Ensuring Wealthy and Corporations Pay Their Fair Share In Taxes A Top Priority For New Hampshire Voters

By nearly 2 to 1 NH voters support Biden’s $3.5 trillion plan now before Congress to help working families, paid for by raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations

Concord, NH – Granite State Progress and Americans for Tax Fairness released new polling today showing that ensuring the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share in taxes is a top priority for New Hampshire voters even ahead of creating jobs and rebuilding infrastructure. The polling comes as Congressional Democrats work to pass President Biden’s $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan, which would make healthcare, eldercare, childcare, education, and housing more affordable for working families. 

Granite State Progress Executive Director Zandra Rice Hawkins: “Our latest polling confirms that raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy is a top priority for Granite State voters, and they want to use that revenue to invest in our communities and to improve the lives of working families. Support for these issues is especially strong among New Hampshire’s unaffiliated voters, which is the state’s biggest voting bloc.” 

The New Hampshire poll conducted July 10-14 by Hart Research and ALG Research surveyed 401 registered voters with a ±5.0 margin of error. Its key findings include:

• Ensuring that the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share in taxes is a top priority for New Hampshire voters today, even ahead of important goals like rebuilding infrastructure or creating jobs.
  
• Voters in New Hampshire see the progressive revenue measures in President Biden’s American Families Plan as a strong reason to support the plan (64% more favorable).
  
• Biden’s proposals to raise taxes on those making over $400,000 met with wide approval (62%) in New Hampshire, including his proposal to tax capital gains at the same rate as income from wages (64% support). More New Hampshire voters believe that raising taxes on those earning over $400,000 will help the economy (53%) than hurt it (22%).
  
• Increasing the corporate tax rate to 28% is embraced by 56% of New Hampshire voters, who also favor taxing foreign profits at 28% (67%), setting a minimum corporate tax rate of 15%, and taxing stock buybacks. 
  
• New Hampshire voters would go even further than President Biden in raising taxes on the wealthy, embracing proposals to establish a wealth tax (71%), expand the estate tax (55%), and eliminate “dynasty trusts.”
  
• Unaffiliated voters are particularly motivated by tax fairness concerns and consistently support progressive tax policies at a higher level than the electorate overall. 

“This poll shows New Hampshire voters overwhelmingly support President Biden’s Build Back Better Plan, and that support grows even stronger when they learn it is paid for by making the rich and corporations pay their fair share of taxes,” said Frank Clemente, Executive Director of Americans for Tax Fairness. “The Biden plan will help working families struggling with the high costs of healthcare, burdened by high rent payments or trying to afford college, by asking those who have done extremely well during the pandemic to start paying their fair share.”

Local elected officials and issue advocacy organizations joined Granite State Progress and Americans for Tax Fairness on a call to release the poll.

State Senator Becky Whitley: “The American Rescue Plan was the first step toward the Biden Administration’s commitment to Build Back Better. Now we need to use the ongoing federal negotiations as an opportunity to invest long-term in strengthening our families and our communities. There are several things Congress can include in the package that will immediately help, such as allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prices for prescription drugs and then extend those lower prices to millions more people who have private insurance. We also have an opportunity to make health care, long-term care for the elderly, child care, college, housing, and many other services more affordable for working people, and expand child tax credits for most families. The American Families Plan and President Biden’s tax plan provide a way for us to address these issues facing working families, and the popular support for this approach in the Granite State shows how much people want to see this happen.”

Maggie Fogarty, Director, American Friends Service Committee – NH: “It’s long past time for us to end the massive corporate tax breaks and loopholes for the wealthy that continually put the burden back onto working families while those same families face cuts to the programs and services that allow them to fully participate in the economy. This is the same message many of us advocated around during the state budget process, when we called to invest in our critical public infrastructure and our families by fairly taxing the wealthy and corporations. We have a real opportunity to do the right thing at the federal level right now, and it is important that elected officials listen to the opinions of their constituents.”

You can download a detailed memo from Hart Research and ALG Research and a PowerPoint deck below.

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