In a lively debate with Gov. Paul Cellucci over the tax-rollback question on the November ballot, gubernatorial wannabe Steve Grossman played the class-warfare card in trying to to explain why Massachusetts income tax should remain among the nation's highest.
The ballot question would roll back the tax rate to 5 percent -- the rate before the Legislature raised taxes to avoid insolvency after the "Massachusetts miracle" collapsed. Now, billions of dollars put aside in various contingency accounts, the Legislature grudgingly has granted only nominal relief, from 5.95 percent to 5.85 percent.
Calling the rollback "irresponsible," Mr. Grossman, former Democratic National Committee chairman, asserted the state's wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers would get the largest relief.
That appeal to class envy doesn't wash. The rollback is scrupulously evenhanded, reducing the rate by exactly the same amount for affluent, middle-class and low-income residents.
As Mr. Cellucci said, "This is not the government's money, it's the taxpayers' money."
But tax relief, no matter how equitable, does not sit well with politicians of Mr. Grossman's ilk who are loath to relinquish any potential revenue source. If more cash flows in than is needed for existing operations, these politicians are more than willing to concoct new programs and projects to absorb the excess.
After a decade of steady economic growth, many residents who cast ballots in November may have forgotten the fiscal chaos that can follow unsustainable spending commitments made in boom times. Ominously, state budgets have been growing at more than triple the inflation rate in recent years.
The phased-in tax relief sought by initiative petition may be taxpayers' last, best hope of trimming the money tree and bringing to Beacon Hill a renewed sense of fiscal restraint.