Concord: Andy Sanborn spoke today with Brian Tilton on the Bulldog Live show. You can listen to the conversation here:  http://www.briantilton.com/audio/AndySanborn060410.mp3

Concord, NH: Andy Sanborn, small business owner and 4^th generation New Hampshire native, was the first candidate in New Hampshire to file his petition to run for elected office early this morning.  He was surrounded by his wife of 20 years; with friends, family and supporters.

“The current political leadership in Concord has only one answer to our challenges, constantly raising more taxes against the working families in our great State. Today, we need common sense solutions to solve the $300 million dollar deficit our current tax and spend politicians have put us in.  Raising more taxes is not the answer to job creation and economic expansion.  It’s time to replace special interest politicians with ordinary working people who understand how to balance a budget,” said Sanborn.

Sanborn’s primary focus will be on helping small businesses create jobs for the over 50,000 unemployed citizens in the State.  This would include lowering taxes and putting more control on the $2 Billion dollars in new, increased government spending over the past two years.

Sanborn continued, “Runaway spending must end. I will work to restructure state spending so we can cut taxes, balance the budget, and improve the business climate so that employers have opportunities to create jobs.”

“Two years ago, I was mad and just walked in with a reactionary decision to run.  Now, after working so hard to be the right candidate for the past two years, it was really different.  We got there early (way too early…), put on some Eva Cassidy and just chatted about what it means to do the right thing, to inspire, to lead in troubled times.  Some belittle our State and its old world way of politics, but today, to be sitting in a dark hallway with our forefathers looking down, it was inspirational and motivating.

“I’ll work hard to make New Hampshire proud,” Sanborn concluded.

The State Senate District #7 includes the towns of Antrim, Bennington, Boscawen, Bradford, Canterbury, Deering, Francestown, Hanover, Harrisville, Henniker, Hillsborough, Loudon, Northfield, Nelson, Salisbury, Warner, Weare, Webster, and Windsor

For more information contact

Andy Sanborn, Small Business Owner and State Senate Candidate District 7

Phone: 682-1165

E-mail: andy4senate@gmail.com

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Andy Sanborn, small business owner and Candidate for State Senate announced today, 2 outstanding additions to the campaign staff. Jacob Avery has come on board as Field Director and Ben Hartford as Field Manager.

Avery, a political activist since the 2006 campaign cycle has worked from New Hampshire to up-state New York to Washington DC. In addition to strong experience in social media outreach and data management, Jacob has extensive experience in community outreach and organizing.

Benjamin Hartford, a US Army Veteran with the 82 Airborne, balances a hectic schedule from being a part time Political Science student at New England College in Henniker with being a great husband and father to his 3 kids.

As said by Andy Sanborn “Our campaign is in full swing already and I can’t tell you how excited I am to have Jacob and Ben as part of our team. Our message of fighting for ordinary working families to help create jobs and make a smaller, more efficient government is resonating with all voters of NH. Today, more than ever we need to focus on those traditional New Hampshire Yankee values of personal responsibility and limited government and working to get our State back on track”.

Sanborn organized and led the fight against the damaging LLC income tax on small business owners and is fighting against the new local Sales Tax passed by the House and Senate last week.

“The current political leadership in Concord has only one answer to our challenges today, constantly raising more taxes against the working families in our great State. Today, we need common sense solutions to solve the $300 Million dollar deficit, these tax and spend politicians have put us in. Raising more taxes is not the answer to job creation and economic expansion. Its time to replace special interest politicians with ordinary working people who understand how to balance a budget” said Sanborn.

As you know, as of today, the State is facing a $300 Million dollar deficit, based primarily on Democrat Leadership predicting Business Tax revenue would go up in this economy…..

Our issue today is the Democrat plan on how the State is planning on closing the gap, as effectively, they already spent the money and now need to find a way to replenish the coffers.

The Senate and House each have their own plans and this week they will come together and try to find a compromise in what is called a Committee of Conference.  There are a bunch of new proposed taxes on the table, including a Capital Gains Tax (yea, this is 3^rdor 4^th time this year on this one), Death Tax, new Electric Use tax, Pet Shop owner tax, more taxes on Tobacco products and more.  Additionally they are looking to take out a 20 year mortgage to pay for current year operating expenses.

The real issue is the implementation of a Local Sales tax on food and lodging. Basically the current leadership has decided to withhold revenue sharing money from all the State’s local communities, to balance their books.  But in return, they plan to allow local towns to institute a local sales tax against anyone who dines out, stays at a hotel or rents a car.  Think about the effects this will have if Hanover institutes the tax, but Lebanon does not.  If Portsmouth, Concord, Keene and Laconia do, but New Castle, Loudon, Swanzey and Alton don’t.  I don’t believe our State residents ever envisioned confronting our neighbors economically.  We are supposed to work together to compete against Mass or Maine for customers, not each other…..

This tax will allow any single town or city to enact an unlimited rate new level of taxation on everyone who goes out to eat.  How many people want to pay a 20%, 30% or 50% higher tax on food or drinks… how many tourists will we lose when they hear of the new taxes…  If we are working on coming out of this recession, we need to expand the economic base, not retract it.   Remember, today New Hampshire’s food and lodging tax is almost 30% higher than Mass or Maine, without any new local tax.

So, Please take a couple of minutes and help kill this disastrous new level of Taxation.

Below I have provided links to the email addresses and phone numbers of the Governor and 14 Senators and House members who have the complete power to institute this new tax or not.  Most New Hampshire residents would be very appreciative if you each took a few minutes to send an email or phone call and express your wish to see this new tax (and any other taxes you feel may be anti business or economically challenging….) stopped.

For those of you living in the 19 towns for Senate District 7, the seat I am running for, you will see that your current Senator, Harold Janeway is on this committee.  As you know, Harold has voted FOR every single one of the 68 new taxes and fees the state has passed since he gained office.  So, please reach out and tell Senator Janeway he has to stop raising taxes against all of us working families, small business owner and taxpayers.

Governor John Lynch        271-2121           Tell Gov Lynch No Local Sales Tax!
Senator Sylvia Larson       (H) (603)225-6130   sylvia.larsen@leg.state.nh.us

Senator Lou D’Allasandro   (H) (603)669-3494   dalas@leg.state.nh.us

Senator Harold Janeway    (O) (603)271-7585 harold.janeway@leg.state.nh.us

Senator Kathleen Sgambati    (H) (603)286-8931   kathleen.sgambati@leg.state.nh.us

Senator Deborah Reynolds    (H) (603)536-5553    deb.reynolds@leg.state.nh.us

Senator Margaret Hassan      (H) (603)772-4187    maggie.hassan@leg.state.nh.us

Senator John Gallus                (H) (603)752-1066   john.gallus@leg.state.nh.us

Senator Bob Odell                   (H) (603)863-9797   bob.odell@leg.state.nh.us
House Rep Marjorie Smith                marjorie.smith@leg.state.nh.us

House Rep Dan Eaton                       daniel.eaton@leg.state.nh.us

House Rep Sharon Nordgren             sharon.nordgren@valley.net

House Rep Linda Foster                     linda.foster@leg.state.nh.us

House Rep Robert Foose                    rfoose@tds.net

House Rep Neal Kurk                          neal.kurk@leg.state.nh.us

House Rep Doug Scamman                doug.scamman@leg.state.nh.us

As always, thanks so much for staying involved, because we have to keep looking out for each other.  together we can make New Hampshire great!

All the Best!

Andy Sanborn
www.Andy4Senate.com

By Jennifer Feals

May 18, 2010 2:22 PM

PORTSMOUTH — The plan to allow local communities to levy their own rooms and meals tax was called “ill conceived,” “a slap in the face” and “biting the hand that feeds you” by restaurant and lodging professionals on Tuesday.

The plan is targeting the industry — just one year after an increase from 8 percent to 9 percent in the state rooms and meals tax — and will have a detrimental effect state-wide, with significant impact on border towns like Portsmouth, the group said.

“Let me just make one thing clear, this plan is a disaster to the hospitality industry in our state,” said John Stephen, a Republican candidate for governor.

Stephen gathered local and state-wide restaurant and lodging professionals Tuesday in Portsmouth to oppose allowing communities to increase the rooms and meals tax with their own levies. Stephen and others called on Gov. John Lynch to show leadership and veto the bill if it hits his desk.

The state Senate approved the local rooms and meals tax proposal last week while the House also passed similar language in a similar bill. The proposal will move to a House-Senate committee of conference in the coming weeks.

Jay McSharry, owner or co-owner of a number of Seacoast restaurants including Jumpin’ Jays Fish Cafe, Dos Amigos Burritos and The Red Door, also spoke about the proposal. He said he believes the city of Portsmouth is “too smart” and “fiscally responsible” to enact an increase in the rooms and meals tax if it passes the Legislature.

Targeting the industry only a year after the rooms and meals tax increased 1 percent is irresponsible, he said.

“We’ve taken our hit and for people to step up less than a year later and ask us to take another hit is irresponsible of any state legislature, governor or city council,” he said. “I think if you increase prices on anything too much, people won’t buy it and a tax is an increase on the bill at the end of the day.”

City Manager John Bohenko said any decision on the tax would be made by the City Council after completing a full analysis and weighing potential impacts on businesses.

“We wouldn’t rush into it without doing a full analysis,” Bohenko said. “It would be another tool in the toolbox. If it was made available we would want to make sure that we move forward in a deliberate way and analyze the potential impacts.”

There are about 80 restaurants in Portsmouth where visitors come to eat and explore the city’s history, shop and support other businesses, said Mike Labrie, owner of the River House restaurant on Bow Street.

“People see a bustling restaurant and assume there’s plenty of cash to tag,” Labrie said. “It’s very difficult to make a profit in the restaurant business. Slowly but surely, the tax burdens are crushing the small businesses in a city like Portsmouth.”

The impact of city and town rooms and meals tax increases will have an effect beyond the restaurant and lodging industry, said Lou Gargiulo of Great North Property Management. Gargiulo rents apartments on the Seacoast and caters to those in the hospitality field. He said he has seen a dramatic uptick in vacancies due to tenants losing their jobs or not being able to pay.

“It stems from our economic situation and this will only damage it even further,” he said. “It’s an issue that will impact every business.”

Many said the proposal is the latest in a growing list brought forward under the radar without public hearings and without hearing concerns of businesses and others — similar to the Legislature’s extension of the LLC tax.

Since the meals and rooms tax increased last year, revenue data illustrates rooms and meals tax receipts were below projections by $18.6 million in the first 10 months, Stephens said.

Restaurateurs said they’ve seen a significant decline in business over the last year and fear customers will travel to Maine and Massachusetts if cities and towns increase the rooms and meals tax. The plan will also pit cities and towns against each other, they said.

“Our state used to be competitive. It had this advantage that people wanted to go to,” said Andy Sanborn, owner of The Draft Sports Bar and BBQ Grill in Concord and a state Senate candidate from District 7. “The rooms and meals tax is almost 30 percent higher than Maine and Massachusetts. Portsmouth is a community that needs to compete against Maine and Massachusetts.”

The problem facing the New Hampshire, which is working to cut a nearly $300 million deficit, is not revenue but spending, Stephen and business owners said Tuesday.

“All we do is look for new ways to spend,” said Kevin Attar, owner of the Hampton Inn and Suites in Tilton. “Low taxes are the result of low spending. Our problem is that we tax too much.”

http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100518/NEWS/100519813/-1/NEWSMAP

It’s about creating jobs and making a smaller, more efficient Government.

For Immediate Release: April 28, 2010
Media Contact: Andy Sanborn 603-682-1165, Andy4Senate@gmail.com

Small business owner and proven tax fighter Andy Sanborn announced his candidacy today for the Republican nomination in New Hampshire’s State Senate District 7.

Surrounded by his wife Laurie, family and friends, Andy outlined his priorities: Helping small businesses create jobs for the nearly 53,000 unemployed neighbors in New Hampshire, reducing the runaway 23% increase in spending in the last two budgets, rolling back the 38 recent tax and fee hikes, and curbing an over-zealous Concord regulatory bureaucracy that stifles job growth.

As a 4th generation New Hampshire native, small business owner and husband to the girl of his dreams, Sanborn has been a constant advocate of supporting small business owners and regular working families. He has been fighting to create jobs and push back against the constant barrage of increased taxes and regulation coming from the current leadership in Concord.

“It’s become so obvious the ultra extremist liberal leaders in Concord are showing complete disdain for the majority of the people living and working in the State,” Sanborn was quoted saying to a supporter. “The answer to our job and economic challenges is NOT raising more taxes on working families, or creating a hostile regulatory environment against our small businesses. Today our Government should be bending over backwards FOR the people of this state, creating economic and job opportunities, not constantly standing in the way OF them.”

Sanborn continued, “Runaway spending must end. I will work to restructure state spending so we can balance the budget, reduce taxes and improve the business climate so that employers have incentives and opportunities to create jobs.”

Senate Republican leader Peter Bragdon said, “With New Hampshire facing a $220 million budget deficit right now and a projected $600 million budget shortfall in 2011 we need Senators who have the backbone to make tough choices, set priorities, and cut wasteful spending. Andy’s depth of knowledge of how a budget works and his common sense solutions will be invaluable to turning the State around in this difficult economic time. The current Senator in that seat continues to push for an income tax, and that is not what NH needs.”

Andy ran for the seat in 2008. Although he narrowly lost, Andy remained active and committed to job creation in New Hampshire. When the extremist liberals in Concord passed the job killing LLC Tax in the dead of night without a public hearing, Andy almost singlehandedly mobilized the small business community around the state to fight what has become a staggering 13.5% tax on the personal income of small business owners. Andy’s ability to mobilize business groups, trade associations, and thousands of business owners forced the Governor and Concord tax and spend liberals to admit they were wrong, reverse their position and agree the LLC Tax passed a year ago needs to be repealed.

“As a successful small business owner, Andy brings real world experience and leadership to Concord. His effort to organize the grassroots effort to repeal the job-killing LLC Tax proves how hard Andy will work as a Senator to help small businesses and get New Hampshire citizens back to work.” said Retired Congressman and State Senator Jeb Bradley.

“It’s no accident that as the national unemployment crested in October and has inched downward – New Hampshire’s unemployment rate has continued to climb. High business taxes have made Massachusetts more attractive than New Hampshire to start or grow a business. I will fight to change that,” said Sanborn. “Excessive fees, over regulation and an ineffective government are inhibiting our ability to come out of this recession. We need to clear the way for our great small businesses to be successful, hire our unemployed and pull us out of this economic challenge we’re in. We can do this.”

To find out more about Andy and Laurie Sanborn and their solutions to solve our problems or to stay in touch with them please go to www.Andy4Senate.com.

State Senate District 7 encompass 19 towns in New Hampshire, including Loudon, Canterbury, Northfield, Salisbury, Boscawen, Webster, Warner, Bradford, Henniker, Weare, Hillsborough, Windsor, Deering, Antrim, Bennington, Francestown, Hancock, Nelson and Harrisville

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This is our State’s most pressing issue, so let’s make sure everyone has one!

Jobs, jobs, jobs. Every single one of us knows someone out of work, someone who is fighting to feed their family and pay their mortgage. Unfortunately, our government is doing nothing to get people back to work. Today, our government is focused on raising taxes and fees, eroding economic confidence, and holding back any chance of an economic turnaround. This will not create jobs.

It doesn’t have to be this way. With the right leadership, we can put the 53,000 unemployed back to work. We can help our neighbors and their families get back up on their feet and make our state great again.

It’s about making New Hampshire the most attractive state in the nation to small business owners, who through their efforts will provide employment opportunities.

It’s about using reasonable, common sense solutions to getting the government out of the way so our small businesses can prosper, expand, and hire.

As your Senator, this will be my number one goal.  As seen by my efforts to repeal the LLC tax and craft legislation to provide incentives for job growth, I understand that helping to get government out of the way so we can create jobs is the most important issue today.

It looks like a campaign. It feels like a campaign. And though it isn’t a campaign, it could become one.

Andy Sanborn, owner of The Draft, a Concord sports bar, has been traveling across the state crusading against the so-called LLC tax. Though Sanborn insists the tax is a nonpartisan issue, many of his speeches have been before Republican groups. The 2008 state Senate candidate – he lost a close race to incumbent Sen. Harold Janeway – is leaving the door wide open for another run this year.

“If (legislators) don’t deal with jobs and business, I’m in,” said Sanborn, of Henniker. “If they don’t start taking care of unemployment, I will run.”

Judging by his audience at recent events, Sanborn is building support.

“His whole demeanor, how he’s handled himself, he’s been very fair with this, been able to step back and take a look at it as a resident of New Hampshire, as a small-business owner who really cares about what’s going on,” said JP Marzullo, a Deering selectman and chairman of the Contoocook Valley Republican Committee. “I think it would be terrific if he ran.”

Marzullo, who is running for state representative, heard Sanborn testify at the State House and invited him to speak at a Republican committee meeting in Hillsboro on Wednesday. He said Sanborn has done a good job keeping business people informed throughout the debate.

During last-minute budget deliberations in June, the Legislature extended the state’s interest and dividends tax to distributions from limited liability companies. Revenue Commissioner Kevin Clougherty said it was a way to close a loophole that resulted in LLCs being taxed differently from corporations. A committee of conference trying to reconcile the House and Senate budgets was looking for revenue, and the LLC tax was expected to bring in $15 million a year.

In early December, as the Department of Revenue Administration was developing the rules for the tax, business owners started looking at it more closely. Businesses said they would be unfairly hurt by the tax, and Republican leaders took to calling it a “job-killing income tax” on small business owners. The LLC tax was a key issue in a recent state Senate special election, which was won by Republican David Boutin, who opposed it. Several efforts are under way in the Legislature to repeal the tax, an effort that Gov. John Lynch said Friday he now supports. The Senate Ways and Means Committee this week approved a repeal bill, which must still be passed by the Senate and House.

In mid-December, when more than 200 people turned out to protest the tax at a Department of Revenue rules hearing in Concord, Sanborn spoke and received a standing ovation. “You don’t care that people want a job, want to succeed,” Sanborn told department officials. “The rules say New Hampshire penalizes your success, so don’t come here.”

Sanborn talked about the sacrifices small business owners make. “You’re trying to squeeze the remaining blood from the stone,” Sanborn told Clougherty. “Frankly, it appears that you’re intending to punish the American dream.”

Sanborn himself owns several LLCs – The Draft, and at least three real estate acquisition and development companies, according to filings with the secretary of state. (Sanborn will not say how many companies he owns, though he did say he also runs a manufacturing company.) When someone told him about the tax, “I read the rules, investigated, learned the issue so I could communicate reasonably and rationally,” Sanborn said.

Since then, Sanborn has been speaking to Rotary clubs, Republican clubs, chambers of commerce and at public hearings opposing the tax. He’s been to Lebanon, Grantham, Plymouth, Nashua, Rye, Keene, Hanover and elsewhere. Often, his wife, Laurie, accompanies him. In his hour-long forum in Hillsboro, Sanborn explained the complex ideas behind the tax in clear layman’s terms. He took every question from the 40-person audience and stayed to chat until the last person was gone. Sanborn talked about the history of business taxes, and where the LLC tax bills are in the Legislature today.

His message: the tax is a significant hit to small businesses, its retroactive application to 2009 could be unconstitutional, it encourages businesses to be average, and business owners must band together to get it repealed.

“Each of you can e-mail your state senator and representative and tell them this economy-destroying, job-killing tax has to stop,” Sanborn told the jeans-and-workboots crowd in Hillsboro.

In Concord, before a recent press conference opposing the tax, Sanborn used a different analogy when talking to business owners. “Politics has always been like sex – no one wants to talk about it,” Sanborn said. “We can no longer not talk about it. We’re being taxed.”

Sanborn portrays himself as a voice for small business. “Like all of us, I just want to create jobs,” Sanborn told the Concord business owners. “The Legislature’s not doing anything to help.”

And business owners who meet him through his events say they identify with him. “He’d be a great representative for small businesses,” said Jane Keefe of Auburn, whose father owns a real estate company. “Andy seems articulate, polite, exactly what we need to express our dissatisfaction and let the Legislature know taxes are not the New Hampshire way.”

Sanborn also understands the political theater involved with a campaign. At the Concord press conference, he gathered some of the staunchest opponents of the tax – former Republican state senator Bob Clegg, former revenue commissioner Phil Blatsos and Tom Thomson, son of former governor Meldrim Thomson. Afterward, Sanborn led business owners to deliver a stack of anti-LLC tax petitions to Lynch’s office.

Jarrod Ean-Dixon, a friend of Sanborn’s who owns a bookkeeping business, supported Sanborn’s last run for state Senate, and said he would support him again. “He has a pretty common-sense way he explains things that takes the complexity out of it and lets you know what’s going on,” Ean-Dixon said.

Joanne Devine, who owns a health care business in Hillsboro, put it simply: “Andy is our hope,” she said, noting his belief in less government and lower taxes.

If Sanborn runs, his platform will likely focus on helping the unemployed by promoting the business climate. “We need to expand the economic base,” Sanborn said in an interview. “Create opportunity so anyone can start a company.”

The government, he said, should get out of any business that can be done privately. “If you see it in the yellow pages, government shouldn’t be doing it,” he said. Sanborn favors giving tax credits and incentives to companies that create new jobs or move into the state.

Locally, Sanborn recently united Concord’s downtown restaurant owners to ask city officials to change the timing of overnight parking bans.

If Sanborn runs, he will likely face a rematch against Janeway, a Democrat from Webster, though Janeway has not said whether he is running again. In 2008, Janeway held on to the seat by narrowly beating Sanborn, 14,153 to 13,076 votes.

Sanborn has stayed in touch with Republican leaders and groups – he worked with state Sen. Jeb Bradley and Clegg on the LLC tax issue. He hosted a state of the union watch party at The Draft with the conservative group Americans for Prosperity. Clegg, who runs the Small Business and Small Industry Association, describes Sanborn as an “up and coming leader.”

Rich Ashooh, a vice president at BAE Systems and a Republican candidate for Congress in the 1st District, said he would “unreservedly” support Sanborn, whom he considers a friend. “Andy did a very solid job in reaching out to businesses who don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what goes on in Concord,” Ashooh said. “The behavior he demonstrated in the LLC tax fight for small business is exactly what I’d like to see in a state Senate candidate.”

State GOP spokesman Ryan Williams called Sanborn a friend of the party. “He’s definitely someone who’s very knowledgeable about the fiscal issues, and he’s been an excellent spokesman against the disastrous job-killing LLC tax,” Williams said.

Janeway was a member of the committee of conference that approved the budget, and he belongs to the Senate Ways and Means and Finance committees, which are addressing the proposed changes. Janeway acknowledged that there were flaws in the process and a lack of good information when the LLC tax was passed.

“There wasn’t enough time to fully support it, nor was there enough good enough data to give any of us comfort, but we had the deadline of having to arrive at settlement between the House and Senate to meet the deadline for the budget,” Janeway said.

Read full article at ConcordMonitor.com

This is it.  The New Hampshire Legislature is finally telling the country that we are closed for business.  At least small businesses.  The excuse of “closing the loophole” on taxation or equalizing the playing field has just become a farce.  There is a new smoking gun facing small business owners and it is in the hand of our Governor, our Legislators and some of the people who work for them.

This, while business owners wrestle with the worst recession of our lives.  While we worry about how to survive in an environment with 50,000 New Hampshire residents unemployed and hundreds of thousands under employed, the state of New Hampshire has been trying to impose a Small Business Income Tax of 13.5%.  Little did we know that this was, in part, just cover for a new level of small business taxation to bury any hope of employment or economic recovery.

Our elected representatives have been skipping around New Hampshire during the last couple of months, singing Bobby Mcferron’s famous song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.”  They have continued to pontificate on how the LLC tax is just “closing a loophole” and would have no effect on the majority of small business owners.  Really, it’s just going after the big guys and making life fair…

Our representatives have now determined that $50,000 in compensation is fair and a dollar over that amount makes you a big bad company and here comes the loop around your neck.

To enact the new Small Business Income Tax also known as the LLC Interest and Dividends Tax, the Department of Revenue Administration has introduced a new Bill that re-establishes how much money a small business owner can make.

As many know, the DRA has for years, possessed the ability to determine “Reasonable Compensation” for companies in New Hampshire.  Recently they have become very aggressive in applying that standard to owners of LLC’s, Partnerships and Professional Associations.  That being said, if the State determines you have over compensated yourself, you have to restate your earnings, which results in a combined 13.5% new tax on both your small company and your personal income above “Reasonable.”

This new Bill (HB 1607) creates several new job-killing, economic-destroying conditions on small businesses.  And as not to be exclusive against LLC’s and partnerships, these new rules will apply to sole proprietorships too.

So by operating a small business in New Hampshire, you will be subject to several new provisions.  First, The State of New Hampshire has determined how much money you can make.  That limit is $50,000.00 in compensation from your company.  This does not apply to each member of the company (think of a pizza shop run by a father and his two sons), it applies to the total amount of compensation.  One owner, two, three, five.  No matter, you are now allowed to deduct only $50,000 total.  Of course this limit also applies to all stock holders, partners, including your entire family like siblings, spouses, ancestors and Lineal descendants.  Any amounts in excess will be subject to the 8.5% Business Profits Tax and if you took the money home, an additional 5% personal income tax.  Now fortunately this does not apply to your employees, so you can pay them more than $50,000 without penalty.

Additionally businesses will no longer be allowed to use loss carry forwards.  Meaning after you have spent years piling your money into your neat new invention, you will no longer be able to offset your compensation against all the years you lost money, ate Ramen Pride and slept on the floor.  Just think about the entrepreneur who spends years making that new really cool product, only to find out that now they have a product to sell and make money, they cannot be rewarded for all the investment, as an offset to their income.  How is this going to encourage economic development in our state?

Fortunately if you object to the “reasonableness” of the State’s position, they have included a provision that you as a business owner “bears the full burden of proof in demonstrating the reasonableness of any compensation”.  Meaning that as a business owner, you have to prove to the State that you feel you should be compensated at a higher level than an individual might reasonably earn if performing a similar service as an employee.

So with 40,000 LLC’s in our great state and ten’s of thousands of sole proprietorships, the current leaders in Concord don’t only want to control how much money you can compensate yourself, but they want to discourage investment into our future.

Heck of a way to pull us out of this recession and address the unemployment issue.

At a time when New Hampshire needs to be focusing on creating economic opportunities and expanding the employment base, our leaders are telling small business owners to get out

We are all aware of the economic challenges facing our Communities, our State and our Nation.  Today, your Federal elected officials are throwing money at this problem, in hopes that these financial “gifts” will provide a sufficient band-aid to take our eye off the real problems and solutions.  These actions will not solve our local economic challenges.  Our current legislators are not offering any path to financial confidence and stability.  More and more people are being laid off and more and more business owners and families are being squeezed financially through higher taxes, fees and regulations.

Our economy in New Hampshire will only rebound when everyone has a job and the confidence of keeping it.  Our legislators need to understand that just raising taxes and fees will not return us to economic prosperity.  We need to get people back to work and those currently employed need to have the confidence to participate in the economy.

Fortunately, I believe the residents of New Hampshire are a resilient, strong people who can rise to this challenge.  There are many things we can do, starting today, to turn around our economy.

We need to encourage employers, who may be questioning an increase to staff, expansion or investment in a new equipment, to make that commitment.  And we want them to do it in New Hampshire.

I am asking our elected  State Officials to enact legislation that will encourage businesses to hire additional employees or commit to expansion in our State.  This can be done, through an array of incentive programs like focusing on a meaningful credit to the BET or the BPT, or a temporary reduction in the State portion of property taxes. Despite the news, there are jobs available today and companies who want to expand.  In the past few months, I have spoken with many companies around our State that currently have employment openings and/or want to expand.  Fortunately they are exploring options, but unfortunately some also have options out of our State.   As our Country goes through this temporary economic retraction, New Hampshire needs to be the State that can attract and retain companies.  We need to create local jobs, provide confidence and expand the economic base of New Hampshire.  These actions solve problems, not cover them up.

Not only do we have to retain and expand our current employers; we also have to be more aggressive in bringing new businesses to our State.  The long term benefits of new employers paying strong wages is worth the short term temporary relief of some State fees.  Our current State government is doing a poor job at this.  Really, when is the last time you heard of a new large company coming to New Hampshire, offering good employment that someone can raise a family on?

Some of the typical nay-Sayers will shout that this is not the time to reduce any taxes and fees.  But I ask, what is better today, employed people who have the ability to contribute to our economy with the confidence of their jobs, or people out of work getting smaller subsidies through government assistance?    The overall positive economic offset of an employed person far outweighs the State benefit of receiving just another incremental tax.

With reasonably secure jobs, people have the confidence invest in their future and the future of our State.