Nothing worse then being a one term rep. Elected by the people only to be fired at the very first performance review.
In the Beacon Hill world of has beens the one term rep is a never was.
Speaker Deleo has indicated that the members prefer a 1%+ sales tax increase to gas tax increases.
Freshmen progressives and veterans too, should be disappointed in DeLeo’s battle plan.
The flanks are unprotected.
Deval campaigned for many freshman last fall. Now he should a real political gesture, slap Booby D. and win back many of the progressives on board the SS DeLeo.
Deval should announce today that he will veto any increase in the sales and income tax. And help the freshman live to see another term.
Please share widely!
I think he should force a compromise that the House is willing to live with but doesn’t want to be seen as championing.
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p>I wonder if we can’t make due by expanding the breadth of sales tax without increasing the percentage…
* Expand sales tax to beverages like soda, water, and iced tea
* Expand sales tax to gasoline
* Expand sales tax to services
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p>How much revenue would it generate? If we’ve also got to raise the percent, so be it. That written, based on prior estimates of $400M per year in added revenue from a gas sales tax at 7%, that makes it about $57 million per percent. If the sales tax for gasoline was earmarked to be a minimum 2% (out of 5%) for the MBTA, 0.5% for other mass transit, and 0.5% for non-motorized improvements [sidewalks, bike lanes and trails, ped footbridges, handicap accessibility upgrades, etc], then I’d feel much better.
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p>The T is $160M in the hole this year. Any tax increase must come with specific increases in revenue for the T that encompass most or all of that deficit. I could swallow the increase if we at least (a) used expansion to discourage behavior that costs society in the long run [gasoline consumption, corn syrup, etc] and use those funds to continue programs which encourage behavior that benefits society in the long run [mass transit, human powered transit, safety improvements].
This was over two decades ago, but I was living in Florida when they imposed a services tax, which ended up getting repealed in about a year. There are several articles that Google picks up via “services tax florida” including this NY Times article.
lessons to be learned: the specific outcry mentioned in that article was on media and the intersection with free speech. If it’s a legit beef (and I haven’t given it much thought) then don’t tax it. However the courts have made clear a distinction between commercial and non-commercial free speech. I’m a big fan of not taxing political/nonprofit/charity/etc media services but taxing billboards advertising washing machines or automobiles or personal injury lawyers.
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p>I’d also note that, IIRC, the services tax is scheduled for debate today on Beacon Hill; I’m not the first to suggest it here or otherwise, and I’m far from an expert on this or any other tax for that matter.
FL’s attempt in the 1980s to expand their sales tax base to cover services, it’s my understanding that newspapers were so vehemently opposed to taxing advertising services, because it would cut into their bottom lines, that they ran editorial after editorial rallying the opposition. Since the US economy has evolved from a goods based to a services based economy, extending the sales tax to services makes good policy sense and maintains the tax base. Does today’s dying newspaper industry have enough clout that they could kill a sound policy proposal to protect their bottom lines?
and then just have to deal with the Herald
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p>[/ducks]
n/t
I agree. Deval can recoup some of his lost mojo by coming out right now with a pledge to veto this asinine sales tax hike.
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p>How pathetic is it that the main reason leadership wants a sale tax hike is because it only requires one vote, as opposed to a hike in sin taxes, candy, etc. which might require two or three? As if voters are so dumb we’ll swallow the former, but not the later.
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p>Arghhh! This kind of stuff makes me question why we need more balance at the state house. Somebody slap me out of it.
I just read that Governor Patrick threatened to veto a sales tax increase if it didn’t include reforms that he wanted. Ernie, are you actually the Governor? Amazing!
is that Patrick didn’t promise to veto the sales tax, only that he’d veto the sales tax if the reform agenda didn’t pass. DeLeo couldn’t deal with it, so he strong-armed the House anyway. What’s the word for that? Oh, yes, illuminating.
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p>Yes we can!