New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu proposed a series of across-the-board tax cuts as part of his two-year budget proposal, unveiled Thursday. And as the state looks to advance economically from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new bill seeks to continue a tax reduction plan for businesses.
New Hampshire has zero sales tax on goods or services. We’ve seen what Vermont’s competitive disadvantage in this area has done to retail businesses along the Connecticut River. Increasing our sales tax on services from 0% to 3.6% and adding groceries and clothing to the mix would create a similar giant sucking sound.
“Because New Hampshire is a rural state, and we have some tax advantages here in that there is no state income tax, and there is no state sales tax, it is quite an attractive place and we have seen people coming from the bigger urban areas,” Barbara Ruedig told The Center Square.
State leaders in New York appear to finally be ready to legalize online sports betting, but critics don’t care for the approach of having a likely high tax rate and state government monopoly.
The Vermont Tax Structure Commission wants to expand Vermont’s 6% sales tax — currently limited to goods and a few singled-out services such as ski rentals — to everything but health care, and to reduce the overall rate to 3.6%. This is a terrible proposal.
The state of Vermont should tax fossil fuels to fund carbon reduction programs required by carbon reduction mandates, a Jan. 15 report by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) recommends. Estimated annual revenue from three proposed revenue sources would total $78 million.
The New Hampshire House of Representatives will be considering a bill in the new session that would reduce the state’s business taxes incrementally over the next two years.
While New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu wants to reduce his state’s room and meals tax to help businesses weather the COVID economy, Gov. Phil Scott says that his administration may not be following suit in Vermont.
It would also give New Hampshire’s tourism industry another competitive edge over Vermont’s. Our legislature has not expressed an interest in reducing Vermont’s rooms and meals tax or providing any other kind of tax or regulatory relief.
While these increases are extreme due to the pandemic, they are part of a long-term trend of unsustainably high property taxes, growing every year, to fund ever higher school spending that serves fewer and fewer students.
Vermont’s general obligation debt and the Vermont State College bonds outstanding each had a “stable” outlook after being downgraded from AAA in 2018, but both were changed to a negative outlook after a press release last week.
President-elect Joe Biden’s proposed firearm tax could cost gun owners upwards of $30 billion to keep the weapons they already possess, according to The Washington Free Beacon.