EvMick@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 5/30/99 4:25:18 AM Central Daylight Time,
> sasha1@netcom.com writes:
>
> >
> > I was recently surprised to learn that hitch-hiking is now
> > ILLEGAL in the "free" state of New York
>
> As many on this list know...I'm a trucker.
>
> Many truckers call the Northeast the "communist" states...some...such as
> myself...refuse to go there.
>
Yes, New York and Southern New England are very high tax, highly regulatory, and trade protective. Vermont, while its one shining example of liberty is that you need no permit to carry concealed weapons, it has also passed state controlled health care systems, centralized the education funding tax system, has been the leader in the New England Dairy Compact, which maintains high milk prices and excludes non-regional milk, and infringed on the property rights of landowners to a great extent. New Hampshire is slowly becoming more like Massachusetts, especially the southeast portion. We've gone to a centralized property tax system for education funding and more and more gun restriction proposals come to votes in the legislature every year, despite their clear violation not only of the US Constitution, but Article 2a of the state constitution, which is even more clear than the US version.
Mike Lorrey