On the last day of income tax return filing a number of protest actions against the tax took place in front of the Portsmouth Post Office as people rushed to get their forms in at the last moment.

Looking out the front door of the Post Office one could see, ironically, on the right side a member of the Libertarian party was protesting and on the left side a number of members of Seacoast Peace Response (SPR) were organized. But both had the same objective of raising the awareness of the public about federal income taxes and both agreed that we the people presently have taxation with illegal corporate representation.

The Libertarian, for the fourth year, was passing out copies of the NH constitution along with other information while chained to a ball that read "IRS."

Seacoast Peace Response was there to educate taxpayers about the large percentage of their money that goes to pay for military expenditures while needed programs at home in the US are underfunded or cut altogether.

"Our hard earned income is being used to support an immoral war. The money spent on the war in Iraq is needed for education, health care and social services here at home," stated Seacoast Peace Response member, Jamilla El-Shafei.

Jamilla came early in the morning with a large check indicating how much New Hampshire residents had sent to the government that was spent on military action in Afghanistan and Iraq. She also had information from the National Priorities Project showing that 39 cents on the tax dollar was spent on the military and its debt. Some estimates are even higher. War Resister's League research concludes that 48% of the 2006 US budget is to be spent on military (www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm). She said there had been a number of derogatory and hostile comments aimed at her.

Later in the morning Jeff White of SPR and NH War Tax Resistance arranged a "penny vote" where passersby were offered a number of pennies to place in jars to show where they felt the focus of government spending should be. Preliminary counts showed education an overwhelming favorite with military and homeland security at the bottom. Other high ranking areas included environment, alternative energy, health care and social services (see below for the penny poll results). The Portsmouth Herald and the Wire stopped by for photos and interviews.



In the afternoon, more SPR members arrived to help including David Diamond, Cal Ewing and Michael Murray. Later Pat Galloway and Wes Flierl brought some signs that graphically depicted the deathly results of the amount spent on war and the military.

The response was more favorable in the afternoon but there were still many that didn't want to know or hear the facts of how the government was spending their money.

Penny Poll Outcome:
Members of NH War Tax Resistance conducted an informal poll in front of the Portsmouth post office on tax day, April 15th to find out how NH taxpayers would like to see their taxes spent. People were asked how they would allocate their tax dollars if given the choice. Participants were given 20 pennies and told they could drop the pennies in any of ten glass jars, each representing a part of the Federal budget. After 8 hours the results of the penny poll demonstrated the inverse of how our tax dollars are actually spent. The results are as follows:

Total: 1322

Education = 315 pennies (24%)
Environment = 236 pennies (18%)
Alternative Energy = 216 pennies (16%)
Health care = 153 (12%)
Social Services = 122 (9%)
Veterans Benefits = 68 (5%)
Agriculture = 60 (5%)
Science & Technology = 57 (4%)
Military = 54 (4%)
Homeland Security =41 (3%)