CLT UPDATE
Friday, April 24, 2009
The Bacon Hill taxing frenzy is upon us
Speak out now -- or forever
hold your peace!
House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo has
begun to seriously consider a plan to increase the
sales tax from 5 percent to 7 percent, which would give
Massachusetts one of the highest sales taxes in the country, said a
State House official who has been briefed on the speaker's
deliberations....
DeLeo is expected to present tax increase options to his leadership team
and committee chiefs during separate meetings
today. The meetings will help House members prepare over the
weekend for a budget debate Monday....
Increasing the sales tax from 5 percent to 6 percent would raise about
$750 million a year, according to some estimates. Raising it another
percentage point, to 7 percent could bring in a total of $1.5 billion in
new revenue per year, according to the estimates....
The House also is considering expanding the sales tax to cover gasoline,
instead of adopting Governor Deval Patrick's call for increasing the the
gas tax, which is currently 23.5 cents per gallon. Such a move would
give lawmakers the political benefit of avoiding votes to raise two
different taxes.
Eliminating the current sales-tax exemption on gasoline would raise up
to $400 million under current gasoline prices, according to
Representative Jay Kaufman, a Lexington Democrat and the House chairman
of the Committee on Revenue. That money would have to be earmarked for
transportation needs, Kaufman said.
The Boston Globe
Friday, April 24, 2009
Sales tax hike to 7 percent 'on the table'
Consensus builds for revenue booster
Asked yesterday which tax she might want to raise to close a
multibillion-dollar gap in next year’s state budget, Senate President Therese
Murray asked a group of reporters, “Anybody want to talk about Earth Day?”
It’s the hot-potato question all the top leaders on Beacon Hill are dodging this
week as the House approaches a final reckoning with the budget on
Monday.
At that time the House is scheduled to take up formal debate of proposals to
raise the gas, sales or income tax or accept deep cuts to local aid and hundreds
of local programs and state services starting July 1....
“Right now I would lean more to the income tax,” [Rep. John J. Binienda,
D-Worcester] said, arguing that an increase from the 5.3 percent rate to 5.6
percent might be the most fair. “With that you are at least taxing the people
who are working and not so much the ones who cannot afford it.”
On Monday, “what we are going to see for the
first time in a long time is good old-fashioned debate on the House floor,”
[Rep. Robert Spellane, D-Worcester] said. He said House leaders have not
formally discussed a tax plan, but advocacy groups are flooding lawmakers with
appeals to restore funds in the budget. He said low-wage-earning Health and
Human Service workers want to avoid a doubling of their health care contribution
from 15 percent to 30 percent.
“What I am gathering is that it seems most people are receptive to a modest
sales tax increase, of 1 or 2 cents,” Mr. Spellane said of House colleagues.
The Telegram & Gazette
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Sales tax increase idea is hot potato
Lawmakers struggle to find palatable revenue options
Sure tax talk is on everyone’s lips these days but the talk
we’re hearing centers around not wanting to raise taxes on strapped families and
businesses during the worst economic downturn in decades.
Ah, but 40 people showed up at the State House on Wednesday to demonstrate in
favor of raising taxes to finance government spending - a “rally” that was
featured prominently in The Boston Globe. (The same newspaper that didn’t
send anyone to cover the anti-tax rallies that drew more than 1,000 people in
Boston last week.) ...
We are in for considerable pain, but lawmakers shouldn’t make it even worse. And
they ought not confuse the campaign by a minority of individuals with anything
resembling widespread support for new taxes.
A Boston Herald editorial
Friday, April 24, 2009
No tidal surge on taxes
Looking down the barrel of a nearly $4 billion deficit, some
unrepentant House lawmakers are still fighting to stuff next year’s budget with
every last shred of pork.
Where is the shame?
The Boston Herald
Friday, April 24, 2009
Eyeing earmarks in ‘tourist trap’
By Julie Mehegan
[Haverhill City] Councilor Mary Ellen Daly O'Brien complained
this week that the city's legislators — state Reps. Brian Dempsey, Harriett
Stanley and Barbara L'Italien and Sen. Steven Baddour — are not, "working for
the things we need. Let's get (them) in here to explain to us why they are not
giving us the tools we need as a city to survive," she said.
But moments later, while it may have been inadvertent, she offered the perfect
explanation. "An override or debt exclusion won't pass," she said. "People
aren't in the mood for more taxes, but they still want us to finish the high
school renovation, they want quality education for our children, good roads and
public safety."
What part of her own words — "People aren't in the mood for more taxes" — do she
or other councilors not understand? Do they think people are in the mood for one
kind of tax over another? ...
Besides that, they have seen little willingness by the city's public employee
unions to make significant sacrifices to cut spending and thereby preserve
services.
Taxpayers are demanding "reform before revenue (taxes)" at the state level. They
are demanding the same thing at the local level. Local residents will not be in
the mood for more taxes until they see some serious reform.
An Eagle-Tribune editorial
Friday, April 24, 2009
Public in no mood for new taxes
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
The Bacon Hill taxing
frenzy is running wild, off the tracks, beyond belief even for here!
If you don't want
Taxachusetts to become the highest taxed state in the nation, contact
your state representative and senator
immediately. Tell then "Not One Cent More" in taxes
from you!
Not two cents more for the
sales tax -- a forty percent hike -- not even one cent -- a twenty
percent rip-off. "Not One Cent More!"
Never mind hiking the
income tax -- roll it back to 5 percent as promised in 1989 -- as the
voters demanded in 2000!
"Not One Cent More!"
And what's this about
adding a sales tax to the cost of gasoline? There's already
a tax on it -- the gas tax! A sales tax on gas would be a
tax on a tax!
"Not One Cent More!"
We're already paying more
than too much in taxes.
Don't let them tax you even
more!
Act now -- call your legislators
immediately -- or forever hold
your peace . . .
It's time to contact your state representative and
senator.
Tell them "Not one cent more" in taxes!
Tell them you already pay more than too much.
>> FIND YOUR STATE REPRESENTATIVE & SENATOR HERE <<
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Chip Ford |
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The Boston Globe
Friday, April 24, 2009
Sales tax hike to 7 percent 'on the table'
Consensus builds for revenue booster
By Matt Viser
House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo has begun to seriously consider a plan to
increase the sales tax from 5 percent to 7 percent, which would give
Massachusetts one of the highest sales taxes in the country, said a
State House official who has been briefed on the speaker's
deliberations.
"It's something that's on the table," the official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to speak on the record, said DeLeo has not come to a final
conclusion. But sentiment has built in the House for taking just one
conclusive vote on a tax increase instead of subjecting representatives
to multiple tax votes, so House leaders are narrowing in on one,
broad-based tax hike that could produce enough revenue to avoid the need
for more votes later.
Increasing the sales tax from 5 percent to 6 percent would raise about
$750 million a year, according to some estimates. Raising it another
percentage point, to 7 percent could bring in a total of $1.5 billion in
new revenue per year, according to the estimates.
Several other states have a 7 per cent sales tax, including Rhode
Island, New Jersey, and Mississippi. California, in response to its own
budget crisis, has raised its sales tax a percentage point, to 8.25
percent.
Associated Industries of Massachusetts, which represents businesses
across the state, released a statement yesterday urging lawmakers not to
raise taxes. It called tax increases "exactly the wrong solution to
budget challenges facing the Commonwealth."
It said higher taxes would discourage investment and job growth and
exacerbate budget shortfalls for state government.
DeLeo is expected to present tax increase options to his leadership team
and committee chiefs during separate meetings today. The meetings will
help House members prepare over the weekend for a budget debate Monday.
"We're hoping that they come up with a package in this leadership
meeting that they can support," said Representative Matt Patrick, a
Falmouth Democrat who has advocated for several different tax increases.
"It's good to know that they're open to new sources of revenue."
Rank-and-file lawmakers have filed a range of proposed amendments to the
$27.4 billion House budget that would increase taxes. The proposals
include raising the meals tax from 5 percent to 8 percent, raising the
gas tax by 25 cents per gallon, and increasing the state's income tax
from 5.3 percent to 6.3 percent.
Some business groups have said they are opposed to sales tax increases,
saying families and small businesses cannot afford it. But until
yesterday's statement from Associated Industries of Massachusetts,
organized opposition by business leaders has been notably absent.
The House also is considering expanding the sales tax to cover gasoline,
instead of adopting Governor Deval Patrick's call for increasing the the
gas tax, which is currently 23.5 cents per gallon. Such a move would
give lawmakers the political benefit of avoiding votes to raise two
different taxes.
Eliminating the current sales-tax exemption on gasoline would raise up
to $400 million under current gasoline prices, according to
Representative Jay Kaufman, a Lexington Democrat and the House chairman
of the Committee on Revenue. That money would have to be earmarked for
transportation needs, Kaufman said. If the sales tax is extended to
gasoline, then House leaders would be unlikely to seek the full 2-cent
increase, the official briefed on DeLeo's deliberations said.
Lawmakers have been cool to Governor Deval Patrick's proposal to raise
the gas tax by 19 cents, which would raise about $500 million.
While he continues to send signals that he is willing to raise taxes,
DeLeo has not come out clearly in support.
DeLeo said earlier this week that he was "open-minded" about raising the
sales tax, as he was with other ideas.
He and Senate President Therese Murray have said that the only tax
increase that is off limits would be a hike in the state income tax.
"I don't really have a sense yet of where there might be a proposition
that is going to get a majority vote," Kaufman said yesterday in an
interview. "There are a lot of ideas out there.
"But that doesn't make for a package that will get a majority," he said.
The Telegram & Gazette
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Sales tax increase idea is hot potato
Lawmakers struggle to find palatable revenue options
By John J. Monahan
Asked yesterday which tax she might want to raise to close a
multibillion-dollar gap in next year’s state budget, Senate President
Therese Murray asked a group of reporters, “Anybody want to talk about
Earth Day?”
It’s the hot-potato question all the top leaders on Beacon Hill are
dodging this week as the House approaches a final reckoning with the
budget on Monday.
At that time the House is scheduled to take up formal debate of
proposals to raise the gas, sales or income tax or accept deep cuts to
local aid and hundreds of local programs and state services starting
July 1.
Ms. Murray, D-Plymouth, joked about wanting to change the subject. But
she went on to say that while she does not support a hike in the income
tax rate, all other tax proposals, including a sales tax increase, are
“on the table.”
Mr. Patrick said he has called for targeted tax increases with a gas tax
dedicated to transportation funding and an expansion of the sales tax to
alcoholic beverages, soda and candy for a wellness fund for health care
programs. “That is where I am at,” Mr. Patrick said.
But the governor did not rule out going along with a sales or income tax
hike, saying he was playing his cards close to the vest for now.
“I have partners,” he said of expected negotiations with Ms. Murray and
House Speaker Robert E. DeLeo. “I want to engage with them directly,
rather than, with all due respect, through the media. We have not talked
about this in any depth.”
Mr. DeLeo said Tuesday he is open to a sales tax increase, but it was
unclear yesterday whether rank-and-file House members are ready for such
a big tax move in the midst of a deepening recession.
Ms. Murray warned that taxes alone will not solve the current fiscal
crisis. Because the House budget proposal is based on revenue
projections from December, before a deterioration in monthly tax
collections set in, the budget problems are worse than indicated by the
budget plan before the House, she said.
“It is not based on reality,” she said of the $19.53 billion in revenues
the House budget assumes for next year. “No matter what tax you
increase, you are not going to fill in the holes. It’s just too deep.”
Meanwhile, House members appeared divided on the tax question, with no
clear consensus on restoring funds cut from the budget, or which tax
increases, if any, could gain majority support.
Rep. John J. Binienda, D-Worcester, said he has filed amendments to
restore funding for Dismas House, Centro Las Americas, the South
Worcester Neighborhood program, and Martin Luther King Jr. Business
Empowerment Center, saying they are “proven programs” in Worcester that
should not lose state funding as proposed in the House budget.
Still, he said, raising taxes may prove difficult in the current
economic climate. A sales tax hike from 5 percent to 6 percent, or 7
percent as some House members have proposed, would push more people to
shop in New Hampshire to avoid taxes, sending more state revenues and
jobs over the border, he said. The same thing would happen, he said,
with expanding the current sales tax to alcohol.
“Right now I would lean more to the income tax,” Mr. Binienda said,
arguing that an increase from the 5.3 percent rate to 5.6 percent might
be the most fair. “With that you are at least taxing the people who are
working and not so much the ones who cannot afford it.”
Rep. Vincent A. Pedone, D-Worcester, said he does not support any tax
hikes at this point. “We should present a budget that allows us to live
within our means and deliver appropriate services,” he said, adding that
the public wants to reduce spending in areas they see as bloated. He
said the public is sending a message they do not want the state to raise
taxes.
“There needs to be a fundamental realignment of how we deliver
services,” Mr. Pedone said. He said if lawmakers want to restore funds
for police education bonuses under the Quinn Bill, which would cost $51
million, or millions more to support the Cummings School of Veterinary
Medicine at Tufts University, or the advanced math and science program
at WPI for area high school students, then cuts should be made in other
areas of the budget to afford them.
Rep. Jennifer M. Callahan, D-Sutton, complained that House leaders have
not closely examined the impact of tax increases they may propose on
Monday.
“I don’t think a handful of legislators should make that decision behind
closed doors and drop it on us next week and tell us we are going to do
the sales tax,” she said. “I think at this point in time it does no one
a service to speculate about a broad-based tax without having all the
cards on the table.” After an initial decision next week, the House may
also be asked to vote in the following weeks to raise other taxes such
as the local meals and telecom taxes, and the gasoline tax, she said.
Rep. Robert Spellane, D-Worcester, said it is clear revenues will fall
below the current budget assumptions.
He said he would support a 1- or 2-cent sales tax increase, but only if
it is made clear what programs would be salvaged, and that some of the
funds are dedicated to a reserve account to avoid repeated budget cuts
and tax increases as the fiscal year unfolds.
On Monday, “what we are going to see for the first time in a long time
is good old-fashioned debate on the House floor,” Mr. Spellane said. He
said House leaders have not formally discussed a tax plan, but advocacy
groups are flooding lawmakers with appeals to restore funds in the
budget. He said low-wage-earning Health and Human Service workers want
to avoid a doubling of their health care contribution from 15 percent to
30 percent.
“What I am gathering is that it seems most people are receptive to a
modest sales tax increase, of 1 or 2 cents,” Mr. Spellane said of House
colleagues.
The Boston Herald
Friday, April 24, 2009
A Boston Herald editorial
No tidal surge on taxes
Can you feel it, taxpayers?
Can you feel the momentum building for a tax increase out there in the
commonwealth?
Funny . . . we don’t really feel it either.
Sure tax talk is on everyone’s lips these days but the talk we’re
hearing centers around not wanting to raise taxes on strapped families
and businesses during the worst economic downturn in decades.
Ah, but 40 people showed up at the State House on Wednesday to
demonstrate in favor of raising taxes to finance government spending - a
“rally” that was
featured prominently in The Boston Globe. (The same newspaper that
didn’t send anyone to cover the anti-tax rallies that drew more than
1,000 people in Boston last week.)
Meanwhile lawmakers appear to be “discussing” the possibility of raising
the sales tax. And despite his distaste for that, Gov. Deval Patrick -
whose proposals for higher taxes on candy, alcohol and sugary beverages
have been met with blank stares - hasn’t absolutely ruled out signing a
sales tax hike if it lands on his desk.
So there’s your big surge.
The truth of the matter is that the House generated a great deal of good
will among most worried taxpayers when it filed a budget plan that
showed the commonwealth, for once, living within its (admittedly meager)
means. And legislative leaders have correctly pointed out that there is
simply no way - no way - to tax our way out of this mess.
“No matter what tax you increase, it’s not going to fill the hole,”
Senate President Therese Murray said. “It’s just too deep.”
We are in for considerable pain, but lawmakers shouldn’t make it even
worse. And they ought not confuse the campaign by a minority of
individuals with anything resembling widespread support for new taxes.
The Boston Herald
Friday, April 24, 2009
Eyeing earmarks in ‘tourist trap’
By Julie Mehegan
Looking down the barrel of a nearly $4 billion deficit, some unrepentant
House lawmakers are still fighting to stuff next year’s budget with
every last shred of pork.
Where is the shame?
Sure, it was a pleasant surprise, given Beacon Hill’s usual
free-spending ways, to discover that House leaders had filed a budget
plan that was virtually earmark-free and spared no one - not the
powerful police unions, not state employees, not county sheriffs - from
sharing in the sacrifice.
Even the tourism line item - a traditional hiding spot for legislative
bacon - was unrecognizable.
Last year that infamous line item 7007-0900 stretched on for a full
seven pages. This year, in the House plan, it is a single paragraph.
Sort of sends a message, doesn’t it?
Indeed, House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Ways and Means Committee Chairman
Charles Murphy (D-Burlington) could not have made it any clearer to the
rank-and-file members that there is no room whatsoever for extras in
next year’s budget.
But too many individual members apparently believe that’s just for show.
Because among the nearly 1,000 budget amendments filed by the April 18
deadline, a whole passel of them seek “tourism” set-asides - many of
which have nothing to do with tourism, and that taxpayers can’t afford.
Rep. Stephen Smith (D-Everett) wants to jack the tourism bottom line by
$300,000 to include, among other projects, improvement of Everett’s
recreational playing fields. Because why get parents or local businesses
to pitch in when you can bill it to beleaguered taxpayers.
Moving down to the Cape, where taxpayers expect to invest a fair sum in
tourism promotion, Reps. Sarah Peake (D-Provincetown) and Matthew
Patrick (D-Falmouth) are looking for a $50,000 earmark - not for
whale-watch boats or a sailboat festival, but for the “Cape Cod Junior
Technology Council.”
And the roof of the historic Mendon town hall needs repair. So Rep. John
Fernandes (D-Milford) filed a request for $250,000 in, yep, tourism
spending for that task. He wants another $17,100 earmark to buy a
message board sign for the Hopedale Police Department. Surely the tour
buses will be lined up to check it out.
True, a lot of this is playacting. Reps file amendments knowing they
will go nowhere but they can tell the town officials and the voters back
home, “I did my best.”
But whatever happened to the concept of leading by example - especially
in a crisis?
Repeat - there is a possible $4 billion difference between projected
state revenues and what Beacon Hill would normally plan to spend in
fiscal 2010. And yet Reps. Katherine Clark and Mark Falzone think it’s
just fine to put in for a quarter of a million dollars for performing
arts promotion . . . in Wakefield.
Amendments seeking tax increases or the restoration of deep spending
cuts are one thing. Their sponsors can credibly argue that they disagree
with the budget priorities laid out by House leadership. But too many
others just represent parochial cluelessness.
Debate on the House budget begins on Monday. In this round the buck
stops with Murphy and DeLeo, and taxpayers had better pray the two of
them have practiced the art of saying “No.”
The Eagle-Tribune
Friday, April 24, 2009
An Eagle-Tribune editorial
Public in no mood for new taxes
The Haverhill City Council wants to call the city's state legislative
delegation on the carpet to ask them why a law allowing an increase in
the meals tax hasn't been passed yet.
But it is a question they've already answered themselves.
Councilor Mary Ellen Daly O'Brien complained this week that the city's
legislators — state Reps. Brian Dempsey, Harriett Stanley and Barbara
L'Italien and Sen. Steven Baddour — are not, "working for the things we
need. Let's get (them) in here to explain to us why they are not giving
us the tools we need as a city to survive," she said.
But moments later, while it may have been inadvertent, she offered the
perfect explanation. "An override or debt exclusion won't pass," she
said. "People aren't in the mood for more taxes, but they still want us
to finish the high school renovation, they want quality education for
our children, good roads and public safety."
What part of her own words — "People aren't in the mood for more taxes"
— do she or other councilors not understand? Do they think people are in
the mood for one kind of tax over another?
It is a bit disingenuous to blame their state legislators for not
raising taxes if they are unwilling to try to raise them themselves.
Surely they know there are several proposals now pending at the
Statehouse to raise the meals tax. The reason those have not passed is
the same reason Daly O'Brien gave for the prospects of an override —
people are not in the mood for more taxes.
Yes, people do want good schools, good roads and safe streets. But many
of them also want or need new cars, additions to their homes, nice
vacations and better clothes. And they are putting those things on hold
because they can't afford them right now. They expect their government
to do the same.
Besides that, they have seen little willingness by the city's public
employee unions to make significant sacrifices to cut spending and
thereby preserve services.
Taxpayers are demanding "reform before revenue (taxes)" at the state
level. They are demanding the same thing at the local level. Local
residents will not be in the mood for more taxes until they see some
serious reform.
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