Scot Lehigh caps an otherwise effusive column about Patrick’s biotech plan with this clunker:
One key, the green team told me, was the golden glitter of a corporate tax enticingly low by European Union standards. In that light, DiMasi may have actually done Patrick a favor by putting the brakes on the governor’s plan to close so-called business tax loopholes, a move that would increase the state’s business tax burden.
Ugh. That is just silly. Patrick’s plan would plainly improve the tax system and make it more rational — as well as raise necessary revenue, of course.
The defenders of the status quo really, really, really don’t want to talk about the details of the loopholes Patrick plans to close. Do you really think you ought to be able to avoid a real estate transfer tax by turning a building into a partnership, for instance? Or by pretending you’re one kind of business for local taxes, and another for state? Or by socking away revenue in an out-of-state subsidiary? Come on.
Look, if you want to give tax breaks, give tax breaks. Do it rationally, do it right, create incentives for the kind of growth you want. But don’t tell me that this Mickey Mouse stuff is a good economic development plan.
Lehigh inserts a complaint about the state’s unemployment insurance rates. He’s the second pundit-type I’ve read complain about this recently, but the issue hasn’t otherwise been in the news. Is someone making noise about this now and I’m just missing it, or is it just floating around the Beacon Hill Commenatator zeitgeist?
Turns out there was a hearing last week.