Income Tax Campaign, or Mild Meeting with an Economist?

Reporters showed up.

The Republican Party sent a staffer to video the proceedings.

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Democrat Susan Almy seemed a little annoyed by it all.

TAPE: because of certain media circuses that have been happening lately, we have ended up with quite an audience.

Almy’s referring to several recent items.

One was a Republican Party press release claiming Democrats are planning to wage a dishonest campaign over the next 14 months to push for an income tax.

The other was a Union Leader editorial that slams Almy- an income tax proponent- for organizing what it called a secret legislative summit later this fall to consider changing tax law.

Now, as the meeting was about to start, the alleged Democratic cabal would reveal itself.

And the state Republican Party would get it all on tape.

TAPE: I’m going to start off with my taxation principles, a 101...

That’s UNH economist Ross Gittell.

TAPE: ...this is a simple version...key criteria to use when considering different revenue structures.

It turns out; the purpose of the meeting was for Gittell to speak generally about how different taxes- including sales and income- would impact businesses in the state.

If it was part of someone’s ‘dishonest campaign’ to bring an income tax, it was hard to see it in such a bland presentation on a quiet September morning.

Afterwards, Kevin Smith of the conservative Cornerstone Research group says he was disappointed the committee focused exclusively on revenues- and not reduced state spending.

But he didn’t see anything inherently wrong with the conversation.

TAPE: lookit, no one disputes you need to have a tax structure of some sort to pay for certain services...and I am all for looking at what is the best tax structure to do that.

Despite this meeting, some concerned about changes to the state’s tax policy might ask about the event next month.

Representative Almy says its an effort to look at the state’s revenue structure nothing more.

The legislative gather is scheduled for October 20th, an agenda has not been released.

But, it’s probably safe to assume cameras will be rolling.