Hmmm. Last time I looked, my state income tax rate was still 5.3%, not the 5% it was supposed to be brought back to after a binding referendum passed overwhelmingly in 2000. I find it positively incredulous that Patrick could claim, with a straight face, that he would implement a tax rollback beyond the 5%. One can only imagine what Cadillac Deval's response would have been were he not locked in the political fight of his life - but I'll imagine rolling around on the floor choking back wet, horse-like snorts of laughter would be his more likely reaction to the question: "Governor, will you reduce taxes in MA?".After repeatedly dodging the issue, Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday pledged to implement a state sales-tax rollback if ballot Question 3 is approved by voters in November.
“I will respect the will of the voters,” Patrick told the Herald at a late afternoon campaign stop, after twice refusing to answer the question hours earlier.
“But I think any responsible candidate and any responsible public official has got to be straight with people about what a calamity this will create in their lives.”
MA: You're more likely to bleed out of your wallet here.
That is all.
7 comments:
Jay,
MA has nothing on taxes. Having just gotten back from a few days in Richard Daley's dynastic apostate of Chicago, I can tell you I feel like I got completed and utterly @$$ raped. Sales tax in Chicago is about 11% !!! with EVERYTHING being taxed - food, clothing, etc. Everything. And let's not forget gas prices -- self serve regular was running about $3.10 a gallon. I paid less than $2.65 yesterday. Oh, and then there's the fact that Illinois is one of only two states without any form of CCW. Let's not forget that little gem. Gah. I never thought I'd say it, but damnation I'm glad to be back in MA.
- Brad
Don't pols realize that when THEY violate the social contract WE get to decide what happens to them?
But the Voters in Mass have generally and historicly decided that there are no consqences to how the pols behave.
......until now anyway.
I'm thinking that what Deval has in mind if the 3% sales Tax passes is the time honored "Cut the Football Team" school of budgeting.
.......When faced with reduced inflow of funds during the School budget process, the first thing that gets the axe is the Football Team.....until everyone ponies up the additional $$ requested.
NotDilbert,
I refer to that as the "trash collection" method, but same idea.
In my town, whenever they *REALLY* want a Prop 2½ override to pass, they threaten to stop home trash pickup.
I wonder what would happen, because they shut down the town dump like 25 years ago...
It's a meaningless promise because the act still has to go through the General Court, which will sit on it. The Patrick will say, "I fully intend to uphold my promise once the legislature sends me a bill to sign."
Remember, this is the guy who ran successfully on a promise to cut local property taxes all the while knowing that the governor has no input in those tax rates.
As Borepatch says, Vote them all out.
“I will respect the will of the voters,”
That needs a beverage warning, Jay.
"I'm thinking that what Deval has in mind if the 3% sales Tax passes is the time honored "Cut the Football Team" school of budgeting."
Here, it's usually the "cut the police/fire/rescue budget" method. We get billed for trash collection, and Finagle help any politician who even thinks about cutting football! Around here, they'll cut their own pay before cutting football.
Still the same idea, though.
It actually happened on the state level this year. They tried to cut the Office of EMS training budget completely, which would have effectively killed almost all training for all but the big city squads (OEMS is the main source for training classes for rural squads, which are mostly volunteer). We narrowly avoided that fiasco.
Of course, this was while they were starting to reopen the highway rest areas that had been closed to save money. Closing the rest areas got front page coverage last year, and became a major debating point in the last gubernatorial election. When the new governor threatened to slash the EMS budget, I don't think a single paper even mentioned it.
Ironically, Virginia ended the fiscal year with a budget surplus.
The precedent having been set in the opposite direction, make it retroactive.
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