May 8, 2008

Looking for the grassroots statewide
New Hampshire Advantage Coalition takes on taxes
By Alec O'Meara aomeara@hippopress.com

The New Hampshire Advantage Coalition, the chief force behind the proliferation of spending cap charter petitions throughout the state, is a relatively new conservative activist group whose stated mission is to protect what it considers the core state values of smaller government and limited spending.

“I’ve lived in different places, but to me, New Hampshire has always been my home, regardless of where I’ve lived,” said Roger Wilkins, spokesman for the Advantage Coalition. Wilkins and coalition chairman Mike Biundo lead the organization, which they say has 4,000 members throughout the state.

“It’s me and him, him and me,” said Wilkins, a native of Manchester.

Wilkins and Biundo, a Long Island native, first crossed paths during the 1996 presidential primary; both had a hand in Pat Buchanan’s upset win over George H.W. Bush. Both are currently employees of Meridian Communications, a New Hampshire-based public relations firm. During the 2008 primary, presidential hopeful Fred Thompson enlisted Meridian; Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta used the services of Meridian and Biundo specifically in his two campaigns.

Biundo is also a former state representative, having lost his seat in 2006.

After the widespread Democratic success in the 2006 midterm elections, Biundo and Wilkins began the Advantage Coalition, seeking to give conservatives traction.

“We wanted to find a way to insert the taxpayer voice into the process,” Wilkins said. The coalition sent out opinion pieces and press releases while slowly building grassroots connections. The group has connections with conservative organizations throughout the state, many of which pledged membership to the Coalition en masse. Wilkins is also a member of the Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers. Ed Naile, CNHT’s chairman, said the Advantage Coalition’s work “is a little more specified than what we [at CNHT] try to do.” CNHT is the self-proclaimed guardian of the New Hampshire Pledge, the traditional promise not to institute new forms of taxes.

The first big splash
The group has been around for a couple of years, but its work on the tax cap in multiple cities is its first major initiative. The Coalition provides resources and legal advice to local advocacy groups.

The cap petitions are partly a response to the Granite State Fair Tax Coalition’s work in town meetings last fall to push an anti-Pledge measure. In almost 80 communities, voters were asked if they wanted officials to get rid of The Pledge; 56 towns voted yes.

Paul Henle, chair of the Granite State Fair Tax Coalition, said the message of his organization is that the state relies too much on property taxes and that freezing tax rates at the current level would not resolve existing problems for many. “No matter how much money New Hampshire decides to spend, 60 cents of every dollar shouldn’t come from property taxes,” he said. Henle said he did not know if he would vote in favor of a spending cap if given the opportunity.

The outsider factor
Conservative activist and columnist Niel Young was the driving force behind the state’s newest stable tax cap, in Laconia (Dover approved a cap in 2007 but has yet to form its first budget under the new system). One might think that would make Young a big fan of the work being done by the Advantage Coalition, but he has a reservation. While he wholeheartedly supports the idea of a spending cap, he is concerned that a statewide blitz may create a backlash of sorts. He thinks a grassroots plan would work better and create less of an “us versus them” atmosphere.

Dean Spiliotes, a seasoned political analyst in the state, isn’t sure if the local connection to the issue is strong enough in every one of the communities.

“I think these kind of issues get a lot of coverage, but it is just not something I’ve heard a lot of people talk about,” he said.

But if media coverage is the goal, Spiliotes said, an alternative theory, tied directly to the 2008 presidential campaign, is certainly possible. It is a well-established strategy, he said, for an issue-related ballot item to be used as an attempt to draw out otherwise disenfranchised voters of a specific political persuasion. In a year when many conservatives might be turned off by a moderate Republican candidate like John McCain, something like a spending cap might draw voters to the polls who otherwise might not bother to show.

“It may not be purely political, but I don’t think it’s out of the question for that to be a very real possibility,” he said.