Committee urged to consider sales tax

Tom Fahey reports in the Union Leader on a House Ways and Means subcommittee opening its study of an income tax bill by hearing from a sales tax advocate.

Gittell said the bill would hit businesses and wealthy individuals hardest. It would also have a disproportionate effect on those who live along the Massachusetts border, where real estate values are higher.

He said any tax policy should tax what a state wants to discourage, leave alone what it wants to encourage, be kept simple, stable and at rates below bordering states. When times are flush, money should be set aside for lean times that inevitably follow, he said.

He offered a sales tax as a solution along those lines, and said it would gradually lower the state's ranking as nation's second highest concentration of retail jobs. He said the jobs pay low and offer little advancement opportunity.