Dracula and Taxes

By Jeffrey Hart | Wednesday, April 23, 1997

New Hampshire has long been one of the most tax-resistant states in the U.S. It has no personal income tax and no sales tax. Any candidate running for state wide office has to 'take the pledge' against a 'broad-based tax,' and so do the Republican presidential aspirants in the quadrennial presidential primary. Candidates of any sort refusing to take the pledge are regularly flattened in New Hampshire voting.

In 1996, the Democratic candidate for governor was Jeanne Shaheen, a popular unthreatening state legislator who did take the pledge and otherwise ran as a moderate. With key assistance from the non-existence of the Dole presidential campaign, Shaheen slipped in and received considerable national attention, along with Christie Whitman of New Jersey, as one of the nation's two woman
governors.

Well, what do you know, no sooner was Jeanne Shaheen installed in the governor's office in Concord than she figured out a way to raise taxes.

Of course she could not put through an income tax or a sales tax, those were out of the question. But, in obedience to the principle that the mission of the Democratic party is to transfer money from the private sector to the public sector, Shaheen, it is now clear, desperately wanted to raise taxes somehow. When a Democrat senses the existence of private money it's like Dracula strolling past a blood bank.

What Jeanne Shaheen needed was a tax increase that could be passed in New Hampshire, no easy task. But she performed brilliantly. She cobbled together three current icons and made of them a package for more taxes. The icons were tobacco (negative), children, and education.

In New Hampshire, public school education is a town matter, paid for by the property tax. Some towns support a half-day kindergarten and some do not.

And, by the way, New Hampshire has one of the lowest per-pupil expenditures in the nation — and also finishes at or near the top on the national Scholastic Aptitude Tests. There is no crisis in New Hampshire public school education.

Nevertheless, Dracula, I mean Shaheen, was determined to raise taxes. So she proposed to raise the tax on a pack of cigarettes from 25 to 50 cents and use the income from that to support kindergarten for those towns currently without it.

Thus she bounced off the current anti-tobacco furor, making anyone who opposed the tax on cigarettes look like a proponent of cancer. She combined this powerful negative icon with two icons that currently can be used to justify almost anything: 'children' and 'education.'

A state legislator did not relish the idea of being 'for cigarettes' and against 'children' and 'education.' The Republican leader in the House, Donna Sytek, made a courageous effort to beat back the Jeanne Shaheen ploy, but the Republican majority is split on this issue and it looks as if New Hampshire is going to get the new Shaheen tax, despite her 'taking the pledge' while running last year. She seems to have figured out a way to raise taxes in New Hampshire, a considerable feat.

She may have learned her ploy from the Clintons. After going nowhere with their huge national health plan in 1993, they are now using salami tactics to introduce it gradually, beginning with full coverage for 'children.' And, of course, the war on tobacco is frequently cast in terms of 'kids' smoking. A careful study of Al Gore statements seems to show that when he talks about 'kids' smoking he means anyone under about the age of twenty.

These days, when you hear a politician talking about 'kids,' you would be wise to keep your hand on your wallet.

Some very useful information in this general area is provided in the March issue of the British Economist magazine. It cited recent studies comparing education results in 41 nations. Quite dramatically, this showed that testable results do not have anything to do with class size, hours spent per day in school, or with pupil expenditure.

That's right. Money spent has nothing to do with results.

The Economist observes that 'American children have three times as much money spent on their schooling as young South Koreans, who nevertheless beat them hands down in tests.'

The U.S. also spends three times as much per pupil as the Czech Republic. They came in sixth in the world in Math, second in Science. We finished 26th and 17th in those areas.

Nevertheless, and despite such evidence, it remains very difficult to resist more and more spending on 'education,' as witness Jeanne Shaheen's success in the unpromising political climate of New Hampshire.

As Thomas Sowell shows in his eye-opening study 'Inside American Education,' American schools spend a lot of time on a range of matters that have nothing to do with subject matter as usually understood. They are more interested in developing 'correct attitudes,' creating 'self-esteem' and inculcating 'tolerance.' Drilling pupils on the multiplication table, grammar, vocabulary — these are not looked on with much favor and may even be slightly fascistic or elitist. So we get what we get.

Al Gore has been a sort of evangelist for the 'Information Super Highway' or Internet, and Clinton wants the classrooms wired and all the students using computers. Why? Will surfing the Internet have any more value than surfing on TV channels?

Jeanne Shaheen won narrowly in 1996. New Hampshire, wisely, votes for Governor every two years. The voters will have another crack at her next year.

Dracula and Taxes

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