Deval Patrick’s campaign has announced its latest position paper, this one on the financial problems facing cities and towns. Patrick has been talking a lot about the problems facing cities and towns, and in so doing he has garnered the endorsements of several mayors of important cities, such as Somerville, Cambridge (big surprise), Salem, Taunton, Northampton, and Pittsfield.
The issues facing cities and towns are hugely important. Municipal governments have primary responsibility for many of the issues that most directly affect people’s daily lives – public safety and education, to name the two most obvious. And the financial problems they are facing now threaten the municipalities’ ability to carry out that responsibility in an effective way – yet continuing to raise property taxes through endless Prop. 2-1/2 overrides is not a viable solution. Good for Patrick for addressing this important issue head-on.
Eisenthal, who has forgotten more about municipal finance than most of us will ever know, has more.
OK, after taking Reilly to task for pandering to the Right for advocating an income tax cut, I have to say that Deval is shaping up to be the candidate that never met a tax he didn’t like.
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I know from a policy point of view he is right on the subject. But he is tone deaf on the politics. As of today, Deval so far is on the record for supporting three taxes…a tobacco tax and employer tax to fund his health care plan and now giving local communities the ability to impose new taxes.
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And Deval still hasnât told us how we are going to pay for the universal full-day kindergarten program and lengthening of the school year programs that are the cornerstone of his stump speeches. Should we expect even more tax increases in his evloving platform?
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Don’t get me wrong, I will be voting for Deval…but I fear he is walking into the same old trap the Republicans set and, let’s face it, the Republicans are better at framing issues the last few weeks of a campaign than we have been.
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It’s about choice. Municipalities should be allowed to decided how they are going to fund their own programs. Right now the only weapon in their arsenal is the property tax. Let’s give them more options so that they’re not so heavily reliant on the single most regressive tax there is.
As stated, I don’t disagree with this policy position (although I live in a community with few options aside from residential property taxes).
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This is the right proposal for a Governor to make…but a bad political move for a candidate. I understand that I may get flak for that comment, but BlueMassGroup does advertise itself as a “reality-based” blog and the reality of advocating tax increases (as in his health care proposal) or allowing for more local taxes (in this case) is bad politics.
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I don’t seem to remember W running on a platform of warrantless wiretaps or dismantling Social Security. Rather he pushed his “Blue Skies” environmental initiative and a bunch of drool about a Massachusetts liberal who will raise your taxes and let the terrorists win.
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I’m not suggesting Deval (or any candidate) be so intellectually dishonest as W. I just don’t think he (Deval) should keep touching the third rail of politics–taxes–with such regularity.
That notion shouldn’t be too hard to counter.
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What are most people focused on in this state? Stopping growth.
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How do you stop growth? By decreasing demand for your town.
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How do you do that without drastically affecting your way of life? Make another town more attractive.
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And what tools can that other town take to make their town more attractive? Better services.
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How can those towns pay for better services? Via “optional” tax increases on things that
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This is like Mitt Romney/Kerry Healey’s fee increase, except instead of increasing fees on vital things like buying a house or taking out a building permit, these will be lower-level fees on things like buying dinner at a restaurant.
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Keep on the message that the new taxes can be avoided, and will be on other people, and it minimizes the impact.
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Plus, people have already expressed a willingness to pay exorbitant sums of money to live in certain communities because services are rationed. This is a way for the rest of us to get those same services without spending $10k more a year in mortgage.
Wow, our mayor got out way ahead of PDS (Progressive Democrats of Somerville) on this one.
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While I suspect PDS will eventually end up supporting Patrick, the organization and its members have been so busy with regular city and special state legislative elections that we haven’t yet had the time to concentrate on the Governor’s race (or any other statewide race).
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[As usual, I speak only for myself, not officially for PDS.]
Going to the Mayors and offering them the chance to raise taxes in exchange for an endorsement of his campaign is like asking kindergarden kids to pick their favorite teacher based on who provides the most candy.
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Perhaps he should have announced it in front of the Mass. Restaurant Association.
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The meals tax actually made it to Gov. Swift’s desk one year and got about 70 votes another (maybe a couple less). With some support from a strong executive, maybe it passes, and Mass. cities and towns, who have fewer revenue options than most localities around the country, would have a new revenue source for cops and kids, with a portion of the fare paid by out of staters.
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That said, the meals tax ought to be combined with either some revenue source options for localities that would not benefit from a meals tax and some property tax relief targeted to homeowners. Again, leadership at the top would help bring this about.