Citizens for Limited Taxation & Government
18 Tremont Street #608 * Boston, MA 02108
Phone: (617) 248-0022 * E-Mail: cltg@cltg.org
Visit our web-page at: http://cltg.org
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*** CLT&G Update ***
Tuesday, April 15, 1997

Had Enough of Paying Taxes: Wrong!

House Speaker Finneran Proves "You Get What You Pay For":

"The Best Legislature Money Can Buy" Marches in Lockstep
to Rip-Off Taxpayers Again

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Boston Globe
Tuesday, April 15, 1997

House Democrats take delaying action on Weld tax cut plan
By Doris Sue Wong
Globe Staff

Rather than killing Governor William F. Weld's tax cut proposals outright, House Democratic leaders moved yesterday to consign the initiatives to the probable oblivion of "legislative studies."

By winning several votes fending off the tax cuts, House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, who later praised members for their "remarkable discipline and restraint," showed that he was in firm control as legislative debate began on the fiscal 1998 budget.

At the same time, the strategy enabled the Mattapan Democrat to spare his Democratic supporters from having to oppose the tax cuts directly, although it sparked some rancorous partisan debate.

"Apparently, we are not too bright in this chamber because everything is put into a study," scoffed Representative Walter A. DeFilippi, a Republican from West Springfield. "They ought to spell study d-e-a-t-h b-e-d, because that is what it is."

The closest vote yesterday was on a measure to exempt military pensions from state tax, which legislators by a 96-54 vote opted to send to a study. Other Weld tax cuts were sent to study by more lopsided, largely party-line votes.

Legislators sometimes vote to send controversial bills to be studied to gain more information, but often the tactic is used by leaders to stall bills to death.

Weld's $18.3 billion state budget proposal includes seven tax cuts. They would reduce the state tax on unearned income from 12 percent to 5.95 percent a year, increase the deduction for dependent children from $600 to $1600, and exempt federal military pensions from state income tax.

Other measures would phase out the sales tax on telecommunications over five years, reduce the tax on domestic life insurance companies, offer employers a $3,500 job training credit and make permanent a temporary 3 percent investment tax credit for businesses.

But in releasing a revised version of Weld's budget for House debate this week, Finneran and House Ways and Means chairman Paul Haley, a Weymouth Democrat, rejected all seven cuts. They said the state's good fiscal times will not last forever and extra revenues should be used to pay off debts and build up reserves.

As debate began yesterday, Representative Peter J. Larkin, a Pittsfield Democrat who co-chairs the Joint Committee on Taxation, said questions have been raised and must be settled about the constitutionality of eliminating the tax on military pensions.

But Representative Ronald W. Gauch, a Republican from Shrewsbury, called the Democrats' call for a go-slow approach on the tax proposals "a joke."

While Weld's tax cuts were shot down, the House approved, without debate and on voice vote, several other provisions. One would extend government health insurance benefits for the minor children of police officers killed in the line of duty after the surviving spouse remarries. Another would allow welfare recipients to count the hours in job training and education toward the 20-hour-a-week work requirement for cash assistance.

Don Aucoin of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.

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