Paul Henle refused to take the pledge.
The former State House representative, who died this month at age 69 from a brain injury, was described by colleagues and acquaintances as shy, modest, private, never one to draw attention to himself.
Yet there he was through the past few decades, telling anyone who’d listen that using property taxes to fund education was a bad idea, that a broad-based tax was the way to go.
The pledge – a longstanding promise made by candidates to never incorporate an income tax in the Live Free or Die state – ran counter to what Henle believed was merely common sense.
Henle wrote editorials about it. He’d stand up in the House chamber and talk about it. Heck, I believe I saw him on top of the State House dome one night, glowing from both the light up there and his steadfast conviction that he was doing something good for Merrimack District 12 (Concord Ward 2).
And for the rest of the state.
“He was a traditional liberal Democrat,” said Rep. Chris Herbert of Manchester. “He wanted the state to have an income tax, and he thought the tax system was not the best thing for this state.”
In one respect, Herbert was as close to Henle as anyone, at least in a physical sense, since the two sat side by side in the House. Plus, they served together on the Ways and Means Committee.
Other legislators all said the same thing, that changing the tax system to what Henle called the NH Tax Shift Plan burned hard in the man.
“He was active in trying to come up with a fairer tax scheme for New Hampshire and funding for everything in general,” said Rep. Diane Schuett of Pembroke.
“He was bold enough to come up with an income tax proposal,” added City Councilor Al Herschlag of Concord. “He pushed hard in the Legislature for that.”
Henle, who served in the House from 2012 to this year, died before his tax plan could see the light of day, before he could convince the Legislature and voters that there was a better way to raise revenue beyond property taxes, beyond taxing cigarettes and gambling.
According to his 2016 editorial in the Conway Daily Sun, Henle wanted to eliminate the state’s portion of your property tax bill. He wanted to lower the business profits tax. He wanted to repeal the business enterprise tax. He wanted to repeal the dividends tax.
And how would we make up the difference? A 3.75 percent income tax, of course, an idea he first hatched while running for the Senate in Carroll County about three decades ago.
Henle wanted to take money from other communities, those with a surplus stashed in school district coffers, and redistribute it to other districts that needed it.
It’s something other mainstream Democrats surely favor, but good luck getting any of them to admit it. Not in the state with the “pledge.”
“He had a lot of ideas that he thought would improve things,” said Rep. Susan Almy of Lebanon, the ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee. “And a lot of his ideas were ahead of their time.”
Peggy Johnson of Wonalancet lived with Henle for 16 years and is the mother of his daughter, now 27. She recalls a Senate candidate who could not have cared less about what people thought of him. Thus, Henle’s tax reform was born.
“He believed in a fair tax, one that was not regressive,” Johnson told me by phone. “He was willing to talk about that and that made him a target and unpopular with some people, but he broke the ice.”
Johnson, a singer and pianist, played in bands with Henle, a percussionist, during the 1970s, focusing on Scottish, Irish, country and Renaissance music.
Longtime House member Steve Shurtleff of Penacook knew nothing about Henle’s musical talent, saying he was surprised, “Especially as playing in an Irish band and I’m from Irish extraction myself. I had no idea.”
“There were a lot of facets to Paul and I never noticed because he did not talk about himself. He talked about issues.”
Indeed, there was a lot more to the man than merely politics and taxes, but his colleagues and friends said Henle stuck to issues during his beloved breakfast meetings at the Newell Post, where he and legislators, at the request of Henle, would gather for off-the-record chats.
Sen. Dan Feltes of Concord, who was at the Monitor for an editorial meeting this week, was a regular member of Henle’s Newell Post gatherings. He lowered his eyes and spoke softly when asked about his friend, saying he had “a wonderful sense of humor and he was a deeply caring individual, more than most people, and it was genuine.”
Feltes, acting as an intermediary, said Tuesday that Henle’s family, including his wife, preferred not to comment.
Feltes said Henle’s caring nature translated into policies focused on childcare, housing costs, medical costs and, of course, tax reform.
That’s what lawmakers would talk about, maybe once a month, over coffee and eggs.
“I cherished the opportunity to do that,” Feltes said quietly. “And he cherished those breakfasts as well.”