Governor Hassan's Statement on Amendment to HB 550

Statement

Governor Maggie Hassan issued the following statement after the Senate today voted in favor of an amendment to House Bill 550, relative to administration of the tobacco tax and relative to the sale or exchange of an interest in a business organization under the business profits tax:

"Planet Fitness is a valued New Hampshire company, and the Granite State has a great deal to offer as its corporate headquarters, including a low-tax environment without a sales or an income tax, a highly skilled workforce and a small, responsive state government. While we want to do everything that we can to keep the Planet Fitness corporate headquarters and its high-quality jobs here in New Hampshire, we cannot hastily and without full transparency make drastic changes to our tax laws due to a last-minute request from one company without a deeper analysis of the fairness to other tax-paying businesses in the Granite State and the impact to the state's budget.

"This proposal was brought forward at the very last second of the legislative session without an adequate public process and its costs are not paid for in the Senate budget. At the same time, the Senate budget includes other large business tax cuts that will create a hole in this budget and budgets well into the future. We must analyze the creation of this tax loophole with the same scrutiny as any other tax law changes of this magnitude would be, and have an honest and transparent discussion about the priorities we would choose not to fund in order to pay for each of these tax law changes."

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