The Boston Globe
Saturday, April 6, 2002
Make state's candidates take 'the pledge'
By Barbara Anderson
THE TAXPAYER Protection Pledge began in New Hampshire: It is as
native as autumn leafpeeping, "Live Free or Die," apple pie, and Emily of "Our Town" asking the Stage
Manager if any human beings ever realize life as they live it.
For decades, every politician in the Granite State was
required to take "the pledge," so New Hampshire's per capita tax burden is in the bottom 25 percent of the nation;
Massachusetts ranks fourth. We'd probably be No. 1 if Bill Weld hadn't taken the "no new taxes" pledge
himself when he ran for governor in 1990, in the middle of the last state fiscal
crisis.
Beacon Hill Democrats had increased taxes in 1989, again in
1990, and were on their way to raising them in 1991 when they ran into Weld's pledge. Had he weakened under pressure,
they would not have cooperated with his first budget, which cut spending and created a
tighter base on which to build the state's economic recovery.
Instead, they would have had to raise taxes every year to
maintain the wasteful '80s level of spending.
Instead of a decade of economic growth, with giant state
surpluses and a variety of tax cuts, Massachusetts would have had 10 years of kissing productive citizens goodbye.
The downside of this prosperity is that despite 40-plus tax
cuts, surging state revenues created giant surpluses that encouraged billion-dollar-a-year increases in state spending.
When the economy began to slow, legislators started looking at new taxes to maintain the
accustomed annual spending hikes. The only protection taxpayers had was the Taxpayer
Protection Pledge, taken by Governors Paul Cellucci and Jane Swift as they
followed in Weld's footsteps.
Many politicians don't understand economic arguments or care
about working people, for whom tax hikes are a pay cut. But they do understand that another politician who has taken
the "no new taxes" pledge has to keep it or risk losing his next election. Once a governor
signs this promise, his budget adversaries understand that they will need a two-thirds vote to
override his veto of the new taxes that would be an easy way out the next time revenues
slow. In good economic times, they know that somewhere down the road they will again
cross paths with fiscal austerity.
So because there was some pledge-related restraint, what
could be a major fiscal crisis again this year is only a manageable spending crisis. It can be dealt with by using rainy
day funds, a delay in the accelerated pension funding, lottery changes, court reform, attention to
departmental audits, and an across-the-board assault on the waste, inefficiency, and
patronage that inevitably result from the need to spend surplus revenues before taxpayers
make a case for a tax cut.
If legislators choose instead to override Swift's veto of
new taxes, the necessary shake-out won't happen and more new taxes will be necessary next year and every year thereafter.
When Massachusetts eventually faces a real fiscal downturn, or the Medicaid crisis that is
looming in our aging-boomer future, it will not have the tax capacity to get us through it.
Better to tighten up a little now than a lot later, it seems to me.
The Taxpayer Protection Pledge has been called a gimmick by
people who want to raise taxes if responsible fiscal management turns out to be too much of a challenge. But if "the
pledge" was good enough for three of our recent governors, eight governors in other states,
and 1,200 legislators, it should be good enough for this year's candidates. So far,
Libertarians Carla Howell and Rich Aucoin and Republican lieutenant governor
candidate Jim Rappaport have recently signed; GOP lieutenant governor candidate Kerry Murphy
Healey signed as a candidate for state representative in 2000.
The state pledge is very simple: "I pledge to the taxpayers
of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that I will oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes." Legislators
direct this promise to the taxpayers in their districts. As they and gubernatorial candidates
sign, their names will be found on this website.
The federal pledge began in 1986: President Bush, 213 US
House members, and 37 US senators have promised not to increase income tax rates. A list of their names and more
information on "the pledge" can be found on the Americans for Tax Reform Web
site: www.atr.org.