Governor’s Race 2006: Tax Issue
Yesterday (Labor Day) morning Barbara Anderson, CLT’s
executive director, joined Kerry Healey, Reed Hillman, and their
cheering supporters at a ballpark in Marlborough while the two
candidates signed a very large version of the Taxpayer Protection
Pledge, which states: I (Kerry Healey, Reed Hillman), pledge to the
taxpayers of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that I will oppose and
veto any and all efforts to increase taxes.
Good news for laboring people, for whom a tax increase is a pay cut.
The Republican candidates have also supported the income tax rollback
from the beginning, helping with the winning ballot campaign in 2000 –
the same year that Chris Gabrieli contributed thousands of dollars to
its opponents. Now, running for Governor, with polls showing that
Democrat primary voters support the rollback, Gabrieli has a plan: the
1989 promise, and the 2000 voter mandate, can be honored when the moon
is in the 7th house and Jupiter collides with Mars in a month with an R
in it.
The Legislature passed the "temporary" income tax hike in 1989 –
seventeen years ago. Voters passed a three-year rollback in 2000, which
the Legislature froze, "temporarily," in 2002. Tom Reilly opposed the
rollback until he began running for Governor, then converted to a
tax-cutter. Halle-lovin’-lujah.
Giving credit where it’s due, at least Deval Patrick is honest: no
matter who promised what, no matter what the voters mandated six years
ago, he is not going to support rolling the income tax rate back to its
traditional 5 percent. He claims he is worried about property taxes.
So, as always, are we. Cities and towns spend their record amount of
local aid, increase their fixed costs and liabilities, then beg for
overrides to maintain the higher levels of spending. Meanwhile, high
taxes hurt the state economy and in a recession, businesses pay less and
homeowners pay more of the property tax share.
We don’t know which is more annoying, Reilly’s sudden and unbelievable
conversion, or Gabrieli’s pie in the sky, never gonna happen "plan." And
the Taxpayer Protection Pledge is not a gimmick, Deval. It’s a message
sent by candidates to the Legislature: don’t spend the state into
another fiscal crisis. Control yourselves, set priorities, do systemic
reforms – because in the next recession, you’ll need a two-thirds
rollcall vote to override the governor’s veto of the new taxes that
would be an easy way out at taxpayers’ expense.
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