When the pie is too small – it is time to bake more pies

Comments

1. harmony says

   April 21, 2009 at 1:21 pm

   But I believe that the House Ways and Means Committee made a deliberate decision not to raise revenues.

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   p>Chairman Charlse Murphy acknowledged:

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   that the cuts are “extremely deep,” but argued that the budget as a whole is “intellectually honest” because it recognizes that “tax revenues are not coming back any time soon.”

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   p>It is misleading to assume, however, that those revenues dropped entirely due to our current national economic situation, especially since we came out of a period of national recovery plugging gaps with cash from our rainy day fund.

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   p>Our state made a series of permanent tax cuts over a period of decades that left us with a significant structural deficit, and tax revenues are only going to come back once we give our representatives the support they need to push for them.

   • amberpaw says

     April 21, 2009 at 1:52 pm

     Revenue needs to be restructured in order to be reliable, and increased.

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     p>There are a number of options being considered like:

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     p>1. A bits and peices approach aka “the piecemeal approach” as to revenue from legislative targets with limited pushback, like, say, taxing candy, increasing the cigarette tax, and items like that.

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     p>2.  Adding fees [like a “fee” to file a motion in court; there is currently no such fee], or?

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     p>3.  Changing the cost paradigms – like appointing the Commission established by Chapter 54 of the Acts of 2005 – see  http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws…  This legislation passed, but the members of this unpaid commission were never appointed – the goal was to restructure criminal offenses, such as shoptlifting, say:  Paying to incarcerate folks for shopliftingb rather than having fees that escalate and render shoplifting uneconomic makes no sense at all.  I point out, too, that when incarceration is not an option for an illegal activity, the number of cases for which counsel must be assigned will go down reducing the cost of indigent defense by millions of dollars in a constitutionally acceptable manner.  There are other paradigm shifts I could talk about, too where the cost is created by the way an activity is analyzed and labeled – not by necessity.

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     p>4.  Changing the structure of revenue rasing to be more progressive rather than a matter of push-pull peicemeal taxation.

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     p>5.  A broad tax like the gas tax, value added tax, or sales tax [which are all, alas, regressive ’cause folk on welfare pay them at the same rate billionaires do].

2. bostonshepherd says

   April 22, 2009 at 10:47 pm

   Isn’t that the best way to increase our tax revenue?  We’re in a recession.  Now’s NOT the time to raise taxes or fees.

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   p>Your pie analogy is stupid because “a bigger pie” usually refers to increasing economic activity, or national income, or some other job-producing concept.  Now you commandeer it to represent … taxes.  More taxes!  More pies!  Who shall bake those pies?  From where do the ingredients come?  Why, the government shall simply create pies.

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   p>How about we cut state employment.  You could provide the same services, the same dollar benefits distributed, with 33% fewer state and town employees.

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   p>Example: take down the tolls, abolish the Mass Turnpike Authority, fire everyone, and increase the gas tax.

   • ryepower12 says

     April 23, 2009 at 1:07 am

     Recession? Can’t raise taxes!

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     p>Surplus? Where’s my tax cut, already?

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     p>When is it time to raise revenue? The answer is when it’s necessary. You say we can’t raise revenue in a recession. However, that’s only true if the opposite – cutting funds – would be less damaging than a few new, modest revenue sources. In reality, the cuts our state face would be far more damaging than a modest tax hike. The MBTA service cuts alone would be devastating (and would cost people jobs – and thus deprive the state of income tax revenue, as well as prolong the recession). Doubling the tolls would be equally devastating – forcing the overwhelming burden of paying for our entire transportation system on just a small portion of this state. Plus, it only goes to show that one way or the other, people will have to pay up. The only question is how fairly and efficiently society spreads the burden of paying for its services.

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     p>Lastly, while some of the economy is hurting, there’s still plenty of profitable sectors that can afford to take on a slightly larger share of the burden. While it may not make sense to increase capital gains taxes right now, the telecom industry is largely insulated from the recession and could afford to pay their fair share on all the telephone polls they own, ending an ancient tax loophole that’s not only lost its purpose, but is so egregious that it’s unique to Massachusetts. Ending that loophole would go a long way toward helping fund cities and towns without continuing the over-reliance on property taxes.

3. jimc says

   April 23, 2009 at 10:13 am

   Eat cake.