×
×
homepage logo
LOGIN
SUBSCRIBE

Candidate touts biz background

By Staff | Aug 6, 2016

HUDSON – Instituting a sales or income tax in New Hampshire has been seen by some as a dependable, fair way to generate revenue – but to Steve Marchand, a data- and analysis-driven candidate for governor, neither would benefit taxpayers in the long run.

"A sales tax is regressive, even disruptive," Marchand, 42, told The Telegraph editorial board this week. And while acknowledging that few, if any, Granite Staters believe the current system – which relies disproportionately on property taxes – is fair, the numbers show states that sought to even out the tax structure by implementing sales and income taxes made little to no difference in the long run.

Elected to the Portsmouth city council at 29 and voted in as the city’s mayor in 2005, Marchand recently became the sixth candidate and third Democrat to enter the race to succeed Gov. Maggie Hassan, who is running for U.S. Senate and not seeking another term as governor.

Describing himself as fiscally conservative and socially liberal, Marchand is anti-casino but firmly in favor of legalizing marijuana, funding Planned Parenthood, and advocating for same-sex marriage, paid long-term leave for new mothers or people caring for ailing family members.

His top priorities, if elected, would be improving education, making "smart public investment" in order to attract residents and foster private-sector growth – especially among younger and immigrant entrepreneurs – address infrastructure issues, and beef up the state’s ability to stem the opioid crisis.

Marchand said he’d approach improving education by conducting "a regression analysis" geared in part toward making sure New Hampshire school districts can offer competitive salaries in order to retain the best teachers, as well as implementing full-day kindergarten statewide and resurrecting aid for school building projects.

Where the extra funds needed to accomplish that would come from is a new source of state revenue that depends on whether Marchand succeeds in one of his initiatives – legalizing marijuana.

"I’d legalize it, regulate and tax it," he said, estimating that as much as $30 million could be raised through marijuana taxes in the first year alone.

To critics who believe marijuana is a "gateway drug" that often leads to the abuse of heroin and other addictive drugs, Marchand cites research that shows legally prescribed, opiate-based painkillers "are the real gateway drug to heroin, not marijuana," he told the panel.

So far, he added, "I’m the only candidate (for governor) who would legalize marijuana."

His background in data analysis – "I’ve audited cities for a living," he said of his Portsmouth-based consulting firm – and interest in public policy have convinced Marchand that "smart public investment" goes a long way toward growing the private sector, he said.

Among the issues he’d look at is the state’s business enterprise tax – which, he said, hampers private-sector growth, especially small businesses and startups.

The proliferation of non-compete clauses in the computer and electronics era has also discouraged entrepreneurs, Marchand said, suggesting that he would work toward minimizing or eradicating such contracts in the state.

As the son of immigrants who came to Manchester from their native Quebec in the 1960s, Marchand said he also knows what it’s like "to hit bottom" – his parents had to file bankruptcy in the 1990s, when his father’s building and carpentry trade dried up and his mother faced hospital bills in the tens of thousands of dollars after having a heart attack.

Today, the vast majority of entrepreneurs – the kind Marchand said he’d like to woo to New Hampshire – are immigrants or the children of immigrants, he said.

"New Hampshire has a really good story to tell," Marchand said. "I want to make it the most immigrant-friendly state in the nation."

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 594-6443, dshalhoup@nashua
telegraph.com or@Telegraph_DeanS.

Newsletter

Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter.

Interests
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *