Adventures From the NH Seacoast to the Jersey Shore

For those of you outside of New Hampshire the big topic of discussion here aside from the upcoming NH primary  is property taxes.  You see…we here in New Hampshire have no income tax or sales tax and as quick as we are ready to live free or die ,we are not going to add those taxes to help pay for those little things like education; and at the same time we are going to storm our town halls at election time with pitchforks and torches at the ready because our taxes are too high.   Instead we are going to rely on $20 scratch tickets and pitting town against town to clean up the mess.  My fellow granite state citizens need to stop sipping the kool aid and wake up. 

For the years 2005 and 2006, New Hampshire ranked 49 out of 50 states in regards to tax favorability.  Translation for those of you that can’t read a chart, “this is a kick ass state to live in if you don’t want to send your money to the Man.”  I have friends and relatives in NJ that pay up to 2x as much in property taxes on their home with the same market value; while also enjoying a state income tax line on their weekly pay stub and a sales tax on everything they purchase.  Still think you have it bad here?   

No one wants to see their taxes go up but deductive reasoning would point out that if we moved up a couple notches on the scale we’d be able to pay for more stuff and maybe make life better for our seniors and children while also kicking the infrastructure up a notch in the state attracting more business to take full advantage of the NH advantage.  I’m not advocating moving up to 20 on the list, let’s call it a modest jump to 39 or 40.   Let’s just get the majority of the burden off property owners and start shifting the burden to those that are consuming and earning.  They are not going anywhere; Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont will still be higher on the list.  Get more companies, jobs and people in the state and maybe taxes would not have to go up as much.  Oh yeah, I forgot, most of the people that have lived here forever don’t want to see those people from out of state moving here; even if it means helping to provide a way to afford living in their home when they are on social security.   

In life you always see that when you are sitting there thinking great thoughts and come up with a revolutionary great idea, you search the internet and find someone somwhere else has already done it.  It baffles me as to why when it comes to fixing societal woes this does not come into effect.  We have people out there in the world coming up with ideas for IPODs, FastLane transponders, and things to keep the cool side on your pillow always up.  Why can’t someone figure out the formula to provide all students with a consistent quality education, efficiently run a town/state government and develop the right tax structure to collect necessary revenues to keep the lights on and not stifle economic growth? 

I think the answer lies somewhere in the mix of :

• The sheer size of accomplishing these goals
• All the special interests laying their speed bumps along the road to achieving progress
• The quality of the candidate pool left behind after the private sector has snatched up all those destined for success in the business world where innovation, outsmarting your competition and making progress year after year are expected. 

There are some very intelligent, hard working people elected to public office every year but when you see the same names and faces elected to positions year after year after year after year, in any elected position, you have to wonder how and why this happens.

Remember the slogan, “think global act local” ?  I’d love to take a survey and see how many of us out there that are hell bent on squashing the Bush or Clinton dynasties really take the time to see what families or retread candidates they have put into their local offices each election day.  How many elected positions run unopposed? We just had a town selectman run unopposed.  One of the most powerful positions in town was up for grabs and noone thought it was worth fighting for.  I think that is almost as pathetic as the fact that the voters here in town have revolted once again passing the 4th default budget in as many years.  Remember folks, there are a bunch of people meeting once a week that are responsible for these town budgets you are voting down.  One of two things needs to happen:

• More than 3,000 in a town of over 14,000 need to participate in the election process (to promote full disclosure I was one of the 11,000 that did not vote this week and not because I did not want to…as my wife and daughter had their own warrant article on the ballot.)
• We stop voting out budgets and start replacing those human beings responsible for creating and managing the budgets we vote down year after year.

Please don’t get me wrong.  We love living here in NH, especially on the Seacoast.  There are so many things to see and experience from the White Mountains to the shops and restaurants of Portsmouth to the offshore trek to the Isle of Shoals.  Yes, we have our problems; but so does everyone else.  I posted this today as we just received a new blanket of snow which always reminds me of wiping the slate clean and hoping we see some frsh new ideas coming our way.  We have been a little short on the white gold (as the plow guy calls it); but mother nature gave us a good dose yesterday afternoon and overnight.  It is nice to see a clean white blanket over the grass yellowed by winter and the toys in the yard that I have been telling the kids to get inside for the past week. 

Started the day off today be sleeping a lot later than normal…I must be still trying to adjust to the time change.  Today is the start of getting re-focused on many things.  First on the list…my health.  The Mrs. has been on me for sometime now in regards to losing some lbs.  I have packed it on over the past eight months and need to shed the winter coat.  I have not been too self conscious about it; but recently I have had a number of casual acquaintances comment on my increase in girth.  I am not discounting my wife’s concerns; but I guess having people comment on something that you would never expect them to comment on is a little bit of a wake up call.

As of this am, I am at 219.  Expect weekly updates; and if any of you other late 30-somethings out there feel the need to do the same; be sure to check in every Monday and leave comments on your progress.   My goal is 185-190, it probably should be lower but we are not going to get to crazy now.  My two weapons of mass destruction for this task (I refuse to call it a diet) are (1) getting into some sort of regular exercise plan (at least 3 days a week) and (2) elimintate all snacking during the day and foods that are questionable at best.   After this week, we’ll start adding new items to focus on to the plate.

Politics

Are you into Internet Radio?  Are you interested in squashing corporate America’s desire to squeeze money out of those smart enough to squeeze it out of them.  If so there seems to be a movement to squash Internet Radio by raising royalty rates to those broadcasting over the Internet.  http://www.savenetradio.org   There is a movement to send the following to your local congressman.  I guess it says it all.

I do not support The Copyright Royalty Board’s (CRB) March 2nd decision to substantially increase royalty rates. Not only will it impact my choices, but the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) manipulation of these rates, and the CRB’s indifference will hurt working artists, damage small record labels and force law abiding small webcasters, already paying a large portion of their revenue per month in royalties, out of business. This decision will also damage hundreds of small businesses providing goods and services to working artists, small record labels and small webcasters.

I respectfully ask that you evaluate the CRB decision and do whatever is necessary to establish a reasonable royalty rate for all the parties involved.