Massachusetts Wants Residents to Pay Sales Tax…For Purchases in Tax Free New Hampshire Part 2

The outrage has been growing since word got out that Massachusetts is trying to force a New Hampshire store to implement a 5% Massachusetts sales tax on Deval Patrick’s subjects. And the outrage isn’t limited to Massachusetts residents. New Hampshire is not too happy about this either.

Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta, who should have run for governor, promised to fight this outrageously unconstitutional idea. He called this lawsuit harassment. Meanwhile Nancy C. Kyle, president of the Retail Merchants Association of New Hampshire sums up my feelings on this when she claims that this is just the beginning:

think it’s horrific,” she said. “I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the state of Massachusetts is going after a medium-sized retailer. They’re testing the waters to see how it goes and if they win their case, the big-box retailers are next

Exactly, Massachusetts is trying to see how much it can get away with. If the communist governor of Massachusetts is allowed to get away with this blatant violation of the commerce clause in the constitution than it will just be the beginning. There will be many stores who are also forced to implement the laws that Massachusetts is incompetent to enforce.

Some New Hampshire officials seem to be taking a wait and see attitude:

The issue is going through the courts of Massachusetts so it would be premature for us to take any position, but we are monitoring it

Governor Lynch may be for the first time taking a position on an issue that I agree with:

Colin Manning, a press secretary for Gov. John Lynch, said yesterday, “There is no sales tax in New Hampshire and there should be no tax charged to items sold in New Hampshire.”

And we certainlyshouldn’t be bullied into it by a governor who is overstepping his bounds in such a blatantly unconstitutional manner. Deval Patrick is upset that so much potential revenue is being lost to New Hampshire that he wants to not only put a stop to residents crossing the border to shop, he wants New Hampshire to enforce Massachusetts tax laws. He wants to dictate where his subjects can shop.

This Union Leader article sums it up well with the following statement:

The State of Massachusetts is trying to turn New Hampshire businesses into tax collection agents for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. To this, there is only one appropriate response from the state of New Hampshire. It isn’t “no.” It’s “Hell, no.”

The Union Leader article goes even further:

If the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upholds this clearly unconstitutional cross-border tax grab, Gov. Lynch should immediately dispatch the National Guard to all six Town Fair Tire locations in New Hampshire and tell Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, “If you want that revenue, come and get it.”

If you think that that position is extreme, the paper doesn’t think so:

We are not joking. New Hampshire cannot let Massachusetts apply its taxes on our sovereign soil. It can subjugate its own people all it wants, but it must not be allowed to turn New Hampshire residents doing business entirely in the state of New Hampshire into subjects of the state of Massachusetts

Just for the record, in my post yesterday about this issue I called the residents of Massachusetts “subjects” before the Union Leader article did the same. But that is neither here nor there, I just wanted to throw that out there.

Governor Lynch needs to step up to the plate on this issue, he needs to actually show that he has a pair and he needs to stick up for the businesses of New Hampshire. He needs to defend what we like to call the New Hampshire advantage.

Where will this insanity stop? What about meals taxes? If Massachusetts residents eats in a New Hampshire resident will they have to pay the 8% New Hampshire meals tax and the 5% Massachusetts meals tax. What about taxes on hotels and lodges?

What if New Hampshire decides to follow suit on such things as taxes on meals and hotels enjoyed in Massachusetts? Where does it end? We know that eventually this will spread to other states looking to make a few extra dollars instead of cutting wasteful spending.

This is just the beginning.