The Monitor noted that the “gap between the haves and the have-nots grew last year to its highest level in more than 50 years” based on data for the U.S. Census Bureau (Monitor front page, Sept. 27). New Hampshire was “among the states with the largest increases.” New Hampshire economists confirmed the data.

In October, the Institute on Public Taxation and Economic Policy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan tax policy organization, published “Who Pays,” an analysis of the tax systems in all 50 states. Income taxes, property taxes, and sales and excise taxes were combined in each state and displayed as a percentage of family income. In New Hampshire, the 20% with the lowest family income paid 9.1% of their incomes in such taxes while the highest income earners – the top 1% – paid 3%.

Accordingly, the lowest-paid working families in New Hampshire have been subject to a kind of double whammy in recent years: declining relative incomes in an environment that disproportionately taxes them.

Why is it that the New Hampshire electorate continues to return to the State House representatives who perpetuate such a burdensome tax policy on low-income, working families? Perhaps it is because voters feel that any income or sales tax would simply add to their cost of living, a reasonable assumption on its face.

Suppose, however, that the increased income from new taxes were coupled with a rebate of property taxes inversely proportional to family income for those who rent, which must be a high percentage of the lowest-paid working families. Such a system exists in Vermont, where rental rebates can reach as much as $3,000 for the lowest income-qualified recipients.

ITEP’s survey showed that the lowest 40% of Vermonters paid about 9% of their incomes while the top 60% paid about 10%, which is about as close as one can get to taxation equality.

Not to be missed in any New Hampshire tax revision is the prospect of reductions in property taxes paid by property owners, particularly those in communities disadvantaged by the current tax policy.

JAMES H. HUNT

Concord