CLT News Release
Saturday, December 20,
2014
Fossil Fuel Tax ?!?
Contact: Barbara Anderson
First let me say, Merry Christmas. Next let me say, no, state government, you
can’t have a fossil fuel tax in your stocking, under your tree, or up your
reindeer.
According to today’s Boston Globe, “Fossil
fuel tax backed in report for Mass.”, the state Department of Energy has
just released a recommendation for a “carbon tax” on Massachusetts consumers.
Here is what I’d like for Christmas from my state government.
1. The income tax rate dropped to 5%, as promised when that “temporary”
tax hike was passed in 1989, as demanded by voters in 2000, as “frozen” by the
Legislature in 2002, as dribbled down to us by five one-hundredths of 1 percent
occasionally, since then.
2. The “property tax relief” that Deval Patrick promised when he first ran
for governor.
3. Something resembling management.
4. The answer to this question: on what planet do the people who release
these reports live? First, as the budget deficit grows, we get the
recommendation for pay hikes on constitutional officers and unconstitutional pay
hikes on legislators, which we hope has been laughed off the table by now.
Next, we get a recommendation for a multibillion-dollar “carbon tax” on all
fossil fuels used by consumers in the northeastern corner of the nation? The
week before Christmas?
This is not going to happen. And yet, they recommend it – seriously. AND assure
us that the carbon tax will be offset by tax cuts or “some rebate” to consumers
to make the new “carbon charge” revenue neutral. Do they really think we are
that stupid? (see broken promises, above). Wait — did MIT Prof. Gruber author
this report?
Did they miss the recent repeal by voters of the automatic gas tax? The election
of a governor who promised not to raise taxes? The list of Massachusetts
citizens needing fuel assistance and visiting food pantries? Who out here is
overheating our homes — as the price of natural gas rises — that you need to
punish?
Here’s an assignment for enterprising reporters: check out the people who write
these reports, sucking up the government money for the latest government fad
crisis. I’ll bet you’ll find them in cozy warm houses, perhaps sitting in front
of wood-burning (for ambiance) fireplaces composing warnings of a coming ice
age/global warming/climate change/whatever from which they can profit.
Just to be climate-change politically-incorrect: may they get a lump of fossil
fuel in their “holiday” stockings.
Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪ PO
Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
▪ 508-915-3665
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