During his campaign for governor, Deval
Patrick got away with a vague promise of property tax relief
– no details, just a campaign promise, but it worked; many
people say they voted for him because of that pledge.
Once elected, he offered "property tax
relief" in return for a meals tax.
When that didn’t catch on, he switched to "property
tax relief" in return for taxpayer sign-off on casino
gambling.
Wake up, everyone.
There IS no property tax relief.
Voters got scammed last fall, and are again
being scammed now.
The new proposal, as nearly as we can
understand its convolutions, is to share some of the casino
revenues with certain taxpayers through an income tax break,
similar to the existing Circuit Breaker.
If someone pays more than 2.5% of one’s income in
property tax, he can get a tax credit on his income tax.
This is not property tax relief.
It’s an income tax cut.
For me it would be $300/year, roughly twice what I’d
be getting if the governor just honored the voters’ income
tax rollback; or, as liberals like to say, a small "pizza
a week."
Or, as municipal officials like to say, that’s less
local aid to be shared with cities and towns, which some
imply would result in lower property taxes but which would
more likely be spent on public employee benefits instead.
Why is it that to some people, any tax cut
requires new revenue instead of efficiencies and spending
reductions?
As the creators of Proposition 2½, we
know what "property tax relief" means:
An actual property tax cut, up front and personal.
Lower the rate, or give a property tax abatement to
us all; then negotiate the next local aid amount while
passing a bill containing public employee benefit reforms,
the end of city or town paid police details, and other long
overdue spending reductions.
Short of that, stop insulting our
intelligence about "property tax relief."
Scam us once, shame on you. Scam us twice, shame on
us.