Dear Citizen for Limited Taxation;
Some CLT activists are working on the ongoing “Tank the
Automatic Gas Tax Hikes” petition drive this fall. CLT has
offered to assist the sponsoring organization as much as
possible. Those who want to collect or organize collection of
many signatures, or work at the malls that the Tank the
Automatic Gas Tax Hikes campaign has reserved, can
email us and we’ll pass
along your offer. If there are two of you working together at a
mall, it’s actually a fun way to get signatures.
If
you can’t make a big effort but want to help out with signatures
on one petition in your city/town, you can download a copy of
the petition below. Please carefully follow the instructions for
downloading and printing your copy: It has to be done exactly
right. In the printable PDF file below along with a copy of the
petition you’ll also find instructions and tips for petitioning,
and a simple Q&A about the issue.
This
petition repeals one outrageous part of the new gas tax hike
law: the part that creates an automatic annual increase in the
gas tax.
The
new law links the Massachusetts gas tax to the Consumer Price
Index (CPI): as inflation rises, so does the tax – from its
present 24 cents per gallon to infinity and beyond.
The
Legislature made it automatic at the beginning of every year
after 2014, after the next election, so that legislators would
never again have to vote for a gas tax increase. Our taxes will
go up, but you’ll never see a roll call vote letting you know
how your legislators voted. We call this “taxation without
representation.” An
Eagle Tribune editorial explains that “it frees cowardly
legislators from having to stand up and be counted to raise the
gas tax again....”
If
the CPI goes down you will still be paying at least 24 cents per
gallon! The legislature capped the minimum you will pay, but
they did not cap the maximum; there is no upper limit.
This
new policy is directly aimed at the working poor and middle
class. It will not only increase the cost of commuting to work,
but it will also hike the costs of food and clothing that are
delivered by gas-powered vehicles. Remember, 24 cents is just
the state’s gas tax. It doesn’t include the federal gas tax.
If
this automatic tax hike law isn’t opposed by voters, the
Legislature would well be encouraged to pass automatic increases
in the income and sales taxes too. Why not? No politician likes
to be on record supporting a tax hike of any kind. If they get
away with this one, they can also pass a law saying that other
taxes will automatically increase with inflation, no roll call
vote necessary.
Voters can end this taxation without representation by passing a
ballot question in November 2014. The first step in the process
is collecting 100,000 signatures this fall.
CLICK
HERE FOR YOUR PETITION AND INSTRUCTIONS
Volunteers Invited and Needed
Tank The Gas
Tax petitioners will be at the following locations collecting
signatures
CLICK
HERE FOR LOCATIONS
