| In New Hampshire, over eight cents of every dollar earned by our poorest citizens goes to the state. The richest one percent of us gives two cents.
(The tea party people, undoubtedly almost all of whom do not belong to the richest one percent, appear unconcerned with this.)
In New Hampshire, House Bill 642 (h/t NHFlatlander) would have addressed this gross inequity in the way we fund our state by reducing taxes for the bottom 80% of earners and raising taxes for the top 20% (1.7% or less in all income groups). It would have repealed a number of business taxes. It also would have added half a billion dollars to our state for education and other services.
Here's a clear visual example, using a graph of what we have now, and one of how HB642 would've modified it (NB: the data for each is one year apart:'07 and '08, respectively): 
Perhaps because the bill accomplished this tax reduction for so many, while doing so much to balance our budget, by means of an income tax, (and therefore contrary to the "pledge" politics), HB642, with bipartisan sponsorship, was deemed "inexpedient to legislate" by the Ways and Means Committee of our Democratically controlled state house. |
