Nashua looking to tax downtown

The Nashua Telegraph's Kevin Landrigan reports on efforts to tax downtown Nashua businesses in order to promote downtown businesses:

Under the proposal, which is being advocated by the Great American Downtown, downtown property owners would pay a special tax that would be used for marketing, maintenance and other purposes within the new district.

While the legislation only would establish a “services advisory committee,” current thinking calls for the district to run along Main Street from the Hunt Community to the Hunt Memorial Building, then a block or two east and west of Main Street. (more)

When you tax something, you get less of it. Apparantly, Nashua Aldermen think they are too many businesses on Main Street and would like to thin the herd through higher taxes. If local buisiness owners want to band together to promote Downtown Nashua as a retail, dining, and entertainment destination, they can that. Of course, some business owners may not want to spend their money for the group effort, but would presumably benefit from it. To get past this free-rider problem, the businesses are turning to local government to force everyone to participate.

Landrigan quotes Manchester's Dick Anagnost, who opposed a similar idea in the Queen City in 1990, but has become a strong supporter. Elm Street has certainly prospered over the last two decades, but we don't know how much is attributable to the InTown program. Nor do we know the full cost to businesses and consumers over the years.