"Debate around meals tax heats up; Many towns see windfall; others fearful" by Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff | March 7, 2010
BEVERLY - The new levy should be even more lucrative than hoped....
For who?
See: State Wears Rose-Colored Glasses When Looking at Revenue
You sure they ain't looking through something else?
Still, municipal officials who asked lawmakers last year for the ability to levy the tax are finding more resistance to it at the local level than they expected, with opposition coming not just from restaurant owners and business associations but from tax-weary residents and even local officials themselves.
I'm just wondering when the Massachusetts authorities are going to remove their heads from that shit pile which they have them stuck?
Abington, Lynn, and Swampscott rejected the tax recently, and Salem officials debated it for hours without arriving at a decision. In Foxborough, selectmen are reluctant to send it once more to Town Meeting, where it has been voted down twice since last summer.
Related:
“What is it about democracy that these groups don’t understand?’’
Yeah, no kidding!
In Plymouth, the only community where the meals tax has gone to the ballot, voters rejected the idea by a 4-to-1 margin in January.
Yes, we have HAD IT with STATE LOOTERS!
The debates tend to follow a pattern. Proponents say the additional tax is too small to be felt by individual diners and restaurants but collectively can provide a meaningful revenue stream for communities strained by the recession and heavily reliant on property taxes and state aid.
Then you can pay it for me, a**holes!!!!!!!
Opponents, finding their arguments gaining favor at a time of national anti-tax and antigovernment sentiment, say it singles out restaurants unfairly, has a potential chilling effect on dining out, and should take a back seat to budget cuts.
Reluctance to adopt the tax has surprised the groups that lobbied on both sides of the enabling legislation on Beacon Hill.
Not me; the political creeps want to keep their jobs.
Wouldn't you if you had a nice, taxpayer-funded lifestyle and benefits in this s*** economy?
The Massachusetts Municipal Association sought the option last year as part of a package to give cities and towns more tools to rein in costs and diversify their income sources.
Have you TAXED EVERYTHING yet?
The Legislature approved the measure last summer while also raising the state meals tax from 5 percent to 6.25 percent. The local option makes the total tax 7 percent where adopted.
Yup, and SOMEHOW we still have SERVICE CUTS when we were promised raising the sales tax would forestall them.
Yeah, I'm going to believe lying government and s***-shoveling newspapers next time, yup.
Geoffrey Beckwith, executive director of the association, said in a interview last month that the tax is a boon to Massachusetts towns and cities, which lack the power to levy taxes that communities have in many other states.
The mind-set says it all, doesn't it?
BOON for WHO?
Not me when the CHECK COMES!
Guess I'll take the TAX out of her TIP!!!
“Unfortunately, I think some of the chamber of commerce organizations, the business organizations, see this as a threat when it’s not a threat,’’ Beckwith said.
No, not when it is not coming from your taxpayer-funded wallet.
“The greater threat is to have municipal services such as police, fire protection, or schools erode more because of a lack of revenue.’’
Just another lying PoS in state government.
Take a look: The Massachusetts State Budget
Yes, WHERE has all the TAX LOOT GONE, huh, readers?
**********************
Debate on the issue will intensify this spring, when potentially dozens of communities consider the tax for the first time at their annual town meetings.
Meanwhile, municipal officials continue to wrestle with budgets hampered by the economy.
Hey, what is ONE MORE DECEPTION and DISTORTION from the Boston Globe. 'eh?
While cities and towns have the ability to increase property taxes in good and bad times - within the constraints of Proposition 2 1/2 - most other revenue sources have not kept up, such as state aid, excise taxes, and fees for building permits.
That is because THIS ECONOMY has NOT BEEN GROWING like you liars have been saying!!!!
And ever notice the answer is ALWAYS HIGHER TAXES (unless you are getting the breaks) in this state?
But local costs continue to rise, health insurance in particular.
Related: The Massachusetts Model: Municipal Health Mess
Yeah, isn't it great that the "public servants" gave themselves great health plans at taxpayer expense -- health plans you will never see, taxpayers?
And temporary measures that helped prevent layoffs this past year, such as reserve funds and federal stimulus dollars, provide less hope for staving off future cuts....
Other communities have avoided the tax for fear of harming restaurant owners, who operate on slim margins....
Even slimmer after the new tax.
Well, there is an alleged obesity epidemic in this country so maybe that is a good thing.
In Swampscott, the chamber warned selectmen against turning the town into “Taxscott.’’
Taxscott, Taxachusetts. 
In Lynn, its working-class neighbor, officials worried that the tax might discourage out-of-town diners from a burgeoning restaurant scene trying to earn notice beyond the fast-food signs that beckon on the Lynnway....
Related: The Lynn Lootings
That is why you need to raise taxes!!
Please THINK of THAT the next time you pay your bill at the diner!
Edward L. Glaeser, a Harvard University economist, said the additional 0.75 percent tax is unlikely to affect decisions about where and when to go out to eat.
“It’s a tiny tax increase, and tiny tax increases are likely to have tiny impacts on behavior,’’ said Glaeser, who studies social economics and local government and is director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston. But “just because it’s tiny doesn’t make it right.’’
During a lunch rush last week at Cafe Salerno, only some diners at the Beverly restaurant said they were aware the tax was coming, and none interviewed said it would diminish his or her appetite for the pizza and chicken parm served by brothers Todd and Michael Rotondo.
“I’m a property owner. I live in the city, so I look at it from the aspect of revenue that will help the shortfall from the state level,’’ said Todd Rotondo, a father of two who asked the city council to approve the tax.
Several customers agreed. “It seems to me that it’s slight, and that the money would go to a good cause,’’ said Joy Francesconi, who works for a nearby publishing company and has a son in a Beverly kindergarten.
I give up on you, Massachusetts residents and Boston Globe.
Yeah, the PUBLIC is FOR TAXES because YOU ARE, shit bags!!
Pffft!
Kellye Couillard, a nanny from Peabody, said the tax amounted to a “teeny, tiny bit’’ for individuals that could make a difference collectively.
But across from her, postal carrier Peter Donovan shook his head.
“Yeah, but you put a teeny, tiny bit here, a teeny, tiny bit there’’ and it adds up, said Donovan, also a Peabody resident, ticking off recent state tax increases. “You got to draw the line somewhere.’’
Yeah, right across your wallet, taxpayers!
