Gov. Paul Cellucci announced yesterday his $1.2 billion tax
cut initiative will appear on the November ballot after it received three times the required voter signatures needed to
pass muster.
"This is the way to keep Massachusetts heading in the right
direction and to make sure we're competitive with the new globalization of the economy," Cellucci said.
The initiative rolls back the state income tax rate from
5.85 percent to 5 percent by 2003 and would return $600 to the average family of four while curtailing overspending by the
Legislature, he said.
An increase in state revenues has left the state with a
budget surplus, causing a battle between Republicans and Democrats over the excess money.
House Ways and Means Chairman Paul R. Haley (D-Weymouth)
said most of the surplus should be used to reduce the per capita debt instead of "dramatic" tax reductions.
"We should pay for the improvements and investments we've
made in the last few years now instead of burdening the next generation with them," Haley said.
Jim St. George, executive director of Campaign for Massachusetts's Future, echoed Haley's concerns and
said the governor's tax cut might pull funding from state schools and health care.
The ballot initiative is also expected to face strenuous
opposition from the Massachusetts Teachers Association, which has said the initiative would threaten state aid to education.
Stephen Gorrie, president of the association, did not return
calls from the Herald.
Proponents of the tax cut believe the action is long overdue.
In 1989, the Legislature raised the income tax as a "temporary" measure to deal with the state's recession.
"The Legislature not keeping its word to the people is the
number one point in all this," said Barbara Anderson, director of Citizens for Limited Taxation and Government, who worked
with the governor on the tax cut.
Other initiatives filed yesterday and being reviewed for
certification by the Secretary of State's office include a law to develop a comprehensive health care coverage system, an
initiative to encourage charitable giving by creating a tax deduction for those who give to charities, and a measure that
would direct drug forfeiture money toward drug treatment.
Certified for the November ballot are an initiative to allow
a tax credit for highway, tunnel and bridge tolls, and an initiative to ban greyhound dog racing.
With the Legislature's addition of at least two proposed
constitutional amendments -- one of which would bar prisoners from voting -- the total number of initiatives now stands at
eight, one of the most crowded ballots in the state's history.