Contact: Barbara Anderson - (508) 384-0100
Chip Ford - (781) 631-6842
During the recent Question 4 campaign, our opponents continually asserted that they don't mind paying the
higher "temporary" income tax rate, that the state needs the additional revenue more than they need their
extra "can of Pepsi" or "slice of pizza."
Fifty-nine percent of voters, however, voted with us for
Question 4. We are happy that the promise was kept and they are getting much-deserved tax relief.
But we at CLT have a win-win philosophy. We want to help our
opponents with an easy way to continue funding state government at the level they deem fair.
Tomorrow we will file a bill to create the VOTE contribution.
VOTE is the acronym for Voluntary Optional Tax Endowment. It
provides for a check-off on personal income tax forms and a new table in the Department of Revenue's income tax Schedules and
Instructions booklet. This table will calculate the difference between the decreasing income tax rate and the rate at which
it would have remained without passage of Question 4. That difference is the VOTE contribution.
The DOR also will keep records of the number of taxpayers
who elect to contribute to the VOTE and the amount of additional revenue it generates.
Taxpayers who felt abused by the broken promise -- the 59
percent of voters who voted "yes" on Question 4 -- have a lower rate of taxation. Upon adoption of our VOTE contribution, those
who opposed Question 4 will be unaffected by its passage when they elect to continue paying what they profess is negligible
and only fair.
Everyone will be a winner. It doesn't get any better than
that.
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Proposed CLT Legislation
The VOTE Contribution
1) All state personal income tax forms shall contain
a check-off box which permits taxpayers to contribute to the Voluntary Optional Tax Endowment
(VOTE).
2) The state personal income tax Schedules and
Instructions booklet shall contain a table which provides the difference between the statutory
income tax on personal income (Parts A and B) at its rate for that tax year,
and the rate of 5.8 percent for tax year 2001, and 5.75 percent thereafter. This difference is the VOTE
contribution.
3) A line shall be added to state personal income tax
forms on which the VOTE contribution can be added to the statutory income tax on personal income
(Parts A and B) before calculation of the total state income tax.
4) The Department of Revenue shall keep records of
the number of taxpayers who choose to elect the VOTE contribution and the amount of revenue
collected by the VOTE contribution in addition to the statutory state income tax.