I recall when he put a huge state liquor store right on the border, along the interstate, at an exit, with a huge sign. The parking lot was always full and full of MA plates. The pols in MA screamed to high heaven (or should that be low hell) and Thompson said something typically inappropriate like “stuff it”.

I used to live about a mile from the state liquor store pictured in the article and the MA Staties were up there in plain clothes all the time. It really ticked off everybody in NH. One particular weekend – it was a “big booze” weekend of some variety or another – they had several state line liquor stores staked out and were stopping cars coming back into MA just over the border. The Salem town police showed up at the liquor store in question and arrested the MA cops. Took ‘em back and fingerprinted them, booked them (I don’t recall what for but as I remember it was a low grade felony) and tossed them in jail for the weekend until they could be arraigned and bail set.

There were no Staties in NH for a LONG time after that.

Lewiston and Auburn have always been a bastion of Democrats ever since the mills came into being. Same here in Biddeford!

A few years back we had a Republican Mayor but that came as a fluke! The Democrats chose to run one candidate but another popular Democrat also decided to run. Together the two Democrat candidates polled about 60% of the vote but the other 40% went to the Republican…he won!

I had gone to sleep expecting the normal Democrat victory and nearly had a coronary when I saw the news the next morning!

BTW Franglais is much spoken here! (That’s Frenglish for you Anglos)

I’d pay to have the state sprayed or even do it myself!

The difference between Maine and NH excise taxes + sales tax for cigarettes adds up to about $9.70/carton. If that makes economic sense because of your proximity to the state line then most consumers would go for it. With the limit of two cartons per person, 4 people in a car could legally purchase 8 cartons of cigarettes with a savings of $77.60. If you used 2 gallons of gas (60 mile round trip) the group would have saved over $70.00!

There are “bus tours” that go to the NH Shopping Malls just to take advantage of the sales tax-free shopping! If you know a smoker, just pick up 2 cartons and have your co-riders each pick up two cartons and you can resell them and make a few bucks per carton! Happens all the time!

Well, I got my undergrad degree at Bates – and my French-speaking abilities survived the sub-dialect of French known as Lewistonese….

French uses more letters for less sound than any other language known to man….

I’m sorry to tell everyone, but Rodrigues will most likely be re-elected in 2010, notwithstanding this hypocrisy.

Having a French name with three consecutive vowels it is amusing to watch people try to spell it and even more amusing listening to them try to pronounce it! )

Sen. Martha Fuller Clark, D-Portsmouth, said she does not think what Rodrigues did was wrong. States often have to make difficult decisions to raise revenue, she said.

“It seems to me that we as individuals –are allowed to make our own choices about what we purchase and where we purchase it,” Clark said.

This is just unbelievable.

Retaliatory bumperstickers soon appeared across the line in New Hampshire:

“Make It In Massachusetts, Spend It In New Hampshire”

It sounds like Mr. Rodrigues was following that admonition.

But this disparity in sales tax rates (0% in NH) has been a sore point for a long time; way back in the 1980s, Tip O’Neill (remember him?) berated Massachusans who crossed the border to shop as “selfish.” GFY, Tip, wherever you are now….

In Vermont, you are expected to report any out-of-state or online purchases for which you didn’t pay any sales tax (retail-wise, this is targeted specifically at New Hampshire) and report it on your income tax return – and kick in the usual 6% sales tax as a “use tax.”

Rule of thumb when buying in NH – pay cash. The creeps in Montpelier have some way to get the credit card issuers to squeal on VT residents who shop over there; people buy things, and then later get a bill from the state.

That and the last line you quote – you really have to wonder how this would test in court with the Interstate Commerce Clause and all that….