After just two years of a Democrat-run General Court – and multiple efforts to raise taxes and destroy the New Hampshire Advantage, which were fortunately vetoed by Governor Chris Sununu – voters put Republicans back in charge of the Granite State. Now, the people of New Hampshire can look forward to some much-needed tax relief.

Going into Election Day, Democrats controlled the state Senate with a 14-10 majority and the state House with a 230-157 majority (13 seats were vacant). Democrats also had a 3-2 advantage on the Executive Council, which approves expenditures in the state budget and provides oversight for receipts and spending for state departments and agencies.

With those majorities, Democrats proposed a number of tax increases, including an income tax and a sales tax. They also tried to impose a variety of burdensome regulations, such as raising the cap on the state’s net metering program, which would have increased the cost of monthly energy bills.

Granite Staters clearly had enough of the liberal tax and spend agenda, and they showed it on November 3rd.

In addition to reelecting Gov. Sununu – one of 13 Governors who have signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a written commitment to New Hampshire taxpayers that he will oppose and veto any and all tax increases – for his third consecutive term, voters also handed both legislative chambers back over to the GOP. Republicans now control the state Senate with a 14-10 majority and the state House with a 229-171 majority. Buttressing this Republican trifecta, voters flipped the Executive Council to Republicans, with a 4-1 advantage.

“New Hampshire Republicans ran as a unified ticket that put New Hampshire first, and the result is an incoming Republican Majority in the Executive Council and both chambers at the State House,” tweeted Gov. Sununu. “I am pleased that Granite State voters rejected the DC style politics that had crept into the State House these last two years, and I am excited to get to work with our new Republican majorities to deliver results for the people of this state.”

Gov. Sununu is already showing the people of New Hampshire how Republicans will deliver results: Tax relief. On multiple occasions, Gov. Sununu has expressed strong support for reducing the meals and rooms tax and has also indicated that he would like to reduce other business taxes.

The New Hampshire meals and rooms tax is imposed on restaurants, hotels, and grocery stores that sell prepared food. Currently, the meals and rooms tax rate is 9% of the meal or room cost. Reducing this tax would be a huge win for New Hampshire’s tourism industry, which has been hit particularly hard by the forced shutdowns to slow the spread of the virus.

In addition to helping these struggling businesses, reducing the meals and rooms tax would actually be a win for all Granite Staters, as it would reduce the overall cost of purchasing food at restaurants and staying overnight in hotels, cabins, and other lodging facilities.

Gov. Sununu has also expressed interest in undoing Democrat-led increases to the tax Business Profits Tax (BPT) and Business Enterprise Tax (BET).

Prior to Democrats taking control of the General Court, the state’s BPT and BET rates were scheduled to be reduced in 2019 and 2021 thanks to a budget prepared by Republicans and Gov. Sununu in 2017.

The Democrats agreed to allow the 2019 tax cuts to take effect as planned, but made the 2021 tax cuts contingent upon two revenue triggers. The first trigger would have allowed the promised 2021 tax cuts to take effect if revenues had come in above a certain threshold. The second trigger would have increased the BPT and BET rates, effectively undoing the 2019 tax relief, if revenues had come in below a certain threshold.

While businesses across New Hampshire dodged the latter trigger – which would have resulted in them facing tax increases during the pandemic – the first trigger was not hit either. Now, because Democrats insisted on changing the law, New Hampshire taxpayers have been robbed of tax relief in 2021.

Fortunately, Gov. Sununu and Republicans in the General Court have expressed interested in reversing this tax hike and allowing the 2021 tax cuts to take effect as planned, regardless of revenue. This would result business across New Hampshire, who have already been making tough decisions over the past few months, having more money to invest in jobs, wages, and basic business operations.

Now that New Hampshire is totally controlled by Republicans, members of the House, Senate, and Executive Council can work with Gov. Sununu in providing much needed tax relief to the hard-working people across the Granite State.

If Democrat Senate candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff win their runoff elections on January 5th 2021, they will rubber stamp the Biden-Harris agenda to raise taxes on families and businesses in Georgia and across the country. 

Biden has promised to impose $4 trillion in new or higher taxes on the American people. 

Under this plan, Georgia families and individuals will face a top tax rate of 55.09 percent. Georgia small businesses that operate as pass-through entities and pay taxes through the individual code would also face this new top rate. 

The breakdown is below: 

                                    Biden top federal rate:   39.6 percent 

                                    Georgia top rate:            5.75 percent 

                                    Medicare payroll tax:     1.45 percent 

                        Biden new payroll tax:                 6.2 percent

                                    Pease limitation:           1.188 percent

                        Additional Medicare tax:               .9 percent

                                                                        -------------------

                                                                          55.09 percent

Biden would repeal the Republican Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which would raise the top marginal tax rate to 39.6 percent. A typical family of four with annual income of $73,000 will see a $2,000 tax hike. 

Biden has also proposed implementing a new, 12.4 percent payroll tax on Americans earning above $400,000. This tax would be split evenly between employers and employees, resulting in a 6.2 percent tax hike on Americans. This new tax would not be indexed to inflation, meaning it would eventually hit all Americans. 

Additionally, Biden would restore the Pease limitation, a provision that limits a filer’s itemized deduction by 3% of the amount that the filer’s AGI exceeds a certain threshold. The limitation can strip away up to 80% of the value of a taxpayer’s itemized deductions, an effective additional 1.188 percent tax when the top marginal rate is 39.6 percent. Biden would also cap itemized deductions at 28 percent. 

While Ossoff and Warnock would support these tax increases on Georgians, Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue will hold firm against the Biden plan of higher taxes on families and businesses.

House Democrats are demanding increased IRS funding. In a letter to Congressional leadership, two dozen Democrats called for $12.1 billion in funding for the IRS including $5.2 billion for “enforcement activities.”

The Democrats argued that strong enforcement actions should be a “priority” for Congress, a goal shared by the incoming Biden administration.

According to Biden Council of Economic Advisers member Jared Bernstein, Biden will seek “significant increases in IRS enforcement and auditing.” This could lead to a return to the era of the Obama IRS which wrongly used its authority to target and harass taxpayers, especially conservative non-profits.

Most notably, the Obama IRS was caught unfairly denying conservative groups non-profit status ahead of the 2012 election. 

According to a Senate Finance Committee report, the process set up by IRS employee Lois Lerner resulted in only one conservative group being granted non-profit status over a three year period.

This was no coincidence. As the report noted, this delay was a result of Lerner’s personal political views:

“...directly resulted in disparate treatment for applicants affiliated with Tea Party and other conservative causes… Lerner showed little concern for conservative applicants, even when members of Congress inquired on their behalf, allowing them to languish in the IRS bureaucracy for as long as two years with little or no action.”

Not only did the IRS allow this to occur but they also allowed evidence to be destroyed. According to documentation released by the House Oversight Committee, backup tapes containing as many as 24,000 Lois Lerner emails were destroyed by an IRS entity officially known as the “Media Management Midnight Unit” located in Martinsburg, West Virginia. These tapes were destroyed via powerful magnets a month after top IRS officials learned that there were gaps in the Lerner email production. 

While this was one of the worst cases of misusing taxpayer dollars, the Obama IRS routinely misused federal funds and failed to do its job.

According to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report, the IRS rehired more than 200 employees who were previously employed by the agency, but fired for previous conduct or performance issues between January 2015 and March 2016.

The agency routinely released this private information in FOIA requests where it should have been redacted, lost track of over 1,000 laptops containing sensitive taxpayer information, and destroyed laptops containing similar information. 

The IRS failed to screen 2.2 million tax returns for possible ID theft and illegally gave 57 contracts valued at $18.8 million to 17 corporations, who had outstanding tax debt or a felony conviction.  

Clearly, the agency displayed a clear record of politicization and incompetence.

Ultimately, the House Democrat request for increased IRS funding for “enforcement” is only the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately for the American taxpayer, Biden is set to bring back all of the incompetence and corruption of the Obama IRS.

If Democrat Senate candidates Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff win their runoff elections on January 5th, 2021, they will provide the deciding votes for the Biden-Harris agenda of tax increases on families and businesses in Georgia and across the country.

This will result in the reinstatement of the Obamacare individual mandate tax penalty, increasing taxes on over 100,000 low and middle-income Georgia families.

The individual mandate tax forced American families to purchase government approved health insurance or pay a $695 tax for an individual and $2,085 for a family. It was zeroed out in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) passed by Congressional Republicans and signed by President Trump.

When it was in effect, the tax was one of the regressive in the code and hit millions of low- and middle-income Americans across the country and in Georgia. According to IRS data:

In 2017, the tax hit 143,180 Georgia households. 

• 127,620 of those households, or 89 percent, had annual income of $50,000 or less.
• 135,360 of those households, or 94 percent, had annual income of $75,000 or less.
   

In 2018, the tax hit 116,430 Georgia households.

• 100,800 of those households, or 86 percent, had annual income of $50,000 or less.
• 108,290 of those households, or 93 percent, had annual income of $75,000 or less
   

While Warnock and Ossoff support the Biden agenda of higher taxes, Senator Perdue and Senator Loeffler oppose efforts to reimpose the individual mandate. 

By voting for the TCJA in 2017, Sen. Perdue voted to zero out the mandate and reduce taxes for middle class families.

While Sen. Loeffler was not in Congress for this vote, she has consistently opposed new tax increases on the American people.  She recently released the “Modernizing Americans’ Health Care Plan,” a framework that directly repudiated the left’s plan to raise taxes and impose socialized healthcare. Instead, her proposal calls for increased healthcare choice and access through free market, patient-centered policies.

On January 5th, a vote for Ossoff and Warnock is a vote to reimpose the Obamacare mandate tax on over 100,000 middle class Georgia families. 

See also: 

Georgia Middle Class Families Will Pay Higher Taxes If Warnock and Ossoff Win

Ossoff and Warnock Vow To End Georgia's Right To Work Protections