Political Hay
The Tentacles of Taxachusetts
They might be about to reach into the “Live Free or Die” state of New Hampshire.
Hard times breed harebrained schemes. This is especially true, whether one speaks of individuals, businesses, or governments, when it comes to money. As the economy continues to shrink, elected officials continue to devise ever more imaginative rackets to siphon money from the shrinking economy.
Washington, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty proposes a $51-a-year “streetlight user fee.” A state legislator in Oregon, home to such macro microbrews as Rogues Ales and Widmer, wants to tag a $50 tax on every full barrel of beer produced in, or imported to, his state. Empire State assemblyman Felix Ortiz, perhaps the nation’s most prolific author of vice taxes, has a litany of bills before the New York state legislature imposing a $10 tax on visitors to strip clubs, a 25¢-cent tax on bottles of beer and wine, and a fatso tax on soda, sweets, and video games.
The tax schemes leave observers amazed both at the ingenuity behind them and at the idiocy in their counterproductive, killing-the-goose-that-lays-the-golden-egg mentality that primarily targets commerce. The money grab that beats all others in its outside-the-box thinking is the demand by Massachusetts that out-of-state stores collect sales taxes for the Bay State.
Last week, Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments in Town Fair Tire v. Massachusetts. In the coming months, the Supreme Judicial Court will decide the issue at hand: whether Massachusetts has the right to force businesses in New Hampshire to collect Bay State sales taxes when selling items to Massachusetts residents. Given the recent vote in the Massachusetts House of Representatives to increase sales taxes by 25 percent, the impulse to dam the flood of Massachusetts shoppers into sales-tax-free New Hampshire grows stronger among Bay State officials perpetually frustrated with potential tax dollars flowing north across the border.
Town Fair Tire v. Massachusetts revolves around a tax bill presented to three New Hampshire Town Fair Tire (TFT) stores by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. The bill stems from a Massachusetts audit of the New Hampshire stores covering the period of October 2000 to April 2003. The Bay State estimated that it lost revenue justly owed to it due to more than 300 border-crossing shoppers, and demanded that TFT — which has numerous stores in Massachusetts as well — pony up $108,947 in taxes, interest, and penalties.
TFT’s invoices revealed customers listing Massachusetts addresses. “Based upon the evidence, and in the absence of evidence to the contrary, the [Tax] Board inferred that the vehicles owned or operated by Massachusetts residents also bore Massachusetts registration plates (‘license plates’) and certificates of inspection (‘inspection stickers’), which provided additional evidence to TFT of the intended place of use of the tires,” the state’s appellate tax board judged. Massachusetts assumed that the addresses on the invoices were connected to cars with Massachusetts plates and inspection stickers, the presumed sight of which should have prompted tire technicians to alert clerks to assess a 5 percent tax upon the sale. But New Hampshire sales clerks don’t even collect sales taxes for their own state’s government. Could their southern neighbors really have expected them to collect sales taxes for Massachusetts?
Massachusetts’ appellate tax board ruled that TFT’s stores just over the New Hampshire border should have collected sales taxes for Massachusetts because “TFT benefitted from the many services provided by the Commonwealth, including fire and police protection, road maintenance and other municipal services by virtue of its retail operations in the Commonwealth.” But the “retail operations” that benefitted from such services collect and remit Massachusetts sales taxes. The case is about the practices of three Town Fair Tire stores in New Hampshire, not the twenty-five TFT locations in Massachusetts.
The “use tax” law Massachusetts cites is more than forty years old and has never been interpreted in this manner before. The onus has been on Massachusetts taxpayers, rather than out-of-state merchants, to remit the “use” tax. New Hampshire vendors, then, could not have foreseen the new interpretation of this old law. This is doubly the case given that the tires purchased in the Granite State would not be “used” in the Bay State (if at all) until after the transaction. Aside from all this, there is the Orwellian description of a tax collected at the point of sale as a “use tax.” One can call a tax collected during a trade of money for goods a “use” tax. But it’s still a sales tax.
Whatever one calls it, the cross-jurisdictional tax blatantly violates the U.S. Constitution. Through its commerce clause, that document ensured a massive free-trade zone that has for more than two centuries prevented interstate trade wars of the sort that Massachusetts has launched. Massachusetts, in a greedy grab for more dollars, has imperiled a key component of American prosperity.
New Hampshire has responded through a bill that forbids its businesses to share customer information with other states. The state senate passed it unanimously, a house committee unanimously referred the bill to the larger body for consideration next week, and the governor supports the measure. “I am greatly disturbed that Massachusetts has ordered a retail store in New Hampshire to collect and remit an out-of-state use tax on certain over-the-counter sales at the store’s New Hampshire locations,” New Hampshire Governor John Lynch explains. “We should not allow Massachusetts to turn New Hampshire businesses into tax agents for Massachusetts.”
If the case seems too preposterous to pass legal muster, consider that the muster it must pass is that of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The same body that five years ago divined a right to gay marriage in the oldest constitution in the world now considers whether to read the commerce clause out of the U.S. Constitution. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s willingness to do the former suggests that it is quite capable of doing the latter.
About the Author
Daniel J. Flynn is the author of Blue Collar Intellectuals: When the Enlightened and the Everyman Elevated America. He blogs at www.flynnfiles.com.
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Trever | 5.13.09 @ 7:15AM
I live in Massachusetts and this State is awful. How can you consider otherwise when we keep electing Barney Frank (who helped get us into the housing crisis) and John Kerry. Liberals in this State don't care that their elected officials keep creating more ways to destroy all commerce in MA. They are Zombies
Rocco| 5.13.09 @ 7:27AM
The first question that jumps out after reading this is: what authority does the Commonwealth of Massachusetts have to audit ANYONE domiciled in another state, in this case, New Hampshire???
Gary Wood| 5.13.09 @ 7:47AM
Rocco My best guess is MA used the fact that TFT operates store in MA as "leverage" to audit the NH stores. What right? Of course none. But to these myopic fools the rules are for the other guys.
Paul| 5.13.09 @ 9:09AM
Really, is there anymore organized crime then government. Massachusetts which gave us 'Swimmer' Kennedy, Billy 'The Corrupt Midget' Bulger, Gary 'Give That Boy A Drink' Studds, Hot Bottom Fwank...and on and on and on.
Wait until next year when all the money tricks are used up, people's unemployment is done, more are upside down on their homes, local/county/state/federal taxes, fines, fees, licenses, permits all going up up up. Jobs going down down down and government employees living like kings, working on their second pension, voting for taxes and retired to Florida to escape the taxes they support and live off.
Son Of Sam | 5.13.09 @ 9:12AM
Simply disgusting: the same state that once gave us John and Sam Adams, John Hancock, the Boston Tea party and an anti-tax rebellion that helped found these United States is now trying to tax businesses located in another state. All so that "America's native criminal class" can saddle us with even more programs to help the reckless and irresponsible.
New Hampshire needs to stand up for its citizens and say to the ObamaNazi thugs to their south: "Ya want some? Come GET some!"
stand strong until freedom dawns
Son Of Sam
http://www.geocities.com/samadamssos
Old Texican| 5.13.09 @ 9:38AM
Vote with your feet. Leave. Grow some.
Howard Goldstein| 5.13.09 @ 10:00AM
There is an individual use tax law in Massachusetts. It requires individuals who purchase goods in non sales tax states like NH to pay 5% on purchases that are subject to sales tax. The state has difficulty getting people to "fess up". So now they are going after the source, the retailer. The new NH law should stop Massachusetts in its tracks. no names, no threat.
Tim| 5.13.09 @ 10:08AM
Captain Renault: My dear Ricky, you overestimate the influence of the Gestapo. I don't interfere with them and they don't interfere with me. In Casablanca I am master of my fate! I am...
Police Officer: Major Strasser is here, sir!
Rick: You were saying?
Captain Renault: Excuse me.
Wicked Dickie-Virginia| 5.13.09 @ 10:09AM
Got to agree with the Texican. Vote with your feet if you can't vote the thieves out of office. New York and Colleefornia have already succumbed to the stupidity which is Socialism. God help the rest of us as a nation when Obama-ayers gets his way with health care, cap and trade taxes, inflated prices for everything across the board, his civilian "army", and on and on. Australia and Canaduh are certainly not refuges. We can't even turn to religion if Notre Dame is any example. I have that sinking feeling. Is the Sun over the yardarm yet?
Ned| 5.13.09 @ 10:21AM
same situation occurs in Washington (9.5% sales tax, 10% on restuarant meals) and Oregon (no sales tax)... the largest grocery stores in OR, by sales, are those closest to the border, but so far Oregon's leftist idiots have not tried to come after WA residents... OR does collect income tax on WA residents who work there, live here, and WA has exerted significant effort for years, going after residents who try to cheat on big items like cars... fines for getting caught licensing your car in OR to avoid WA taxes will take your breath away...
Old Texican| 5.13.09 @ 10:30AM
Ladies and Gentlemen
There is an internet rumor going around that Texas has the right to secede from the Union at our choosing.
PLEASE...THAT IS WRONG! DON'T MOVE HERE WITH THAT MISTAKEN BELIEF.
History:
The Republic of Texas did indeed join the United States upon condition of right of secession at some future date.
However,
By seceding and joining the Confederacy States that did not have that right, Texas lost the right.
After the Civil War, in order to regain any rights at all, the secesion clause was voted out of our State Constitution.
Now having cleared that up, let's start thinking how we can build a parachute to cushion the plunge of our United States. Make no mistake! We have already gone off the cliff. To use a coined phrase: "The poverts are now in charge."
Even the rich ones who manipulated our free markets for personal gain are poverty stricken.
They have sold their souls. Lord God, I'm thankful that I don't have to live in their hearts.
karen| 5.13.09 @ 10:32AM
Does it really matter - the great irony in all this is that people are leaving Massachusetts, some for NH and others for southern states. And, for some strange reason, they are bringing their politics with them - so that these states will be just like Massachusetts. I don't understand it. But this migration pattern will effect elections for years to come.
Pete| 5.13.09 @ 11:04AM
The points in the article stand, but Sierra Nevada is brewed in Chico, CA, and it is fantastic stuff.
Michael Tomlinson| 5.13.09 @ 11:59AM
It's an Obama state so who cares how high their taxes are -- the higher the better. They vote Democrat and get what they deserve. Hopefully, as the Obama economy continues to worsen the pain is felt most in New England and the blue states. That includes North Carolina (a state going down the toilet thanks to northern transplants) where I presently reside. They vote for Democrat neo-fascism so they should suffer from it -- it's what they want.
jeff boulton| 5.13.09 @ 12:47PM
I weep for the former state of New Hampshire. Does anyone remember "ax the tax" Mel Thompson? Live Free or Die? The state has become infested with mass-holes for the last two decades and they bring all their politics with them, then are mystified when taxes are raised. Natives like the country. We like to be self reliant. We like to be independant. Stay home.
Hank Archer| 5.13.09 @ 12:54PM
karen is exactly right -- people leave the failing states and then start voting to put the same kind of idiots who caused the problems in their home states into power in their new ones.
The same thing happens with immigrants -- they leave a troubled state then become wards of the party that advocates the same policies that got their home country into its trouble.
Gary| 5.13.09 @ 1:51PM
Connecticut has higher sales tax than Mass. I am sure many Connecticut residents shop in Mass to save some money. Does Mass collect the sales tax and send it to Connecticut? Doubt it.
I am one of the residents who left Mass for NH, but I am not a Mass-hole. The last thing I want is NH becoming like Mass. That why I got out...but I am very afraid. NH is now another Blue state.
Dan Flynn | 5.13.09 @ 2:38PM
Good catch, Pete. My apologies for the mistake. Sierra Nevada is indeed based in Chico, California. I will try to get the editor to correct in the original.
W. James Antle III | 5.13.09 @ 3:45PM
The article has been edited to reflect the correct beer. Apologies for the error. I am a Sierra Nevada drinker myself -- must have imbibed too many of them while editing Dan's article.
Tim| 5.13.09 @ 4:06PM
A man can marry a man in Massachusetts, but if he buys the ring in New Hampshire they're going to put him in jail? Is that it?
commie bastard| 5.13.09 @ 4:54PM
HAHA! So funny listening to you gut wrenching conservative half wits. Yah, that's right, go blame everyone else for your tax problems. Typical scapegoating. I see we have a few posters on here from the DEFEATED southern slave states, well, better luck next time. Heh,heh,heh.
Terry| 5.13.09 @ 5:06PM
Massachusetts claims it has a right to collect sales tax on Town Fair Tire's in NH to MA residents because TFT has some stores in MA. So it's simple -- TFT should close all their MA stores and reopen stores in the neighboring states right along the border. They should not employ MA residents, though, because MA will also use this as an excuse to collect taxes in other states when the sales tax ruse fails. In fact, every retailer who has a'presence' in MA as well as in NH should also close all their stores in MA to avoid this tax scam.
This will lead to greater unemployment in MA, of course, but in turn thatmight lead to emigration from the state. So first they'll lose the sales tax, then the income tax revenue from the laid off employees, and then population, making MA a much less important state politically. I think that's a great plan!
I
Brubaker| 5.13.09 @ 5:41PM
"commie bastard,"
First, congratulations. You've chosen a very apt screen name.
Second, you appear to be, shall we say "intellectually challenged."
Third, did you even read the article? Could you read the article?
ben| 5.13.09 @ 5:44PM
I live in E. Washington State. A few years ago WA State hiked their tobacco taxes. A smoker myself, I chose to go into Idaho and buy my cigarrettes. WA State cried foul, called us tax evaders and started pulling people over just to see if they bought cigarettes in Idaho. If they had then they faced a fine and confiscation of the cigarettes, but of coarse, buying anything else in Idaho was okay and not tax evasion. This was challenged in the State supreme court and was found to be in violation of the interstate commerce claus in the constitution thus WA lost. They were ordered to return the fines, and confiscated items. They then tried to get Idaho cigarette store to have WA customers fill out paperwork so we could be billed for the taxes. The stores would give us the paper and we threw it away as we walked out the door - (the trash cans were overflowing with these papers). WA state then tried some law (can't remember what it was called) that they claimed forced us to have to pay the tax - the state supreme court ruled however that the law was regarding federal income tax and not state sales tax. WA still tries to tell us that we're breaking the law but they are no longer trying to enforce it. They've exhausted every legal alley and were refuted.
dollface| 5.13.09 @ 6:55PM
Presumably the idiots on the Massachusetts Stupreme Court can read. Quill v. North Dakota (US Supreme Court) decided this a long time ago.
Richard Baker| 5.13.09 @ 7:17PM
Having been stationed in the '70s at Ft. Devens, my question has always been: Have the citizens of Massachusetts lost the will to be free and independent? For that matter, have the citizens of the US gotten tired of being free? Keep your powder dry, folks.
Iaidoka| 5.13.09 @ 8:02PM
jeff boulton is correct. I, too, am a resident of New Hampshire and have been for many years. When I first came here, what attracted me the most was the independant self-reliant attitude of the residents. I was the same so it was good fit.
Then the mass-holes started moving in because of the lower taxes. They found they weren't receiving all the goodies government supplied for them in Massachusetts, so being who they are, they started voting for all the things we didn't have that kept the taxes low. Now we're just another Blue State.
Budman| 5.13.09 @ 9:03PM
Mass is getting what they ask for. Your elected offical's are a national joke and a disgrace.....Mass-holes dont move into Oklahoma we enjoy a low cost of living, great housing prices,no traffic and one of the top job markets in the country. Best of all Obama didn't take one county in the state in his run for President.
Captive in Massachusetts| 5.14.09 @ 9:54AM
Unlike the self-reliant people to the North, Massachusetts lured welfare dependant people from all over the country with their generous social programs during Lyndon B. Johnson era of the "Great Society". The entltlement-dependant gene was passed down from generation to generation, and we now have a state full of people who know how to work the system for free services at the expense of taxpayers.
MassExodus | 5.14.09 @ 11:14AM
In the past two years, the confiscatory tax policies of Massachusetts have caused us to rethink our position. We have move two separate businesses out of the Bay State and, sadly, left a number of loyal and hard-working people unemployed. Onerous taxes are a contributing factor but the official attitude toward private business as a blood bank was the straw that broke this camel's back.
In throwing our snow shovels away, we found two locations that were happy to have us as neighbors and employers, doing as much as they could to entice us to settle in their parts of the country. One move was six month's ago and the other was four month's ago. Our quarterlies indicate that we made a wise decision.
Now comes the equally difficult prospect of moving from our century-old home. Massachusetts under the inept Deval Patrick and the usual cast of in-your-pocket bureaucrats is emblematic of the way the nation may go if the Junior President (D) from Illinois travels the road he seem to endorse.
Pingback| 5.14.09 @ 12:45PM
New York Bill Would Add Fat Tax to Video Games, DVDs, Junk Food | 4nasco Game Reviews links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Northern Rebel| 5.14.09 @ 1:20PM
When I moved to New York state, in September,1999, I had no idea that New York was going to tax me on the income I made in Connecticut, after it was already taxed by Connecticut!
What right did New York have, taxing my income produced in another state, before I even lived in New York?
NONE!
Why did they do it?
Because they can.
Because we continue to elect people like Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Sheldon Silver, (A truly evil waste of a life force), and then we bleat like sheep about the indignities, we bring upon ourselves.
I fear it will continue forever. Ignorance is expensive.
Pingback| 5.14.09 @ 1:36PM
Quick scan of the net - pony ma « Brilliant Ideas of a History Major links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Richard Baker| 5.15.09 @ 11:34AM
Did you ever wonder how Massachusetts has become one of the leading dictator states and has lost ANY right to be called a Cradle of Liberty? Why do they celebrate the 4th of July? Hancock and the Adams, John and Samuel, and all the men at Bunker Hill would be amazed at the willingness of their descendants demanding the tyranny that goes on in their home state.
Faith| 5.15.09 @ 1:53PM
Freedom first started in Massachusetts, so where do you think freedom will be destroyed from??
John| 5.15.09 @ 1:57PM
There was a revolution started over taxes. When will we revolt again over the out of control politicians that do not know how to stop spending. Do you know for all you cigarette smokers that you pay federal tax, state tax and a sales tax. Taxed 3 time on one product....problem is we let government get away with it...It is really our fault when we vote....especially in Mass...You can murder someone and still stay in office..right Teddy
Mr.Adams| 5.15.09 @ 2:03PM
I keep reading the blogs and sites. I am still waiting to find real Americans out there that actually care more about their country then left, right, liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican, white, black or anything else that is opposite. Seems everyone is trying to push their agenda or views. We are suppose to be Americans. The rest of the world wants what America has. We are and have been the greatest country that ever was. We have the largest oil reserves in the world but won’t drill them. We are the largest aid provider to the rest of the world. We are the protector of freedom and every other nation looks to us to keep the peace. We are Americans and need to start being Americans. We are so busy putting labels on ourselves and arguing over BS that we won’t address the real problem of our politicians being power hungry and caring more about their power and pockets then they do about America and its people. Both parities are to blame for the present economic situation we are in. They do not want to budget the money they get like most of us do every week when we see our paychecks. If they need more money they will not consider cuts but will find another way to tax you. Take a real hard look at what you pay in taxes. Federal, State, Local, Sales and numerous others. A speeding ticket is $25 but the extra fees ( taxes ) are $200. Gas is taxed by state and federal. Cigarettes are taxed state, federal and then again with a sales tax. ( Triple Tax ). Most of our taxes are state and federal which is a double tax. Start keeping track of all the fees ( taxes ) you pay in a year. Phone, electric, gas, cable, satellite and many other bills all have taxes added to them. You will find in a year just how much you really have to work to pay for our out of control country. Politicians got a raise this year. They voted for it. When was the last time you voted yourself a raise? Bush and the Republicans put us into a financial mess. Obama and the Democrats are doing the same. They are not any different other then a name. Washington is out of control and you and I and our children are going to pay for it. Everyone talks about health care. But don’t you think Washington should fix the mess social security is in (after they raped the fund and spent the money on their pork projects) before they try to run our health care. We all know what big government does with its programs. Over spending, mismanagement and excessive bureaucracy. All the while costing us more of our money. Cap and trade is another one. Do you really think that the corporation are not going to pass the cost (tax) on to you? Wait till you see your utilities go up. In the long run it is always the American people who pay but we are just to busy arguing instead of taking our country back from these so called representatives of the people. My fellow Americans. This is not the country our forefathers fought and died for. They started a government for the people by the people, .not a government for the elite by the elite or for the politician by the politician. Washington and the states are accountable to us and unless you stop bickering among yourselves an decide you have had enough of Washington and the states taxes and carefree spending then you will eventually become a slave to a master that demand all you have and then some. We have to live within our means and have to make hard decisions with our money every week but yet our governments are above having to do the same. Are you for hope and change? Well it will not come from one man. It will only come from Americans united for a cause just like in 1776. That document did not have one signature on it. It took a room full of men to want a change in their lives. So do you just want to blog about and argue about Democrats, Republicans, left, right or anything else that is just wasted words or do you want to start talking about taking a country, that rightfully belong to you, back . You gave the elite the power to control and tax us. You do have the power to remove it. Stand up America we deserve better then what we are getting
Tenn Slim| 5.16.09 @ 8:42AM
All
In 1861, the folks here, below the Mason Dixon Line, decided against the cross taxation attempts and bailed out of the Union. To our everlasting dismay, we have suffered since. Cross taxing, in whatever form is anathema to Capitalism. Simply being able to discuss the issue before a sympathetic judge will open another Pandoras Box, like the November Election fiasco.
Folks, better get your thinking caps on. The trends look a lot like 1861.
end
Richard Baker| 5.16.09 @ 10:29AM
To Tenn Slim:
I'm from Virginia and the rumble from various States about Federal interference in what are, Constitutionally, affairs of the States is undeniable. The sad thing is that millions of Americans want Federal paternalism. Keep your powder dry, Volunteer.
Fed Up| 5.16.09 @ 3:57PM
Ya get what ya pay for. All the uneducated idiotic liberal ignorant nig. ger lovers along with the bought and paid for media got what they wanted. Sit back and enjoy the ride, it'd gonna be rough.
Matthew A. Sawtell| 5.16.09 @ 5:59PM
Why is it that 99.9% of people that post comments on the Internet never give their full name and city they live in? Sorry folks, if you are going to comment - have the stones to say who you are - much like folks do when they send comments to newspapers.
Bottom Line - we, as Americans (white, black, etc. etc. etc.) got too damn lazy to pay attention to a system of government that demands our full and undivided attention, at all times. Whether we can ourselves a democracy or republic, the onus of responsibility is upon all of us, and not some scapegoat - like a king, queen, or small group of poeple. So that means less time crying in a chat room - and more time at the local town halls raising hell - if you really want to see real change, and not some empty campaign promise.
Matthew A. Sawtell
La Grange Park, IL
Richard Baker| 5.16.09 @ 8:11PM
Matthew:
The reason that no one gives their full name and city is that it's not asked for. Most people have enough, on a daily basis, keeping their bills paid. Our system was started as a Representative Republic and the politicians are SUPPOSED to represent their constituents. Of course, the political class/whores are so career- minded and are trying to insulate themselves FROM their constituents. I agree that, as citizens, we need to pay more attention. But remember, De Touqueville said that if we ever got the idea that we could "vote ourselves money from the public purse" then this system was over. A large measure of this problem is that the Baby Boomers, who are ascendant now, don't live in as much of a world of reality as our Depression era and WWII elders did. We are, unfortunately, victims of our own success. Hope the country can survive the Baby Boomers.
Joe| 5.30.09 @ 12:22PM
I live in Taxachusetts as well.
This just shows the gall that the "powers that be" have. This is total bull.
Everyone jumped on the Obama bandwagon of "change", but what kind of change can you get when all the same criminals are consistantly re-elected? Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Barney Frank, and John Olver! How can we get "change" from the same imbeciles?
Pam| 6.2.09 @ 4:45AM
I live in Massachusetts and I can't take it anymore. Yesterday I found out the state suddenly just took a large chunk of $ out of my bank account without warning for taxes. I am a widowed single parent and now unemployed. It was my rent money. I have always worked and supported my child.
They must have needed it for the free welfare cars they are giving to the freeloaders. My car will not pass the emissions test, and has an expired sticker. I cannot afford to have it "repaired" right now, and am afraid to get pulled over and fined by the state if I drive it.
I have voted against the democrats every election, but they always win. I have voted for eliminating the state income tax, but it lost, of course. They just decided to raise the state sales tax 25%, but it seems most people here don't know or care.
I am so tired of this bloated, overweight state government. I want to leave, but can't yet. I will as soon as I am able. I want to live in a state that is not socialist. I want my vote to count. I'm afraid the country as a whole will be one big Massachusetts by the time I am able to escape. :(
NJ Refugee| 6.9.09 @ 8:20AM
A variation on this gets played by NY tax authorities in NJ. In NJ, certain essentials, notably clothes, are not subject to sales tax. NY residents who want to buy clothes drive to NJ to shop. The NY tax authorities used to camp out in the parking lots of NJ stores, taking down NY license plate numbers, and then send their residents estimated use tax bills for the dollar amounts they assume their residents spent.
There's about a dozen things not to like about that.
Pingback| 7.13.09 @ 8:04AM
Cahill’s Charge | America Watches Obama links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Matthew A. Sawtell| 7.31.09 @ 9:22PM
To Richard Baker - sorry for the delay in this response - but moving from city to city can take a toll on getting back on issues. I tend to take an "old fashioned" approach to the Internet - given I still remember the old newspaper protocols. As for the points that you have brought up - I can only reply that only a people that are aware of their surroundings (and those that surround them) can ensure that their government runs well. As for De Touqueville idea... what keeps that idea in check is the realization that your fellow American is not one for "share, and share alike" - as evidenced by the movement of people across the country to avoid freeloaders.
Matthew A. Sawtell
Cincinnati, OH
Pingback| 8.31.09 @ 2:48PM
Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : The Tentacles of Taxachusetts [spect links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 10.26.09 @ 10:26PM
Nancy Pelosi: “Are You Serious”? « Lighthouse Patriot Journal links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Trackback| 12.24.09 @ 3:03AM
credit repair massachusetts, on credit repair massachusetts, links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
poptropica | 4.9.10 @ 10:40PM
I’ll have a Poptropica full written walkthrough very soon, but in the meantime, here are some answers to some of the frequently asked questions about Mythology Island. Having trouble? Post a question in the comments and I’ll try to answer it!
Getting Hercules to Help You
Hercules won’t help you until you have all five items from Zeus’ quest. Once you have the five items, bring them to Athena. Zeus will appear and steal them. The big jerk! Once this happens, talk to Athena and she will tell you that Hercules will help you. You’ll need to have the magic mirror from Aphrodite because Hercules doesn’t want to have to walk. He’s so lazy!
Getting the Hydra Scale
You can see how to do this in the videos, but basically you need to jump up when the Hydra is about to strike. He will rear one of his heads back to attack and his eyes will bulge out. When this happens, jump up in the air and then try to land on top of his head. That head will get knocked out. When all five heads get knocked out, the Hydra will be asleep and you can click on him to get one of the scales. I’ll have a full written walkthrough very soon, but in the meantime, here are some answers to some of the frequently asked questions about Mythology Island. Having trouble? Post a question in the comments and I’ll try to answer it!
Getting Hercules to Help You
Hercules won’t help you until you have all five items from Zeus’ quest. Once you have the five items, bring them to Athena. Zeus will appear and steal them. The big jerk! Once this happens, talk to Athena and she will tell you that Hercules will help you. You’ll need to have the magic mirror from Aphrodite because Hercules doesn’t want to have to walk. He’s so lazy!
Getting the Hydra Scale
Poptropica You can see how to do this in the videos, but basically you need