Governor Hummer Still a Bummer

The NH Senate has decided that the best thing we can do for our economy is to slash state spending on infrastructure and education, then give tax cuts to business. 

Today in a Senate hearing: 

NH1

Planet Fitness officials say they will move their headquarters out of state to avoid paying high taxes when they go public.

Senate Republican leaders today propose and a panel endorsed a tax break for any firm in the same position.

The change would exempt the ownership of a limited business partnership from having to pay taxes on profits from the sale of shares made when it took the company public.

Backing the Planet Fitness bid at a public hearing on the tax break was former Gov. Craig Benson.

Benson failed to mention he had served on the company’s board and recently was described in published reports as "one of the leading Planet Fitness Club owners.”

Craig Benson was so unpopular and corrupt during his only 2-year term that he failed to be reelected. 

This is a guy who had brilliant ideas like closing down the notches in winter, so that we wouldn't spend so much on plowing. That those are the ONLY access roads to the north didn't seem occur to him. He got stuck in traffic one day, so he shut down the Hampton toll booth. He illegally dredged in front of his oceanfront house in Rye. 

For a Republican governor not to get a second term in NH is telling. 

Senate President Chuck Morse says any elected leaders should be responsive to this request.

"Any citizen who called and said they were moving 500 jobs to another state, myself, the governor, the speaker would have reacted,’’ Morse said.

The CEO of Planet Fitness is threatening to move his HEADQUARTERS out of state. It seems unlikely that 500 people work at the headquarters. 

The state of NH should not negotiate with hostage takers. Tell Governor Hummer he's still a bummer.