Granite State Taxpayers has announced the following report on 2023 – 2024 activities.
The report was delivered at the GST Biennial Meeting on December 12, 2024 and is available HERE.
GST efforts include research on issues, website and Facebook posts, Member and Legislator emails, testimony before NH House and Senate, speaking engagements and Community TV shows.
Granite State Taxpayers Board Members Elected, to take Office 1/2/25:
Pat Abrami*, William Boyd III, Ray Chadwick*, Bob Dabrowski*, Peter de Bruyn Kops*
Jennifer Deml, Neal Kurk*, Dan McGuire*, John Potucek
* Current or former Director.
Advocacy – Testimony on Legislation in process
GST directors filed testimony or provided testimony on legislation to require a supermajority to pass a new tax or raise a current one, a supermajority for municipalities to issue bonds, to strengthen local tax caps and allow school district caps to be tied to enrollment, against various bills to give driver licenses to illegal aliens, to end the use of affidavits for proof of identity, residence and citizenship, to expand school choice, and many others.
Advocacy – “Taxpayers, Make Your Opinions Heard” Notice of Hearings on Bills
GST reviewed all 1,159 bills for the 2024 session and gathered information on each into a Google Sheet with the bill number, a link to the bill text, the bill title, the House or Senate Committee reviewing the bill, and hearing dates and locations.
Bills impacting taxpayers included comments and a recommendation to support or oppose the bill.
The Google sheet with all bills was made available to the public to promote taxpayer engagement.
GST issued 12 weekly emails to members with information on specific bills and hearing dates and locations for the following two weeks, and a step by step guide to testifying.
Email open rates averaged 40.5% for 750 email recipients.
A member survey showed a 74% favorability rating for this initiative.
Voter Education – Legislator Scorecards 7/16/24
Reviewed roll-call votes (forty-eight House and twenty-eight Senate) during the 2022-2024 session.
Besides taxes, bills were included on spending, business regulation, voting integrity, electric rates and other issues of interest to taxpayers.
67 Legislators had perfect GST scores. In 2021 – 2022 14 Legislators had perfect GST scores.
A member survey showed a 90% favorability rating for this initiative.
Voter Education – Candidate Survey 8/8/24
A member survey showed a 74% favorability rating for this initiative.
GST surveyed 862 Primary Candidates for Governor, Council, House and Senate on taxpayer issues.
– 162 candidates completed the survey. 114 achieved a score of 100%. The group average was 93%.
– 149 Republicans averaged 97%, 11 Democrats averaged 46%, 2 Undeclared averaged 92%.
– In 2022, 196 Republicans averaged 93%, 4 Democrats averaged 25%, 5 Undeclared averaged 62%.
Voter Education –Meetings, Information and Videos
July 13, 2023: Trump Advisor Corey Lewandowski spoke about Biden Administration Policies and their Impact on Taxpayers including a presentation comparing the Trump and Biden Administrations in the areas of economics, wage growth, employment and border security
December 11, 2023: Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut presented The State of Education in New Hampshire including his assessment of current practices and procedures and instituting changes to improve effectiveness and efficiency
July 16, 2024: NH Governor Chris Sununu spoke about His Eight years working with Republicans and Thwarting Democrats resulting in a growing economy, low unemployment, educational choice and reduced business and personal taxes
October 9, 2024: GST organized a Taxpayer Protection Pledge Signers Event with Grover Norquist to recognize over 100 candidates who had committed to the Mel Thomson Pledge..
December 12, 2024: Josiah Bartlett Center President Drew Cline and NH House Speaker Sherm Packard present and comment on preserving the NH Advantage and how to grow it in the future.
Website posts for information on NH House Legislation from Representative Carol McGuire and Executive Council proceedings from Executive Councilor Janet Stevens.
Voter Education – Candidate/Party Comparisons in November 2024
GST compared the records of Republican and Democrat majorities regarding taxes, and issued a website post and an email to members advising:We need majorities and Executives in Concord and in DC that support lower taxes.Donald Trump, Russell Prescott, Lilly Tang Williams, Kelly Ayotte, and Republicans in the NH House, Senate and Executive Council have a stated intent to support taxpayers and their issues.
GST Member Survey
GST surveyed members for their assessment of the various information products and projects, suggestions on new things we should consider doing and requesting volunteers with specific skills or interest to help us fulfill its mission.
Favorability ratings are shown above for various information products GST supplies. The survey identified volunteers in several areas to be improved in 2025 – 2026.
Membership and Public Relations Growth
Booth at the Amherst Independence Day parade in 2023 and 2024.
Presentation to Grover Norquist at the Americans for Tax Reform DC meeting on 6/7/23.
GST website posts: 32 in 2024 to date, 12 in 2023, 47 in 2022 to date, 83 in 2021, 76 in 2020, 47 in 2019, 88 in 2018.
GST member emails: 41 in 2024 to date, 14 in 2023, 19 in 2022 to date, 33 in 2021, 23 in 2020, 26 in 2019, 41 in 2018.
GST email contact list 752 subscribers (from 624 on 12/8/20 and 315 on 11/29/18).
GST Press list has 60 contacts.
Posted by GST GST Board Member Chairman Ray Chadwick