|
The income tax is off the table this year, but for those who want to know more and missed the 2000 and 2002 elections, here is the description of last term's proposal from our mailer in 2002.
It has some catch-up notes at the bottom.
|
|
Taxes, Our City and Our State: 2002
|
|
There are a lot of Republican candidates out there this time telling you to say No to the income tax.
But No's have consequences.
Here's what you are saying Yes to if you say no to the income tax plan:
|
Huge property taxes.
TWO THIRDS of our state and local taxes are the property tax.
That is why the lowest income group pays nine times as much of their income in taxes as the wealthiest, and the vast majority of the middle pay three times as much1.
We have to find a substitute.
Not an add-on, a substitute.
|
|
Failure of essential state services to the needy, to businesses and to you.
Twelve years ago the state was told its revenue sources could not grow as fast as its population and essential needs.
We cut essentials, found efficiencies, and burdened more and more people and businesses with hidden fees and mini-taxes to make do.
Since Claremont, we have used hidden deficits; we have raised business taxes to among the highest in the country; we have kept Medicaid reimbursement to levels that threaten the closure of nursing homes, clinics and visiting nurse associations- levels that increase all our insurance costs.
There is nowhere left to go.
|
|
Continuing property tax increases 2.
Lebanon's fair-market property values went up a lot for existing homes in the last two years.
Your local, local school, and county property tax rates will go down in November, because the tax rate is calculated by dividing each budget by the total assessed property value.
But the state-wide property tax rate will not go down unless the legislature cuts the rate.
The Republicans that designed the last budget purposefully reduced the rate too little to compensate for the hot realty market.
If your home went up 20%, you will pay 5% more dollars under the $5.80 rate next year than you did two years ago under the $6.60 rate, because your house is worth more.
You want to sell and move?
Move where?
You're a renter?
Surprise - your landlord is including the tax in your rent increase.
|
|
End this Fiscal Insanity
|
|
Say Yes to the Income Tax Instead 3
|
|
A tax on disposable income: base income (approximately minimum wage) is not taxed: $11,000 per adult, $3000 per child; renter credits; no taxes on social security or equivalent; but we all pay the same 4% above that.
|
|
Repeal of the business enterprise tax and the interest & dividend tax
|
|
Guaranteed property tax relief to all & total tax relief to most: the Education Trust Fund receives the entire income tax and pays it out to the school districts; the Commissioner of Revenues certifies the amount, subtracts it from the voter-approved school budget, and lowers the local school property tax rate by that amount. The plan's higher grant level further reduces the local school property tax. Lebanon's total property tax would have been 36% lower this year under the plan. Businesses would have seen a 15% property tax reduction.
|
|
It returns the other recent tax increases to the General Fund, to make up for the constant deficits we have been experiencing and provide the funding needed to return the safety net to the basic level of a decade ago.
|
|
A NH income tax would bring back over $100 million to our revenues that our neighboring states and the IRS now collect.
|
|
2004 Notes:
|
|
1
1 This is a comparison between the top 1% and the rest.
In our brief description in this year's literature, we referred more conservatively to the difference between the top 15% and the rest.
But in this country at this time the top 1% make a huge percentage of the income - which is why making them pay their fair share will reduce taxes for everyone else substantially - and why taxes have been going up for everyone else as they pay at lower rates and get more loopholes out of the US Congress.
|
|
2 This has changed in some ways.
The legislature took the statewide property tax down more than the market had gone up for 2005 - but the prediction of revenue administration is that this will not raise enough for the state's minimal payment for an "adequate" education, and therefore the legislature also reduced the amount the state was to pay - forcing the loss back on the local school districts and property taxes.
Because of the weirdities they put in the funding formula, Lebanon actually gained a bit of money - but the City of Manchester, which is struggling against de-accreditation in some schools, actually lost $4 million.
The four richest towns gained money, and the suing towns led by Claremont and other lowest income towns around the state also lost money.
|
|
3 Since we proposed this specific plan two years ago, the legislature has changed the school funding formula - what town gets what - too many times to count, causing endless headaches to the school districts. The "final" plan is back in court.
|
