NH CSE Supports the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights

Rejecting tradition and writing its own maps in 2002, the NH Supreme Court did more than just “redistrict” our State House political boundaries. In effect, the court saw fit to provide perpetual incumbency and remove from the voting public any real sense of accountability over State House officials.

SIGN THE PETITION!

Take for example the communities of Rochester and Somersworth. Today those residents elect not one or two or even three Representatives from their neighborhoods but an astonishing 14 at-large seats.

The odds of a voter having even heard of all 28 potential nominees are slim, the odds of a voter knowing the positions of all 28 nominees is even slimmer and the odds of defeating an incumbent office holder – who now has to lose to 14 other lesser known candidates – is nigh impossible.

Hence, elections to the State House are achieved not on merit or proposals but on high name recognition and incumbents, reelected time and again, are free to vote not as their constituents might desire but as their personal agendas allow.

The result is a need for a new standard of accountability for New Hampshire taxpayers. Now is the time for a Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights (TBOR).

Proposed by Governor Benson and awaiting action in the House under the title CACR 22, this constitutional amendment would most simply limit state spending growth to the rate of inflation and population increases and require a 2/3 majority vote to raise or implement new taxes.

State spending increases have eclipsed state revenue increases for far too long and the resulting deficits have burdened taxpayers and harmed job creation. Over the past five years, state spending has increase by sixty-six percent, three times the rate of inflation plus population growth. That kind of government expansion is not sustainable without an income or sales tax.

TBOR would provide a mechanism to limit spending and in the event of an emergency provide for increased spending and/or taxes only through the vote of a super majority. And in TBOR, New Hampshire Citizens for a Sound Economy (NH CSE) recognizes that this is good for Granite State taxpayers and the fight for freedom.

First instituted in Colorado, members of the establishment made the usual predictions of doom and gloom. But the true results were profound. Since 1995, Colorado’s per capita income increased over 7 percent and its gross state product increase was the first in the nation from 1996 to 2001 at nearly 10 percent.

It was reported just several years ago that, under the Shaheen administration, Colorado surpassed New Hampshire as the state with the highest percentage of high tech workers per capita.

Governor Benson’s proposal would allow government budgets to expand – but it would be limited to the prior year’s budget plus inflation, plus population growth. This makes sense.

But the most important aspect of TABOR is the control returned to Granite State Taxpayers. A report in USA Today published in 2002 noted that New Hampshire was among the worst offenders for increased spending and the high court’s redistricting plan of 2002 only suggests more of the same.

With Colorado and New Hampshire’s lead, it may come to pass that other states in the Union may follow in similar efforts. If the U.S. Congress cannot curtail its spending habits, perhaps it should be up to the people of the individual states to provide themselves a reprieve from burdensome taxes and infringements on their rights and pursuits. NH CSE hopes the people of New Hampshire might join in our efforts to pass a Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights.