CSE Tax Activists Successful in New Hampshire

“Telephone poles don’t pay taxes, telephone users do.” That’s been the message of CSE activists in New Hampshire, and Granite State officials again showed that they are hearing CSE loud and clear. Last week, the New Hampshire House voted 192-145 to continue the property tax exemption on telephone poles and wire for two more years. CSE salutes the majority of legislators who voted against a regressive new tax on New Hampshire’s vital technology infrastructure.

Leading up to the vote, New Hampshire CSE State Director Chuck McGee mailed more than 3,500 NH CSE members, urging them to contact their State House legislators to press for passage of House Bill 1416. CSE Policy Analyst Max Pappas also published an opinion editorial in New Hampshire’s leading news paper, the Manchester Union Leader. Pappas reminded would-be tax hikers who claimed telephone corporations would pay for the new taxes that in the end, only people pay taxes.

CSE President Paul Beckner commented:

“This is a victory for every telephone user in New Hampshire, preventing potentially $20 million new telephone taxes and higher telephone service prices.”

“The New Hampshire win is the latest in a rapidly growing list of CSE victories on behalf of taxpayers across the nation. In the last six months CSE activists have led and won fights against major tax increases of more than $1 billion each in Florida, Alabama, and Oregon. The most recent taxpayer victory in New Hampshire is already the second this year in this important presidential battle ground state. The message coming out of New Hampshire, and from most other states across the nation, is clear: voters do not want to pay higher taxes to fund the wasteful spending.”