NEWS ADVISORY
Thursday, October 14, 2011

No new taxes pledge vs. the occupiers
 

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As you follow the ongoing debate about “no new taxes” pledges, and, as you compile the costs of Occupy Boston, in order to report them to us, keep this in mind: once the police overtime, clean-up and other costs exceed the money already budgeted by City Hall for citizen protests, the money will not come from taxpayers.

Proposition 2½ protects Boston property taxpayers from paying more for this – no override to cover Occupy Boston expenses will ever pass. At the state level, with several incumbents having lost in 2010, there seems to be little will for raising taxes.

In the past, Beacon Hill used the excuse of local aid cuts to justify tax increases. Now state taxpayers will resist giving our income/sales taxes to a mayor who lets his streets be occupied by groups that aren’t paying for damages.

So the costs will be borne by those departments that serve the Boston public: public safety, public education, human services, public works. Boston taxpayers as citizen consumers should be outraged. The Boston poor should be speaking out against the occupiers.

This is why CLT supports property tax limits and the “no new taxes” pledge. Let the politicians deal with the budget cuts.

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Citizens for Limited Taxation  ▪  PO Box 1147  ▪  Marblehead, MA 01945  ▪  508-915-3665