Advocates for the latest
attempt to impose a Graduated Income Tax persistently assert
that additional revenue from their "tax the rich" scheme will be
dedicated to "quality public education and affordable public
colleges and universities, and for the repair and maintenance of
roads, bridges and public transportation."
This is nothing but a ruse, a
deception. They are attempting to dupe uninformed voters with a
lie.
They quietly added "subject to
appropriation by the Legislature" — because initiative petitions
are constitutionally prohibited from appropriating money. They
can just as honestly promise a unicorn for every family, a pot
of gold at the end of every rainbow — "subject to appropriation
by the Legislature"!
All revenue that comes into the
state treasury flows into the state's general fund, from which
the Legislature alone makes appropriations to fund government.
The tax-borrow-and-spend cabal cannot honestly make any promises
of how or where that new revenue — or any revenue — would be
spent.
Saying otherwise is clearly a
deception, a lie, a scam.
The redirected misuses of
"dedicated revenue" are legion. One example was recently
reported by the State House News Service (Oct. 12, 2015, "Sliver
of gas tax indexing survived repeal effort"), specifically the
underground storage tank fee tacked onto the gas tax:
"Though it is
characterized as paying for cleanups of fuel spills at
gas stations, the money raised from the fee was
redirected from the special cleanup fund under Gov. Mitt
Romney in 2003 and now goes into the Commonwealth
Transportation Fund, according to Stephen Dodge, a
lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute."
This redirection of that
"dedicated revenue" alone costs taxpayers about $85 million per
year, according to Dodge.
CLT has led campaigns against
such attempts to impose unfair, unequal taxation before; past
Grad Tax assaults have been defeated by the voters every time;
in 1962, 1968, 1972, 1976, and 1994. If necessary we're ready to
take on a sixth assault.
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