The New Hampshire House budget should be rejected by both the Senate and the governor. The new increased spending has no credible source of tax revenue to support it.
In addition to relying on “one-off” budget surpluses for ongoing expenses, it relies on a new 5 percent income tax on capital gains to raise $150 million.
The $150 million will not materialize. The proposed income tax on capital gains ignores the behavioral effects the new tax would have on modeled tax receipts and would lower economic growth in New Hampshire.
Investors with large capital gains, such as from the sale of a business, can choose what state to reside in before taking a capital gain. As the only state without a capital gains tax in the Northeast, New Hampshire has benefited by residents from other states moving to New Hampshire to exercise capital gains. These tax migrants often start new businesses and invest capital in businesses here. This supports the economy and, indirectly, state tax revenue. With the proposed new tax, this movement of people and risk capital into the state would end. In fact, New Hampshire residents with large unrealized capital gains would be motivated to move to states without a capital gains tax prior to selling an appreciated business or other asset.
Further, an income tax on capital gains provides extremely variable receipts and are lowest when needed most.
Federal capital gains tax receipts fell from $137.1 billion in 2007 to $36.7 billion in 2009.
A similar variability in New Hampshire receipts would take the expected $150 million to $40 million. Where is that $110 million shortfall going to come from in the next recession?
State government spending needs matching tax receipts.
The proposed House budget simply does not provide a credible source for the money spent and should be rejected by both parties.
BOB ASHTON
Hanover
Thanks for publishing George Plumb’s op-ed piece for Earth Day, in which he suggests that we stop employing pesticides and herbicides that kill beneficial insects and soil microbes (“What to do as Sixth Great Extinction accelerates?” April 22).
If you live in Vermont, please take time to send a note to your representatives and thank them for passing a bill recently to ban neonicotinoid pesticides (also called neonics), which are toxic to bees and other important pollinators.
If you live in New Hampshire, please ask your representatives to support HB 646, which would accomplish the same goal.
The bill has been retained in the Environment and Agriculture Committee. If enough members of the Legislature hear from us, perhaps that bill can get moved out of committee for action. New Hampshire could join Vermont and Connecticut in a move to make New England a friendlier place for pollinators.
Without pollinators, our food supply will crash. Banning neonics will not entirely stop bee colony collapse, which is in part due to a virus spread by mites, but it certainly might help.
PETER J. THOMPSON
Post Mills
The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (2013) defines antisocial personality disorder as a “pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others,” as indicated by three or more of the following:
■ Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors, including repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest.
■ Impulsivity or a failure to plan ahead.
■ Irritability and aggressiveness.
■ Reckless disregard for the safety of self or others.
■ Consistent irresponsibility, including at work and with financial obligations.
■ A lack of remorse.
If three of these indicates a sociopath (similar to a psychopath), then what do you have when someone exhibits all seven of these traits?
And isn’t it censurable for a group of elected officials (read, “Republicans”) to consistently support a leader who demonstrates such behavior? Vote them out!
MICHAEL WHITMAN
Lyme
In his inaugural address in 1961, President John F. Kennedy exhorted us to “ask not what your country can do for you. …” Today, we are urged by the burgeoning herd of Democratic presidential candidates to pursue the opposite course.
There you have it: Two generations of “progress” in a nutshell.
ANTHONY STIMSON
Lebanon