The current high sales tax / low gas tax formula leads to lots more driving to New Hampshire. We should lower the sales tax to spur the local economy, and make up for the revenue short fall with a higher gas tax. It’s a no-brainer. Question Three will be a boon for local economies and will reduce gas consumption even if we don’t raise the gas tax, but of course we will have to in order to save the fire departments, etc, so it will wind up reducing gas consumption considerably. I don’t see any other way to raise the gas tax than to do it because we had to, because voters lowered the sales tax.
But keep this secret! Don’t tell the Republicans about our sneaky plan, or they’ll choose the higher sales taxes just to stick it to the environment. They actually enjoy driving to New Hampshire, it gives them a feeling of independence and smartness, like they are in control of their lives and saving money. Some of them might keep on doing it just for that 3%. But most people will reduce their driving and start walking to local shops run by local people.
progressives what we should do. I know you all do it out of the kindness of your hearts, but we’re a paranoid bunch.
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p>Problem 1: once a tax gets cut, it’s murder to raise another tax.
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p>Problem 2: Cutting taxes when everyone is saving isn’t a particularly stimulating move.
Anybody who would cut any tax 1% must be a conservative.
I love a non-sequitor as much as the next guy, but the post and thread aren’t about defining conservatives.
Don’t Get Cute is as lefty as any poster here.
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p>Any argument against reducing the power or reach of government is instantly attacked as a conservative one, because the Democratic establishment depends vitally on government jobs or government support of non-profit jobs.
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p>How about Yes on 3 for gays, that listed ten types of social worker or lawyer for gays who might lose their jobs… never mind that a gay person might need to sell his work, or might want to buy a car or plasma TV and doesn’t want to pay high taxes on it.
was conservative.
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p>The rest of what you said is not worth responding too.
You’ll be responding soon enough.
video sums up the carbon footprint scam quite nicely.
http://www.google.com/#q=1010g…
I’ve been looking for good data on how the sales tax differential at the border affects purchasing behavior and now you say you’ve got evidence that shows “lots” of driving from MA into NH to shop! Can you point me to that link please?
this is dumb.
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p>1. The MA Constitution prohibits this proposal.
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p>Any tax from gasoline has to be spent on transportation. Now, I report this with a caveat: currently, the gas tax doesn’t come close to the expenditures MA makes on roads, so increasing the gas tax and spending that on roads would allow some of the current general revenue to be spent elsewhere. The flip side is that 20% of the gas tax is used for public transit funding, and not just the MBTA. Cut the sales tax by over 50%, and you’ve just sliced off a huge amount of the mass transit funding; raising the gas tax won’t make up for it.
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p>2. If the gas tax is too high relative to ME, NH, VT, NY, CT, RI, then we’ll suffer as folks drive across the boarder to buy their gasoline there… much like you suggested folks do to avoid the sales tax in NH. Raising gas prices by a nickel would put us in line with all border states except NH (we’re in line now) and NY (they’re another $0.05 more expensive). This means we could probably raise the tax a dime without massive problems at the border.
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p>3. According to the EIA, Massachusetts consumed 437,744,500 gallons of gasoline in 2009. Assuming it was all taxed (it wasn’t: government vehicles don’t pay the tax, for example), that means the $0.235 cents per gallon resulted in an upper bound of $102,869,957.50. The current gas tax generates $100 million a year. Cutting the sales tax to 3% would create a hole of $2.4 billion per year. This means that for the two sides to be equal, assuming that price had no impact on demand (and it does), you’d have to raise the gas tax from 23 and a half cents per gallon to $5.64 a gallon.
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p>So, while I would gladly support raising the gas tax in a way to offset the sales tax, even if we raised the gas tax 10 cents a gallon — about as much as we could without border effects — that $50 million in extra revenue would allow us to reduce the sales tax from 6.25% to 6.20%. I’d support that, and I’d bet lots of progressives would.
Thanks for the numbers. So it won’t be as painless as I’d hoped. But like I said, I don’t see any other way to get the legislature to raise the gas tax other than this sort of fiscal emergency caused by the voters. The purpose is to reduce gas consumption, and that is the most important thing. Sure, we’d have to cut lots of programs, but that would help reduce gas consumption too and we should do that anyway.
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p>And they’d certainly raise the sales tax back up immediately, it’d probably go straight to 5%, not 3% and not back to 6.25%, so the deficit would only be about $1 Billion.
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p>And if we raised the gas tax, other states probably would too, apparently we are the loss leader in our region. The goal is to raise the gas tax in every state to reduce consumption. Raising it $1 would raise about $500 Million dollars, so now we are looking at $500M in cuts, which would be good.
The lege just isn’t going to raise the gas tax to solve budgetary matters. It won’t fix the problem, and it’s the one tax that voters are the most sensitive to, regardless of the irrationality.
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p>Even if MA raised their tax, NH is the low man in the region, and they aren’t going to raise theirs just because MA raised ours. You’d only emphasize the tax chasm between MA and NH.
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p>Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see the gas tax increased, with that money used to repair bridges and public transit. It’s just that it ain’t going to happen, and even if it did it wouldn’t likely provide any slack in the budget.
If I understand correctly, gasoline is exempt from the sales tax. This is how alcohol used to be, but isn’t any more. In some states, gasoline is not exempt, resulting in folks paying both a gas tax and a sales tax (which is included in the price, same as the gas tax).
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p>This would result in an increase of the total price of gas by about fifteen cents per gallon.
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p>I wonder: maybe progressives should put that on the ballot as a ballot question. Let the people vote to raise the gas tax. I mean, if the lege isn’t going to touch it, what’s there to lose?
If that guy could get on the ballot to face Coakley for Attorney General without having to go through the steps of getting signatures, but just by getting write-ins, why can’t ballot questions also get on the ballot just by getting write-in votes?
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p>For example, instead of the campaign passing out stickers that said “James McKenna” they could say “Protect Marriage” or “Raise the Gas Tax”, and if they got the 75,000 then the question would be on the ballot, and no one would have to subject themselves to intimidation or harassment.
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p>I’m not sure I’d sign a public petition to put a gas tax rise on the ballot, because those Don’t Tread On Me guys are dying to use those guns they bring to the rallies.
There will be an immediate call to immediately re-raise the sales tax. Hopefully we will reach a compromise at 5%, and voters will feel like they were heard. But there will still be a shortfall. To make up for the shortfall, raising the gas tax would be an obvious necessary step. I hope you don’t pass up the opportunity to raise the gas tax, if we are in that position after the election.
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p>And I bet New Hampshire would raise their gas tax if we raise ours, why wouldn’t they? And, shouldn’t they? You are quite the obstructionist.
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p>No, both sides will correctly feel like they were ignored. We’re voting on 3%, not 5%. Ballot initiatives aren’t openings for a negotiation.
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p>Given that raising the gas tax is neither obvious, nor necessary, nor (due to the MA constitution) helpful in meeting the gap… um no.
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p>I’m not a legislator… who is this “you” you speak of?
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p>They wouldn’t. We just raised our sales tax, and they haven’t raised theirs from 0% to something else. Income taxes in surrounding states have changed, but NH is still 0%. NH is the “odd-state-out” in all kinds of legislative circumstances where other northeastern states all work together, ranging from environmental issues to consumer protection. Dude, its New freakin’ Hampshire, for better or for worse.
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p>They should require that motorcyclists wear helmets, but they don’t do that either.
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p>You’re right. Were it not for my comments on a non-frontpaged thread on a blog, the legislature would be a sure bet to raise the gas tax.
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p>Don’t confuse my observations of what is with what I’d like.