Please read Massachusetts Literally Throws Tax Dollars Away first before you read their editorial disingenuous drivel.
"In Mass., a vote for sanity
MASSACHUSETTS voters had the good sense yesterday to reject decisively the ballot question that would have repealed the state's income tax. As weakened as the state's finances have been by the drop in revenues caused by the recession, the fiscal picture would have been bleak indeed if Question 1 had passed.
The income tax provides about 40 percent of state revenues, more than $12 billion. A phalanx of business leaders, municipal officials, and both Republican and Democratic leaders mobilized against the tax repeal. As the business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation pointed out, about $13 billion of the state budget is not discretionary but required by federal law, the constitution, or court order. Finding $12 billion to cut in the rest of the budget would have had a devastating impact on human services, higher education, and the aid the state provides to towns and cities.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
Can you hear the propaganda rums beating, readers?
Communities have had a difficult enough time balancing their books with the level of state aid they are getting now. Keeping police officers, firefighters, and teachers on the job with sharply reduced state aid would have been impossible. Recent unsuccessful efforts to raise local revenues by overriding Proposition 2 1/2 have demonstrated that strapped homeowners are in no position to offset any loss of state aid.
Prop 2 1/2 was the best thing we have ever done in this sate!
The question's chief advocate, Carla Howell, never could explain how the state could compensate for the lost revenue. Instead, she referred to a survey showing that the public thought 41 percent of state spending is wasted. Doubtless, there is waste, and the recession-linked loss of more than $1 billion will force the governor and Legislature to reduce it. But any cuts should be done judiciously. Voters were right to reject the bludgeoning that repeal would have demanded. --more--"
Please read Massachusetts Literally Throws Tax Dollars Away again.
"Short Fuse
Tax loopholes: As if to prove Patrick's point
Governor Patrick got a fair amount of push-back from the business community when he proposed a package of business taxation reforms last year that included an accounting method called "combined reporting." Now we know why. Massachusetts corporations have been avoiding paying taxes by shifting their profits out of state to the tune of a cool $1 billion - or at least that's how much is at stake in a number of pending lawsuits brought by the state Department of Revenue. Under combined reporting, companies must count all their income and then pay taxes based on the share of business they do in the state. Happily, the Legislature adopted Patrick's reform in July, closing off this particular tax dodge for the future.
Yeah, the same amount we need to close the budget deficit. Imagine that, huh?
Mass. Pike: Toll plaza blues
When traffic is heavy, the Massachusetts Turnpike suffers a slow and sluggish shuffling of vehicles as they approach the Allston/Brighton toll plaza, with Fast Lane users and cash-payers all searching out their respective lanes. New Hampshire has a better system at its Hampton toll plaza, where all lanes work for vehicles with transponders. That cuts out a good deal of last-minute lane-shifting. The Mass. Pike cites the estimated $100,000 it costs to set up each new express lane as a major reason it doesn't follow suit. But if thrifty New Hampshire has found the wherewithal, surely the Pike can as well. --more--"
Why?
