CONCORD – House Speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon), House Majority Leader Pete Silva (R-Nashua) and House Deputy Majority Leader and Ways and Means Chairman Stephen Stepanek (R-Amherst) today offered the following statements in response to the release of May revenue figures. For the month, revenues were up by $3.5 million over plan, led by business taxes, which were up $2.6 million and interest and dividend taxes, up by $1 million.
House Speaker William O’Brien
“The fact that New Hampshire is seeing strength in the collection of business and interest and dividend taxes is great news. Even against the headwinds of a slowing national economy, our state’s economy is recovering. For the year, we’ve seen tremendous strength and confidence from our employers, and this is reflected in falling unemployment figures, a growing workforce and recovering state revenues. The work of this legislature to reduce taxes and fees and to lessen the onerous burden of regulation helps create this positive environment for growth, and we are taking even more steps in that regard this year. Our job creation agenda will continue this year, just like last year.”
House Majority Leader Pete Silva
“One very encouraging sign from this revenue report is that tobacco tax revenue continues to exceed expectations, for the fourth time in five months, at a time when other ‘sin’ taxes linger below plan. Word is getting out about the fact that New Hampshire is the place to buy goods for the lowest cost, thanks to the tax relief we put into the last budget. As someone who lives a little over a mile from the Massachusetts border, I can say that our retailers are seeing a difference, and it’s helping our other revenue sources, such as business taxes, rooms and meals tax, as well as our gas tax, as people come here to buy their merchandise. I suspect we will see even greater strength next year, particularly as other states look to raise their tobacco taxes.”
House Deputy Majority Leader Stephen Stepanek
“What’s truly amazing about this revenue report is that within the general revenue items, these figures are within 0.4% of our estimates, with just one month to go in this fiscal year. That’s a huge difference from the last two budgets, where the state saw inflated revenue figures used to allow for more spending, only to find that the legislature had to come back to fix the mess when they went far off. Republicans were committed to using responsible, reliable revenue estimates, and that is exactly what we’ve seen this year. Our state is truly fortunate that the legislature did not succumb to the Democrat party’s demands over the past year and half to spend more money than we knew would be collected in taxes and fees.”
The full revenue report is available here:
http://admin.state.nh.us/accounting/FY%2012/Monthly%20Rev%20May-12.pdf