New Hampshire Makes it Easy

Having lived in, and worked in, various locales, such as New York, London, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Greenwich, and other less-known spots, I continue to be impressed and encouraged with the ability to get things accomplished in the state of New Hampshire. It's just a user-friendly state, where you can actually get things done--in an efficient, timely and cost-effective manner.

Whether it be setting up a meeting with a state politician or regulator, or just your local town hall, it's just easy to get things done. Whereas most private citizens wouldn't even think of approaching someone at the state level, as it most assuredly would be a huge time sink, and the chance of successfully getting the answers you need, would be about the same as winning the lottery--not so in New Hampshire, where representatives at the state and local level literally want to be helpful to get you the answers and solutions to your questions and dilemmas.

I'll give you a few anecdotes...

A former client recently called, and asked for ideas on how to get his business more involved in the local community--it was a big, highly visible business in the city, and the two definitely had aligned interests in seeing the city, and its economy, prosper. Well, it just took one phone call to a state business advocacy department to tell them of the story, and that day, a call went to the business owner to see how they could work together to address the opportunity. I learned a couple days later, that the state entity had already set up an on-site meeting with the business owner, which included many state employees, and they were jointly developing a plan to get things done! Mind you, it took just a few weeks from initial phone call, to an assemblage of the relevant parties, to an action plan--I can tell you from experience, that that just doesn't happen in many jurisdictions.

On a more local level, at the end of 2017, I, like many within the US, inquired about pre-paying property taxes. On national TV, we saw people waiting in line for hours, just to ask their questions on the subject, only to be disappointed by the quality of the answers, or just the lack thereof. In my town, it was simply a function of walking into the town's tax assessor's office (it was a one-minute wait), where I was greeted by the tax assessor herself, and she simply said, "Hi Scott. How can I help you?" Whoa, this is crazy, the tax assessor knows me by name! (Not sure that this is a good thing, but where else do you get this level of treatment?) We discussed the situation, and she even put a call into the state revenue department to seek clarification on a couple of more technical tax questions I had from her. Within ten minutes, I had all my questions answered, and I was on my way.

Sticking to the local level, I had a couple of old guns, which had belonged to my dad, which I didn't use, and which I didn't have a desire to keep. I brought them to the local police station (unloaded of course) to inquire as to what to do with them. The officer, in a very helpful manner, suggested what the paths of action could be for unwanted guns, and I walked away with an action plan. Later that afternoon, the officer called me on the phone, and told me that he had done some homework, and determined some details on when the guns were made, who manufactured them, and he had even gone to a gun website, to see what similar ones were selling for in the marketplace. Turns out they were relatively old and valuable. Long story, short, he went out of his way to be helpful, which he didn't need to do--he went the extra mile.

Last story... Yesterday, I had a meeting in Concord, our state capital. The ride there was easy, and traffic-free. I pulled up in front of the State Capitol building, and just parked there, right in front of the Capitol building in an open space on the street. Focused more on the meeting than the parking itself, I neglected to feed the meter and went in for a 2-hour meeting. It was a very productive meeting, and I got all of my questions answered, and an action plan was made clear. On my return, I saw that disheartening sight of a parking ticket placed under my wiper. I had goofed, and chastised myself for this lack of attention--and I knew it would cost dearly for my oversight. Upon opening the ticket envelope, I had to put on my glasses to read the fine print--the cost of the ticket was an outrageous (sic) $10. Next time I'll remember to feed the meter at $.75/hour.

While I could go on with numerous similar anecdotes, the takeaway is simply that New Hampshire is an easy place to live and work. Whether it be on the business front, seeking thoughts and feedback from state politicians, or simply making an inquiry with the local town department, the citizens and representatives of New Hampshire just go out of their way to be helpful, and that speaks a lot for our state community.