Tax Summit October 21-22 – Update
If you have been getting our mailings, you know that Representatives Susan Almy and Speaker Terie Norelli will hold a tax summit on October 21-22 in the State’s capitol in Concord. The public will not be allowed to speak or ask questions as they would during a normal hearing, but several organizations have been invited to discuss the current NH tax structure and to offer suggestions for how they would change it. We would like you to be there anyway.
Many of these participating groups are funded by outside entities such as the Granite State Fair Tax Coalition, which gets its money from the Rockefeller Foundation’s “World Council of Churches”. This is the group that often infiltrates local town meetings and tried to get voters to reject the “no new broadbased tax-Pledge”, proffered by some state taxpayer advocacy groups.
In this file posted to the General Court website, it says, “The seminar will be opened by three national tax experts, one from the American Legislative Exchange Council, one from the Tax Foundation and one from the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy.”
Other than being funded by foundation billionaires, what qualifies them as “experts” on tax policy in NH?
Today, Cornerstone Policy Research sent out this press release:
SOROS FUNDED, ACORN AFFILIATED GROUP TO TESTIFY AT TAX SUMMIT HEARINGS
Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy Funded by George Soros, ACORN Founder and other Leftist Organizations
Concord, NH – In a release sent out last month, the House Ways and Means Committee announced that among those organizations that would be testifying at the Tax Summit set for next week, is the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP).
Further examination reveals that ITEP is a very partisan organization, whose source of funding comes from far left organizations such as the Tides Foundation, which is funded in part by billionaire and left-wing activist, George Soros, along with founder of the embattled organization ACORN, Wade Rathke. Other funders of ITEP include: the Ben and Jerry Foundation and the Streisand Foundation.
In addition to this, ITEP additionally testified in March of this year before the House Ways and Means Committee on HB642, in which they expressed their unequivocal support for an income tax in New Hampshire.
Commenting on these findings, Cornerstone’s Director, Kevin Smith, said the following:
“Far-left, out-of-state groups pouring their special interest money into our small state in order to effect policy is becoming an all too frequent happening in New Hampshire government these days. It is quite unfortunate that Representative Almy, an income tax supporter, would invite in an organization that not only has a clear agenda to see an income tax in NH become a reality, but whose source of funding comes from outside left-wing organizations and activists.”
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Cornerstone Policy Research is a non-partisan, non-profit research and education organization dedicated to the preservation of strong families, limited government and free markets.
Update: Read about the big money players on Red Hampshire.
Update: Read testimony from participants at Grant Bosse’s Blog
Coalition of NH Taxpayers Video and Blog
Commentary by NH Senator (D-3) Jeb Bradley