NH Rep Jordan Ulery - CACR 6 The Fiscal Responsibility Act

Over the past four years New Hampshire has seen an unprecedented increase in taxes and fees.  Introduced this year was a solution to the problem of midnight tax increases that have so infuriated us and which have robbed the people of input.  People have been asking, where is the fiscal reform they voted for?  It begins right now with the introduction of CACR 6 (Ulery (r) Hudson) in the House next week.

The Constitutional Amendment simply requires that your elected Representative take the time, expend the energy and vote on the hard questions they were elected to vote upon.  When CACR 6 becomes law no longer will Representatives and Senators be able to create a new tax in the dead of night as has happened in the past.  It will require a 3/5 majority of the House and the Senate to agree on each new tax upon the people.

When the amendment becomes part of the Constitution then you and I will be able to see each and every new tax in the full light of day.  Hearings will be held and the effect of each new increase will be openly and fully discussed.  The flexibility to foist a hidden tax under the cover of a backroom deal will be severely restricted.  We deserve more and better than the campground tax, a tax that failed in committee, but was thrust upon the people in literally the dead of night.

Already some have come out saying that the change would “limit fiscal flexibility.”  Fiscal flexibility indeed!  Flexibility to raises taxes is what is meant!  If you support a slower growth of government, a smaller, leaner state government and more local control of spending then this amendment is needed.

Yes, this bill will make it difficult, but that is what the legislators are paid the big money to do, actually make hard fiscal decisions.  Yes, the amendment will lead to more open government.  Yes, the amendment will slow the growth of government.  Yes, the amendment will make the state more responsive to the people of New Hampshire.

Call your Representative today and tell them you favor smaller government, open government and an end to midnight tax deals.  Tell your Representative to support CACR 6 next week.

Jordan Ulery

Hillsborough-27

NH State Representative

162nd General Court

Shameless Mismanagement Abounds

First the so-called “austerity” budget failed and then had to be fixed in a one-day Special Session.  What was discussed in that spectacle were increased taxes and fees previously rejected and the breaking of promises made to grow business in New Hampshire.  This so-called emergency fix, was the direct result of a failure to lead and manage by the administration.  Instead of making hard, but necessary decisions, the majority party opted for their tried and failed song of increase a tax on (this term, quite literally) everything.

As the TV commercial goes, but wait, there is more.  In their rush to tax and spend your dollars, the Administration of New Hampshire took an unprecedented step of immediately applying certain taxes.  That is correct, immediately, with no notice to the Department of Revenue, no notice to retailers, no notice to wholesalers - just tomorrow start paying a tax – and by the way, this taxes is hidden in a bill thick enough to keep a home warm all winter if burned.

In Ways and Means a so-called equity tax on non-smoke tobacco was proposed and, over the objections of many, passed.  That tax was to take place on July 1, meaning that those who collect the tax would have had a least a month to re-mark their product, re-program their check-out scanners, in short there would have been notice, which is only right.  A long time ago St. Thomas Aquinas, Patron Saint of Law Makers, stated that a law that is not published cannot be enforced.  That is fair, equitable and the reasonable process that should be expected of your legislators.

This administration, with a seemingly lack of sense of fairness, or of the rule of law, implemented, overnight, a tax in Section 45 of Special Session House Bill 1 (the fix a broken budget bill).  While I do not subscribe to chew or snuff, nor do I even like cigarettes, I do know right from wrong.  It was and is wrong for the Democrat controlled legislature to pass a bill that immediately imposes as tax, upon signature of the governor.  It is wrong for the Governor to sign such a bill.

Not only was it wrong on the basis of the edict from St. Thomas; it is wrong from a sense of decency and fair play.  It is wrong from an administrative point of view as well.  How can a tax collector be fair and even handed when the Governor forces the tax collector to immediately collect a tax businesses do not even know exists and have not been notified that they would be responsible for collecting from an unsuspecting public?

Our Democrat lead legislature and the Governor’s office did a disservice to the people of New Hampshire when they rammed through an incomplete, un-vetted and unreasonable tax law to fix yet another unreasonable and unsustainable budget bill.  The people of New Hampshire deserve better than this type of mismanagement.

                                                                           -30-  

Jordan Ulery

Hillsborough-27

Hudson, NH

Illegal Immigration

Recently the State and Federal Committee was presented  HCR0023 presented regarding illegal immigration.  Apparently the Committee decided to demonstrate the term elite.  The bill was wholly changed, without input from any of the sponsors to apparently demonstrate how the majority party is fully invested in supporting illegal activities by what they obviously consider potential voters.

Occasionally bills get changed.  Common courtesy and collegiality demand that the bill sponsors be given the courtesy of notification of such changes.  If you are the ruling elite, such notification is not necessary, because the elite party knows what is best.

Judging from the responses on-line in the Concord Monitor to a news article leaking the bill changes, this silent, secret activity may not get the results hoped for by the still unknown “bill changers.”  It still remains a fact that as a Nation of Laws we rely upon adherence to the rule of law.  When people refuse to follow that law, the entire nation suffers.  Strangely, the proponents of ignoring illegal immigration actually condemn illegal aliens to the shadows and slave like living and working conditions.

As the commission studying Human Trafficking discovered last year, support for illegal aliens results in more and more abuse and ill-treatment.  Amnesty is not the answer, enforcement of existing laws and a firm determination that newcomers integrate, as did my forefathers, into the American way of life is the answer.

Jordan G. Ulery

Member 161^st   New Hampshire General Court - House

Republican - Hillsborough 27

Taxes in Review

As the year rolls to its inevitable end, time has come to look at the legislative events in Concord.  Space is limited so we can not discuss each of the 40 (yes, 40) or so fee or tax increases piled upon the residents of New Hampshire by the current majority party.  Of course this is on top of nearly 30 fee or tax increases from the last biennium.   The state’s budget increase 17.5% in the last session and increased 10%+ in the midst of, to use the President’s term “the worst economic recession since the Great Depression.”  This is just what virtually every economist warns against, increasing taxes in an economic downturn.

Since we can not discuss individually the 40 or so fee or tax increases passed by the radicals in the majority let us consider just one as an example of the process followed.  Perhaps the so-called LLC Tax best demonstrates the transparency, or lack thereof, and the total disregard for the welfare of the people of New Hampshire demonstrated by the current liberal majority.

The LLC tax law was passed, literally (not figuratively), in the middle of the night with no public presence except a tired reporter.  This new and untried tax was created in a desperate attempt to balance a totally unbalanced budget.  It was hidden in HB-2 the "trailer," i.e. the implementation bill for the budget, HB-1.  THERE WAS NO PUBLIC HEARING ON THIS TAX!  Well, so much for openness and transparency in a Democratic administration! 

LLCs in New Hampshire account for perhaps the largest number of employees in the state.  It is the LLC that hires your son or daughter during the summer.  It is an LLC that our children form to engage in their career paths in many instances.  The tax on "middle-class" workers; plumbers, electricians, massage therapists, hair stylists or barbers, chiropractors, dentists, landscapers, single person law firms, small rental property operators, postal center operators, your local restaurant or bar and yes, private investigators actually amounts to 13.5% according the David Hess of the House Republican Office and the Senate Minority Leader.  Just who do you think is going to pay the tax?  No business pays a tax; the tax is paid by you and me.  This midnight tax just increases the cost of getting the lawn mowed or morning coffee.

Wait, I hear a question, the law says it is “only” a 5% tax.  Yes, the law says is only a 5% tax on profits.  That means the state is now requiring every small business to figure your profit & loss.  Very few one or two person small businesses spends the hundreds or thousands of dollars per year needed to have their CPA prepare a P&L statement.  Of course, that is in addition to the money needed to get the federal tax 1040 completed.

Once the profits have been defined you are required to pay the existing 8.5% (exceptionally high in the nation) Business Profits Tax (BPT).  Then you are required to pay the 5% LLC tax.  Partnerships and similar business entities are also subject to this excessive taxation.  Regular corporations are subject to either the BPT or the payroll tax (the Business Enterprise Tax (BET)). 

What, you don’t have a formal P&L prepared for every year since you became an LLC.  You better get cracking, this middle of the night secret law allows the DRA (Department of Revenue Administration) to "reach back" (in socialist countries that is called a retrospective tax (c.f. NH Constitution Part the First, Article 23)).  Remember the law took effect July 1, 2009 but the DRA says they can go back forever to collect taxes.

Wait, you have a solution, just pay yourself the profits and take them annually as pay.  Sorry the state says that may not be possible.  The state (Big Brother, Metropolis, The Farmer, the all-powerful state by whatever name) will determine what you should be paid.  Yes, that is correct, the state, not you, will determine what “reasonable compensation” is.  I am of a sufficient age to remember that the Soviet Union set the wages for all occupations.  That worked out really well didn’t it?  But then again, no socialist entity has long existed. 

If you would like a look at the rules for this new tax do not look to your New Hampshire Legislator for a copy.  This law has a neat feature of tying the taxing rate not to what New Hampshire legislators write into law, but what the bureaucrats (not the congressperson, but the civil service wonks) running Washington write into IRS rules.  Of course that little thing called representative taxation found in Part the First, Article 28 of the New Hampshire Constitution has no affect whatsoever on the rights of the residents of New Hampshire.

This one new egregious and blatantly unfair and likely unconstitutional tax is an example of how the radicals in Concord are treating you and me.  Bills are passed with little or no notice.  Bills are passed with little or no public input.  Disregard for rational and commonsensical solutions is rampant.  There is exaggerated spending year after year.  There is no analysis of the consequences of actions because of a “good intent” or because “it feels good” to undertake and action. 

Then again we were assured there would be "hope" for a new tomorrow and promised definite "change."  I guess that the hope is that the feds and the state will not take all of your earnings and the change is literally what is left in you pocket after taxes.

There are some people in the House who consistently vote for the rights of people to earn a living.  It is a task to meet the challenges constantly thrown at businesses, individuals and honored social conventions by the radical elite now in power in Concord.  Check the voting record of the Representative and Senator serving your community.  The votes are on-line.  The Republicans took advantage of House rules to demand a role call vote on nearly every spending, taxing, fee increasing and social issue.

So this is what the last year of radical left-wing politics has wrought; fewer jobs and decreasing appeal of New Hampshire as a place to do business.  What will the next session bring is the question.  Until November arrives, we few can only try to slow and delay the onslaught of taxes and increased spending and lack of openness in government.

Jordan G. Ulery

Member 161^st   New Hampshire General Court – House

Ways and Means Committee

Republican - Hillsborough 27



Thanksgiving Day Commentary

Recently, while fueling my vehicle at a local establishment the young woman at the counter asked how religious beliefs could be intertwined with political activity given the doctrine of separation of church from state “that was in the Constitution.”  I told her that there was no separation of religion from state anywhere in the Constitution nor in the personal beliefs of the Founders, even Thomas Jefferson.

The United States Constitution only prohibits the creation of a state established religion.  The Old World nations and South America all had a state sponsored/supported religion of one type or another.  There is no state “established” religion here!  We are each allowed to worship in our own style, or in no manner whatsoever.  We are, however, called to practice what the New Hampshire Constitution from 1784 until today calls “Morality and Piety.”  Those “High Principles” are the grounding that secures good government.

In honoring those High Principles the Father of our Nation, George Washington declared the second national holiday of the new Republic, Thanksgiving Day.  States had individually celebrated various thanksgiving days and fast days before.  Washington called upon the men and women of this new, free, land to kneel before the “Almighty God” and give thanks for the life, liberty and ability to live free granted to this nation. 

That same young lady then told me: “of course, you can not separate faith from politics and government.  The people who lead or represent are products of their own faith, their own beliefs and bring that element with them to the political debate.”  George Washington surely did exactly that when he made his First Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789:

General Thanksgiving

By the PRESIDENT of the United States Of America

A PROCLAMATION

 WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLIC THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"

NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and assign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish Constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;-- to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wife, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us); and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

(signed) G. Washington

Source: The Massachusetts Centinel (sic), Wednesday, October 14, 1789

Translated from In the original Colonial English.

Jordan Ulery