CLT UPDATE
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
The greedy Gimme Lobby
is back for more
Over in Massachusetts, a movement of concerned
groups is promoting what they consider a solution to the state's
projected 1.8 billion dollar budget deficit raising taxes. WAMC's
Berkshire Bureau Chief Charlie Deitz reports on a bill that's
gaining momentum across the state.
An Act To Invest in Our Communities looks to
restore tax cuts administered over the last decade which some groups
say has been the cause of deteriorating social services. Judy
Meredith is the head of outreach at One Massachusetts, a public
policy advocacy group, she says Governor Patrick's plan to cut his
way out of a nearly 2 billion dollar gap is unsustainable at
best....
The main increase would be putting the state
income tax rate, which now stands at 5.3 percent to where it was
about a decade ago to 5.95 percent, but they've also included a
higher working class exemption to take the sting out of the
increase....
The proposal is being sponsored by Representative
Jim O'Day and Suffolk Senator Sonia Chang Diaz, who acknowledges
that raising taxes might seem like the third rail of politics right
now but with overlapping protests on Beacon Hill every day people
are starting to see some merit to the idea....
The bill has already found some big backers like
teachers unions, social workers and even Service Employees
International Union whose State Council Executive Director Harris
Gruman explains their position this way.
"We're living right now in a time when the first
time in US history the next generation is doing worse than the
current one."
Gruman says SEIU represents about 65 thousand
workers in Massachusetts, many of them low wage, so they'll be
feeling the cuts as the state runs out of stimulus money and federal
cuts to community service block grant funding....
The bill's 2 sponsors and dozen or so endorsers
hope to see the proposal hit the floor for debate before the final
budget is out on June 30th.
WAMC/Northeast Public Radio
Thursday, March 31, 2011
A Groundswell of Support for Raising Taxes
Moonbats are cheap. And they prove it again
every year at this time when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
gives them the chance to personally raise their own income
taxes.
Your average liberal would give an illegal
alien the shirt off your back. Not his back, but your back. Just
ask them. They sit in Starbucks and angrily blog about how
AmeriKKKans who work don’t pay their “fair share.”
They harrumph, what about the children? ...
So far this tax season, the state Department
of Revenue has received 1,971,000 returns.
And of those 1.971 million filers, exactly
862 have checked the box to pay at the old, higher 5.85 percent
rate rather than the current 5.3 percent rate.
That works out to approximately one-25th of
one percent of filers making the selfless gesture — somewhat
lower than the percentage of moonbats in the population,
wouldn’t you say? ...
Those 862 people ponied up an extra $69,188.
That works out to about $80 per person, which means their
average income is . . . $16,000....
Last year at this time, 1,077 hippies had
checked off the 5.85 percent box. That means 20 percent fewer
people are now willing to give up a little bit more so that our
illegal aliens can remain on welfare.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Liberals on the run from voluntary tax
By Howie Carr
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
Here they come at us again for another bite from
our wallets. The Gimme Lobby brigade and its government employment
unions are mustering again for another assault on taxpayers. More Is
Never Enough (MINE)!
We're still waiting for that 22-year old
"temporary" income tax hike to roll back to its traditional 5
percent -- despite a resounding ballot question win eleven years ago
to drag it back down -- "frozen temporarily" two years later. Still
the leeches and bloodsuckers continue to trash democracy and the
vote. They are determined to take our money and our vote away.
If you're not familiar with longtime
Gimme Lobbist Judy Meredith or haven't heard of her
OneMassachusetts organization, a few Blasts From The Past follow:
CLT UPDATE - Dec. 17, 2008
The more things change the more they remain the same
Veteran human services lobbyist Judy Meredith, who is organizing
an umbrella group of progressive groups behind new revenues,
estimated that adding a penny per dollar to the sales tax would
generate $692 million and bumping the income tax by a percentage
point would raise $2.15 billion. Meredith said the attention
paid to the decay of physical infrastructure should extend to
imperiled social structures like safety-net services.
“What I’m looking for, frankly, is someone to champion the
notion of thoughtful comprehensive tax reform that raises new
revenues,” Meredith said. “And we need a package of stuff that’s
fair, that’s adequate, and that’s easy to administer.”
Of the income and sales taxes, Meredith said, “Those are the two
broad-based taxes that we’re looking at, that people are
beginning to whisper about ... It’s time to talk out loud about
it.” ...
Judy Meredith and her OneMassachusetts got their
first bite in 2009, with the sales tax increase:
New year brings push for new taxes
by Barbara Anderson
The Salem News - Jan. 10, 2009
Judy has founded "ONE Massachusetts" which
states on its Web site: "Our neighbors voted against Question 1
... because voters understand the direct connection between the
health of our communities and the revenues that we use to
support their public structures."
The ONE Massachusetts Network has been conducting a "statewide
debriefing project to learn more from our communities and
organizational members: Which public structures do you rely and
place value on, and where do those structures need improvement?
What sort of changes need to be made to restore your faith that
an increase in taxes would be spent wisely and collected
fairly?"
CLT UPDATE - Apr. 28, 2009
House Dems hike sales tax 25% for $900 million more
108 Reps give taxpayers middle-finger Beacon Hill salute
Lobbyists lingered in the State House
yesterday, stopping lawmakers in the halls and urging them to
reject tax hikes. On the other side of the issue, advocates for
the homeless and mentally ill marched with union officials,
filling the corridors with chants of "Raise Revenues! Stop the
cuts!" ...
The advocates for social services spending - also well
organized, but louder - said they did not particularly care what
taxes were increased to save programs.
"We're not calling for a specific proposal," said Carl Nilsson,
spokesman for Neighbor to Neighbor, a group of 20 organizations
that represent low-income families. "We're urging legislators to
raise significant revenue in the fairest way possible." ...
Judy Meredith, a longtime human services lobbyist, also took a
fresh approach with onemassachusetts.org, a website that urges
residents and advocates to contact their legislators and
organize their friends through Facebook and Twitter.
"We're doing a virtual rally," Meredith said.
There were dueling columns in The Boston Globe on
Oct. 25, 2009, the first by Joan Vennochi, "The
tax brigade builds..."
A well-organized group of passionate liberals
begging him to resurrect a concept that every governor since
Michael Dukakis tried to bury.
Taxachusetts....
“We have spent 300 years in this state building the public
structures that educate our children, keep our water clean,
protect our environment, and protect the elderly and the
disabled,’’ said Judy Meredith, a longtime human services
lobbyist. “We need the resources to repair them and reform
them.’’
Meredith and her group, ONE Massachusetts, is calling upon
like-minded citizens to e-mail Patrick this week and demand
“balance’’ - what they define as “a combination of federal
funds, rainy day funds, minimum cuts, and more revenue
options.’’
About 2,500 community activists are part of the ONE
Massachusetts network.
This was countered by the Globe's token
conservative columnist, Jeff Jacoby, in "...so
who will save us now?"
Were it not for CLT, Massachusetts taxpayers
and businesses would be forking over far more of their wealth to
the tax man than they do. In addition to blocking graduated tax
rates and reining in property taxes, CLT forced the repeal in
1986 of an income surtax enacted under Governor Michael Dukakis
and led a successful ballot campaign in 2000 to roll back state
income taxes. Though it hasn’t won every battle, it has never
shied from the battlefield.
For more information on Judy Meredith on the CLT
website,
CLICK HERE.
The Meredith cabal, the Gimme Lobby and
government employee unions, got the sales tax hike and are back for
more, more, always more.
Now they're coming for an income tax hike.
They lust for a
graduated income tax -- their long-range ultimate goal, though
it's been defeated by the voters six times over the past few
decades. That's what we call the divide-and-conquer endless tax
hike. If we taxpayers are ever split into different income brackets,
then hiking one at a time -- never reaching a critical mass backlash
-- will never end. But that would require a constitutional amendment
and take years just to get onto the ballot for voters to decide.
So in the meantime, the immediate target is
another hike in the income tax for everyone -- everyone who pays
taxes that is.
Remember when we had the "temporary" income tax
rollback on the ballot, when all we heard from that same Gimme Lobby
and government employee unions was that they "didn't need or want
it"?
After we won on Election Day 2000 with our 60-40
percent vote, CLT filed a bill for a "voluntary income tax
check-off," so all those who purportedly didn't need or want the tax
cut wouldn't have to take it -- against their conscience. Much
to our surprise the Legislature adopted and passed it into law; put
the opportunity on every state income tax reporting form.
They who expressed not needing or wanting it
haven't had to take is since filing their 2002 income tax return.
Year after year since, the results have been
enlightening to say the least!
HISTORY OF CLT'S VOLUNTARY TAX CHECK-OFF
Every year at this time -- thanks to Howie Carr's
annual column (e.g.,
2003,
2003,
2006,
2008,
2009) -- we learn just how many of the Gimme Lobby takers not
only need and want it, but take it!
And they don't even say thank you, just grab for
more, more, always more . . .
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Chip Ford |
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A Groundswell
of Support for Raising Taxes
[LISTEN NOW: Actual interviews audio available at above link]
WAMC/Northeast Public Radio
1400 AM - Albany, NY
Thursday, March 31, 2011
A Groundswell Of Support for Raising Taxes
By Charlie Deitz
MASSACHUSETTS (WAMC) - Over in Massachusetts, a movement of
concerned groups is promoting what they consider a solution to the
state's projected 1.8 billion dollar budget deficit raising taxes.
WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief Charlie Deitz reports on a bill that's
gaining momentum across the state.
An Act To Invest in Our Communities looks to restore tax cuts
administered over the last decade which some groups say has been the
cause of deteriorating social services. Judy Meredith is the head of
outreach at One Massachusetts, a public policy advocacy group, she
says Governor Patrick's plan to cut his way out of a nearly 2
billion dollar gap is unsustainable at best.
So, according to Meredith, and dozens of groups across the state,
raising the tax rate is a much better option than watching service
organizations and state agencies get torn apart by yearly spending
reductions. The main increase would be putting the state income tax
rate, which now stands at 5.3 percent to where it was about a decade
ago to 5.95 percent, but they've also included a higher working
class exemption to take the sting out of the increase.
Meredith balances the need for more taxes by saying that the state
has made great strides in reforms such as overhauling the
transportation agencies, or ethics and pension reform and health
care, making the case that the administration has stripped a lot of
fat out of the budget already. The proposal is being sponsored by
Representative Jim O'Day and Suffolk Senator Sonia Chang Diaz, who
acknowledges that raising taxes might seem like the third rail of
politics right now but with overlapping protests on Beacon Hill
every day people are starting to see some merit to the idea.
"We are implicitly talking about robbing Peter to pay Paul, cutting
health care to pay for housing, etc."
The bill has already found some big backers like teachers unions,
social workers and even Service Employees International Union whose
State Council Executive Director Harris Gruman explains their
position this way.
"We're living right now in a time when the first time in US history
the next generation is doing worse than the current one."
Gruman says SEIU represents about 65 thousand workers in
Massachusetts, many of them low wage, so they'll be feeling the cuts
as the state runs out of stimulus money and federal cuts to
community service block grant funding.
The thought of raising taxes isn't sitting well with the Mass GOP
though, whose spokesperson Tim Buckley says the state should focus
on spending the little money they have more wisely, referring to two
major companies pulling up roots after receiving millions of dollars
in tax credits.
"Middle class families take a hit when Fidelity moves to NH, or
Evergreen goes to China."
One Massachusetts and other supporters have been holding what
they're calling Budget Speak Outs in towns on the eastern side of
Massachusetts but more are slated over the next month or so with the
hopes of hitting every region in the commonwealth. Judy Meredith
says in these meetings people representing various agencies are
starting to see that they all have something in common.
The bill's 2 sponsors and dozen or so endorsers hope to see the
proposal hit the floor for debate before the final budget is out on
June 30th.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Liberals on the run from voluntary tax
By Howie Carr
Moonbats are cheap. And they prove it again every year at this time
when the Commonwealth of Massachusetts gives them the chance to
personally raise their own income taxes.
Your average liberal would give an illegal alien the shirt off your
back. Not his back, but your back. Just ask them. They sit in
Starbucks and angrily blog about how AmeriKKKans who work don’t pay
their “fair share.”
They harrumph, what about the children?
But you know what they say. Money talks, you-know-what walks.
So far this tax season, the state Department of Revenue has received
1,971,000 returns.
And of those 1.971 million filers, exactly 862 have checked the box
to pay at the old, higher 5.85 percent rate rather than the current
5.3 percent rate.
That works out to approximately one-25th of one percent of filers
making the selfless gesture — somewhat lower than the percentage of
moonbats in the population, wouldn’t you say?
Of course, this is an old tradition in Massachusetts, liberals
running up the tab and then when the check arrives — hey, come back
here you ponytailed carpetbagger! They play the political equivalent
of the old chew ’n’ screw. And I don’t just mean their heroes, such
as Sen. John Kerry, with his $7 million yacht, the SS Deadbeat. Or
the assorted state solons loading up on booze and smokes in tax-free
New Hampshire.
We already know the most liberal states contribute the least to
charity per capita. The louder the liberals talk about the need to
pay more, the faster they flee from helping out the most vulnerable
members of society who fell through the safety net shredded by
George W. Bush, etc. etc.
But . . . but . . . we all know that with their trust funds and
their no-heavy-lifting jobs at the colleges and the Globe and WGBH,
most moonbats are living high on the hog. So maybe these 862 people
are coughing up big bucks.
Guess again. Those 862 people ponied up an extra $69,188. That works
out to about $80 per person, which means their average income is
. . . $16,000.
The verdict is clear. These moonbats wouldn’t pay a nickel to see an
earthquake. They toss around quarters like manhole covers. And
they’re getting stingier here in the midst of what their lying media
claim is our “economic recovery.”
Last year at this time, 1,077 hippies had checked off the 5.85
percent box. That means 20 percent fewer people are now willing to
give up a little bit more so that our illegal aliens can remain on
welfare.
Now we know why John Kerry keeps getting re-elected — he represents
his voters perfectly. And now we know why the Globe is going under —
its former subscribers are just too damn cheap to buy it.
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Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪
PO Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
▪ 508-915-3665
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