Boston Tax Party
August 5, 2008
Massachusetts is about the last
place one would expect
a tax revolt, but that's what's brewing in Beantown. The state board of
elections recently certified that citizen activists have gathered the
125,000 signatures required to qualify an initiative for the November
ballot to eliminate the state income tax.
The Small Government Act would
repeal the 5.3% income
and wage tax, as well as the state capital gains tax, which reaches as
high as 12%. The ballot initiative would replace the $12.5 billion in
taxes with . . . nothing. "One of the points here," explains Carla
Howell of the Committee for Small Government that is driving the
referendum, "is to force the state legislators to start cutting the
bloated state budget." The political shock of having no income tax
would force the pols on Beacon Hill to make the difficult spending
choices they now refuse to make.
The referendum may seem the longest
of long shots in a
state represented by some of Congress's biggest spenders. But the same
initiative was on the ballot in 2002, and though the political
establishment roared with laughter through Election Day, the measure
got 45% of the vote. This time pro-tax forces such as the Massachusetts
Teachers Association are planning to spend millions of dollars warning
of Armageddon.
They have cause to be worried. A
Fabrizio poll for
Citizens for Limited Taxation discovered that the average Massachusetts
voter believes that 41 cents of every state tax dollar are wasted.
Coincidentally, that's the share of the state budget funded by the
income tax. One big drain is a pension program that doles out billions
each year to double-dipping pensioners and state workers retiring at
taxpayer expense in their late 40s or 50s.
Nine U.S. states have no income
tax, including such
economic climbers as Florida, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas. These states
are doing fine funding schools, hospitals and police without the income
levy. Over the past decade 330,000 Massachusetts residents have packed
U-Haul trailers and left -- more than have even fled Michigan -- and
many have gone to no-income-tax New Hampshire.
"The idea here is to stop being on
the defensive in
fighting against big government and to start taking the political
offensive," says Ms. Howell. She says the tax repeal would give every
Massachusetts worker a 5% after-tax pay raise, or about $3,000 extra
income per family. That's attractive when Census data show that, after
inflation, state budgets nationwide are up 18% since 2005 while
paychecks have remained flat.
The forces of the tax-and-spend
status quo will
descend on this initiative like British troops after the original
Boston tea party, but somebody has to make an effort to stop the
relentless growth of government.
See all of today's
editorials and op-eds, plus video commentary, on Opinion
Journal.
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