a Japanese instrument that sounds like a banjo in a music box.

Does this seem something like the ongoing New Hampshire income tax debate to you?

Kabuki theater is actually even older than the New Hampshire income tax debate. It dates to the early 1600s, while it was not until 1735, when the British Parliament repealed the New Hampshire Provincial Assembly’s law making witchcraft a capital offense, that the way was cleared for the income tax to become the foremost issue in New Hampshire’s political consciousness.

The latest installment of the income tax debate was initiated in March when former Executive Councilor Andru Volinsky, flanked by an amen chorus of education advocates, proposed an income tax to be used exclusively for schools. Never mind that dedicated taxes are inherently fallacious because, as long as money is fungible, they effectively also fund less popular government expenditures, like, say, Christmas roast beef dinners for prison inmates.

In response to Volinsky’s initiative, the GOP has dusted off proposed constitutional amendments banning an income tax or requiring supermajorities for one to be enacted. The traditional Kabuki production has ensued.

In the Kabuki play, Volinsky makes overwrought flailing gestures referring to the costumed chorus behind him, which is composed of 19th-century schoolmarms consigned to penury by skinflint New England town fathers, and barefooted Dickensian dirty children in rags with dog-eared McGuffey Readers as their only educational resource.

The characters depicting Democratic leaders like gubernatorial hopeful Cinde Warmington and House leader Alexis Simpson approach Volinsky, bring their index fingers to their lips, and make desperate “shushing” signs. They then turn to the audience with Charlie Chaplinesque “who, me?” facial expressions before wildly waving ancient parchments allegedly containing no-income-tax pledges.

After watching this unfold from the other side of the stage, the GOP leaders beat their breasts, unsheathe their swords, and become flushed with anger, although they cannot completely contain their giggles while doing so.

In a harrowing climax, Volinsky falls on his sword, and his education advocates sadly slink back to their plebeian, threadbare lives of sacrifice. The GOP characters proceed on to their scheduled Chamber of Commerce meetings.

While males typically play all of the female parts in Kabuki theater, there is an exception in the New Hampshire income tax Kabuki production. Kelly Ayotte, playing herself, makes a cameo appearance as a postscript. Resisting traditional Kabuki dramatic flair, she surveys the carnage on the stage before shrugging and happily accepting reelection as governor.

When the income tax constitutional amendment came up for a vote in the House in March, Minority Leader Simpson complained that it had not been considered in committee first, even though there is no issue more familiar to representatives and less in need of explication through committee proceedings. She got her wish, as the Ways and Means Committee took up the bill in April, and her caucus got to put an exclamation point on its March vote with another vote against the amendment last week.

Ultimately, an income tax is not going to be enacted in New Hampshire’s current political climate, but a successful constitutional amendment against one is also unlikely, given the supermajority requirements in both the legislature and a referendum. The ongoing fierce debate is thus inchoate and mainly of interest to political junkies. The proceedings are stylized, stagey, preordained, and tantalizing to aficionados. In all this, they are much like Kabuki.

Jonathan Mack is an attorney living in Hampton whose commentary appears frequently at the American Thinker and on X at @jonathanfmack.

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.