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.

Dan St. Pierre of Nashua says that large corporations are structured differently than small businesses. He argues that the LLC tax targets small businesses, without the ability to defend themselves. He says if the tax is implemented, business owners will relocate outside of New Hampshire. He says small businesses earn what they generate.

State Senator Jeb Bradley, who Commissioner Clougherty identifed as “Deborah Bradley” promises that the Legislature will hold at least more public hearings on the LLC tax, since both he and Representative David Hess has filed bills to repeal it.

Former State Senator Bob Clegg argues that the DRA isn’t in any position to define the legislative intent behind the LLC tax, since there was no public hearings to make that intent clear. He says while the DRA has been talking to accountants and tax attorneys on how to implement the tax, but says those are the people who will be paying the tax. Clegg says rather than rush to close a “loophole”, the DRA should have asked how taking $30 million from LLC’s will hurt those businesses.

Former DRA Commissioner Phil Blatsos says that the LLC tax is a major change in tax policy. He says the Interest and Dividends Tax was intended to tax passive income, such as investments. He says the LLC tax hits active income, and amounts to tax on the “sweat equity” that business owners build up through years of hard work.

Former State Senator George Lovejoy says he’s sad that New Hampshire is changing its tax policy from “Ax the Tax” to “Tax the Ax”. He says the new tax on LLC’s amounts to the introduction of an income tax on New Hampshire small businesses.

Corey Lewandowski, state director of the New Hampshire chapter of Americans for Prosperity, argues that the new LLC tax is retroactive. He says small business owners are unprepared to pay a tax that they didn’t know existed until last week, and should pay a tax that didn’t exist at the time they earned the income targeted.

Jim Roche, President of the Business and Industry Association, and BIA member Carl Heathfield are testifying on behalf the business association. Roche highlights that the LLC Tax was proposed and approved without a public hearing and before the businesses that are going to pay for the tax even had a chance to see the language.

Tom Thomson, who wrote a column opposing the new LLC tax in yesterday’s Union Leader, testified by quoting from the landmark Supreme Court case McCooluch vs. Maryland that “the power to tax is the power to destroy” and argues that New Hampshire is about to destroy its LLC’s.

The Department of Revenue Administration has opened its public hearing into the proposed rule changes on tax treatment of limited liability corporations, or LLC’s. An overflow crowd has packed the auditorium at the State Office Park in Concord. Such rules hearings rarely draw such large public interest, but the LLC tax was passed without the public hearings that usually happen before laws are passed.