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9% Tax Proposal on NH lift tickts

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machski

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He doesn’t own it any more since running for governor


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Sort of, not totally correct. It kind of makes me wonder if the NH Dem's targeted the ski industry because of his ties to the industry to create bad optics and something they could hammer him with if it ever got to his desk for the veto (which regardless of his ties to the Ski industry, I feel he'd veto any fringe tax proposal like this anyway).

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machski

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I was not aware that VT put a tax on my Killington season pass to pay for other people's educations. Other than a sales tax there was no additional tax when I purchased that pass. At a modest 6% (which amounted to about $55) I didn't think to question that.

If it is true that VT uses that 6% to pay for free tuition then I might have to re-evaluate where I ski even though $55 is not a lot. I guess if I had to pay that every time I went skiing as a day tripper it would bother me a lot more.

Which is kind of the point. Much easier for me as a passholder to overlook that. And harder for me to ski somewhere else because I have the pass.

It really targets the daytrip or overnight crowd that skis less than 10 days per year. And they have many choices where to ski. 9% will be enough to make some ski elsewhere than NH.

Going to have to look further into that 6%.
Jim, as far as I'm aware, it just goes into VT's sales tax pot. It is not a dedicated tax like NH has proposed.

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JimG.

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Sort of, not totally correct. It kind of makes me wonder if the NH Dem's targeted the ski industry because of his ties to the industry to create bad optics and something they could hammer him with if it ever got to his desk for the veto (which regardless of his ties to the Ski industry, I feel he'd veto any fringe tax proposal like this anyway).

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Considering the current political climate I believe you have utterly nailed the motivation for such a proposal.
 

BenedictGomez

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Considering the current political climate I believe you have utterly nailed the motivation for such a proposal.

This tax would primarily hit, "wealthy", "white", "males", honestly I cant believe they didn't think of it earlier.
 

bdfreetuna

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As JimG alluded to, I don't think the concept of taxing people for recreation, and out-of-staters engaging in tourism, for the goal of paying for someone's (probably poor and waste of time) state "education", because they are deemed to be part of some unfortunate segment of the population (probably based on income and race) is a winning issue at the moment.

I think about 1/2 of folks are even slightly sympathetic to the concept but among those, a large % would still find the tax inappropriate. Ski areas support too many local economies and it's not like people up there have so much money they're willing to sacrifice for abstract goals.

As such there will be local paper Op-Eds on Sununu's supposed conflict of interest, but if he vetoes this it will be a hugely popular move anyway.
 

JimG.

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This thread isn't going to implode simply because only the rare person, regardless of political persuasion, would consider this tax necessary, appropriate, or welcomed.

Kind of why I took the chance and lit the fuse.
 

snoseek

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I was not aware that VT put a tax on my Killington season pass to pay for other people's educations. Other than a sales tax there was no additional tax when I purchased that pass. At a modest 6% (which amounted to about $55) I didn't think to question that.

If it is true that VT uses that 6% to pay for free tuition then I might have to re-evaluate where I ski even though $55 is not a lot. I guess if I had to pay that every time I went skiing as a day tripper it would bother me a lot more.

Which is kind of the point. Much easier for me as a passholder to overlook that. And harder for me to ski somewhere else because I have the pass.

It really targets the daytrip or overnight crowd that skis less than 10 days per year. And they have many choices where to ski. 9% will be enough to make some ski elsewhere than NH.

Going to have to look further into that 6%.

I mean does it really matter where that money goes if you were never gonna get anything out of it to begin with?
 

Smellytele

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I don't believe it is free tuition just scholarships to lower the instate tuition. NH has some of the highest (if not the highest) instate out of pocket tuition cost of any state. If you think NY, MA, CT and NJ don't use some of your tax money to support higher education then maybe you need to wake up (and get a higher education).
 

Smellytele

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Jim, as far as I'm aware, it just goes into VT's sales tax pot. It is not a dedicated tax like NH has proposed.

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I would be surprised (if it passed) if it didn't go into the general fund in NH as well. Most of the taxes do and are not earmarked directly to anything. This happens a lot they raise some tax say it is going to something and then that something is underfunded.
 

Killingtime

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It really targets the daytrip or overnight crowd that skis less than 10 days per year. And they have many choices where to ski. 9% will be enough to make some ski elsewhere than NH.

Going to have to look further into that 6%.
[/QUOTE

Yeah, I'll be part of the overnight crowd this season. They are banking on people like me who will just suck it up and pay it because they dig NH. It's just a shame because I see how this works from living in NY. It's a never ending money grab to fund an ever increasing amounts of programs. Not sure how this will work with pass products though? Charge a tax on what you would have paid if you didn't have a pass? I think some other are right though, this will be voted down.
 

bdfreetuna

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I don't believe it is free tuition just scholarships to lower the instate tuition. NH has some of the highest (if not the highest) instate out of pocket tuition cost of any state. If you think NY, MA, CT and NJ don't use some of your tax money to support higher education then maybe you need to wake up (and get a higher education).

Doesn't make it right, and doesn't mean the education is time and money well spent.

I did liberal arts college (and supposedly a good one), still paying it back, biggest mistake of my life. My greatest regret is not entering the work force immediately after high school. I would never wish this mistake on supposedly unprivileged folks who have even less resources to waste in life.

I believe the "institution" of higher education in general will be increasingly exposed as a fraudulent rip-off scheme. If you're not ready to work and earn at age 18 and need 4+ more years to sit around in classes and rack up a massive debt... SUM TING WONG

Learn to code.
 

snoseek

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Doesn't make it right, and doesn't mean the education is time and money well spent.

I did liberal arts college (and supposedly a good one), still paying it back, biggest mistake of my life. My greatest regret is not entering the work force immediately after high school. I would never wish this mistake on supposedly unprivileged folks who have even less resources to waste in life.

I believe the "institution" of higher education in general will be increasingly exposed as a fraudulent rip-off scheme. If you're not ready to work and earn at age 18 and need 4+ more years to sit around in classes and rack up a massive debt... SUM TING WONG

Learn to code.

So you're suggesting education is pretty much a scam? I mean for alot of jobs ill agree...not needed but I doubt society as a whole will advance if everyone just "sucks it up" and goes to work out of high school.
 

bdfreetuna

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So you're suggesting education is pretty much a scam? I mean for alot of jobs ill agree...not needed but I doubt society as a whole will advance if everyone just "sucks it up" and goes to work out of high school.

My wife went to college for 8 years to be a Clinical Psychologist. Big commitment and very expensive, lots of debt. However, she's got job opportunities and earning potential, as well as independence in a manner most people would be very envious of.

It's not a blanket statement. But I think the concept of "4 year liberal arts college" prior to what I would consider actual higher education -- advanced degrees, is a total waste of time.

I'm pretty supportive of trade schools, expedited advanced degree training (that is, without wasting years and money doing a bunch of nonsense "core" classes), technical training, and specialized training.

The current climate of general academia however seems to resemble the Washington swamp, full of lazy tenured professors more interested in raising the next generation of assholes than actually preparing people for life to come.

I feel in most cases -- those who aren't set on becoming a doctor, engineer, some kind of scientist, high level business management -- people are better served simply entering the work force and getting a 4 year advantage over the liberal arts suckers.

Not sure what the ideal situation is, but I think in the years to come we'll find out how useless these degrees were in the first place. $100,000 and 4 years wasted for a bit of paper that to many employers means you have less life experience than the alternative? No good!

Furthermore I don't believe government should be involved in education at all. Maybe in China.
 

2Planker

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No Freakin' way !
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Can you say VETO, in a heartbeat
 

Tin

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My wife went to college for 8 years to be a Clinical Psychologist. Big commitment and very expensive, lots of debt.

If you go to a degree mill school or state school with a lack of research then yes. The rule is never pay for a PhD.


It's not a blanket statement. But I think the concept of "4 year liberal arts college" prior to what I would consider actual higher education -- advanced degrees, is a total waste of time.

So without those courses in a more general field in undergrad how are not prepared to take on more intensive course work and writing to get the advanced degree?


Not sure what the ideal situation is, but I think in the years to come we'll find out how useless these degrees were in the first place. $100,000 and 4 years wasted for a bit of paper that to many employers means you have less life experience than the alternative?

Personal responsibility for the win!



UNH is one of the most over priced state-schools around. They are really starting to lose out to surrounding states (e.g., UMaine has billboards in CT since their out of state is cheaper than many in-state options) and need to do something to make it affordable.
 

bdfreetuna

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So without those courses in a more general field in undergrad how are not prepared to take on more intensive course work and writing to get the advanced degree?

I was fortunate enough to go to a really good private high school. I went to a "little ivy league" college (whatever that means); I barely learned shit while I was there. I did slack off to some extent (which is another issue of sending people age 18-22 to such an environment in the first place), but the majority of the classes I could have learned far more spending 30 minutes on YouTube. In high school my philosophy and history classes were practically more advanced than the 300-level courses in college, which would take you 3-4 years to even attend (although getting locked out of classes was a major problem one wouldn't expect when paying $30,000 year).

The college did spend $500,000 to have Bill Clinton as our keynote speaker for my graduation though. I guess that was a good price since the college president was buddies with him.

So I reject the idea that high schools can't prepare kids to specialize either immediately afterwards or with very little time wasted.

Public education sucks and it's by design. Just another reason to reject the 9% NH tax that goes to state education. I'd rather see incentives for families to take back their own education. My daughter will likely be either home schooled or we're looking at a few inexpensive private schools.

The reality of the workforce these days is employers are getting tired of even interviewing many college grads who expect higher pay with less actual experience.

Depends on the career. But I'm not looking to pay 9% tax on ski tickets so some favored-status NH kids, determined by who-the-hell-knows, can waste their time.
 

drjeff

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UNH is one of the most over priced state-schools around. They are really starting to lose out to surrounding states (e.g., UMaine has billboards in CT since their out of state is cheaper than many in-state options) and need to do something to make it affordable.

The U Maine advertising in CT gets even more comical/ironic/sad/pathetic when you consider the the Chancellor of the U Maine System, is the former Governor of CT, Dan Malloy, and there aren't a ton of folks in CT who think that he did a good job as governor of CT, and arguably that his leadership has been responsible for many (people and businesses) choosing to leave CT for other states.

The state of Maine has plenty of great things, unfortunately it's likely only a matter of time until the citizens of Maine find out that the Chancellor of the U Maine system ISN'T one of those great things.

As for the taxing of lift tickets proposal, once one realizes that all most legislators (on pretty much any level, and certainly at State and Federal levels) want to do underneath it all is figure out a way to get more money (preferably from folks they {the legislators} feel "won't miss it too much") so that they {the legislators} can fund more often pet peeve programs in a way for more of the masses {their voting block} in a way to in essence "buy" their re-election, then you get that it's not just 1 parties or the other parties politicians that are "the problem" but that they're basically all the problem, with some just seemingly slightly less of the problem, because of one's on preferred ideological views. If one LOVES hyper-polarized "caucus before country" politics, then they've got to be in 7th heaven these days :puke:
 

bdfreetuna

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I got a response...

Josh,

Thanks for your thoughts. I don't usually respond to emails that aren't from constituents, and/or don't include the senders full name, address and phone. But I'm making an exception because it's important for you to know that the tax does not apply to season passes. So perhaps you should consider buying a season pass and skiing even more!
Best,

Craig R. ThompsonRepresentative for Cheshire House District 14

CraigThompsonforNH.com

....

What a joker :lol:


 
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