NEWS RELEASE
Monday, July 22, 2002
Memo to Governor Swift
To: Governor Jane Swift
July 22, 2002
Re: Vetoes
Citizens for Limited Taxation appreciates the upcoming veto
of the legislative tax package, and the roll calls that we plan to use this fall to keep the public aware of who is to blame
for their higher taxes.
We would call your attention to Outside Section 183, the
Marini version of our "voluntary tax" that gives fiscal conservatives a response to those who support these higher
taxes. Let those who want to pay more, pay more. Please support Section 183.
We also hope you will you will veto the new tax on elderly,
sick or dying citizens who planned and saved for their nursing home costs through their lives. We can't see how it can be a
fee instead of a tax when these people won't get any more benefits than the Medicaid patients get.
If this new tax stands, patients with foresight and personal
responsibility, who didn't cheat by moving their money to their heirs' accounts several years before entering a nursing home so
they could go on Medicaid, would be forced to pay more than anyone else towards the cost of Medicaid.
We recognize the scam about getting the federal government
to pay more, but this is little comfort to taxpayers who also pay federal taxes. Also, we would predict that the feds aren't
going to allow this much longer.
Real Medicaid reform requires discouraging cheating, not
encouraging more people to put themselves on Medicaid rather than be taken advantage of, as these self-paying patients will
be when the nursing home tax is passed on to them.
Again, thank you for the tax hike vetoes.