But perhaps not much longer. Today, the Colonial-era legal imbroglio arrives at the US Supreme Court, where the justices will consider settling the issue once and for all. The case involves much more than just an esoteric exercise in map reading and interpretation of royal decrees. Maine is collecting from more than 1,300 New Hampshire residents working at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. The shipyard, where US nuclear submarines are built and overhauled, is located in disputed territory in Portsmouth Harbor, on an island within a stone's throw of Kittery, Maine.
Location is everything.
If the shipyard is in New Hampshire, Maine's income tax is void. If it is in Maine, it applies. Victor Bourre has spent the past 15 years combing through dusty deed books and historical tomes searching for clear evidence that the shipyard is in New Hampshire. I consider what Maine is doing as an illegal use of power. So, apparently, does the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office, which reviewed Bourre's findings and filed a petition with the Supreme Court.