NEWS RELEASE
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Not Born Last Night
Citizens for Limited Taxation, which, new reporters
should be aware, partnered with former Governor Paul Cellucci in
placing the income tax rollback on the 2000 ballot, is not celebrating
victory today.
The "temporary" income tax hike of 1989 is seventeen years old next
month. On the 2000 ballot, the voters ordered the rate to be returned
to 5% by 2003. The House budget says it will return there over two
years after the Department of Revenue does a study, the intent of
which no doubt was to delay the rollback but in fact, could have
happened fairly quickly if the Senate passed the same language.
Instead, the Senate budget used the ploy of delaying a three year
phasedown the rollback until a certain level of local aid is reached.
Taxpayers lost ground yesterday.
We'll see what comes out of the budget conference committee. We remind
everyone that one of the two versions or a combination of the two must
be part of the final budget; they cannot add anything new or drag out
the rollback schedule any further.
We suspect that advocates of local aid shouldn't be celebrating
either. They have actually hurt their chances for an increase because
legislative leaders will make sure that the amount to municipalities
that triggers the rollback is never reached.
Once again, voters have been slapped in the face; this time without
dissent, with a unanimous 39-0 vote of the Senate.
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