Go ahead, act surprised.  Raising taxes and fees cost us revenue.

The State is reporting that over the past two months revenue came in 11.6 Million under forecast.   This clearly means that the people raising the taxes, and making the forecast, have some explaining to do, particularly when we are already paying off our Visa with our MasterCard on a bloated budget that is the fiscal equivalent of spousal abuse on the tax payers. 

It’s time for another theoretical phone call to the creditors to let them know that New Hampshire is going to be another month late on their payments.  Funny thing is, that will only make the bonds Lynch wants’ to sell to pay for his debt even less valuable for that task. (Shaheen is using that “digging a hole” ad against  the wrong John —of course she and Lynch are budgetary twins, and neither understands why this is actually “Bad.”)

So what’s the other bad news?  Since we are living in a state run by democrats, the answer to any funding problem begins with more taxes.  The State will now have to reconsider its scheduled—unscheduled—and now rescheduled cigarette tax increase in an effort to stem the bleeding.  I don;t know what makes them think raising taxes some more will work better than last time, but I’m not a democrat so that’s probably why I just don’t see it.  I can hear them patting themselves on the back–“It’s smart move, good for New Hampshire, after all, Massachusetts has a higher tax on cigarettes,” ..and they are losing more money than we are!  But since Lynch has already started cloning his Concord office with one in Beacon Hill, why stop now?

New Hampshire did earn 1.6 million more from the business tax increase over last year, but that’s small peanuts when your State overspent by 17%.  Note to lawmakers; disgruntled citizens are more apt to avoid sundry fee increases by changing behavior more quickly than disgruntled businesses can pack up and move elsewhere.  What that means is, that on this trajectory, I expect that next year business taxes will be flat or even down, as will employment opportunities, average income, and possibly even growth as people realize that New Hampshire isn’t all that special any more. 

Raising taxes and fees was supposed to bring in more money, but it failed miserably, as any first year economist will tell you when you mess with cost and price structure in a free market—more responsible people with a more immediate link to their own sources of the income will alter their behavior to meet their needs.  Most democrats answer that problem by looking for more ways to stifle the free market, ignoring the maxim,  “A sinking tide beaches all boats.”   Raising more taxes will simply make matters worse.  Until Lynch and the democrats learn this simple lesson, and write budgets suitable for the household they are living in, as opposed to the utopian one they envision upon rising from their drool-stained pillows each morning, we are going to follow Massachusetts, and Michigan into the money pit of economic and social despair.   

Lynch either can’t or won’t stop his overspending State government, and last minute appeals to cut budgets is a too little too late election year nostrum; a band-aid hastily constructed from wood-chips and tree sap, designed to hide the gaping wound in our State budget.  It’s mismanagement at its finest, wholly lacking in backbone or leadership, and it demonstrates once again how badly we have been lead, and where we can expect to go, if a change in government is not enacted promptly.