McClaughry: Can Vermont follow New Hampshire’s tax rate reduction?

By John McClaughry

Drew Cline of the Josiah Bartlett Center in New Hampshire noted that New Hampshire’s Business Profits Tax rate was 8.5% in 2015, making it the third-highest corporate income tax in New England, after Maine and Connecticut.

After the passage of the current state budget, New Hampshire’s BPT rate is down to 7.6%, a 10.5% cut in six years. This year, five states have reduced business tax rates.

Says Cline, “Freedom made New Hampshire an economic marvel. Recognizing that people are free to live wherever they want, state policymakers for decades have focused on making the Granite State as attractive as possible.”

He adds:

It has worked beautifully. New Hampshire’s economic growth has surpassed every other New England state’s, and the national average, since the late 1970s.

With a booming economy came a growing population, which has enhanced the state’s quality of life and kept New Hampshire from becoming Vermont — a dying state that pays people to move there.

When people are free, there’s a limit to how bossy a state can be. And there are rewards for offering people more personal, political and economic autonomy.

New Hampshire has figured this out. Other states are catching on, just as technology has made Americans more mobile than ever before.

Drew Cline pointedly raises the question of which state is better off: low tax New Hampshire or high tax Vermont. That’s a pretty easy call.

John McClaughry is vice president of the Ethan Allen Institute. Reprinted with permission from the Ethan Allen Institute Blog.

Image courtesy of Public domain

2 thoughts on “McClaughry: Can Vermont follow New Hampshire’s tax rate reduction?

  1. I live in NH and there is a lot missing here in this article that is important to know.
    We have a completely different culture over here in NH that made this happen and continues making this happen.. we *reject* and don’t want a whole lot of government in our lives.. this equals more freedom, but plenty of responsibility comes with this too. Slackers and do-gooders are not so welcomed.
    Vermont loves government and never ceases to grow it at every opportunity.. and this is how you got where you are, this mentality, this culture. You want to be helped, we want to be left the heck alone.
    I would think that if you want to make huge changes, you first have to recognize the need for a cultural shift.
    If you think the government is your friend, well hand over your wallet then.
    People in NH know it’s not and therefore see our tax structure.

  2. iF CORRECT? …..

    NH has twice as many residents as Vt, and half as many state employees.as Vt.

    That is a tax, and regulations, burden of “Times 4” of tax burden for Vermonters.

    Correct me it that is wrong! No matter it is HUGE burden on Vermonters.

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