Live Free or Die?

Let me count a few more reasons why the living may not be so free in NH, a state which I happen to love by the way, which is frequently pointed to as an idyllic model of limited government.

First OPINION from an on line chat:

Actually, NH DOES have a revenue shortfall problem (NOT a spending problem) because it cannot meet its fiscal obligations such as maintaining the present-day highways & roads, etc.; paying for its share of the minimally poor "adequate education" costs; paying for its share of municipal and county government operating costs; paying for its share of the NHRS costs; paying for its share of operating the correctional facilities (had to close the Laconia facility due to lack of sufficient funds); paying its share of the maintenance and repair/reconstruction of bridges (especially those on the red list); paying for its share of the courts' system costs (employees had to take furlough days, personal sacrifices, just to balance that portion of the state budget; paying for its share of maintaining and repair of the several hundred state owned dams in NH; paying for its share of the costs to abutters of the Suncook River who were adversely impacted three and fours years ago; paying for its share of the many, many other statutory obligations; etc.
No Ron, NH lacks sufficient revenue, which is another way of saying the problem is the reverse of spending too much. It does not have enough money to spread around. Therefore, people make and continue to make sacrifices just so the politicians can continue to fail to do their job correctly.
- Gary, Chichester

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=The+camp+tax%3A+Kill+it+before+spring&articleId=f0bb1bf4-c394-4a47-8d8c-34cde6b7a790

Next those annoying things called Facts:

NH Real Estate Transfer Tax
1.5% on the sales of land and buildings. In other words, I buy a house in NH, then the tax is imposed on both the buyer and the seller at the rate of $.75 per $100 of the price for the sale, granting, or transfer. I buy a $300,000, then I pay $2250 as the buyer and the seller pays $2250.
http://www.revenue.nh.gov/faq/dra_800.htm

Meals and Rentals Tax
An 9% tax is assessed upon patrons of hotels and restaurants, on rooms and meals costing $.36 or more. An 9% tax is also assessed on motor vehicle rentals and campsites. Hmm, that seems to be higher than the current MA meals tax of 6.25%.

Property Tax
Hey, they even have State Education Property Tax, which is a state education property tax rate of total equalized valuation which is assessed on all New Hampshire property owners. The tax is assessed and collected by local municipalities.

http://www.revenue.nh.gov/munc_prop/2009.htm
Then click on the Word Document "2009 Property Tax Rates"

Good thing you don't live in Exeter NH or you'd be paying a rate of (based on $1,000 value of home) :

• Town Tax $6.63
• Local Education Tax $12.60
• State Education Tax $2.37
• County Tax $1.02
• Total Tax $22.62

So leaving aside the question of how correct the assessments are:

• if you owned a $400,000 home in Newburyport which has a rate of $11.66, you'd pay $4,664 in annual property tax
  
• if you owned a $400,000 home in Exeter which has a rate of $22.62, you'd pay $9,048.

I saved you the hassle of sorting through the Word document and dumped the data into Excel (which I'm happy to email it to anyone) to make sense of it.

• Median Town Tax $4.14
• Median Local Education Tax $9.17
• Median State Education Tax $2.26
• Median County Tax $1.38
• Median Total Tax $18.28

Hey I'm not saying Massachusetts residents are taxed less, but the notion that NH residents pay next to nothing in taxes is ridiculous. Remember that the next time you pay at the Hampton tolls;-).