DeVoy targets Giuda, Business Enterprise Tax in state Senate run

LACONIA — Belknap County Commission Chairman David DeVoy says the first legislation he would propose if elected to the state Senate would be to eliminate New Hampshire’s Business Enterprise Tax.

He is facing incumbent Sen. Bob Giuda in the Republican primary for the 2nd District, which takes in Plymouth, Warren, Rumney, Holderness, Ashland, Bridgewater, New Hampton, Sanbornton, Meredith and Tilton, among other municipalities.

The Republican primary election is next Tuesday, Sept. 8.

The 0.60 percent tax is assessed on a company’s enterprise value tax base, which is based on compensation, interest and dividends. It allows the state to tax some corporations that are exempt from the profits tax because they pay out all earnings to partners at the end of the year.

DeVoy, who owns three convenience stores/gas stations, objects to the tax because it applies even if a company has not turned a profit.

But Giuda said repealing the tax would reduce state revenue by a third of a billion dollars.

DeVoy said elimination of the tax would amount to a 4.5 percent reduction in overall state spending.

“My thought process is that if we nurture these businesses, in the long run they’ll be healthier and will be in a position to pay more state tax. I don’t think it’s right for hard-working small business owners to have to pay this.”

DeVoy said he first learned of the tax during the 2007-08 recession.

“I was shocked to find the state of New Hampshire taxed me when I wasn’t making any money,” he said. “There are a lot of other people who are going to find out about this.

“We do have a business profits tax and I do not have a problem with that, but I do have a problem with taxing a business after the owners have just lost their shirt.”

He said he finds the tax immoral, and it is especially troubling after a period in which many companies have seen their profits decimated by pandemic closures ordered by Gov. Chris Sununu.

DeVoy said some of those closures were heavy handed.

“A lot of retail stores were closed, while liquor stores and big box stores were allowed to stay open,” he said. “The rules didn’t seem consistent.”

His convenience stores were allowed to stay open.

“I’ve been a business owner for 30-plus years,” he said. “You put your heart and soul into it. If someone said, ‘You have to shut your doors,’ I’d be devastated.

“If people followed social distancing at my store. Why couldn’t they do that at a T.J. Maxx?”

DeVoy said some people don’t understand how badly a closure can hurt a business. Companies continued to have some of their expenses, but didn’t have money coming in.

He objected to what he considers overly generous unemployment benefits that were paid during the pandemic through a $600-per-week federal enhancement. That boost has expired, and has been replaced by a $300 increase.

DeVoy, whose businesses pay $10-an-hour, said high unemployment benefits act as a disincentive for laid-off workers to seek new jobs and this has made it hard for employers to fill open positions.

More generally, DeVoy said there needs to be welfare reform.

“Welfare reform should encourage people to work,” he said. “It just troubles me when employees say they have to stop working or cut hours or they will lose more in benefits than they would make.”

He opposed a decision to use a vacant building at the old State School property in Laconia as a place to quarantine homeless people with COVID-19.

DeVoy and fellow county commissioner, Hunter Taylor, sent a letter to Sununu and Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Shibinette, expressing concern that the plan could increase the risk of infection locally and stress Lakes Region General Hospital.

The county’s infection rate stayed low and only small numbers of people were ever brought to the facility. One police officer who worked shifts at the State School did test positive for COVID-19, although it was not clear where he contracted the virus.

In his time as county commissioner, DeVoy has been a proponent of the CORE program, which provides treatment and recovery services to people at risk of incarceration because of substance abuse.

The opioid epidemic has touched people close to him. His brother and two cousins had drug-related deaths.

Over the last year, DeVoy has watched as the county became embroiled in a controversy at the sheriff’s department.

There have been three personnel investigations involving the former No. 2 man at the department, David Perkins. A law firm charged the county $35,000 for the final investigation.

Sheriff Mike Moyer and county officials have never explained why Perkins became the subject of the investigations or why he was suspended with pay for six months before he retired June 19 after 18 years with the department.

DeVoy and County Attorney Andrew Livernois say there’s been no indication of impropriety, but Commissioner Taylor said more information needs to be released so the public can understand what occurred.

Perkins became the subject of the personnel investigations after raising questions about the integrity of the Sheriff's Department's Drug Task Force.

DeVoy lives in Sanbornton and is married with two children. He is an Army veteran, who retired as a colonel.

He got his undergraduate degree at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, was active duty Army for four years, leaving as a captain, before joining the National Guard and serving another 26 years.

He holds a Master of Business Administration from Plymouth State University and is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College, with a master’s degree in strategic studies.