By Sarah Downey | The Center Square
New Hampshire made the top 10 in a new Kiplinger report that ranked states on the basis of the states’ income, sales and property taxes.
“We’re pretty regularly in the list of tax-friendly states. When I saw the Kiplinger report, I saw that pretty much north of North Carolina, we’re the most tax-friendly state in the East, and that’s reflected in our economic numbers,” Taylor Caswell, Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Business and Economic Affairs, told The Center Square. “We have no income tax, no sales tax, and reasonably low corporate taxes. That’s going to have a positive impact on our economy. “
The surrounding states of Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts were named “Not Tax Friendly,” ranking in the bottom half of the survey.
Better tax rates have led more people to move to the Granite State, Caswell said.
“If you live in Massachusetts, that’s 6 or 7 percent income tax. Connecticut has 14 percent. In terms of net migration, it really stands out we have more people coming in than leaving. This is a really critical issue that brings that younger workforce into the state.”
Employers have also found a favorable business environment, Caswell said. “Lonza Biologics, BAE Systems, and Hitchiner Manufacturing – all of them were being wooed by different states, but these companies decided to stay and expand in New Hampshire.”
The Kiplinger report showed the state’s property taxes faring less favorably, with an average $2,296 tax per $100,000 in home value. New Hampshire’s gasoline tax of 23.83 cents a gallon was ranked well below the national average.
Caswell noted that another study, by Smart Asset, recently showed New Hampshire in the top 10 States for where millennials are moving.
“These things are not one-offs. These are very definitive trends that we’re aware of and we’re trying to make use of,” Caswell said.
This is good news from a PR perspective for New Hampshire, but it is nothing new to its’ citizens and Vermont ex-pats like myself. What is really interesting is that the NH House of Representatives is populated with 233 Democrats and 166 Republicans. The N.H. Senate has 14 Democrats and 10 Republicans. The Governor is Republican. At least to date, NH Democrats in public office, thankfully, are not of the same breed as Vermonts’ Sandernistas’ Fellow Travelers. Oh, and they all get paid the princely sum of $200.00/session plus travel expense.
Maybe, its’ that the Connecticut River acts as some sort of anti-viral antibody for the Vermont Liberal plague or maybe it is that New Hampshire folks care about each other first before they even begin to think about actions based on dubious political fervor.