CONCORD – A national anti-tax group supporting free enterprise set up shop in New Hampshire on Tuesday and its leaders vowed to organize citizens against raising state or federal taxes.
New Hampshire becomes the 22nd state chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a tax-exempt organization pledged against taxes and government-earmarked spending.
National President Tim Phillips said the group spends most of its time and resources educating and mobilizing citizens rather than on advocacy ads on TV or radio stations.
“New England is the last region in the country where we didn’t have a state chapter, and New Hampshire is really becoming a battleground for our free market issues,” Phillips said.
“New Hampshire is trending a bit toward bigger government and higher taxes and we’d like to contribute to reversing that trend.”
Corey Lewandowski, of Windham, is the group’s state executive director. He served as a campaign aide to Sen. Bob Smith’s unsuccessful re-election campaign in 2002.
“It really is a travesty what the average family has to pay in New Hampshire,” Lewandowski said.
“Our job at AFP is to be the watchful eye. It’s time to bring the fight to New Hampshire.”
About 15 people celebrated the kickoff for the AFP chapter outside the Statehouse in front of a 16-foot-high, inflatable ATM machine the group has brought to events across the country.
The new group will host 12 town hall-style forums to educate activists, the first on July 19 in Manchester with National Rifle Association executive Glen Caroline.
The group is nonpartisan. Both Lewandowski and Deputy Director Ted Maravelias praised Republican candidates and condemned tax and spending policies of Democrats such as former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, a Senate hopeful.
“We should be looking at reducing the size and scope of the state budget,” Maravelias said.
He noted then-Gov. Shaheen in 1999 created the statewide property tax that limited how much local officials could raise property taxes in the future.
Republican congressional candidates John Stephen, of Manchester, and Grant Bosse, of Manchester, spoke at this event.
AFP, which also promotes more transparency in government, has praised Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama for championing the law that will make all federal government contracting accessible on the Internet.
Phillips said it’s difficult to motivate citizens to become politically active for a cause while struggling with an economic downturn and their own busy lives.
“You have to explain the threat whether it’s to their economic freedom or their taxes and then you have to show them how they can really make a difference,” Phillips added.
Their leaders said it’s not hypocritical to press for more openness operating from a tax-exempt entity that does not have to reveal its 25,000 donors.
“We have chosen to protect the privacy of who contributes to us,” Lewandowski added.
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Note: Americans for Prosperity NH will be present at the CNHT Picnic on July 5, 2008