Representative Dick Drisko (R-Hollis) says he voted against the budget containing the LCC tax, and supports its repeal. He says he will probably repeat many of the same objections as previous speakers, but that repetition and redundancy are necessary to get the point across.

Drisko says the process was fundamentally flawed since it was passed at the 11th hour to solve the Legislature’s failure to balance its budget in prior years. He quotes from a constituent who says the LLC tax is small compared to the state’s budget hole, but it will have a far-reaching and pernicious effect on New Hampshire’s small businesses.

Tom Boucher owns T-Bones and Cactus Jack’s restaurants. He says rather than pass a new tax to create “fairness”, he would have rather spent his day creating jobs. He says by opening his 5th and 6th restaurants in the state, he is creating jobs. But he says the Legislature has made it harder by increasing the tip wage, increasing the Meals and Rooms Tax, increasing Unemployment Taxes, on top of the rising costs of health care and advertising. He says the hospitality industry is the top tax payer in New Hampshire, despite being dominated by small businesses with small profit margins. Boucher argues the LLC Tax will stop growth in the hospitality industry, and that his company is forced to reconsider its expansion plans, and put them on hold. He says “small business is getting smaller by the minute.”

Boucher says he is frightened by Clougherty’s statement that he will “go after everybody”. Clougherty says that in the passion of the hearing, he meant to say that he would not show favoritism towards larger corporations against smaller businesses. He says “going after everyone” was “probably the worst choice of words” he could have used.

Fenton Groen of Rochester says the LLC Tax is a thinly disguised income tax on income already taxed under the Business Enterprise Tax and Business Profits Tax. He’s set up a pair of LLC’s, taking the equity from the first to pay to set up the second. He says under the proposed rules, he would have to pay taxes on the capital that he wanted to use to start a new business. He says the second business hasn’t started making money yet, and will continue to lose money until the market turns around. But he says he gets no credit for making that investment in his business, and must pay the full 8.5% percent tax on his first LLC.

Check for updates at the New Hampshire Watchdog blog page.