To: Tax Equity Alliance of Massachusetts
Massachusetts Teachers Association
Re: CLT's Voluntary Tax Check-off bill, S.1734
Hearing; Tuesday, April 10, 2001, 10:00 am in Room A1
Dear Opponents of Question 4:
CLT has a solution that can make us all winners: Those of us who want smaller,
less-expensive and more accountable state government, and; those of you who want higher
taxes and more spending.
Last December, CLT filed a proposal with the Legislature that we consider to be a painless remedy to this ageless conflict. Testimony on S.1734, sponsored by state Sens. Jo Ann Sprague (R-Walpole), Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) and Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth), will be heard tomorrow before the Taxation Committee.
Senate Bill No. 1734 proposes to:
1) Provide a check-off on all state personal income tax forms for electing an additional voluntary tax;
2) Create a new table in the Department of Revenue's Schedules and Instructions booklet that provides the difference between the decreasing income tax rate (on Part A and B income) and what it would have been had Question 4, the income tax rollback, not been approved by 59 percent of voters -- the voluntary tax;
3) Require the DOR to annually report the additional revenue derived from the voluntary tax check-off and the number of taxpayers electing to participate.
Those 41 percent of voters who supported your position against Question 4 agreed that they did not need or want tax relief.
In fairness, they should not be forced to take it. Our bill provides them with choice. If most of them take advantage of it, it will annually generate hundreds of millions of additional revenue dollars and state spending.
We invite your attendance and your anticipated support of our mutually-beneficial legislation. For once, we can win together!