CONCORD – House Majority Leader Pete Silva (R-Nashua) and Deputy Majority Leader and Ways and Means Chairman Stephen Stepanek (R-Amherst) today blasted the newly exposed Democrat income tax plan. Rep. Peter Sullivan (D-Manchester) filed a bill request (LSR #191) that would establish an income tax in New Hampshire.
House Majority Leader Pete Silva
“I have to give Peter Sullivan credit. He had the courage to throw back the veil of deception that the Democrats have tried to throw over the eyes of the voters and he has come out and had the guts to stand up and support the very income tax publicly that most Democrats support in private. That trickery is the same reason why Maggie Hassan, who once boldly supported an income tax, now takes the Pledge, but refuses to support a constitutional amendment to ban an income tax. The truth is that Democrats need to publicly take a stand – do you support Question #1, which would ban an income tax, or do you stand with Peter Sullivan and the other liberal income tax advocates? Anyone who says that they oppose an income tax like Peter Sullivan’s, but who won’t support Question #1 is really just one more dishonest politician who is looking to say one thing to get elected, but who will vote to dismantle the New Hampshire Advantage the first chance he or she gets.”
House Deputy Majority Leader Stephen Stepanek
“Our New Hampshire Advantage has been built around not having a sales or income tax. Passing one now would be a colossal mistake, but it’s no surprise that the Democrats want to bring their big government, tax-borrow-and-spend agenda to New Hampshire that they have to Washington. That’s precisely why we put a question on the ballot: to give the voters a chance to say, once and for all, that there will be no income tax here. Question #1 is the solution to dealing with the constant efforts of Democrats to pass an income tax. Peter Sullivan and his friends have shown exactly why you are either for Question #1 or for an income tax. Maggie Hassan is against ballot Question #1, which puts her in the camp of those supporting an income tax. Unlike Democrat Rep. Peter Sullivan, she just does not have the courage to publicly admit her private beliefs.”