New Hampshire's Sullivan County Economy as the Canary in the Coal Mine

Why Sullivan County is the first battleground in the fight for economic fairness in New Hampshire

New Hampshire is an extremely interesting state, and it’s one that I love immensely. From the first time I set foot in this state I knew something about it felt different – it was so green, the air was so crisp, and everyone I met had a common sense about them. The first time I came here I was a teenager. I was visiting with my then girlfriend (now wife) and her family. Her grandparents lived in Claremont, a small city in the Upper Connecticut River Valley, and to say I fell in love with the place is an understatement. Coming from New York City, especially from poverty in the NYC area, it was a real eye opener to see just how different the United States could be even with just a few hours drive. I liked it so much that I decided I wanted to live in New England, and New Hampshire in particular, if I could mange it. I was lucky enough to be accepted into the University of New Hampshire, and my wife and I have always wanted to come back up to the Claremont region if we could. We tried to find jobs here after we completed our undergraduate degrees, but the market for Chemical Engineering (or really any engineering) at the time was nearly nonexistent. So we moved around, first to Boston, then to Minnesota so we could finish school. When we were finally settled enough in our jobs we moved back to the Upper Valley, and now own the home that we first visited together all those years ago. It’s a great part of New Hampshire, and my favorite part of the country. I really love Claremont, even with all of the challenges the city has.

One of the oddest things about loving Claremont is the sort of responses I get from other people in New Hampshire when I talk with pride about my adopted city. People talk about Claremont as if we are an anomaly in New Hampshire, a weird part of the state that can’t seem to figure out the secret to success that the other cities and towns have. We are talked about like the problem child in the family, the one who has maybe struggled with addiction, who can’t hold down a regular job, who is always moving from crisis to crisis and making it everyone else’s problem. But in reality Claremont and Sullivan County broadly is an area of real opportunity and contrast. We are one of the most beautiful parts of the United States, with green vistas and Mountain View’s, fields of wildflowers and evergreen forests, and rivers and lakes that are teeming with wildlife. Our people are hardworking and charitable, giving when asked in both time and money. And we are a community that should have a lot of pride in what we’ve accomplished, both historically and currently.

New Hampshire and Sullivan County Economy

However, we are also a community that has for too long allowed ourselves to be taken advantage of in Concord. We elect politicians who are happy to see money siphoned from cities and towns like Claremont and Croydon so that their political side can look like they are cutting taxes. In reality they are taking money from the pocket of their constituents to give more to the already wealthy in Southern New Hampshire, or to corporations that take your money and spend it in other states. The New Hampshire economy has grown by about 25% in the last decade as measured by gross domestic product. In that same period, Claremont, the largest city in Sullivan County, saw a net decrease in income by about 7% when accounting for inflation. How does something like that happen? Well, it isn’t a mistake. It is an economic system designed in a way that hurts the middle and working classes while helping the very wealthy. The only reason we see it more here in Claremont is because we are the only major city left in New Hampshire that is majority blue collar, with a sizable permanent population of young families, and without the benefit of being near enough the Massachusetts border to benefit from the jobs and money that our southern neighbor generates. Sullivan County has over time become the place where New Hampshires historic residents and population move to when other parts of the state have become too expensive. We are the part of New Hampshire that people flee too when gentrification force them out of the south of the state. As the wealthy and fortunate of the rest of New England move to New Hampshire to save on taxes, families that a generation ago could afford to live and work in Southern New Hampshire move to the north and west of the state to try and find affordable housing.

And because of this, Claremont specifically and Sullivan County broadly acts like a warning sign for the rest of New Hampshire. And in many ways, New Hampshire and Sullivan County's Economy is the canary in the coal-mine. The people of Claremont are the same as those in any other part of New Hampshire and the United States. We aren’t less capable than other places, our people aren’t worse than those in Portsmouth or Manchester, and our kids aren’t less able to succeed in schools. The issuer is a structural one, where Sullivan County has become the central point for the problems that a changing economy brings. The problems our area faces are the problems of any area where economic systems are put in place that incentivize the needs of the rich over those of the working and middle classes. But make no mistake, the average New Hampshire resident is feeling just as squeezed economically as we are here in Sullivan County. The only difference is we don’t have the cushion of Massachusetts residents coming here to shop or retire in the same amounts as the more southern parts of the state. While those areas are propped up by an influx of retirees and the wealthy fleeing taxes, our area is feeling the burden of caring for all of the New Hampshire residents pushed out by this influx of the very wealthy. But New Hampshire cannot afford to keep being the state where only the extremely wealthy can survive. We need to build an economy that has opportunity for young people and cares for our vulnerable, instead of one that caters to those who want to pay as little in taxes as possible while they live off of the savings made from a lifetime spent in an America that actually had working, well funded social services and support.

One Root of the Problem – Political Misrepresentation

One primary challenge we have as a community is the fact that our representatives don’t actually represent us very well. In New Hampshire to be a member of the House or Senate, you need to have a guaranteed income and extremely flexible schedule. This essentially leaves only two groups to take part in our state government – the independently wealthy or the retired. Anyone with a regular job or family commitments has essentially none of the time or flexibility in their schedule to take part in the legislative process at any level, but particular at the state level where a trip to Concord is required to vote and be present. This results in the average age of the NH House of Representatives and Senate sitting at 61 years old, regardless of party. But the average age of a resident of New Hampshire is 44 years old, which is still actually very old when you look at the statistics compared to other states with growing economies (Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont have the oldest population of residents in the United States). Is it any wonder that our state has for decades been considered a great place to retire, but not particular welcoming to young people trying to build a life? The only people making decision have already reached retirement age, and so of course they will legislate in a way that is good for a way of life that is simply not the reality for the majority of people in the Granite State.

Besides the age difference, the wealth gap is also significant. The average income bracket for the NH House of Representatives is between $150,000 to $250,000 per year as a household. This is significantly higher than the average income for NH as a state (~$129,000) and especially high compared to that in Sullivan County (~$106,000). This again means that the problems that the average member of the NH House of Representatives faces are not the problems of the average person in the Granite State, let alone the average resident of Sullivan County. We have essentially created a ruling class in New Hampshire made up of only the landowning, wealthy, and retired. So year over year things continue to get worse for the working and middle classes in New Hampshire, while things get better for landlords, business owners, and the wealthy. This happens because these are the only people who have any say in how things work in our state.

This creates a multitude of problems for New Hampshire. First, our economy is built not to generate and grow new income but to protect wealth that is already in a retirement fund or property. This means making decisions that benefit Wall Street, that benefit landlords, and that benefit wealthy retirees who want to pay as little tax as possible. This means that we underfund and ignore things that help the younger generations such as public education, small business programs, housing, and job creation. We also don’t fund programs to help middle and working class retirees, the elderly, and the disabled. Instead we focus on programs like cuts to taxes on dividends and stocks, we lower property taxes on second and third homes, we cut corporate tax rates, and we focus on keeping property values high as opposed to building new housing for a growing generation of Granite Staters. We also have a general tendency to take the tax burden for paying for things that are good for younger generations from the overall state level and putting it onto local communities, so that the places with the youngest and therefore less wealthy populations tend to pay more in overall taxes as a percentage of income, while those with the most wealthy populations pay less. But this doesn’t only hurt the young, it is also an extreme injustice to our retirees from working and middle class families. But again it is almost obvious that in New Hampshire our tendency would be to take away public services and replace them with private options that individual families have to pay for. Why would someone who has already raised a family and gotten them through school, who has already built and left a career, who has already purchased property and expanded it worry about the challenges of doing those things now? They already benefited from those programs, and now they are only a burden on their tax bill.

No where is this more evident than in the disparity in public education funding, with communities like Claremont consistently paying some of the highest local property taxes in the State of New Hampshire. This is a decision by some in older and wealthier generations to pull the ladder up from behind them, taking away the public services that helped them to become the most wealthy generation in American history at the expense of the current generation. The only reason Claremont is uniquely impacted by this challenge is because we don’t benefit from being close enough to the Massachusetts border to benefit from tax free tourism. Instead our economy is left to work on it’s own, in a system designed to benefit those who have already made their wealth.

Where do we go from here, and what can you do?

One of my favorite sayings is that “A society grows great when old men plant trees who shade they know they will no longer sit under”. In other words, societies only become strong and good when people put the public good ahead of their private good. We need a society where the older generations care about what happens to the young, where the rich care about what happens to the poor, and where the able help those who aren’t able. Greed is a choice. It is always a choice. And that is what we are up against. It isn’t a difference in philosophy. It isn’t a difference in economic viewpoint, or some concern about the best way to manage an economy, it isn’t about personal freedom or tyranny or any of the other tricks used to make this seem like it is anything more than what it is. Money is the root of all evil. Greed is the thing that will destroy societies and countries every single time. Our founders knew that. The greatest American presidents and statesmen knew that. It’s time we started remembering that unchecked greed is one of the single most destructive forces in social life, and it is not a virtue of America’s national identity. Success is a wonderful thing, but only where it is tempered by humility and charity.

It’s time for New Hampshire to stop allowing our state to be run solely for the benefit of the wealthy. We need representation that actually represents us as a community, where our needs and challenges are actually considered, and where the economy is built not to protect money that has already been made but to grow opportunities so that new families can be built. I urge each and every one of you reading this to get involved. If you are a young person with a family I would ask you to please step up and run for a city, town, or state position. We need more young people to get involved, so that the needs of all of us are heard and represented in the State of New Hampshire. And if you are a member of the older generation who wants to see the Granite State change for the better, speak up and be involved! For too long we have allowed only the wealthy to control how our state operates. We need to make the time, put in the effort, and fight for our rights. Otherwise we will continue to see wealth transferred from the pockets of the working and middle classes and into the already swollen bank accounts of the wealthy.