Susan's secret: Pitching an income tax

The Union Leader is not surprised that long-time income tax supporters are laying the groundwork for an income tax.

This year her committee recommended, and she advocated, an estate tax and a capital gains tax. She's spent years searching for ways to raise taxes on Granite Staters. That she's organizing the summit is worrisome. That she deliberately kept it a secret because, she acknowledges, she didn't want the income tax information to get out, is troubling.

House Speaker Terie Norelli, who voted for an income tax in 1999, says not to fret. She admits that the income tax will be on the table during the summit, but she notes that Gov. John Lynch has pledged to veto it, so it's off the table in the Legislature. So why not take it off the table at the summit, then? If it's really not an option, why consider it?

The answer, obviously, is that they are considering it, and they hope to convince enough legislators to support it that Lynch's veto won't matter.