“My Pledge to You for 2010”

Contributed by Tom Thomson

Nearly forty years ago my father; former Governor Meldrim Thomson, signed The Pledge to veto a sales or income tax.

History shows that the New Hampshire Pledge evolved over the last half century after Governor Hugh Gregg first popularized it. In the late 60’s and early 70’s my father, with his memorable slogan “AX THE TAX”, galvanized the Pledge.

His pledge to veto a sales or income tax was a promise to the taxpayers that if you voted for him; he would keep his promise, and he did. He signed his pledge each time he ran for office which is as follows: “My Tax Pledge to You, as your Governor, I promise no sales or income tax, no new taxes and no increase in present taxes. I will work diligently to keep the greedy hands of Government out of your pocketbook! Like you and everyone else, government will have to tighten its fiscal belt if we are to return to prosperous times.”

Because of his pledge, promise and commitment to the taxpayers, our state enjoyed a triple AAA Bond Rating, the lowest unemployment in New England, the lowest per capita state tax rate in the nation, no sales or income tax and New Hampshire’s fiscal house was in order with a state surplus. (Those were the good old days.)

In 1976 Governor Thomson wrote an article titled: “New Hampshire is What America Was”. He is quoted as saying; “For more than two centuries New Hampshire has been an economy State. Through the years, New Hampshire officials have heeded the admonition in Part I Article 38 of the New Hampshire Constitution, that we should “practice economy and frugality if we wanted to obtain the blessings of liberty and good government.” It is my opinion, and that of many other New Hampshire taxpayers, that more recently we as a state have “NOT” been practicing economy and frugality!

As a taxpayer and a small Limited Liability Company (LLC) business man (one of nearly 43,000 in New Hampshire), I am very concerned about what has been happening in Concord and Washington, DC with the out of control spending, increases in taxes, fees and regulations, the increased size of government and the lack of concern for our New Hampshire and United States Constitutions.

Because of these actions I have decided to expand on my father’s famous pledge and I know Dad would approve of it. I will ask all those who have decided to run for office in New Hampshire and signed up as a candidate for that position with the Secretary of State’s office this past month to sign the pledge.

My revised New Hampshire Anti-Tax Pledge is non-partisan. It is a pledge, promise and contract by any and every candidate in New Hampshire who will be asking for your vote in the upcoming election. It is a very simple pledge to understand during the deepest recession I have ever seen in my lifetime and there are only four promises we are making to our hard working taxpayers which are as follows:

My pledge to you, as a candidate for public office in New Hampshire, is that if elected to serve the people I will work tirelessly to:

1. Cut taxes and fees (oppose a sales and/or income tax)
2. Cut spending
3. Cut the size of government
4. Uphold both the New Hampshire and the United States Constitution

As the honorary chairman for the New Hampshire chapter of Americans for Prosperity, I would encourage you to go to our website (www.americansforprosperity.org) and download the non-partisan pledge. I encourage you to ask any candidate who is seeking your vote to first sign The Pledge. If they refuse to, vote against them or you will get more of the same; higher taxes, spending and size of government!

I will send this non-partisan pledge to every candidate running in New Hampshire, a total of 1,024 candidates, in hopes that each and every one will take this important pledge for our hard working taxpayers. I plan to keep a running tally on those who have taken the Pledge and those who have refused and share them with all taxpayers on our web-site (www.americansforprosperity.org).

Thomas Thomson,
Tree Farmer
Orford, NH