NEWS RELEASE
Thursday, May 23, 2003
Senate budget, taxes disguised as “fees”
The Senate Ways & Means Committee budget is impressive in many ways, and an improvement over the House effort. Unless we are missing something, we find better priorities, more reform, less cuts in direct services, and no increases in income, sales or property taxes.
Unfortunately the overall effect is spoiled by outrageous new taxes that call themselves fees without even trying to fit the legal definition. Legitimate fees are better than taxes, though it is hard to support even legitimate new fees on top of the 5th highest per capita tax burden in the country.
We refer you to Emerson College vs. the City of
Boston, which can be found on the CLT website.
This state Supreme Judicial Court case determined that fees are charged for particular government services which benefit the parties paying the fee; are paid by choice in that one can forego the service, and; are collected not to raise revenues but to compensate the government entity providing the service for its expense.
Budget language makes it clear that the purpose of some new fees is to raise revenues for
"the general fund" (eg, firearms fees, Outside Section 439-444),
not just to cover the cost of the service.
The homeowner’s insurance tax provides no service to the insurance company, much less to the homeowner that we don’t already get from our property tax payment, and is given to municipal entities that are already being paid for the service by property taxes.
The fact that part of the payment goes to fire departments brings it directly into conflict with
Emerson, which was a ruling against the city of Boston for charging a "fee" for fire services. This will make it a perfect “fee” for another lawsuit.
With this clear and obvious example, we should be able to get a clarified definition of fees that will also wipe out many of the other examples of taxes parading as such (eg., the nursing home bed tax and prescription drug tax), and prevent the many other taxes that will follow this growing violation if left unchallenged.
Before the Legislature adds costs to the budget dependant upon these fragile “fees,” it should weigh the odds on keeping them.
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