My Turn: Should New Hampshire be more like Texas?

By COLIN VAN OSTERN

For the Monitor

Last modified: 6/27/2015 1:13:01 AM

Heads turned sharply in Concord this week when New Hampshire Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley and House Speaker Shawn Jasper both shared a press release inviting local businesses to relocate from New Hampshire to Texas. It was sent out originally by the governor of Texas to New Hampshire political reporters on Thursday, “Inviting New Hampshire Businesses to Seek New Opportunities in Texas.” All because Gov. Hassan won’t approve an unbalanced state budget that, among other problems, creates special corporate tax giveaways without paying for them.



I can’t imagine a public policy dispute with a member of the other party that would cause me, as an elected official, to actively invite businesses to leave my state as Sen. Bradley and Speaker Jasper did this week. But let’s look past the backward priorities and political gimmicks – on the substance, are they right? Should New Hampshire try to be more like Texas?



Taxes? It’s true Texas has low corporate taxes. To keep them low, they rely on a hefty sales tax – which New Hampshire does not have. An Austin businessman pays an extra 8.25 percent on every supply he buys. So taken on the whole, the Tax Foundation found this year that Texas’s overall business tax climate ranked 10th in the nation. Not bad, but still behind New Hampshire at 7th.



Workforce? I’ve managed a $100 million business for a local manufacturer and currently work in a leadership role at our state’s fastest growing large employer – and I can tell you unequivocally that the most important resource for every great business is its people.



In New Hampshire, 91 percent of adults have a high school degree – the fourth highest state in the country, with high rates of bachelor’s and advanced degrees as well. Texas is dead last – 50th of 50 states. More Texans work at the minimum wage than almost any other state. Only one in three adults in Texas have health insurance; again, 50th in the nation.



Quality of life? New Hampshire famously ranks as the No. 1 state in which to live, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development. No. 1 in the country to find a home. No. 1 state to earn a living. No. 1 safest state. On those rankings, Texas scores 38th, 47th, 25th, and 30th. And yes, our unemployment rate is 3.8 percent versus Texas’s 4.3 percent.



Welcoming and inclusive to all? New Hampshire was one of the first states in the nation to embrace marriage equality; in Texas, a state constitutional amendment bans this basic human right. New Hampshire town meetings are famous. Our voter turnout leads the nation; Texas – well, you get the idea (47th).



The point is not just to compare brag sheets. New Hampshire succeeds because of a smart, balanced and forward-looking portfolio of unique competitive advantages: our world-class workforce, best-in-the-nation quality of life, inclusive community and uniquely low taxes. The ideologically driven approach to state budgets that the governor of Texas, Jeb Bradley and Shawn Jasper are pushing would undermine our workforce, weaken our high quality of life and add a $90 million hole in the budget.



It’s simply not worth spiking in-state college tuition, threatening to kick 41,000 New Hampshire citizens off newly expanded health care, undermining safe roads and bridges, and passing a deeply unbalanced budget that would result in even more cuts or tax increases later in the year, all to draw high-fives from conservative Republican governors in the Deep South.



Texas is a great state and it certainly has competitive advantages of its own (its beef brisket is admittedly hard to deny). But when it comes to our overall tax climate, our workforce, our communities and our quality of life – well, don’t mess with the Live Free or Die state. That goes for Texas governors and lawmakers here in New Hampshire alike.







(Colin Van Ostern represents 49 towns across the state on New Hampshire’s publicly elected Executive Council, including Rochester, Dover, Concord, Franklin, and Keene.)





