State House News Service
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Coalition looks to ‘create a drumbeat’ behind new taxes
By Kyle Cheney and Jim O’Sullivan
Emboldened by the electorate’s rejection this month of an income tax
repeal, a broad coalition of human service advocates, organized
labor, and community groups is mobilizing to lay the political
groundwork for major tax increases, confident that Beacon Hill will
join them in seeking new revenues.
Lawmakers joined a meeting of roughly 65 people in Boston Wednesday
night, just two weeks after the election, to discuss outreach and
education, emphasizing the need for new monies to maintain public
infrastructure and programs.
“I’m
talking about comprehensive tax reform,” said Judy Meredith, a
veteran human services lobbyist who is organizing the campaign.
“Let’s look at the income tax, let’s look at the sales tax, let’s
look at a lot of the corporate and business taxes.”
The
campaign, incorporating some of the state’s most progressive power
centers, comes as Beacon Hill entertains a broad menu of new revenue
sources, including toll hikes, gas tax increases, higher registry
fees, and expanded gambling. Job loss has accelerated, with the
state disclosing Thursday that October’s job loss was the steepest
since March 2005. The state has netted 12,500 new jobs since January
2007, when Gov. Deval Patrick, who pledged to add 100,000 jobs
during his four-year term, took office, replacing Mitt Romney.
Separately today, economists predicted a net loss of 135,000 jobs in
Massachusetts before a recovery begins in mid-2010. The down economy
has significantly widened gaps between state spending and revenues.
Meredith
said the group was intentionally avoiding deciding on specific
proposals, instead hoping to build the political will behind new
revenues, apparently aside from a separate movement blossoming
within the Legislature to raise the gas tax.
“We’re
not going to put a tax package together,” she said. “Somebody’s
going to put a tax package together – the governor, the Legislature,
somebody.”
The 5.3
percent state income tax generates $12.5 billion and the sales tax
brings in $4.1 billion. Combined, the two bring in nearly
four-fifths of all state tax dollars. Total state tax collections
4.5 months into this fiscal year are up 0.2 percent over the same
period last fiscal year, significantly below the initial estimate of
3.8 percent.
Meredith
said state Sen. Patricia Jehlen, Senator-elect James Eldridge, and
Rep. Denise Provost attended the Wednesday night meeting, at the
Service Employees International Union offices in Boston.
Coalition for Social Justice co-director Debra Fastino said
attendees discussed changing the image of government in the eyes of
citizens as a way to make a tax increase more palatable, should one
become necessary. She added, however, that when it comes to new
taxes, “I don’t think anyone wants to talk about them publicly right
now.”
“We’re
always looking for revenue, as well,” she said. “When we have to
discuss taxes with the general public, at least we have laid the
groundwork to some degree. We need to continue to educate people,
create a drumbeat.”
She said
attendees discussed promoting greater government transparency and
encouraging public officials to develop better relationships with
their constituents.
Tax and
government advocates are also aware that public opinion of
government is at a low ebb, with national leaders facing all-time
low approval ratings and a seemingly endless spate of misbehavior by
public officials, including allegations against elected officials,
driving perceptions of waste and corruption.
Not all
attendees were convinced that the meeting was a prelude to a call
for a tax increase, or whether it was simply a discussion of how to
educate people on the good work of government.
“It
wasn’t necessarily a sign of an appetite for new taxes,” said former
Sen. David Magnani, who leads the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network.
“The consensus that came out of it yesterday is that people do not
have a very good understanding of what government does for folks.”
Cortina
Vann, a community organizer with the Massachusetts Affordable
Housing Alliance, said she “might have missed a portion” of the
meeting but that she heard no clamoring for new taxes. She said
people talked largely about tactics that worked in defeating
Question 1 and encouraging a dialogue between lawmakers and
community groups.
Provost
said she had left the meeting early but came away with the
impression that there was no appetite among the general public for
tax increases. Meredith said she expected public sentiment to
develop favorably.
Magnani
said in a phone interview that there is a disconnect between
citizens and their government.
What
they hear about in the newspapers is generally negative and when
they walk down the street they don’t realize it was paved with tax
dollars. There’s just very, very little understanding,” he said. “If
there’s a homeless person not in front of their doorway, it may be
because some government shelter is caring for that person.”
Asked
about Meredith’s comments, Magnani said, “That’s kind of a step
ahead of where we went yesterday.”
“In
terms of broad-based taxes, the truth of the matter is it has to
make sense to people,” he said. “People have to believe that the
money is being well-used. That was my focus [at the meeting].”
Barbara Anderson, president [sic - executive director] of the Citizens for
Limited Taxation, said the renewed push for higher taxes should
have been expected in the wake of the Question 1’s defeat, by a
70-30 margin, on Nov. 4.
“The
voters screw up, and the politicians teach them a lesson,” she said.
“Although I’m beginning to doubt they’re teachable.”
A sales
tax increase would be unlikely because of the competitive pressure
from New Hampshire, which has no sales tax, Anderson said. And
property tax increases have repeatedly proved unpopular, as recent
efforts to override Proposition 2½ have seen general failure.
“The
argument will be to restore the 5.6 or the 5.95 (income tax) rate,
just as we keep talking about restoring the traditional 5 percent
rate,” Anderson predicted, referencing the rollback to 5 percent
that voters mandated in 2000 but which the Legislature froze in 2002
to deal with a fiscal crisis.
Going
back to employers, who were hit with a historic tax increase this
year, for more would likely prove equally difficult, Anderson said.
“I do
think that going after the business community after the business
community supported them on Question 1 would be a tad ungrateful, so
they’ll go where the money is,” she said. “And that’s the income
tax, unless we’re all unemployed.”
Meredith
said she expected that Gov. Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese
Murray, and House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi would decide among
themselves how to advance a tax hike.
“The
three of them are going to say, ‘OK, who’s going to do it first?’
This is where you’re looking for leadership,” said Meredith, whose
group worked with senior Patrick staff during the push against the
income tax repeal.
