by David Mclinn

Created on: April 14, 2008

It's nearly impossible to park in the lot of a Wal-Mart, Lowes, Staples, Target, gas station, liquor outlet, grocery store, or a shopping center in southern New Hampshire without being surrounded by vehicles with Massachusetts license plates.

It would not be surprising to discover that the New Hampshire retailers were the largest contributors to the Commonwealth's Democratic election coffers. And for good reason. The merchants in southern New Hampshire owe their prosperity to Massachusetts' leftwing government.

If you can earn it, own it, clean it, wear it, listen to it, smoke it, see, use or touch it, Massachusetts taxes it. This is pretty much ditto for Maine and Vermont. That's why their residents shop in New Hampshire.

For the record, although New Hampshire has no state income or sales taxes, its property taxes are brutal. People on fixed incomes, especially the elderly, are pushed to the brink by ever increasing taxes on their homes.

There is more disturbing news. The oppressive tax burdens placed on families in the Border States continue to encourage them to move to New Hampshire. As Republicans are as rare as diamond mines in Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts, the state of New Hampshire is rapidly turning blue.

It's obvious that these border jumpers are not necessarily America's best and brightest. Most are arithmetic and civics challenged. They flee states with confiscatory taxation and then demand the same Nanny State accommodations in New Hampshire.

Evidently, they interpreted the New Hampshire slogan "Live Free or Die" to mean "Live Free on Entitlements." In fairness, many were educated in liberal dominated public schools, where years ago scholarship was replaced by a feel-good agenda and multi-culturalism, so they are probably illiterate.

Any serious candidate for political office in New Hampshire has always had to take "The Pledge." Put simply, they had to guarantee the electorate that they would never vote for any broad based tax.

The newcomers, usually Democrats, believe that any candidate that takes The Pledge is evil.

They aren't aware that the subject was thrashed out a few years back. The majority of New Hampshire citizens agreed that reliance on property taxes was unfair. They saw what it was doing to the elderly, and this mindset hasn't changed. Neither have politicians.

There was a roaring debate over introducing a sales or income tax. The debate ended when the politicians refused to guarantee that property taxes would be reduced dollar for dollar by the revenues raised by a new sales or income tax.

In addition, the politicians were unwilling to cap the percentage bite of any new sales or income tax. Nor would they promise to cap property taxes. The taxpayers smelled a fat government rat.

New Hampshire's citizens are often labeled as ignorant hayseeds, but they are smart enough not to trust the spending habits of politicians. You can't say as much about our sophisticated neighbors in Taxachusetts.

They are currently looking down the barrel of a one-half billion dollar tax increase. The market value of homes in New Hampshire should improve shortly. Thanks Governor Duval Patrick!

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