In New Hampshire, property taxes are not a theoretical issue. They show up in escrow payments, rent increases, and “maybe we should move” conversations at kitchen tables across Sullivan County. So when we hear speeches and posts claiming that property taxes are high because Republicans “shifted burdens,” “broke promises,” or “underfunded” education, we think the public deserves a more serious explanation than a blame story.
Here is our view, grounded in a conservative approach to public policy: focus on incentives, tradeoffs, and results. If a claim cannot survive that treatment, it is not a solution. It is a slogan.
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Tag: economics
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A Sullivan County Republican Committee View: Why the Property Tax Narrative Misses the Point
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Keep the Spine: Fund NH Schools with Property Tax—not Sales or Income Taxes.
The following is the opinion of the author and should not be construed as the policy of the Sullivan County GOP or any elected representatives.
Parents owe their children an education before anyone owes Concord another revenue stream. The obligation runs from family to child, with the community as a secondary obligee because it lives with the downstream effects: neighbors who can read a budget, track a town warrant, evaluate evidence, and serve when called, voting, jury duty, and, in the broad constitutional sense, the unorganized militia. If we order duties that way, parents first, community second, state as backstop, the funding question looks different. The right mechanism keeps authority near consequences, makes costs visible to the people who approve them, and resists the political reflex to send the bill to “someone else.” In New Hampshire, that mechanism is the property tax, not a sales tax and not an income tax.
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The Liquidation of the Kulaks and the Politics of Redistribution: An Ethical Comparison
The Kulaks and Stalinist Redistribution
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Joseph Stalin initiated a campaign against the so-called kulaks—peasants accused of being wealthier than their neighbors. The label itself was fluid; it could encompass anyone who owned a few more cows or harvested a little more grain than the village average. The state cast these modestly prosperous farmers as class enemies. Their land, tools, and homes were seized in the name of “social justice,” and millions were deported, starved, or executed in the process.
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