CITIZENS
for
Limited Taxation
Post Office Box 408
Peabody, Massachusetts 01960 (508) 384-0100
E-Mail: cltg@cltg.org
Web-page: http://cltg.org
CLT
Update
Monday, May 10, 1999
Today's Boston Herald editorial, below, speaks for itself and echoes my
observations of the past Friday.
Below that you'll find another observation by the Herald, published in its Sunday
edition that's too delicious for additional comment. They call it "Bait and
switch." I'd call it The Best Flock of Brown-nose Sheep Money Can Buy!
They must pray daily that nobody in leadership suddenly stops short and causes a
damaging pile-up behind!
Chip Ford --
PS. Reservations are still available for CLT's 25th Anniversary Banquet. This year's Warren
T. Brookes Award will be presented to Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby
and WLVI TV-56 political commentator Jon Keller (for their columns of last June that almost
singlehandedly kept CLT alive a little longer), but you must act right now!
For your ticket, call Chip Faulkner IMMEDIATELY at (508) 384-0100.
The admission price is:
$50.00 per activist
$500.00 per sponsor
$5,000.00 per table
When: Thursday, May 20, 1999; 6:00 PM Reception 7:00 PM Banquet
Where: Lombardo's -- Randolph, Massachusetts
For your ticket, call Chip Faulkner IMMEDIATELY at (508) 384-0100.
The Boston Herald
Monday, May 10, 1999
House tax "cut" is bad economics
A Boston Herald editorial
Yes, we know what we've always said about there being no such thing as a bad tax
cut. Well, the Massachusetts House has proven that's just not so.
Of course, part of the so-called cut approved by the House at the end of last week
isn't a cut at all. It's a tax increase. The House proposed to fund the lion's share of
its so-called tax cut (at least $93 million of a $160 million cut) by increasing the tax
on long-term capital gains.
Not only is this the most economically stupid move ever attempted on the House
floor, it's also an unabashed attempt at income redistribution. (And we naively thought
only the state Senate engaged in that kind of class warfare!)
Under current state tax laws, the rate on capital gains declines gradually from 6
percent to zero, depending on how long the asset is held. The zero rate applies to assets
held six years or more -- just the kind of long-term investment that families saving for a
child's college education or older citizens saving for retirement would be likely to make.
So under the leadership of a couple of real fiscal geniuses -- Reps. John Slattery
(D-Peabody) and Jay Kaufman (D-Lexington) -- that rate would increase to 2 percent.
And why? To increase, again, the deductions for dependents and for child care.
Make no mistake about it, this is the backdoor graduated income tax that time and time
again voters have turned down at the polls. The more you increase deductions -- and
broaden the categories of those considered "dependents" -- the more progressive
you make the tax code. And that is the real agenda.
The only good news here is that the action of the House does indeed reduce to
absurdity the arguments of those who insist the state can't afford to cut the income tax
rate all the way down to 5 percent.
That a cut in the tax rate would also make the state a more desirable place to do
business is apparently lost on those who must have flunked Economics 101.
Boston Sunday Herald
May 9, 1999
POLS & POLITICS
Bait and switch
In case anyone was wondering just how much control House Speaker Thomas M.
Finneran (D-Mattapan) exercises over his troops, he offered excellent proof
during last week's budget debate.
After the Wednesday dinner break, House Minority Leader Francis Marini
(R-Hanson) offered an amendment making it a crime for prison guards to have sexual
relations with inmates.
After a bit of debate, featuring half-joking questions about the definition of
"sexual relations" and the usual reservations about whether the budget should be
loaded up with new laws, things didn't look good for Marini. Finneran voted against the
amendment and so did his top lieutenants, and the tally board filled with bright red
"no" votes.
But then Finneran switched his vote, and so did his lieutenants, setting off a
frantic chain reaction. Almost everyone else switched their votes, allowing the amendment
to pass easily, 113 to 36.
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C.
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