Anyone Can Make A Difference

NewsMax reported yesterday that the initiative to stop the automatic gasoline tax increases in Massachusetts has made it onto the November ballot. The effort to get this on the ballot was a true grassroots effort.

The article reports:

Having secured a position on the fall ballot and with little money to propel it, the initiative to thwart an automatic rise in the gas tax by linking it to inflation could have an impact on other states if Bay State voters pass it this fall.

As Barbara Anderson, executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation, told Newsmax, “Any time a tax cut passes in blue-state Massachusetts, it gives hope to taxpayers everywhere. In other words, if we can do it, so can they.”

Veteran Massachusetts political consultant Holly Robichaud told Newsmax: “You have to remember that Massachusetts is the birthplace of the American Revolution and citizen outrage against ‘taxation without representation.’ And that’s about what happened here last year.”

She was referring to a vote in the overwhelmingly Democratic Massachusetts Legislature for a $500 million tax package. Buried within the package was the 3 cents per gallon tax increase. But far more significantly, the package also included language stating that the gas tax would now be linked to inflation.

“That means when inflation goes up, so does the gas tax — automatically, and without a vote by elected representatives,” Robichaud explained. “Theoretically, it could rise to infinity and beyond.”

Her view was strongly seconded by veteran tax battler Edward F. King, chairman of King Information Systems, founder of Citizens for Limited Taxation, and a Republican candidate for governor in 1978.

This is good news for Massachusetts residents, but it also an example of how ordinary citizens can undo the mischief that politicians do.

The article reports how it was done:

Although the potentially explosive linkage of the gas tax hike to inflation was largely ignored in the press, Robichaud, with her political ear to the ground, called a meeting at her Scituate home. Over Chinese food, activist Republicans, including former U.S. House candidate Marty Lamb, state Rep. Geoff Diehl, and GOP State Committeeman Steve Aylward plotted how to stop the tax link to inflation from becoming law.

Out of the meeting came language for a proposed statewide initiative that would not repeal the gas tax increase, but decouple it from inflation. As Robichaud explained, “We wanted the debate to be about automatic tax hikes. I think the debate on the principle is more important than 3 cents.”

Without this initiaitve (and hopefully a victory in November), the gas tax would have risen automatically without any legislator having to take responsibility for the increase–a politician’s dream and a taxpayer’s nightmare.

As The Economy Struggles To Remain Above Water Massachusetts Raises Taxes

The Massachusetts state Senate passed a bill last night that will raise taxes on the residents of Massachusetts about $500 million dollars. The taxes will take the form of increases in gasoline, cigarette, and corporate taxes. So tell me again why a business would want to relocate to Massachusetts?

The Boston Herald posted the story today. The article states:

The plan calls for raising the gas tax by 3 cents and tying future increases to inflation, increasing the cigarette tax by $1 perpack, imposing new taxes on computer system design services, allowing the MBTA to sell naming rights to stations and redirecting funds from other areas of the budget.

 The bill is a blow to Gov. Deval Patrick, who had been seeking $1.9 billion in new taxes for transportation and education. The House version of the bill also raises taxes by $500 million, but the Senate — after a veto threat — pulled money from other areas of the budget to bolster revenues closer to the $1 billion sought by Patrick. Last night, the governor seemed resigned to the diminished scope of the package.

 

Barbara Anderson, well known in Massachusetts for her work against tax hikes, posted the following on her Facebook page:

 

From media reports, the Senate Transportation bill that passed yesterday includes a 3-cent gas tax, a $1 tax on cigarettes, and $244 million in utility and business-related computer fees. Sen. Bob Hedlund, who appeared briefly at the rally during a Senate break, led the Republican effort to remove language indexing the gas tax to inflation beginning in 2015, but his amendment failed. Watch that tax on computer fees: very unfair to small businesses, and could be the beginning of expanding the sales tax to other services.

Raising taxes in less than ideal economic times is not a good idea. This move by the Senate will slow the growth of jobs and opportunity in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is not a good idea.

There is, however, something good in this tax bill (if it actually happens). The article in the Boston Herald reports:

The bill, which is designed to pour money into the highway system as well as the perennially cash-strapped T, includes two amendments that would pull the veil off the T’s pension system after years of scrutiny by lawmakers, judges and law enforcement — and a week of Herald reports.

Sen. William Brownsberger (D-Belmont) said he filed the legislation to make the MBTA Retirement Fund subject to the state’s public records law and require the board to post pensions payments on the state’s Open Checkbook website after he saw the Herald’s reports last week on the secretive pension system. He said he filed similar legislation about four years ago that failed to gain attention.

If the transparency actually occurs, it will be a good thing for the taxpayers of Massachusetts.

 

The Boston Globe Gets It Right

I live in Massachusetts. I don’t plan to live in Massachusetts too much longer as my husband will be retiring at the end of this year, and the Massachusetts tax structure does not make retirement here a reasonable option. Real estate taxes are high, the temporary increase in the rate of the state income tax has been with us for more than twenty years, and if the current governor has his way, things will only be getting worse.

Today’s Boston Globe posted an editorial by Barbara Anderson, executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation. The article is entitled, “Manage money from previous tax hikes first.” That pretty much says it all, but she goes on to explain what she means.

The article reminds us of some of the history of tax increase in Massachusetts:

In 1989, Governor Michael Dukakis returned from the presidential campaign trail and demanded tax hikes to fund a billion-dollar budget increase; supporters rallied at the State House, some of them dressed as giant crayons, to protest potential cuts to the arts. The legislative leadership was able to get the votes for the tax package only after promising that the new income tax rate, increased from 5 percent to 5.75 percent, would be temporary. The Legislature raised the rate again the next year, “temporarily,” to 6.25 percent.

…Instead, in 2011 a formula created in 2002 dropped the rate to 5.25 percent, where it remains — 24 years after the first “temporary” increase, and 12 years after the voters demanded a rollback to 5 percent.

Ms. Anderson further reminds us:

The Massachusetts tax burden is the fourth highest in the nation per capita, eighth highest relative to personal income. The state is not suffering from a lack of taxes; it is suffering from a lack of accountability for the taxes already paid. The ongoing scandal over electronic-benefits cards is a maddening example of this.

I think taxpayers in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts might be a little less grumpy about their tax rate if we didn’t routinely see stories about the Commonwealth’s waste of taxpayer money. Part of that waste is due to the fact that politicians like to spend other people’s money, but another part is the fault of the voters who keep electing the same people year after year. Until someone holds the Massachusetts legislature accountable, they will continue to be out of control. It also would help to have two viable political parties in the Commonwealth, but that may be a pipe dream!

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