|
Help save yourself -- join CLT
today! |
CLT introduction and membership application |
What CLT saves you from the auto excise tax alone |
Ask your friends to join too |
CLT UPDATE
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Tax hikes threat imminent in 2013
|
After holding the line on new taxes since 2009,
the pledge by legislative leaders to not upset the delicate economic
recovery by increasing broad-based taxes or fees on residents and
business is showing signs of cracking.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo told the News Service
this week he doesn’t yet know if his proscription against new taxes
or fees will apply to the 2013 legislative year when the Legislature
is expected to address long-term financing of the state’s
transportation system and may need to look to new sources of
revenue.
DeLeo said he wants “to see where the numbers
fall on next year’s budget” and with transportation financing before
making a decision on whether to rule tax hikes in or out, a line the
Winthrop Democrat has drawn the past several years, and which
Democrats have followed, prior to the release of the House budget in
April.
“That’s never been a desire of mine to increase
taxes. But on the other hand . . . I’m smart enough to know that
until you see the figures of what you’re working with, you don’t
make any pledges.” DeLeo, the former House budget chief, said after
a meeting Tuesday afternoon with UMass officials and local
entrepreneurs....
Murray and DeLeo over the past few years have
embraced the no-new-taxes approach after voting in 2009 to boost the
sales tax by 25 percent to 6.25 percent....
House Minority Leader Brad Jones of North Reading
on Thursday said DeLeo’s reluctance to rule out tax hikes next year
was “disappointing.”
“I will say that I am well aware that numerous
discussions have been going on about increased taxes and that
obviously members of the majority party don’t want to have those go
public until after the election but they are absolutely underway and
going on,” Jones said....
Jones said that in addition to consideration of
raising gas taxes, he has heard mention of raising the state income
tax from 5.25 percent to 5.95 percent.
“Unfortunately the Democrats don’t want to have
that discussion before the election because they know the public
isn’t going to be welcome to it, isn’t going to be open to it.
People are still hurting. They’re very apprehensive. We have a
fragile economy,” Jones said.
Jones said there is a “reasonable consensus” that
some people would like to put more resources into transportation and
infrastructure, but said the idea of “going down the tax path is a
dangerous one.”
“I think we’re going to be faced with the false
choice of, well, we have to raise taxes to do this as opposed to,
well, isn’t some of it maybe reprioritizing spending?” Jones said.
Citizens for Limited Taxation earlier this week rolled out
endorsements of 40 legislative candidates, including 17 incumbents -
all Republicans - who scored well on the group’s issues test and
signed a “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” to “oppose and vote against
any and all effort to increase taxes.”
Through its political action committee, CLT also
gave maximum donations of $500 to many of its endorsees, including
candidates challenging Sen. Murray and Reps. Thomas Calter
(D-Kingston), Thomas Sannicandro (D-Ashland), Carolyn Dykema
(D-Holliston), John Rogers (D-Norwood) and James O’Day (D-West
Boylston.
State House News Service
Thursday, October 4, 2012
On resistance to new taxes, DeLeo taking wait-and-see approach for
2013
The State House News Service last week dipped
a thermometer into the Beacon Hill waters to test the enthusiasm
for a tax increase next year but to our chagrin — and in a break
from the recent past — House Speaker Robert DeLeo wouldn’t rule
anything out.
Mr. Speaker, don’t even THINK about
going wobbly....
We understand his concern about revenues, but
while tax collections for the current fiscal year have thus far
fallen short of Beacon Hill’s projections, they are in fact
still ahead of last year.
That is not a crisis.
That is not a legitimate justification for a
tax hike.
It would be nothing more than a convenient
fig leaf.
Of course the issue of transportation
financing is hanging over the heads of taxpayers like the sword
of Damocles, which probably explains DeLeo’s carefully-chosen
words. The Patrick administration hasn’t yet settled on whether
it will be a gas tax increase, or a new tax on miles driven, or
some other levy to solve the transportation funding shortfall.
But rest assured, a “revenue” plan is on its way —after the
election, naturally.
DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray
will be in on the talks. When the tax-hike tank comes barreling
down the Pike, they both ought to bravely stand in front of it.
A Boston Herald editorial
Monday, October 8, 2012
Stay true on taxes
|
|
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
Already the tax-borrow-and-spend pols on Bacon
Hill are plotting tax increases for next year. Nobody's shouting for
higher taxes — yet
— after all, they've first got to get
through the November election.
The next fundraising letter you'll be getting
from CLT was in the works and delivered to the printer before we
learned of this clear threat, but even so I predicted that this was
coming. Among other revenue schemes, Gov. Patrick is determined to
impose a gas tax increase or a new "mileage tax." And the drum beat
for an income tax increase has been heard for a few years
— led by the Gimme Lobby organized
under the umbrella of the
Campaign for
Our Communities.
They've been quietly plodding along collecting
support from
a huge and growing number of the usual tax-borrow-and-spend suspects.
Since they filed their bill to hike the income tax to 5.95 percent
and hearings were held before the Revenue Committee in early May,
2011 (See: CLT Update, May 10, 2011, "Tax-hike
crowd's vow: 'In the end we will be victorious'") they've been
plowing along like a juggernaut, gaining momentum steadily.
In her Mar. 23, 2012 Salem News column ("Beware
Beacon Hill's charge of tax-and-spenders' brigade"), Barbara
wrote:
An Act to Invest in Our Communities,
presently before the Legislature (H2553/S1416),
would increase the income tax rate to 5.95 percent and the
rate on investment income to 8.95 percent, except for
certain seniors. It also would raise the personal exemption
to make up for the rate increase, though only partly,
because otherwise they wouldn't get all those "quality of
life-improving" revenues.
Yep, same movie. Liberal activists go from city to town,
ginning up support for their tax-hike agenda. Various
connected spending groups announce their support, one by
one, building what appears to be a broad-based grass-roots
demand for more taxes.
In that column she also wrote:
I appreciate that Speaker of the House
Robert DeLeo has said there will be no new taxes this year
and has stated his opposition to Gov. Deval Patrick's
proposal to tax candy and soda. The speaker has earned some
credibility from Massachusetts citizens because of his
support for public employee health care and pension reforms.
I think he is sincere in his "no new taxes" message.
According to the recent State House News Service
report, Speaker DeLeo's resolve seems to be waning.
As the Boston Herald's editorial noted:
We understand his concern about revenues,
but while tax collections for the current fiscal year have
thus far fallen short of Beacon Hill’s projections, they are
in fact still ahead of last year.
That is not a crisis.
State tax collections for this current fiscal
year (which ends next June 30th) are greater than the
previous fiscal year's state revenue haul —
but for the Gimme Lobby and tax-borrow-and-spend Bacon Hill pols,
More Is Never Enough (MINE) and never will be.
The primary objective of taxpayers for the next
few weeks must be to throw out as many of them as possible in
November. This opportunity — before
they have a chance to steal more from us or even propose such theft
— must be our immediate mission.
As the State House News Service noted, CLT's 2½
PAC has endorsed "40 legislative candidates, including 17
incumbents - all Republicans - who scored well on the group’s issues
test and signed a 'Taxpayer Protection Pledge' to 'oppose and vote
against any and all effort to increase taxes.'"
Along with the 40 who've received the PAC's
endorsement, it has also contributed over $10,000 to their
taxpayer-friendly campaigns. Since we published the
list
of endorsements, a number of other candidates who hadn't
responded have belatedly requested the Taxpayer Protection Pledge
and CLT's 2½ PAC questionnaire, so the
list of endorsements and contributions will likely grow before
November 6th.
However the legislative elections turn out, we
taxpayers must be prepared for the tax hike onslaught that will
nonetheless follow when the new Legislature is seated in January. As
always, CLT plans to be the voice and first line of defense of the
taxpayers, as we've done for the last 38 years
— and we hope you'll be manning the barricades alongside us.
Even more, we hope CLT will still be alive when the looming battle
commences in a few months — and that
will depend entirely on your response to the fundraising letter
you'll receive in the next few weeks.
The Herald editorial closed with:
When the tax-hike tank comes barreling
down the Pike, [House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate
President Therese Murray] both ought to bravely stand in
front of it.
This assumes they will be re-elected (both have
good PAC-endorsed challengers). If they are still on Beacon
Hill in January, I hope they do stand with taxpayers and CLT
— but I sure wouldn't bet the farm on
it.
"Taxpayers shouldn't be lulled into a
false sense of complacency just because the House passed a
budget with no new taxes. The reality is that some
legislators are intent on pursuing every available avenue to
raise taxes."
— State Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester -
May 5, 2011
|
 |
 |
|
Chip Ford |
|
|
|
|
State House News Service
Thursday, October 4, 2012
On resistance to new taxes, DeLeo taking wait-and-see approach for
2013
By Matt Murphy and Mike Deehan
After holding the line on new taxes since 2009, the pledge by
legislative leaders to not upset the delicate economic recovery by
increasing broad-based taxes or fees on residents and business is
showing signs of cracking.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo told the News Service this week he
doesn’t yet know if his proscription against new taxes or fees will
apply to the 2013 legislative year when the Legislature is expected
to address long-term financing of the state’s transportation system
and may need to look to new sources of revenue.
DeLeo said he wants “to see where the numbers fall on next year’s
budget” and with transportation financing before making a decision
on whether to rule tax hikes in or out, a line the Winthrop Democrat
has drawn the past several years, and which Democrats have followed,
prior to the release of the House budget in April.
“That’s never been a desire of mine to increase taxes. But on the
other hand . . . I’m smart enough to know that until you see the
figures of what you’re working with, you don’t make any pledges.”
DeLeo, the former House budget chief, said after a meeting Tuesday
afternoon with UMass officials and local entrepreneurs.
Senate President Therese Murray last year deferred to the House,
noting tax bills originate in there, while working to craft the
Senate’s spending blueprint for the year that began July 1, though
she showed no signs of appetite herself for higher taxes. Through a
spokesman, Murray declined comment on the appetite for taxes next
session.
Flat tax collections in September have left state government
trailing budgeted revenue benchmarks by $95 million one quarter of
the way into the new fiscal year, according to figures released
Wednesday by the Department of Revenue. Collections last month of
more than $2.2 billion were up $8 million over September 2011, but
were still $32 million shy of the monthly benchmark. Tax collections
are up 0.03 percent over the first quarter of fiscal 2013.
Murray and DeLeo over the past few years have embraced the
no-new-taxes approach after voting in 2009 to boost the sales tax by
25 percent to 6.25 percent. Though some more liberal Democrats on
Beacon Hill have advocated for higher cigarette taxes to pay for
health programs, members of the House and Senate from both parties
have largely cheered the reluctance of leaders to force votes on new
revenue, particularly in an election year.
House Minority Leader Brad Jones of North Reading on Thursday said
DeLeo’s reluctance to rule out tax hikes next year was
“disappointing.”
“I will say that I am well aware that numerous discussions have been
going on about increased taxes and that obviously members of the
majority party don’t want to have those go public until after the
election but they are absolutely underway and going on,” Jones said.
DeLeo has used his position over the past few years to thwart
proposals by Gov. Deval Patrick to tax candy and soda, raise taxes
on cigarettes and expand the scope of the state’s five-cent bottle
redemption law, an idea encouraged by some environmentalists to
improve recycling rates and generate $20 million in new revenue.
Any new debate over taxes in Massachusetts will also likely play out
over a backdrop of the national discussion about how to address the
federal debt and deficit, including the looming expiration of tax
cuts on Jan.1 that could increase payroll taxes on Massachusetts
residents and millions of Americans.
With unemployment at 6.3 percent after having risen moderately over
the past two months, legislative leaders like DeLeo, if he wins
reelection as anticipated, will be challenged to come up with a
justification for new revenue after years of touting their
reluctance to raise taxes as a selling point of their fiscal
discipline and rationale for new businesses to locate and grow in
Massachusetts.
In May, DeLeo published an open letter in the local Menlo Park,
California newspaper to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg suggesting the
company, and others like it in Silicon Valley, consider expanding in
Massachusetts.
"Unlike California, where Governor Brown just announced a $16
Billion budget deficit sure to mean massive cuts in services and
increases in government revenues, Massachusetts leaders have passed
budget-after-budget on-time and with no new taxes or fees," DeLeo
wrote. "There is no denying California's strengths, but a lot has
changed in Massachusetts in the eight years since Facebook moved
out. It's a place where young workers, start-up companies and
innovation entities want to be."
Jones said that in addition to consideration of raising gas taxes,
he has heard mention of raising the state income tax from 5.25
percent to 5.95 percent.
“Unfortunately the Democrats don’t want to have that discussion
before the election because they know the public isn’t going to be
welcome to it, isn’t going to be open to it. People are still
hurting. They’re very apprehensive. We have a fragile economy,”
Jones said.
Jones said there is a “reasonable consensus” that some people would
like to put more resources into transportation and infrastructure,
but said the idea of “going down the tax path is a dangerous one.”
“I think we’re going to be faced with the false choice of, well, we
have to raise taxes to do this as opposed to, well, isn’t some of it
maybe reprioritizing spending?” Jones said.
Citizens for Limited Taxation earlier this week rolled out
endorsements of 40 legislative candidates, including 17 incumbents -
all Republicans - who scored well on the group’s issues test and
signed a “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” to “oppose and vote against
any and all effort to increase taxes.”
Through its political action committee, CLT also gave maximum
donations of $500 to many of its endorsees, including candidates
challenging Sen. Murray and Reps. Thomas Calter (D-Kingston), Thomas
Sannicandro (D-Ashland), Carolyn Dykema (D-Holliston), John Rogers
(D-Norwood) and James O’Day (D-West Boylston.
The Boston Herald
Monday, October 8, 2012
A Boston Herald editorial
Stay true on taxes
The State House News Service last week dipped a thermometer into the
Beacon Hill waters to test the enthusiasm for a tax increase next
year but to our chagrin — and in a break from the recent past —
House Speaker Robert DeLeo wouldn’t rule anything out.
Mr. Speaker, don’t even THINK about going wobbly.
“That’s never been a desire of mine to increase taxes,” DeLeo told
the News Service.
Well, that we love to hear.
“But on the other hand . . . I’m smart enough to know that until you
see the figures of what you’re working with, you don’t make any
pledges,” he said.
Sherman-esque, that statement is not.
With the exception of his support for a sales tax increase the
Winthrop Democrat has been a reliable friend of the taxpayers lo
these past few difficult years. He repeatedly spiked talk of new
taxes or fee hikes when they emanated from Gov. Deval Patrick’s
office or from the liberal wing of the Democratic caucus, and his
merry band of rank-and-file followers always nodded in agreement.
DeLeo seems to understand that raising broad-based taxes during bad
economic times is lunacy, and that a narrow tax on, say, Snickers
bars would neither solve childhood obesity nor balance the state
budget.
We understand his concern about revenues, but while tax collections
for the current fiscal year have thus far fallen short of Beacon
Hill’s projections, they are in fact still ahead of last year.
That is not a crisis.
That is not a legitimate justification for a tax hike.
It would be nothing more than a convenient fig leaf.
Of course the issue of transportation financing is hanging over the
heads of taxpayers like the sword of Damocles, which probably
explains DeLeo’s carefully-chosen words. The Patrick administration
hasn’t yet settled on whether it will be a gas tax increase, or a
new tax on miles driven, or some other levy to solve the
transportation funding shortfall. But rest assured, a “revenue” plan
is on its way —after the election, naturally.
DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray will be in on the talks.
When the tax-hike tank comes barreling down the Pike, they both
ought to bravely stand in front of it.
|
| |
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this
material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes
only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪
PO Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
▪ 508-915-3665
|