CLT NEWS RELEASE
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Once
again, MTF steps on cost-savings and reforms by supporting new taxes
“Responding to a question during a speech
at the North Shore Bank's annual meeting in Peabody this week,
Mike Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Association [sic]
said it may be time to consider applying the sales tax to items
purchased on the Internet. He noted that the growth in sales-tax
revenue here has declined in recent years from an average 9
percent annually to 1 percent, adding that online sales might be
the culprit.”
— From today’s Salem News, Nelson Benton
column on editorial page.
As it has
done in the past, the Massachusetts
Taxpayers Foundation has gotten in the way of House proposed reforms. In
1989, after the House cut the Dukakis budget, MTF testified that House
revenues were pessimistic; MTF was wrong, but the Senate didn’t go along
with the House cuts and then we had, instead, a major income tax hike.
It was called “temporary,” but MTF has consistently fought restoration
of the traditional 5% rate.
The next year, 1990, MTF supported the sales tax on
services, bringing any attempt at spending control to a halt, again.
Now, just as the Senate receives the House budget
with its hard-fought savings for municipalities in the health insurance
arena, MTF offers support for Internet sales taxes.
Why is it called the
Massachusetts
TAXPAYERS Foundation? At least, couldn’t it wait to support higher
taxes until after we win the GIC battle?
— 30 —
Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪
PO Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA
01945 ▪ 508-915-3665
