House Majority Leader Jason Osborne wrote this op-ed for the New Hampshire Union Leader. It appears in full below.
For New Hampshire Democrats, democracy is sacred and must be defended — right up until it’s time for voters to have their say on taxes. Then, suddenly, the people can’t be trusted.
That has been the pattern in Concord this year. When Republicans have tried to give Granite Staters a direct say over how much government may tax and spend, Democrats have done everything they can to keep those questions away from voters.
Consider the school property tax cap voters are scheduled to decide this November.
House Bill 1300 gives voters in every community the opportunity to decide whether to limit growth in local school property taxes, with adjustments for inflation and new construction. It also limits central-office administrative spending. Under the law, the cap only takes effect if three-fifths of voters in a town approve it.
The decision belongs to the voters. But Democrats tried to make sure you never got to make it. In the State House, 158 representatives — almost entirely Democrats — voted to table HB 1300; 179 representatives, almost entirely Republicans, voted to keep the bill alive. Democrats lost, the bill passed, and Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed it into law, placing the tax cap question on the ballot for November.
After Democrats lost in the Legislature, two New Hampshire residents sued in Merrimack County Superior Court, arguing the ballot question’s wording is confusing and misleading and asking a judge to keep it off the November ballot.
The pattern could hardly be clearer. Democrats tried to stop the vote in the Legislature, they failed, and then a separate legal effort to keep Granite Staters from voting on whether to rein in their property taxes was tried and has so far failed.
Shockingly, this is not an isolated case. In March, I offered an amendment to CACR 10 that would have constitutionally prohibited New Hampshire from imposing a new personal income tax. On final passage, the amendment received 194 votes in favor to 158 opposed — a majority, but short of the three-fifths supermajority a constitutional amendment requires. All three Democrats who supported it were exceptions to a caucus that voted overwhelmingly no; no Republicans opposed it.
A clear majority favored letting citizens vote to ban an income tax. But constitutional amendments require a three-fifths vote in the Legislature before they can be sent to the people. Democratic opposition denied CACR 10 that threshold — and denied Granite Staters the opportunity to decide for themselves.
Then Democrats did it a third time. In May, CACR 12 would have prohibited taxes on wages and individual income. The vote was 193-148. Only four Democrats voted yes; the rest of the Democratic caucus voted no.
Once again, a clear majority supported letting citizens vote to ban an income tax. Once again, Democrats used the three-fifths requirement to keep the question off your ballot.
This is the real difference between the Republican and Democratic parties. Republicans believe taxpayers should have the power to restrain government. Government should have to justify taking more of your money — not force taxpayers to beg it to take less. Tax caps and constitutional protections put guardrails around politicians.
Democrats see those guardrails as obstacles to their tax-and-spend agenda. That is why their constant rhetoric about “protecting democracy” rings so hollow. Their commitment to democracy is selective. Democracy is a principle when Democrats expect voters to agree with them, but merely an inconvenience when voters might use their power to limit taxes.
A party that respects voters does not need to shield them from difficult questions. The essence of self-government is not guaranteeing that politicians get the outcome they prefer, it is trusting citizens with the power to make choices politicians may dislike.
Democrats can oppose a tax cap. They can argue that government needs more money. They can even tell working families why politicians should preserve the option of taxing their income.
But they won’t take that argument to the voters.
If Democrats are so confident in their position, why are they so afraid to let Granite Staters decide? Instead, time after time, they have worked to prevent voters from getting the option in the first place. That is not protecting democracy. It is protecting politicians from taxpayers.
New Hampshire’s political tradition is built on confidence in ordinary citizens. That tradition means something only when elected officials honor it even when the voters may choose differently than they would.
Voters deserve better than a party that cynically treats democracy as a slogan rather than a principle. While the Democrats talk about defending democracy, their actions are anything but democratic.
Jason Osborne is the Majority Leader of the New Hampshire House of Representatives and a state representative from Auburn.