NH Gas Tax Increased, thanks to our "progressive" legislature

[This'nThat]

I registered my two cars and --BAM! Was hit with two $30 "surcharges". So, I wondered what was going on.

In Feb, a bill was being sponsored (http://americaswatchtower.com/2009/02/08/new-hampshire-lawmakers-propose-a-gas-tax-increase/)by Rep. David Campbell (D Hillsborough- District 24) that will increase the state gas tax by 5 cents a year for the next five years. Apparantly, that bill didn't make it. So,,, instead....

....See here (http://www.wmur.com/money/19774210/detail.html). "If you look at the impact of the gas tax, it would be $30, roughly, on the average driver per year, and then, it's staggered so heavier vehicles pick up more of that toll," said Cheshire Rep. Dan Eaton, D-District 2.

So what happended? The Democrats in the Legislature pushed through the gas tax by hiding it as a surcharge during vehicle registration. How does that make you feel, NH? Being well-served by our represenatives? BTW, this surcharge is actually vehicle-weight-based, as outlined here (http://www.alton.nh.gov/News.asp)in the Alton Homepage.

[Rattlesnake Guy]

First, I hate taxes of all types.

All taxes are unfair in one way or another. Some more than others. "Graduated" income tax is an example of unfair. Tolls on only some portions of some roads is unfair.

I have always viewed the gas tax as about as close as you can get to a fair tax. If you use gas to drive on the road you pay a very proportional amount to the usage you use. Heavy or light, short or long distances etc. Since NH has a lot of visitors, the visitors help pay for the cost of service in proportion to the amount they use.

About the only potential abuse is buying your gas where you don't drive. Most of us probably come pretty close to buying the amount of gas in the state proportional to the amount of miles we drive. (Random statistics of when you need gas)

Charging everyone $30 per year is about as far from fair as it gets. Well, I guess if they charged proportional to how much you paid for the car that would be even worse (like a sales tax).

Last, Government spends to much and grows to fast and forgets they work for us to do only the things we have to do together as a group.

[Lakesrider]

Once again. The State is dead beat broke. You better be careful filing your taxes. Especially if you own a business or are self employed. Any discrepancies and your gonna pay up your......... The end is coming for cost friendly NH. Those days are numbered...:( The State has no money so it's grand plan is to put everyone on welfare. That should be just great. Letters, letters, letters to your reps. If everyone sits down and sends one or two a week at least you will have done something for our futures. If everyone watches TV nothing will get done.:rolleye2:

[lawn psycho]

I registered my two cars and --BAM! Was hit with two $30 "surcharges". So, I wondered what was going on.

In Feb, a bill was being sponsored (http://americaswatchtower.com/2009/02/08/new-hampshire-lawmakers-propose-a-gas-tax-increase/)by Rep. David Campbell (D Hillsborough- District 24) that will increase the state gas tax by 5 cents a year for the next five years. Apparantly, that bill didn't make it. So,,, instead....

....See here (http://www.wmur.com/money/19774210/detail.html). "If you look at the impact of the gas tax, it would be $30, roughly, on the average driver per year, and then, it's staggered so heavier vehicles pick up more of that toll," said Cheshire Rep. Dan Eaton, D-District 2.

So what happended? The Democrats in the Legislature pushed through the gas tax by hiding it as a surcharge during vehicle registration. How does that make you feel, NH? Being well-served by our represenatives? BTW, this surcharge is actually vehicle-weight-based, as outlined here (http://www.alton.nh.gov/News.asp)in the Alton Homepage.

I have a plan to make sure taxes don't stay permanent when they are intended to be stop-gap measures. Make the legislature approve every tax item line-by-line every year in a single sitting.

And the funny part is the state and local government unions were whining about furloughs. Hello, you are the expense.

What is scary is even as bad as the economy is with drastically reduced revenues and yet they still can not find a way to shrink the government pig.

Don't feel bad. Maine is worse then NH. If you need government assistance just hop over the border and we'll oblige. Someday we'll just cut bait and give everything north of Portland to Canada.

[Little Bear]

Thanks for highlighting the D

This should be a clear indication to everyone that they should vote out the D's and vote R. This should be done at every level in every election; otherwise say goodbye to your wallet. When are people going to wake up - when it's too late?

[BroadHopper]

Thanks for highlighting the D

This should be a clear indication to everyone that they should vote out the D's and vote R. This should be done at every level in every election; otherwise say goodbye to your wallet. When are people going to wake up - when it's too late?

Shouldn't the R be blue???? :rolleye2:

[Misty Blue]

How much does a Flu shot cost? I think it depends on who is paying for it.

Last month I went over to the Laconia clinic to get a seasonal flu shot. I was not yet allowed a H1N1 yet. I can live with that.

No appointment. There was one lady that had me fill out a one sheet waver, less than one minute and then took my Blue Cross card. I then was directed to a room where a very nice lady gave me the shot (painless. I am a sissy)

The whole thing took less than five minutes.

Last Sunday I got my H1N1 shot at St. Charles church in Meredith. It was a "freebee" and given (given?) by the state.

There were no less than 15 police officers there. Directing traffic, guarding doors and I don't know what else. (Note: Everyone of them were courtious and highlly professional). Inside the building there were no less than 15 people of to have me fill out lots of cool forms, others to direct me to a place to fill out more forms, to the nice lady that gave me the shot, to a waiting area to ensure that I had no alergic reactions and finialy to a police officer to show me that the door with the EXIT sign was the way out.

One shot was privately funded, the other was government funded. Why are we in the financial pickle that we find ourselves today?

Search me. Misty Blue

[ApS]

Shouldn't the R be blue???? :rolleye2:

All the "R's" ARE blue. :(

[tis]

Wow what a great post, Misty. That tells us a lot about how gov. operates.

[AC2717]

Sounds like the exact way those Dam Demos got the increase in the boat registration

[TOAD]

How much does a Flu shot cost? I think it depends on who is paying for it.

Last month I went over to the Laconia clinic to get a seasonal flu shot. I was not yet allowed a H1N1 yet. I can live with that.

No appointment. There was one lady that had me fill out a one sheet waver, less than one minute and then took my Blue Cross card. I then was directed to a room where a very nice lady gave me the shot (painless. I am a sissy)

The whole thing took less than five minutes.

Last Sunday I got my H1N1 shot at St. Charles church in Meredith. It was a "freebee" and given (given?) by the state.

There were no less than 15 police officers there. Directing traffic, guarding doors and I don't know what else. (Note: Everyone of them were courtious and highlly professional). Inside the building there were no less than 15 people of to have me fill out lots of cool forms, others to direct me to a place to fill out more forms, to the nice lady that gave me the shot, to a waiting area to ensure that I had no alergic reactions and finialy to a police officer to show me that the door with the EXIT sign was the way out.

One shot was privately funded, the other was government funded. Why are we in the financial pickle that we find ourselves today?

Search me. Misty Blue

Excellent example! :)

[Shedwannabe]

Thank goodness Gas Taxes are going up. Now if only the legislators had the courage to do the right thing and increase them more.

Now that I have your attention....:liplick:

Low energy prices have allowed us to become overly reliant on cheap energy, with the resulting pollution problems, and other problems, such as needing so assure a way to continue getting cheap oil - without regard to environment or human rights (or lives some would say).

An increase in oil prices (over time, not just immediately) to double the price of fuel within the next few years would be the best thing for a sustainable economy, one that won't be collapsing when the energy shocks come.

It would help us develop a sustainable alternative energy infrastructure (something we are in serious danger of losing the ability to create) and industry based on renewable energy (something we are in danger of losing forever to China).

Why do I think all this will be happening rather than American life going on better and better forever? Because there are Limits to Growth (as the famous book pointed out) and implications to our ways of living. As resources begin to become more difficult to extract cheaply (i.e. requiring more energy and effort to extract), more pollution is caused in extracting them. This all affects the ecological balance, as all but the most close-minded see today in the human impact on climate, with the CO2 level rising high about its highest level in the last 600,000 years.

While I totally agree that doubling the price of oil will bring a lot of short-term pain to the economy, and to many people trying to heat their homes, get to work, go on vacation, get food, etc.; that pain is NOTHING compared to the long term pain we will be imposing on our descendants if we continue to squander the opportunity to rein in our wasteful ways with the earth's resources.

[tis]

Why don't we do something like create a Dept. Of Energy that is supposed to make us less reliant on foreign countries for our energy and spend billions and billons of dollars and 40 years later we are not improved one single bit.

That is the way our government does things. They can't solve a thing. No way No How.

The reason I am reminded of this is an email that has been floating around asking why the Dept. Of Energy was created in the 70s by Jimmy Carter and no one remembers why it was created.

[Seaplane Pilot]

Thank goodness Gas Taxes are going up. Now if only the legislators had the courage to do the right thing and increase them more.

Now that I have your attention....:liplick:

Low energy prices have allowed us to become overly reliant on cheap energy, with the resulting pollution problems, and other problems, such as needing so assure a way to continue getting cheap oil - without regard to environment or human rights (or lives some would say).

An increase in oil prices (over time, not just immediately) to double the price of fuel within the next few years would be the best thing for a sustainable economy, one that won't be collapsing when the energy shocks come.

It would help us develop a sustainable alternative energy infrastructure (something we are in serious danger of losing the ability to create) and industry based on renewable energy (something we are in danger of losing forever to China).

Why do I think all this will be happening rather than American life going on better and better forever? Because there are Limits to Growth (as the famous book pointed out) and implications to our ways of living. As resources begin to become more difficult to extract cheaply (i.e. requiring more energy and effort to extract), more pollution is caused in extracting them. This all affects the ecological balance, as all but the most close-minded see today in the human impact on climate, with the CO2 level rising high about its highest level in the last 600,000 years.

While I totally agree that doubling the price of oil will bring a lot of short-term pain to the economy, and to many people trying to heat their homes, get to work, go on vacation, get food, etc.; that pain is NOTHING compared to the long term pain we will be imposing on our descendants if we continue to squander the opportunity to rein in our wasteful ways with the earth's resources.


No offense, but: :yawn:

Where's Al Gore these days? Certainly not in Florida talking to those citrus growers about Global Warming!

[Lakegeezer]

No offense, but: :yawn:

Where's Al Gore these days? Certainly not in Florida talking to those citrus growers about Global Warming!Perhaps Al is in the Arctic, watching the climate change. Up there, the weather is warmer than normal, pushing cold air to the mid-lattitudes. How did you expect it to work?

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

Warm air keeps ice extent low
December air temperatures over the Arctic Ocean region, eastern Siberia, and northwestern North America were warmer than normal. In contrast, temperatures in Eurasia, the United States, and southwestern Canada were below average. The strongest anomalies (more than 7 degrees Celsius/13 degrees Fahrenheit) were over the Atlantic side of the Arctic, including Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, where ice extent was below average.

[Ropetow]

Thank goodness Gas Taxes are going up. Now if only the legislators had the courage to do the right thing and increase them more.

Now that I have your attention....:liplick:

Low energy prices have allowed us to become overly reliant on cheap energy, with the resulting pollution problems, and other problems, such as needing so assure a way to continue getting cheap oil - without regard to environment or human rights (or lives some would say).

An increase in oil prices (over time, not just immediately) to double the price of fuel within the next few years would be the best thing for a sustainable economy, one that won't be collapsing when the energy shocks come.

It would help us develop a sustainable alternative energy infrastructure (something we are in serious danger of losing the ability to create) and industry based on renewable energy (something we are in danger of losing forever to China).

Why do I think all this will be happening rather than American life going on better and better forever? Because there are Limits to Growth (as the famous book pointed out) and implications to our ways of living. As resources begin to become more difficult to extract cheaply (i.e. requiring more energy and effort to extract), more pollution is caused in extracting them. This all affects the ecological balance, as all but the most close-minded see today in the human impact on climate, with the CO2 level rising high about its highest level in the last 600,000 years.

While I totally agree that doubling the price of oil will bring a lot of short-term pain to the economy, and to many people trying to heat their homes, get to work, go on vacation, get food, etc.; that pain is NOTHING compared to the long term pain we will be imposing on our descendants if we continue to squander the opportunity to rein in our wasteful ways with the earth's resources.

So, I must assume that you all for expanding our nuclear power generating capacity. Ditto for clean coal technology. Wood, of course, is a renewable resource. And, what about new sources of oil? Alaska perhaps? As Newt was saying a year or so ago, "Drill here. Drill now. Save money."

[Shedwannabe]

So, I must assume that you all for expanding our nuclear power generating capacity. Ditto for clean coal technology. Wood, of course, is a renewable resource. And, what about new sources of oil? Alaska perhaps? As Newt was saying a year or so ago, "Drill here. Drill now. Save money."

Well, if you read my diatribe, you can see I'm for getting back in balance with the earth. Nuclear doesn't do that well, with its waste by-products (though it is one of the cleanest technologies if you can ignore that,... which I can't).

Clean coal in which the CO2 exhaust is scrubbed out of the smokestack could be a good solution, except for the environmental devastation of strip-mining, and the fact that a successful clean coal plant has not yet been built.

New sources of oil? Oil is one of the most polluting substances - with threats to groundwater and atmosphere.

All your responses sound like a junkie looking for another fix. And actually, "addiction" is one of the most accurate metaphors (well, maybe metaphor is too weak a word) for how our culture relates to fossil fuel.

Wind power and hydropower are both low-impact sources of renewable energy, along with solar (PV) energy and I would estimate within 50 years will be our most major sources of power, perhaps along with hydrogen.

[DickR]

"Wind power and hydropower are both low-impact sources of renewable energy, along with solar (PV) energy and I would estimate within 50 years will be our most major sources of power, perhaps along with hydrogen."

Too many folks (not necessarily Shedw..) expect us to come up with some magic source of new, clean, renewable energy so we have ample supply to squander the way we have been. Perhaps the biggest dent we can make to the supply/demand balance over the next ten years is to reduce the demand side.

Why do we insist on buying big cars and trucks for basic transportation of one or two people, or even listening to the Detroit advertising that touts the "economical" gas mileage ratings of mid-20s, when those that deliver mid-30s and more have been available for years?

Why do we continue to build houses that may pass inspection as meeting newer energy codes, yet don't perform anywhere near that level and leak like sieves? Information on and techniques for building better houses that use far less energy to heat and cool, are more comfortable for living, and don't cost all that much more to construct are readily available on the Internet. But folks don't seem to care about what's covered up by a wall, whereas the oh-so-visible granite countertops and theater rooms get the bucks.

As far as hydrogen as a "fuel" goes, that's a hoax. Hydrogen is a but a carrier of energy. There is plenty of hydrogen on this planet, but virtually all of it is locked up chemically as hydrocarbons or water. It takes more energy to extract hydrogen from water than is recoverable by using the hydrogen in any sort of engine or fuel cell. Similarly, extracting hydrogen from hydrocarbons also requires vast amounts of energy. In going to a "hydrogen economy," all we will have done is to shift the energy consumption to a different point. Hydrogen could possibly be used as a form of battery for storing daytime extraction of energy from solar panels, but that's a lot of solar panels if we expect to run most of the nation's vehicles on hydrogen.

[end of soap boxing; sorry for the rant]

[This'nThat]

Well, if you read my diatribe, you can see I'm for getting back in balance with the earth.

New sources of oil? Oil is one of the most polluting substances - with threats to groundwater and atmosphere.

All your responses sound like a junkie looking for another fix. And actually, "addiction" is one of the most accurate metaphors (well, maybe metaphor is too weak a word) for how our culture relates to fossil fuel.

....before accusing us of environmental malfeasance. This (http://www.ia.ucsb.edu/pa/display.aspx?pkey=412)is just one of the articles you should read -- from the University of California. In case anyone's interested, here are the pertenant sentences:

Next time you step on a glob of tar on a beach in Santa Barbara County, you can thank the oil companies that it isn't a bigger glob. The same is true around the world, on other beaches where off-shore oil drilling occurs, say scientists, although Santa Barbara's oil seeps are thought to be among the leakiest. Natural seepage of hydrocarbons from the ocean floor in the northern Santa Barbara Channel has been significantly reduced by oil production, according to two recently published peer-reviewed articles, one in November's Geology Magazine, the other in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Oceans.

And before you launch onto another diatribe, this study wasn't funded by oil companies -- it was funded by the University of California Energy Institute and the U.S. Minerals Management Service.

Mankind pollutes -- but not nearly as much as good ol' Mother Nature, what with her oil seepages, volcanos, dust storms, mudslides, forest fires, sunspots, meteors, earthquakes, gamma-rays, etc., etc., etc. So how about all of you "earth-friendly" bleeding hearts know-it-all nannys try to wisen up, learn something, and let the U.S. scientists, engineers, and industrialists try to come up with energy solutions that make sense for everyone? Stop accusing us of trying to destroy the world -- 'cause we ain't.

Also read here (http://tomnelson.blogspot.com/2008/07/oil-seepage-from-ocean-floor-accounts.html). And here (http://www.mms.gov/omm/pacific/enviro/seeps1.htm). And here (http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-07/uoc--gef071906.php). For your reading enjoyment, and fundamental education.

[Rattlesnake Guy]

, perhaps along with hydrogen.

My understanding is that Hydrogen is more like electricity in that it is more a way to transport or store energy than it is a source of energy. Most hydrogen is currently made from natural gas. Although it can be generated by any method that can make electricity, it is not the source of the energy.

[ITD]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh............ I don't come here to read this tripe, please close this thread Don............

[Rattlesnake Guy]

I have found that not reading threads that I don't care for to be a very effective way to not have to read them. I'm just sayin

[ITD]

I have found that not reading threads that I don't care for to be a very effective way to not have to read them. I'm just sayin

Well, take a look at the title, then see where it has gone. I'm more than willing to mix it up on these subjects, but Don has made it clear many times in the past this isn't the place and to be truthful, I kind of like it the way he has set it up, unless that has now changed...... just sayin.

[fatlazyless]

Hear about this? Massachusetts supposedly raised its' gas tax by 19-cents while NH raised theirs by 5-cents, so you just saved a big 14-cents........good going NH! (smiley face) Nineteen cents all at once is huge if true.


Is this honestly true, or just a misprint from some unreliable source I found on google?


What does the truth squad say about Massachusets +19cents, and New Hampshire +5 cents?

Didn't Deval already have himself a metallic green, State of Mass. Cadillac......what's he want....another Caddy just fo the wkends?

[Mink Islander]

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh............ I don't come here to read this tripe, please close this thread Don............


Gas taxes, fuel consumption, alt energy -- these topics are definitely linked. The conversation here is definitely ON topic with the original post and even has some opposing perpectives -- politely stated, no less -- until you joined the discussion, that is.

Show me a thread on an interesting topic that doesn't meander a bit. That's what makes it interesting. So long as everyone stays nice.

[Little Bear]

Perhaps Al is in the Arctic, watching the climate change. Up there, the weather is warmer than normal, pushing cold air to the mid-lattitudes. How did you expect it to work?

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

Warm air keeps ice extent low
December air temperatures over the Arctic Ocean region, eastern Siberia, and northwestern North America were warmer than normal. In contrast, temperatures in Eurasia, the United States, and southwestern Canada were below average. The strongest anomalies (more than 7 degrees Celsius/13 degrees Fahrenheit) were over the Atlantic side of the Arctic, including Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, where ice extent was below average.

OK, so they should be more specific and call it "North, Northern Hemisphere Warming". (Because people in the South/Northern Hemisphere are freezing their tangerines off!)

http://www.compeaus.com/frozen.html