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Governor Jeanne Shaheen (D) proposes a 50% tax increase for New Hampshire

 Gov. Shaheen, once considered a Vice Presidential candidate is struggling to retain her gubernatorial seat in New Hampshire against former Senator Gordon Humphrey (R).  On Wednesday night the two squared off in a final debate and she shocked voters by saying that as governor she would ensure that "New Hampshire residents still pay the lowest taxes in New England."

 As editorial page editor of the Manchester Union Leader, Bernadette Malone Connolly notes, that does not bode well for New Hampshire.  According to Mrs. Malone Connolly: 

• She said that her plan to fund schools will ensure that New Hampshire residents still pay the lowest taxes in New England. Well, shoot. New England has some of the highest taxes in the nation. Shaheen could raise our taxes more than 50 percent, according to the Tax Foundation in Washington, D.C., and we'd still pay the "lowest" taxes in New England. Is this Shaheen's idea of giving New Hampshire a bargain?
  
  
• Currently, taxpayers in New Hampshire pay 4.3 percent of their income to the state. (That number doesn't include local taxes.) Maine pays 8.2 percent, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut pay 6.8 percent and Massachusetts pays 6.7 percent. So Shaheen could bring our state tax contribution up to 6.6 percent of our income and still keep her lame promise about having the "lowest taxes in New England." This is not the Filene's Basement bargain Shaheen would have us believe.

 "New Hampshire residents should also know that this governor has proposed and signed state budgets that increase spending a whopping 25%.  She has also refused to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge committing opposition to future tax increases," noted Damon B. Ansell, VP for Policy at ATR.