Citizens for Limited Taxation & Government
"The Commonwealth Activist Network"
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 ***
Wednesday, May 21, 1997

The Senate is back at it again today, debating its version of the budget. They went until after nine o’clock last night and still no tax cuts "on the radar screen", only lots of spending.

But in a hearing before the Joint Committee for Taxation yesterday on bills to grant tax breaks to the insurance industry, the Boston Globe ("Larkin cool to tax cut for insurers; Key lawmaker suggests end to corporate relief," by Alex Pham) this morning reported:

Insurance companies, seeking state tax cuts, might have arrived too late. . .

"We recognize that the business community has enjoyed the last 15 tax cuts, all intended to encourage economic growth," said Representative Peter Larkin, a Pittsfield Democrat and co-chairman of the joint taxation committee. "However, given the circumstances today, the appetite of the Legislature is to do something for the taxpayers and people first before we provide benefits to the insurance industry or any other business at this time."

But don’t get your hopes up just yet, for this Business section column ends with:

Larkin said tax breaks granted today, if any, will need to make sense tomorrow, when the economy takes a different turn. "We have to make sure that the decisions we make today will benefit us tomorrow," Larkin said. Advocates for fiscal responsibility, including James St. George of the Tax Equity Alliance of Massachusetts [Jim Braude’s replacement at TEAM, aka, "Tax Everything And More"—now defined by the Boston Globe as *advocates for fiscal responsibility*! -- Chip], made a similar argument. They warned the Legislature against handing out tax breaks that would impede the state’s ability to pay its bills in the future.

The following went to the Boston Globe yesterday.

Chip Ford
Co-director

* * *

Re: The Boston Globe editorial, Tuesday, May 20, 1997; "Fiscal wisdom on Beacon Hill"

Dear Editor;

The Globe editorial, "Fiscal wisdom on Beacon Hill" (May 20) praises the Senate for using some $400 million of taxpayers money "responsibly," and for resisting "the temptation to spend the entire surplus on tax cuts."

"Spend" on tax cuts? Excuse me, but who does that surplus belong to if not the taxpayers?

The Globe mentions the "’fiscal recovery bonds’ the state was forced to float at the end of the 1980s". But it seemingly forgets that the surplus revenues are being generated by the "temporary" income tax increases required at that time to bail out the state’s mismanagement.

The crises were averted, the emergency debt is about to be paid off thanks to the taxpayers’ additional burden over all these years. The revenues are no longer required for the stated purpose so, in appreciation, isn’t it time to "invest" in those overburdened taxpayers and return their earnings?

Regards,
/s/ Chip Ford
Co-director