Bruce MacMahon for State Representative Rockingham District 10 - Brentwood

Help me work to keep New Hampshire prosperous and free by bringing back common sense ideas and solutions that work in the best interest of The People.

Countdown to November 2010: What’s at stake? (Originally published 10/26/09 on page A7 of the New Hampshire Union Leader under the headline “NH Democrats are consolidating power in Concord”) Here’s a scenario for you to ponder. You’re the head of an average household in New Hampshire, working hard in these troubling economic times to provide your family with life’s basic necessities. You’re living paycheck to paycheck, but you’re making it. You’ve got food on the table and a roof over your heads. Then, one day, you decide you need a new speedboat, a home theater system, and a tropical vacation. So, you head out with your credit card and blow through your credit limit in one afternoon. One month later, that boat still looks great sitting in your driveway. Family movie night at home is now a weekly tradition. And, the whole family is tanned and relaxed. You’re happy…or so you think. Then, the bills come due. You’ve now racked up a mountain of debt, spending money you didn’t have. Creditors are calling. You need to pay off that credit card fast, or suffer for years to come with a tarnished credit rating. Acting out of fear and desperation, you wait until your next-door neighbors go to work, jimmy open a window by their back deck, make your way upstairs and empty out their jewelry box. At the local pawn shop, the clerk becomes suspicious, calls the police and you are arrested and charged with breaking and entering, burglary, and possession of stolen property, and now facing a possible felony conviction and five to seven years in prison. It’s too bad you’re not a Democrat state legislator in Concord. You see, when they spend beyond their means, rack up a mountain of debt, and then force you and your neighbors to pay for their recklessness it’s called “being a good, progressive Democrat”. The Democrats in Concord have increased state spending by roughly 25% over the last two years, while introducing or increasing dozens of taxes and fees, forcing the taxpayers to pay for their fiscal impropriety. Well, they’re still coming up short on their balance sheet, and it comes as no surprise to those of us who have been paying attention that the Democrats in the State House are entertaining the notion (once again) of enacting a statewide income or sales tax. The prospect of such a tax becoming reality here in New Hampshire illustrates, better than anything, the fork in the road ahead and the perils that await us if we, the voters in this state, make the wrong choices over the next 12 months. This goes beyond simply getting upset over an additional burden being placed on the backs of New Hampshire taxpayers in order to cover up the Democrats’ reckless spending spree in Concord. This is about the irreversible, and wholly intentional, restructuring of our system of state government and our “local control” economy here in New Hampshire. What the Democrats are trying to do is take control of people’s tax dollars away from the taxpayers at the local level (e.g. town property taxes), where it belongs, and funnel it upward to a centralized system of statewide taxation and state-controlled spending. When taxation and spending are controlled at the local level, it’s the people who are in charge of their money and their communities. If that power and control were to be forced upward to a centralized state government, and away from the 234 individual cities and towns in the state, the damage caused would be threefold. Not only would it result in a loss of economic freedom for the taxpayers, and hurt our state’s competitiveness in the region, but it would pave the way for outside special interest groups looking to set up shop in New Hampshire and corrupt our state government the same way they have in our neighboring state to the south and elsewhere. The reason New Hampshire has remained untainted by the corruption and political malfeasance that go hand-in-hand with the lobbying efforts of such organizations is that there isn’t one single thoroughfare, through which all the state’s tax revenue flows. It’s currently not worth their while to maintain a presence in every city and town to steer tax dollars toward their pet causes and projects. It’s time for the people of New Hampshire to say “Enough is enough!”, and do what’s needed in the months and years to come, to preserve our cherished New Hampshire way of life. It’s time for all elected officials in this state to once again stand proud as the torchbearers of limited government, common sense, and respect for personal and economic freedom. It’s time to choose. Bruce MacMahon Brentwood, New Hampshire (click here to return to the Home Page)