19 Days

Did you know that in addition to all the federal, state and local races there are 3 additional questions on the ballot?

These are the things that get me every time. They're written in "legalese", and often receive little to no media coverage in the weeks leading up to a vote. If I haven't heard about them earlier, trying to decipher them in the voting booth isn't going to be easy.

In the hopes of alleviating some of that voting booth pressure, you can read the text of the first Constitutional amendment, CACR 13, here. 

But if you're like me, you'll take one look at that and hit the back button. Because really, who wants to read that?

This is what it will look like on the ballot on November 6th:

“Are you in favor of amending the second part of the constitution by inserting after article 5-b a new article to read as follows: [Art.] 5-c. [Income Tax Prohibited.] Notwithstanding any general or special provision of this constitution, the general court shall not have the power or authority to impose and levy any assessment, rate, or tax upon income earned by any natural person; however, nothing in this Article shall be construed to prohibit any tax in effect on January 1, 2012, or adjustment to the rate of such a tax.”

If passed, this amendment would change the NH Constitution to prohibit the creation of a personal income tax. Granite State Progress explains the problem:

"CACR 13 – which will likely be listed as Question 2 on the ballot -- seeks to fix a problem that does not exist. Neither the Governor nor the Legislature has seriously considered an income tax in recent years, while prior efforts to adopt an income tax were stopped over the course of the normal legislative process. Enshrining CACR 13 in our constitution would tie the hands of future lawmakers and deny our children and grandchildren the opportunity to decide critical public issues for themselves. We do not know what challenges New Hampshire will face in the years ahead or how future taxpayers might choose to meet them. It should be up to them to select the approach that best suits their needs and then to hold their elected officials accountable.

Furthermore, CACR 13 would freeze New Hampshire’s tax system into place, making it almost impossible to address its existing shortcomings, to reduce its dependence on business and property taxes, or to generate revenue for even the most pressing priorities. Simply updating the tax system to account for inflation could become problematic if it was deemed to involve anyone’s income."

There are many advantages to having no income tax in New Hampshire, but do we really need a constitutional amendment to help make sure we never have one? What if, down the road, an income tax in some form will help relieve the burden on property tax? Do we want to keep our options open, or do we want to eliminate them?