To: Members of the General Court
Re: Be a working-class hero;
support a Labor Day weekend tax
cut for working people
August 29, 2001
Contact: Barbara Anderson or Chip Faulkner (508-384-0100)
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts should be celebrating Labor Day weekend by
returning the surplus -- i.e, over-collected state tax revenues of more than half a billion
of their dollars -- to working people who apparently overpaid or there wouldn't be a surplus.
At the end of August, surplus funds flow into the Stabilization Fund ("rainy day fund"). When
that is full they flow into the Tax Reduction Fund and back to the taxpayers with
an increase in their personal exemption ...
... unless, of course, you decide differently by passing the
deficiency budget which both raises the cap again on the Stabilization Fund and creates new mini-slush funds, with the
stated goal of ensuring that working people don't get the increase in their personal exemption.
But this would be a major legislative decision.
So, according to the rules, it can't be made in an informal
session.
For some reason the few legislators who were present for the
Aug. 23rd session in the House, and the Aug. 27th session in the Senate, did not object to this
important vote being taken in an informal session.
You can object when the deficiency budget returns from
conference committee, again in an informal session.
One legislator -- you -- can give working people of
Massachusetts some tax relief in April.
An increase in the personal exemption is overdue. The
federal government adjusts it for inflation; Massachusetts does not, though it should.
You can at least give working people a one-time increase in
their personal exemption by objecting to the deficiency budget this week.
Be a working-class hero. Give your laboring constituents
both a representative on Beacon Hill for important issues, and a tax reduction on Labor Day weekend.
