THE ISSUE
Boston's Central Artery project threatens to draw money away from
other projects, possibly even a plan to lower state income taxes.
OUR VIEW
The Legislature should not use the
"Big Dig" to renege on its promise to lower the tax rate
from 5.95 percent to 5 percent.
Massachusetts taxpayers may see
any hope they have for a state income tax cut this year tossed down
the gaping hole that is Boston's "Big Dig" highway
project.
A report from the Massachusetts
Taxpayers Foundation, a nonprofit group that studies how the state
raises and spends money, said the burying of the Central Artery
beneath Boston is drawing funds away from other projects across the
state.
The state's massive borrowing for
the $12 billion Central Artery, the largest public works project in
the nation, will rob funds for new buildings, schools, roads, land
and equipment in other communities.
The report also seemed intended to
toss cold water on Gov. A. Paul Cellucci's proposal to lower the
state's income tax rate from 5.95 percent to 5 percent.
The "Big Dig," as the
artery project is known, is forcing the state to borrow billions of
dollars, payments on which will come due in the next 10 years or so.
Some lawmakers, among them State
Sen. James P. Jajuga, D-Methuen, and State Rep. Harriett L. Stanley,
D-West Newbury, argue that the state's borrowing is a fiscal crisis
waiting to happen. They say the debt problem must be addressed
before cutting the income tax rate.
That is not true.
While both issues involved how
public funds are used, they are entirely separate matters.
Long-term borrowing to pay for the
Central Artery project is a concern. It will take careful planning
to structure the debt so that it does not prompt a fiscal crisis in
the future.
When legislators first raised the
income tax to 5.95 percent, they promised taxpayers that the move
was a "temporary" measure to deal with a past fiscal
crisis. Instead, the higher rate has been in place for most of the
last 20 years.
Gov. Cellucci is pressing the
Legislature to keep that promise. But legislators now say they must
keep our money because of the threat of a fiscal crisis down the
road.
It seems the time will never be
right for the Legislature to keep its promise to the taxpayers.
The shell game has gone on long
enough. The Legislature should lower the tax rate to its
"permanent" level of 5 percent now.