New Hampshire Fights Back Against Massachusetts Sales Tax Plan (The Border War is on) Part 2
For background on this issue you can read my previous posts on this issue here, here, and here.
The border war between New Hampshire and Massachusetts is heating up. New Hampshire legislators are furious at Massachusetts’ attempt to sue New Hampshire businesses and force them to collect Massachusetts sales taxes for them, a clear violation of the United States Constitution.
Governor Lynch has already announced that the New Hampshire attorney general will file a motion in the court case to “ensure that New Hampshire businesses will not become agents of Massachusetts tax authorities,” and today he has announced that he is in favor of legislation to protect New Hampshire businesses from the communist down under.
The fight against collection efforts north of the border by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue now involves the New Hampshire Legislature as well as the Bay State’s top court.
Today, Lynch said he favors a change in state law to protect New Hampshire businesses from being required to collect Massachusetts sales taxes.
This is Governor Lynch’s statement from today:
We need to send a clear message that Massachusetts and other states shall not impose their sales taxes on New Hampshire businesses
All comments to every article that I have read about this issue signal a verbal call to arms. Residents of New Hampshire are just as upset about this as Massachusetts residents. The New Hampshire government is just as upset about this as the people.
For the first time as governor, John Lynch is taking a stand. For the first time I agree with him. It is kind of ironic however because the man who has brought increased taxes and fees and spending to New Hampshire residents is now trying to stop Massachusetts from enforcing a tax law. It is also ironic because if John Lynch doesn’t reign in his out of control spending he may be the governor that implements a New Hampshire sales tax.
The question is, if Massachusetts loses this court case does it really help the residents of Massachusetts? It may because there is no way that the state will be able to enforce the “use” tax on the individual residents, that is why they are trying to thwart the constitution in the first place. I feel that if this attempt by Massachusetts fails than the state will be forced to abandon the notion of the “use’ tax.
Michigan Senator Claims it’s Time to Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine
There have been many rumblings on the internet that once in power the Democrats would try to reinstate the fairness doctrine. There have also been quotes by various Democrats themselves who have shown an interest in reinstating the fairness doctrine. The latest politician to come out and defend the notion of reinstating the fairness doctrine is Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan in this radio interview.
I think it’s absolutely time to pass a standard. Now, whether it’s called the Fairness Standard, whether it’s called something else — I absolutely think it’s time to be bringing accountability to the airwaves.
What exactly does she mean by bringing accountability to the airwaves? How is there not accountability? By accountability she means silencing those that she does not agree with. And who the hell cares what it is called if the end result is the same?
When asked whether she thought that the fairness doctrine would be reinstated she said the following:
I have already had some discussions with colleagues and, you know, I feel like that’s gonna happen. Yep.
As the article also points out, Sen. Stabenow is married to an Air America executive. She has more than just silencing the opposition in mind, she has a horse in the race, she has a conflict of interest with regards to the fairness doctrine.
As a candidate President Obama said that he opposes reinstating the fairness doctrine but does he? We can only judge him by his actions while on the campaign trail and those actions showed a willingness to silence and threaten those who spoke out against him. He sent out truth squadsto harass television stations who ran anti-Obama campaign ads, and he threatened several television stations with the revocation of there FCC licences for running ads that he didn’t agree with so the grounds is there for conservatives to be nervous about this issue.
New Blog Address
This post is going to be stickied for a few days, please scroll down for latest posts.
I have taken the plunge and bought the domain name “americaswatchtower”, wordpress is supposed to automatically redirect to this new address so you shouldn’t have to update your links or bookmarks. But you may want to just in case.
Of course if wordpress isn’t redirecting the address than you are not reading this post anyway.
My blog address has bothered me for quite some time but I was always afraid to change it fearing that something would go wrong. Today I held my breath and jumped in. I finally have a blog address that reflects the name of my blog.
New Hampshire Fights Back Against Massachusetts Sales Tax Plan (The Border War is on)
Massachusetts is taking a New Hampshire business to court over it’s failure to collect taxes from Massachusetts residents. New Hampshire has no sales taxes and many Massachusetts resident hop over the border to buy big ticket items. Now Massachusetts now wants New Hampshire stores to charge the Massachusetts sales tax when a store sells to a Massachusetts resident.
It looks like Massachusetts can charge their residents a “use” tax on items bought in other states if they are used in Massachusetts but there is no way in hell Massachusetts should be able to dictate to New Hampshire stores how they run their businesses.
Today New Hampshire Governor John Lynch has joined the fight against Massachusetts Govern Deval Patrick and will file a motion in the case.
I think it is outrageous that Massachusetts erroneously believes it can impose its sales tax here in New Hampshire,” Lynch said. “We have chosen not to have a sales tax here in New Hampshire and we are not about to let Massachusetts impose its tax on our businesses
Said Attorney General Kelly Ayotte about Massachusetts’ new tax scheme:
on behalf of the state to ensure that New Hampshire businesses will not become agents of Massachusetts tax authorities.”
New Hampshire is going to fight back against Deval Patrick’s money grab using the commerce clause in that little document called the United States Constitution. We have seen in the past that Massachusetts legislature and courts do not care about the state constitution and observing what the state court has done in the past there is a high likelihood that this will head all the way to the supreme court.
Massachusetts has an unenforceable tax law and now they are looking to extend their tax policies over the border into a sales tax free state. If Massachusetts want to charge their residents for items bought across state lines than they can enforce the law themselves. If they can’t enforce the law perhaps they should repeal the law.
If the state of Massachusetts is in dire straights financially, which they are so is New Hampshire, maybe the governor should consider cutting state spending. What a foreign concept that is to any state government that is nowadays.
It has taken awhile but finally, in his third term as governor, John Lynch is going to take a position on an issue that I agree with. It is time for Governor Lynch to step up to the plate and tell Governor Patrick where to go and he is doing that.
The border war is on!
You can read my previous posts on this issue here and here.
New Hampshire Rep. Paul Hodes Announces His Bid For Judd Gregg’s Senate Seat, The Positioning Begins
In today’s political world the candidates are running a perpetual re-election campaign and this is no more evident than the fact that as soon as Judd Gregg was appointed as the Commerce Secretary the political maneuvering began.
New Hampshire Rep. Paul Hodes has made it no secret that he wants Judd Gregg’s seat, he has been planning a run for it since he was re-elected just a few short months ago.
As soon as Gregg gave up his seat Paul Hodes made his move. He was afraid that New Hampshire’s other moonbat Rep, Carol Shea-Porter, might be interested in the seat so he made a pre-emptive strike. He jumped into the race before the race began hoping that this would dissuade her from running.
My belief has always been that Governor John Lynch would run for this seat in 2010, but he said last week, before Gregg’s nomination, that he wasn’t interested in running against Gregg. I still think that he may run. I also think that Paul Hodes feels Governor Lynch might have been reconsidering running for the senate now that the seat will be open in 2010, so Hodes made his move hoping to also dissuade Lynch from running. If John Lynch runs for the senate in 2010 the seat will be his. It will be almost impossible to beat him.
Paul Hodes is hoping by announcing his candidacy first that in the interest of party unity both Carol Shea-Porter and Governor Lynch will decide not to run if they were indeed entertaining the notion.
On the Republican side there are a few possibilities. Former senator John Sununu is currently the parties favorite son and the man the party wants to run. Having just lost his seat in November it isn’t clear whether he is interested in running but his father, and former governor, now heads the NHGOP and I am sure John Sununu could be persuaded to run.
According to this article some other candidates include the following:
Attorney and GOP strategist Tom Rath, who will only run if John Sununu doesn’t.
And:
Friends of former Gov. Steve Merrill and former two-time congressional candidate John Stephen are getting calls from people trying to recruit them. BAE Systems executive Rich Ashooh is being mentioned as a potential senator or congressman.
Others continue to long for Attorney General Kelly Ayotte to get into politics.
Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta is getting calls and requests to speak around the state. He has a decision to make soon. Will he run for reelection as mayor?
as a potential senator or congressman.
Others continue to long for Attorney General Kelly Ayotte to get into politics.
Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta is getting calls and requests to speak around the state. He has a decision to make soon. Will he run for reelection as mayor?
Former Rep. Charlie Bass is back and very seriously considering running for the Senate, House or maybe even governor.
All in all 2010 looks to be shaping up like a very interesting year in New Hampshire. I have written here before that I thought New Hampshire would go through one more Democrat dominated election in 2008 and I thought that the tide would begin to turn in 2010 back towards the Republicans. We will soon see as 2010 will be here before you know it.
It is still very early but it is already getting interesting.
Obama’s CIA Nominee Has Ties to National Security Lobbyists
It seems so long ago now that President Obama claimed that he would not hire lobbyists. Of course he waived that rule within hours and he has kept on waiving it ever since. According to this article it looks to me as if he is waiving the no lobbyist rule once again. This time for Leon Panetta, the man who will be the CIA director.
with some of the payments coming from troubled financial firms and from a firm that invests in contractors for federal national security agencies
Mr. Panetta’s forms show that he performed government affairs consulting last year and also sat on the board of a public affairs firm that lobbies Congress.
The article goes on to say that this nominee doesn’t violate his ban on hiring lobbyists. To paraphrase President Clinton, it depends on what your definition of is is.
Mr. Panetta also received a $28,000 honorarium from the Carlyle Group, a private-equity firm that owns companies doing business with national-security agencies of the U.S. government. Carlyle holds a majority stake in the government consulting arm of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., which works for the CIA and other agencies.
And:
Mr. Panetta also reported receiving a $60,000 “Governmental Advisor Fee” from the Pacific Maritime Association, which represents the shipping industry. The group lobbies the federal government regarding terrorism laws that affect shipping
Doesn’t this sound like a conflict of interest to anyone? Is anyone else already tired of the president asying one thing while doing another at the same time?
President Obama Broke a Campaign Promise
President Obama has broken a campaign promise. While running for president he claimed that he would not sign a bill until five days had passed once it reached his desk.
“Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them,” the Obama-Biden campaign website states. “As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.”
His campaign website claimed that this was an effort and an attempt by Obama to let the American people review a bill and comment on it before he signs it. This was meant to help his administration become the most open administration in history. But two bills have reached his desk and one was signed two days later and the other didn’t even sit on his desk for five hours.
The truth is that Americans already voted on most issues last November. When you vote for a candidate you vote for his/her positions on the issues, you should already know where he stands on all of the issues. But a promise is a promise and he promised to let all Americans voice an opinion on all non-emergency bills for five days. His backing down on this promise so soon informs us that much like all of his other promises this one was done for public relations and public relations only.
Obama’s Nominee for Labor Secretary Has Tax Problems
Yesterday I wrote about President Obama’s choice for Labor Secretary and her violations of house ethics rules. That post can be read here. Today her senate confirmation hearing was put on hold but it wasn’t for those ethics violations, it was because another controversy with Hilda Solis popped up. I will give you one guess what this controversy is over. You guessed it, taxes.
It seems as though her husband has had a little tax problem for 16 years. He owed these taxes and there was a lien on their house for 16 years and when did he finally decide to pay his taxes? Two days ago, just in time for Hilda’s senate hearing. Wasn’t that convenient?
Her senate hearing has been delayed indefinitely. Maybe President Obama will vet his next cabinet nominee. He has to learn from one of these mistakes sooner or later. Doesn’t he?
Massachusetts Wants Residents to Pay Sales Tax…For Purchases in Tax Free New Hampshire Part 2
The outrage has been growing since word got out that Massachusetts is trying to force a New Hampshire store to implement a 5% Massachusetts sales tax on Deval Patrick’s subjects. And the outrage isn’t limited to Massachusetts residents. New Hampshire is not too happy about this either.
Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta, who should have run for governor, promised to fight this outrageously unconstitutional idea. He called this lawsuit harassment. Meanwhile Nancy C. Kyle, president of the Retail Merchants Association of New Hampshire sums up my feelings on this when she claims that this is just the beginning:
think it’s horrific,” she said. “I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the state of Massachusetts is going after a medium-sized retailer. They’re testing the waters to see how it goes and if they win their case, the big-box retailers are next
Exactly, Massachusetts is trying to see how much it can get away with. If the communist governor of Massachusetts is allowed to get away with this blatant violation of the commerce clause in the constitution than it will just be the beginning. There will be many stores who are also forced to implement the laws that Massachusetts is incompetent to enforce.
Some New Hampshire officials seem to be taking a wait and see attitude:
The issue is going through the courts of Massachusetts so it would be premature for us to take any position, but we are monitoring it
Governor Lynch may be for the first time taking a position on an issue that I agree with:
Colin Manning, a press secretary for Gov. John Lynch, said yesterday, “There is no sales tax in New Hampshire and there should be no tax charged to items sold in New Hampshire.”
And we certainlyshouldn’t be bullied into it by a governor who is overstepping his bounds in such a blatantly unconstitutional manner. Deval Patrick is upset that so much potential revenue is being lost to New Hampshire that he wants to not only put a stop to residents crossing the border to shop, he wants New Hampshire to enforce Massachusetts tax laws. He wants to dictate where his subjects can shop.
This Union Leader article sums it up well with the following statement:
The State of Massachusetts is trying to turn New Hampshire businesses into tax collection agents for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. To this, there is only one appropriate response from the state of New Hampshire. It isn’t “no.” It’s “Hell, no.”
The Union Leader article goes even further:
If the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upholds this clearly unconstitutional cross-border tax grab, Gov. Lynch should immediately dispatch the National Guard to all six Town Fair Tire locations in New Hampshire and tell Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, “If you want that revenue, come and get it.”
If you think that that position is extreme, the paper doesn’t think so:
We are not joking. New Hampshire cannot let Massachusetts apply its taxes on our sovereign soil. It can subjugate its own people all it wants, but it must not be allowed to turn New Hampshire residents doing business entirely in the state of New Hampshire into subjects of the state of Massachusetts
Just for the record, in my post yesterday about this issue I called the residents of Massachusetts “subjects” before the Union Leader article did the same. But that is neither here nor there, I just wanted to throw that out there.
Governor Lynch needs to step up to the plate on this issue, he needs to actually show that he has a pair and he needs to stick up for the businesses of New Hampshire. He needs to defend what we like to call the New Hampshire advantage.
Where will this insanity stop? What about meals taxes? If Massachusetts residents eats in a New Hampshire resident will they have to pay the 8% New Hampshire meals tax and the 5% Massachusetts meals tax. What about taxes on hotels and lodges?
What if New Hampshire decides to follow suit on such things as taxes on meals and hotels enjoyed in Massachusetts? Where does it end? We know that eventually this will spread to other states looking to make a few extra dollars instead of cutting wasteful spending.
This is just the beginning.
This is getting too comical. I can hardly keep up with all of Obama’s dimwitted moves and appointees. Every day I have to choose between which topics to write about and which to save for another day. Just when I thought that President Obama couldn’t possibly have another scandal with one of his cabinet appointees I am proved wrong.
The Obama scandal of the day for February 04, 2009 involves his nominee for Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis.
A seemingly innocuous letter sent to the Clerk of the House of Representatives last Thursday by President Obama’s Secretary of Labor nominee Hilda Solis raises serious and troubling legal questions about her nomination and apparent violation of House ethics rules. Not only was she involved with a private organization that was lobbying her fellow legislators on a bill that she has cosponsored, but she apparently kept her involvement secret and failed to reveal a clear conflict of interest.
Of course she is claiming the Geithner/ Daschle defense that she made an honest mistake.
This is really getting embarrassing for our dear leader, I almost feel bad for him but then I remember that it was the American Idol president himself who claimed he would lower the sea levels if he was elected and that makes me smile as I watch all of his nominees become embroiled in scandal.
