CLT News Release
Friday, June 1, 2018
NO
to New Neighborhood Taxation
Further proving that in the Legislature More Is Never Enough and never
will be (MINE), on Tuesday the House passed a bill [H-4546]
creating "community benefit districts" ― which is nothing more than a
stealthy way of creating a whole new
layer of government with
the power to create additional
new taxes.
Effectively, it's an end-run around the restrictions of Proposition 2½
by dividing municipalities into "community benefit districts" that can
then additionally tax individual sub-divisions of cities and towns ― a
new neighborhood tax.
The State House News Service reported:
"Lawmakers have previously attempted to give property owners the option
of establishing community benefit districts, and included a provision
authorizing them in the fiscal 2018 budget bill. That section was vetoed
by Gov. Charlie Baker who said the assessments are 'the functional
equivalent of new property taxes.'"
Did you get that? "Lawmakers . . . attempted to give property tax
owners the option" to be taxed even more. How very generous of them, if
duplicitous. Gov. Baker saw through the scheme last year and should
again in 2018.
Sadly, the bill passed in the House on Wednesday with only two
votes against it; Reps
Michelle DuBois (D-Brockton) and Denise Provost (D-Somerville). There
was not even one Republican vote against this property tax hike
subterfuge.
"House Ways and Means Chairman Jeffrey Sanchez said there is broad
agreement on the legislation (H 4546) that passed the House on a 149-2
vote on Wednesday, which he described as a 'compromise.'
"'This local-option bill is going to allow property owners in a
community to pool their resources together to improve community through
this benefits district proposal,' Sanchez said on the floor Wednesday."
That is what municipal property taxes, auto excise taxes, fees, et
cetera already do and what that revenue raised is supposed to
fund ― but More Is Never
Enough. So the Legislature is plotting to burden taxpayers with yet another ― new ―
layer of government with additional taxing authority: the
micro-municipality.
CLT executive director Chip Ford said, “Block by block they're coming
for taxpayers. Will the Legislature next propose also taxing us at the
street level, then backyard by backyard? Today such speculation is not
so far-fetched.”
The quote by H.L.
Mencken captured
in the Boston Herald’s
Wednesday editorial succinctly depicts today's dire
circumstances: "government is a broker in pillage, and
every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen
goods.”
#
# #
