Will Killington start national trend?

WHOEVER SAID imitation is the sincerest form of flattery never received a request from a whole town smack dab in the middle of another state to become part of his family. No, what Killington, Vt., did Tuesday is surely the highest form of flattery — for New Hampshire.

How deliciously ironic: On the same day Vermonters gave their former tax and spend governor, Howard Dean, his one and only Presidential primary victory, the 1,100-member Vermont town of Killington voted to become part of New Hampshire so it could lower its taxes by about $10 million.

It’s not even a border town that just wants the state line redrawn. Killington, nationally famous for its wonderful skiing, is 35 miles inside the high-tax kingdom Dean ran until he stepped aside to run for President last year.

But so be it, and welcome, Killington, N.H., I say! Who can blame the overtaxed Killingtonians for wanting to annex themselves to the Granite State, which has the lowest tax burden in the country after Alaska?

Maybe other localities will follow in Killington’s footsteps and petition New Hampshire for refuge. How glorious for New Hampshire, to be beseeched by tax-strangled towns all over the country.

Topeka, N.H.? Fine. Detroit, N.H.? Not on your life! Ah, to live in Key Biscayne, N.H.!

New Hampshire could become to tax refugees what San Francisco’s City Hall has become to gays with the itch to get hitched — THE place to go.

To heck with the folks who don’t understand New Hampshire’s “Live Free or Die” attitude. On a reporting trip to Howard Dean’s last major New Hampshire campaign rally, held at Phillips Exeter Academy the eve of the primary, I met a young Dean press aide who used to work at The Washington Post and who was astounded that Granite Staters care so much about taxes. “I’ve never been anywhere this cold,” he told me.

“I can’t believe they sat up here with muskets and fought a war over taxes, of all things! I would have been outta here, headed that way!” I guess he pointed south, toward Washington, D.C., where he probably learned his apathy for taxes.

Killington understands why people camped out with muskets to fight a war over taxes, which is why it wants to affiliate with New Hampshire. New Hampshire even has its own modern tax rebels.

Remember Dover resident Victor Bourre, who invaded Maine in 2001 with a seven-man militia, and claimed Seavey Island for New Hampshire over taxes? Having been voted the “general” of the militia, he went to Seavey Island in the Piscataqua River in the dead of night and raised the New Hampshire state flag.

Bourre had worked at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey Island for years and was forced to pay Maine income tax — even though he was a resident of New Hampshire, and the islands in the Piscataqua used to belong to New Hampshire in colonial days.

Maine swipes between $5 million and $7 million a year from out-of-state residents who work there, in part by also taxing all their family’s income — even if the other family members live AND work outside Maine.

Bourre, carrying the spirit of Live Free or Die a pinch far, threatened to overthrow Gov. Jeanne Shaheen by force after he delivered his new manifesto to her doorstep. For peace’s sake, thankfully, voters had the chance to overthrow her first, when she ran for U.S. Senate in 2002.

Not everything is perfect, tax-wise, in New Hampshire despite the absence of a state income tax and sales tax. The local property tax situation was so badly manipulated by the courts in the 1990s that two towns, Newington and Rye, actually contemplated secession from the state.

Where would they have gone? Nowhere. They would have just become U.S. territories, like Guam. Because as far as states go, it doesn’t get any better than New Hampshire in the lower 48.

What a great honor to have a Vermont town flee Dean’s legacy for New Hampshire, on Super Tuesday no less. Now, if “Taxachusetts” towns would start to defect to New Hampshire during John Kerry’s Presidential campaign, that would be real fun.

From Friday's Concord Monitor: Yes to Killington Adroit diplomacy may make war with Vermont unnecessary. Monitor editorial March 05. 2004 8:00AM

Granite Staters understand the urge to throw off the yoke of oppression. And that's just what the tiny ski-resort town of Killington, Vt., is striving valiantly to do.

Killington, you see, is one of Vermont's donor towns. Property taxes there soared after that state actually obeyed its high court and took steps to comply with the law requiring proper state financing of public education. So Killington wants out. Abandoning Vermont for New Hampshire, Killingtonians believe, would save its taxpayers an estimated $10 million per year.

So who are these brave people who want to become part of the great state of New Hampshire solely to lower their taxes?

According to the 2000 Census, there are 1,095 of them, 1,083 of whom are white. They are well-educated. Of the 816 adults over age 18, 269 have bachelor's degrees and 128 have graduate degrees. Residents tend to work in the tourist industry. They are a bit poorer, on average, than their New Hampshire counterparts. Killington's median household income was $47,500 in 1999, $2,000 less than the Granite State average. But all households surveyed had indoor plumbing.

Although it is 25 miles west of Lebanon and the Connecticut River, Killington was part of the Granite State for 12 years. At the time, it was known as Sherburne, N.H. Later, thanks to a boundary settlement that New Hampshire generously accepted to create a larger buffer between itself and New York, Sherburne, a.k.a. Killington, became part of Vermont.

Since, according to its own website, the town is the largest destination resort in New England, we hope it can be added to New Hampshire without bloodshed. Lord knows, thanks to Mel Gibson, we've had enough of that.

After townspeople's courageous vote not to help educate children in poorer communities, Killington officials were presented with a New Hampshire state flag by representatives of the Free State Project, a Libertarian fringe movement whose members don't actually believe in states but nonetheless want one so all the people who don't believe in states can live in it. The next step, Killington officials say, is to meet with Gov. Craig Benson, a supporter of the Free State Project, and receive his blessing. Should he accept Killington - and he should - breaking the bonds with Green Mountain State would require a vote of Vermont's legislature.

And there's the rub. Vermont's secretary of state, Deborah Markowitz, made that clear in an interview with the Rutland Herald long before the vote was held. "Absent an armed insurrection type of thing, there isn't anything a town can do to secede," she said.

So you see why we're worried. New Hampshire almost went to war with Vermont once before, thanks to Ethan and Ira Allen and their Green Mountain Boys. The rebels who formed the state of Vermont initially laid claim to land on both sides of the Connecticut River. It took George Washington himself to resolve the dispute. Washington sagely suggested that it would be wise to avoid the "necessity of coercion." He convinced the Allens to stick to their side of the river when creating the new state.

It may not be so easy this time around. Resolving the current dispute may be a job for Jimmy Carter or Jesse Jackson. But before any shots are fired, we'd like to suggest a compromise. Vermont should release Killington.

In exchange, New Hampshire will give Vermont Benson's bankrupt golf course. Yes, we know the trade isn't even-up, but we've got Vermonters outnumbered two-to-one. Plus, to avoid war, we'll even make sure Benson is playing that day. -----------------------------------------------------

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