Towns along the Connecticut River have battled one another for years.
Their goal is to attract new businesses to their side of the New Hampshire-Vermont border.
Most people give New Hampshire the competitive edge.
The Washington, DC-based National Tax Foundation ranks New Hampshire fifth in the nation for its business climate.
Vermont scores a dismal 45th.
But as the Vermont Standard's Kevin Forrest has learned, sometimes the differences are not always so clear cut.
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For decades, Vermont�s sales tax has driven shoppers to tax-less New Hampshire.
Michaels � The sales tax has destroyed most retail activity in the Connecticut River Valley. That�s not just my impression. There have been a number of economic studies that have shown that is the case.
That�s Jill Michaels, an economic consultant who has worked both sides of the river.
Now she concentrates on Vermont.
And that�s where Professional Camera Ltd. called home for 25 years.
Late last year it moved to Lebanon.
Owner Ken Vieira says Vermont�s sales tax increase was the last straw.
Veiera ��..I know health care is more expensive in New Hampshire than Vermont. I think there are some other subtle increases in fees and so on that aren�t in Vermont, but that sales tax is the ever-present shadow that looms over the river and the border towns.
Downriver, Jill Michaels works to bring new jobs to Windsor, Vermont.
She constantly battles the popular notion that New Hampshire is more business-friendly.
But she says her decades of experience have taught her that some manufacturing concerns actually fare better in Vermont.
A client challenged her to document this.
And Her research revealed that depending on the type �and the town�businesses can easily thrive in Vermont.
Michaels - For example, worker�s comp and electrical rates by and large are cheaper in Vermont. So if you have a manufacturing business with a high demand for electricity, or power of some sort, you�re probably going to do better in Vermont than in New Hampshire.
Central Vermont Public Service, for example, will discount electric rates for new manufacturers for up to five years.
Michaels says No such plan exists in New Hampshire.
Stuart Arnett is director of New Hampshire�s Division of Economic Development.
Like Michaels, he too has worked both sides of the river.
But Arnett says any relocating company that does its basic research will be drawn to New Hampshire.
Arnett - The taxes are lower in any way you want to measure them, poverty rate�s lower. I think most people say our non-costs of doing business are lower as far as less regulation and less oversight.
But Still Michaels argues the Granite State doesn�t necessarily offer a better deal.
Michaels - Real estate taxes are higher in New Hampshire than in Vermont. Yes we have a personal income tax in Vermont. But if you have to pay more money for land, which you often have to do in New Hampshire, and you have to pay higher real estate taxes, you really need to sit down and figure out which really is the cheaper place to locate.
Actually, property taxes in Windsor and Lebanon are about the same.
In Claremont, they�re higher.
In Claremont, there�s more available land.
But you would have to install your own sewage system.
Windsor�s sewage system, on the other hand, has lots of capacity for a new enterprise.
One such venture is being developed by Gary Neil.
The successful Vermont entrepreneur is renovating Windsor�s former town hall for a mix of businesses.
He�s excited about Windsor�s transition from an industrial town to more of an artistic center.
Neil - And Windsor�s right in that stage of defining itself. If you look down from the rails down to the river today, what was previously a vacant Goodyear plant is filled, teeming with artisans, craftspersons, light manufacturers and they came because the rent was cheap, and there�s available labor, easy commute and good parking.
But a few hundred yards away, across a traditional covered bridge, New Hampshire still acts as a powerful magnet for commerce.
And while business development may divide the two states, shopping habits seem to narrow the Connecticut River.
Stuart Arnett:
Arnett - It really is a place where the state line is not a very important determinant. People cross over between Lebanon-White River Jct, and again the Keene-Brattleboro, going right up the river, commerce goes back and forth quite easily.
And in recent decades, the two states have moved even closer in how they attract business, says Arnett.
Vermont is more hands-off while New Hampshire is more proactive.
Arnett - You know in our business we used to compare to East and West Berlin. And like East and West Berlin, I think in some ways the walls have come down.
Such a united front could come in handy.
Both states are beginning to realize that their biggest competition lies not with one another, but
elsewhere.
Arnett - Our competition is increasingly becoming the Piedmont states, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and the Rocky Mountains�Utah, Colorado and to a lesser extent, Wyoming.
And all of those states have a sales tax.
For NHPR news, this is Kevin Forrest in Reading, Vt.
