Get Ready for the Fireworks

Shira Schoenberg leads off her "Capital Beat" column in the Concord Monitor with a slew of study commissions ranging from gambling to the Concord Charter to New Hampshire's tax structure.

House Speaker Terie Norelli, a Portsmouth Democrat, caused a firestorm when she told the Portsmouth Herald that she is "open-minded to taking a look at revenue structure in the state," including an income tax.

Although Norelli has been an advocate for an income tax in the past, she said when she was elected House speaker that she had no interest in pursuing that issue. "That question's been asked, (and) it's been answered by the governor, by the Senate president, by myself," she told the Monitor in 2006. "I think it's time for us to move on. "

For something that's off the table, they sure want to talk about it a lot.