"A new 0.16 percent transportation payroll tax that employers would pay on their employees’ wages; a 30-cent increase per gallon in the existing gas tax; an increase in the state sales tax from 6.25 percent to 7.75 percent; and an increase in the state income tax from 5.25 percent to approximately 5.66 percent.... a “green fee” that would be added to existing title and registration fees, and a vehicle-miles-traveled tax of 2.4 cents per mile that would collected at the annual safety inspection or by an onboard device....
The outright money grab and upside-down shakedown almost leaves me speechless. I wonder how the political geniuses over there think we are going to afford so many outrageous accelerations. 30 cents a gallon at the pump? Increases (again) in the sales and income tax -- after a pack of lies about the economic numbers last month canceled a reduction? More registration and title fees? A miles-traveled tax of 2.4 cents a mile collected with an onboard spying device? It's enough to give one a hummer.
So what else is in their bag?
.... a series of modest, regular increases to transportation fares, fees and tolls.... tolls on the western section of the Massachusetts Turnpike would be kept in place.... increasing registration fees by $53, increasing annual vehicle inspection fees by $19, increasing license fees by $85, increasing Massachusetts Turnpike tolls by 5 percent, increasing MBTA fares by 5 percent, and cutting $40 million in service from the MBTA"
They think you are made of money, folks.
And why do we need this slew of outrageous tax proposals?
"costs.... especially debt payments"
That's right. It's all going to banks!
"Tax hikes may loom to pay for state transportation costs" by Martin Finucane | Globe Staff, January 14, 2013
A new report from the board of the Massachusetts Transportation Department says the state transportation system needs a $10 billion-plus revenue boost and outlines a wide range of possible new taxes and fees to raise the money, including possible increases in the gas tax, sales tax, and income tax.
I really don't know where you think you are going to get all this money because we are tapped out here. If this doesn't convince you our leaders are totally out-of-touch with those they govern nothing will. They just see an ATM machine that never runs out of cash when they look at you, Massachusetts citizen.
“We cannot adequately pay for the transportation system we have today, and the improved statewide system that our customers want is one we definitely cannot afford without additional funding,” the board said in releasing the report, “The Way Forward: A 21st-Century Transportation Plan.”
To fully fund operations and implement its plan, the document said, the state will need to raise an average of $1.02 billion per year in new revenue in the next 10 years.
The plan discusses a number of “options and recommendations for raising new revenues that have been proposed by the public and municipal leaders,” saying the Transportation Department and the Legislature should “consider these and other revenue options.”
The options included: a new 0.16 percent transportation payroll tax that employers would pay on their employees’ wages; a 30-cent increase per gallon in the existing gas tax; an increase in the state sales tax from 6.25 percent to 7.75 percent; and an increase in the state income tax from 5.25 percent to approximately 5.66 percent.
Other possible revenue sources include a “green fee” that would be added to existing title and registration fees, and a vehicle-miles-traveled tax of 2.4 cents per mile that would collected at the annual safety inspection or by an onboard device.
Revenues could also be raised by “a series of modest, regular increases to transportation fares, fees and tolls,” the report said. Other possibilities to raise money include installing tolls on major highways, tolls on car pool lanes, or developing congestion pricing, which would raise tolls during peak traffic periods.
The report also said it assumed that the tolls on the western section of the Massachusetts Turnpike would be kept in place, which would require legislative approval, since under current law they are expected to be taken down after the bonds on that section of the turnpike mature in 2017.
If no action is taken, the board said, it would have to take a number steps to address budget deficits in 2014, including increasing registration fees by $53, increasing annual vehicle inspection fees by $19, increasing license fees by $85, increasing Massachusetts Turnpike tolls by 5 percent, increasing MBTA fares by 5 percent, and cutting $40 million in service from the MBTA.
“These additional revenues and service cuts, however, are unsustainable and will result in a short time a failed system,” the report said.
It already is.
The report said that the “imperative to better fund” the transportation system had been exhaustively documented by various groups over the past several years.
And it warned that, if more funding isn’t found, there will be “inconveniences, lost opportunities for economic development and job growth, lost opportunities for improvements to our natural environment, and, at worst, jeopardized public safety.”
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I found this cleaned-up, agenda-pushing, public-relations pos in my morning paper:
"Patrick pushes for tax hikes to overhaul transit system; Legislative leaders open to call for new funding" by Eric Moskowitz and Michael Levenson | Globe Staff, January 14, 2013
Governor Deval Patrick launched a public campaign Monday to win support for raising taxes to repair and reinvigorate the state’s beleaguered transportation system, seeking Beacon Hill approval for $1.02 billion a year in new or higher taxes and fees dedicated to transportation.
In a sign of a shifting political landscape, legislative leaders acknowledged that more money is needed to shore up the state’s transportation system and that they are open to discussing tax increases, a nonstarter in previous efforts to address the long-simmering transportation funding crisis.
“We all agree something has to be done,” House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo said, after he and Senate President Therese Murray emerged from an hourlong, closed-door meeting with Patrick.
Yeah, that's the way to win public support.
Related: The Perils of One-Party Politics: Massachusetts Democracy
The Perils of One-Party Politics: The Ruling Party
That's in liberal, Democrap Massachusetts, folks.
DeLeo said lawmakers would take a close look at how Patrick wants to spend that money, how much may be raised, and how to raise it.
This article will not.
With that debate looming, Patrick laid out a menu of tax and fee possibilities, but saved his own preferences for Wednesday’s State of the Commonwealth address and the proposed budget he will submit to lawmakers next week. Among the menu options were a hike in the gas tax; increased tolls; and stiffer fees on vehicles that emit more pollution or are driven farther.
Look at how they GLOSSED OVER and OBFUSCATED the OUTRAGEOUS RECOMMENDATIONS!
Patrick sought to set up the debate by making a case for investment in the name of economic vitality and quality of life, warning that inaction or insufficient action could prove dire.
Translation: BANKS NEED MORE TAX LOOT NOW!!
“What’s as plain as day is we have choices to make,” he said. “We can choose to invest in ourselves, to invest in a growth strategy that has proven time and again to work, or we can choose to do nothing. But let’s be clear and honest with each other: Choosing to do nothing is a choice, too, and that choice has consequences.”
I really don't need or like a lecture from some lying looter shoveling money to corporate interests.
In a presentation earlier in the day at the University of Massachusetts Boston, Patrick unveiled what analysts and advocates considered perhaps the fullest accounting ever of the state’s transportation red ink, coupling plans to balance annual budgets with targeted spending on infrastructure, mostly to fix and modernize highway and transit systems.
The Legislature, which in the past has looked skeptically at higher taxes for transportation while embracing a “reform before revenue” policy, called last June for Patrick to document the system’s needs and explore funding options. The directive came as lawmakers provided a one-time cash infusion to help avoid widespread cuts and larger fare increases than the ones that eventually took effect last summer.
The result Monday was a 63-page document dubbed “The Way Forward” and an accompanying PowerPoint presentation that was both wonky and frank for a state that has avoided raising the gas tax since 1991.
The implication there is you are being unreasonable if you don't go along with another soaking at the gas pump -- so bankers can get paid.
Patrick called the findings “stark, clear-eyed, nonpartisan, and, above all, fact-based.”
Transportation-minded lawmakers and municipal leaders who packed the front rows at his UMass Boston presentation responded enthusiastically, promising to take the case to Beacon Hill.
“We’re out in full force,” said Mayor Kimberly Driscoll of Salem, president of the Massachusetts Mayors’ Association, citing the critical role smooth roads, sturdy bridges, and timely and reliable transit play in making any city or town attractive to residents and businesses. “There’s never an appetite for new revenues, but I hope and believe people can recognize this is not a problem we can walk away from or take small bites at.”
Any of those proposals they floated are far from a small bite.
At the State House, legislative leaders said new revenue must be accompanied by cost-cutting and intend to hold the debate this year, knowing next year is an election year.
Time to vote Republican again.
DeLeo said the governor’s tax or fee proposals will “take quite a bit of time and discussion,” but said lawmakers will be excited by the possibility of bringing new transportation projects to their districts.
Below we will be told that is one of the reasons the agency is in such debt, but who doesn't love a little pork?
Patrick’s “Way Forward” plan contained something for everyone, from the Berkshires to the Cape.
Especially for bankers -- and you KNOW WHO will be FOOTING (pun intended) the BILL!!
It includes, for example, rebuilding the Interstate 91 viaduct in Springfield, replacing the I-93/I-95 interchange in Woburn, and assembling new Red and Orange Line cars at plants employing Massachusetts workers. Murray called the proposal ambitious.
“We have to figure out what’s in here first, and we’ll digest it,” she said. “I know we need to do something.”
Globe knows.
Senator Thomas M. McGee, a Lynn Democrat and Senate chairman of the Joint Transportation Committee, said he hopes lawmakers will support increased transportation funding, years after nonpartisan analysts first agreed that the crisis was too big to be solved through cuts and would require substantial new revenue.
“The key piece is making the case for how important this is, and I think we’re getting to that place,” McGee said after attending Patrick’s presentation.
Just wondering if Massachusetts citizens are getting sick of being treated like a yo-yo by their money junkie leaders.
Patrick considers transportation a legacy issue and has been laying groundwork for years, an effort he intensified last week by announcing proposals intended to streamline government and cut costs.
His legacy will be the state drug lab scandal and the meningitis murders, but I bet we will see a Deval Patrick highway someday.
Those proposals would slash regulations for businesses, called for consolidating local housing authorities into regional entities, and aimed to save $20 billion in retiree health costs over three decades.
Meaning YOU WILL BE PAYING MORE, union employee!
Good thing this state is run by Democrats, huh?
House Republican leader Bradley H. Jones Jr. called the governor’s presentation “very disheartening.”
I found myself OUTRAGED!
He and Senate Republican leader Bruce E. Tarr said GOP lawmakers will be hesitant to support higher taxes and that the governor has yet to persuade them that $1 billion in additional annual spending is needed.
More than half the proposed $1 billion annually would help balance highway and transit budgets, relieve some MBTA debt, run buses at night and on weekends in cities such as Springfield, and end a practice of borrowing for basic highway operations such as mowing and striping.
It will be for mostly debt service, but only relieve some?
Also see: Massachusetts Democrats Keep Making the Same Mistakes
And WHO SUGGESTED and DEVISED those SHITTY DEALS for TAXPAYERS?
The rest would cover initial payments on what the state considers good debt, borrowing to double infrastructure spending to $25 billion over the next decade.
No debt is good debt!
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And look who is pushing the agenda in a Sunday Globe Special, people:
"CEOs, civic group urge action on transit in Mass." by Eric Moskowitz and Noah Bierman | Globe Staff, January 13, 2013
Leaders of many of the state’s largest employers and a civic-minded nonprofit are urging Beacon Hill to act boldly on transportation, warning that failure to invest substantially in the Commonwealth’s aging highway and transit network would have a sweeping economic impact.
A study commissioned by a CEO round table and the Boston Foundation estimates that the cumulative economic drain of reduced productivity, lost time, vehicle damage, freight delays, and other costs associated with failing to repair the state’s cramped and crumbling highways could total $26 billion by 2030.
Well, maybe you guys shouldn't have wasted all the tax loot these last decades on debt slavery deals, corporate welfare for Hollywood and other well-connected corporations, and lavish political lifestyles.
Maybe if the U.S. government hadn't squandered trillions for wars, Wall Street, and Israel our roads, bridges, and public transit systems wouldn't be in such shit shape.
The group endorses investment in transit as well as highways, and the cost of inaction would almost certainly be higher if the MBTA and other regional bus systems were allowed to continue to erode — forcing more transit riders onto the highways — but those costs are difficult to quantify with the same precision, the report’s lead author said.
Don't you love the s*** straw man argument that is advanced?
Reminds me of the stimuloot debate.
But every dollar the state spends on transportation infrastructure yields $2.04 in immediate activity for the state economy, according to the report, through materials purchases and spending by construction workers who are employed. That’s before the longer-term benefits of that highway or transit project even kick in.
Nothing like a self-serving, agenda-pushing pos report, 'eh?
The study makes the case for investment just as Governor Deval Patrick is preparing a roadmap for spending as much as $13 billion more over the next decade to repair and enhance the state’s aging transportation systems, lending Patrick some influential allies from beyond the cadre of planners, environmentalists, academics, and other advocates who consistently weigh in to support transportation investment....
Talk about transparent agenda-pushing!
Lawmakers, transportation advocates, and civic and business leaders view the new legislative session as a rare opportunity to address the state’s backlog of needed repairs to deteriorating roads, bridges, and transit systems and put annual highway and transit operations on sound financial footing.
That's when you want to reach for your wallet.
But a difficult debate looms over what taxes or fees to raise, and how much....
Notice there is NO DEBATE about NOT DOING such a thing!
The administration declined to reveal how it plans to pay for everything until Patrick delivers his State of the Commonwealth address Wednesday, followed by his state budget proposal a week later.
Well, actually, he did, but that is why this article has been cleaned up, huh?
The Massachusetts Competitive Partnership — which includes New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft as well as the chief executives of Fidelity, Raytheon, Staples, and Partners HealthCare — and the Boston Foundation are not weighing in yet on specific taxes or a target amount. They acknowledge that new revenues will be necessary but are letting the administration take the lead.
Oh, the TRUE RULERS of Massachusetts are BEHIND the PUSH?
Instead, they are setting the stage with their “Cost of Doing Nothing” report to warn that inaction or insufficient action could hamper the state’s economic recovery and erode competitiveness.
What recovery?
The coalition promotes transportation investment to bolster the whole state, and buoy the middle class from the Berkshires to the Cape....
Yes, the benevolent billionaires are working for us -- or so says the monied mouthpiece that is the media!
The Boston Foundation has a history of engaging on issues such as education, health care, and community development, while the newer CEO group has helped shape policy on issues such as green energy and workforce training. Neither has directly weighed in on transportation before, but each group has become acutely aware of how transportation weaves through those other issues and underpins the economy.
Among the many large and small impacts, consider Greenfield Community College’s new programs to prepare workers for careers in the expanding energy-efficiency/alternative energy fields, said Dan O’Connell, president of the CEO partnership and a former state housing and economic development secretary. To reach the campus, potential students from Springfield without cars must rely on a patchwork of indirect buses and travel two hours each way, he said.
Past debates have sometimes pitted Greater Boston against the rest of the state, and highways against transit. Success this legislative session hinges on making the case statewide and across transportation modes, O’Connell said, recognizing that it’s never easy to raise taxes....
The report, prepared by the global infrastructure firm AECOM, will be released in full later this week, but the group shared a 17-page summary with the transportation secretary and the Globe.
Transportation Secretary Richard A. Davey said it lends new numbers to a case the administration is already making....
More agenda-pushing garbage posing as news.
AECOM, which has worked on similar reports for other regions, calculated the cost to the economy of failing to repair and maintain the highway system at $18 billion to $26 billion over the next two decades, using a model developed by the Federal Highway Administration and vetted by the US Government Accountability Office. The estimate of the multiplier effect of investing in infrastructure was determined using a Bureau of Economic Analysis model.
Martin Wachs, emeritus professor of planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the models are standard and the estimates appear credible and may even be considered conservative....
Translation: You are going to get screwed even more, fellow citizens of Massachusetts.
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And HOW in the WORLD can they be IN DEBT?
"MBTA wants funding; no cuts, fare hikes for now; New chief hopeful of legislative remedy in next two months" by Eric Moskowitz | Globe Staff, December 26, 2012
MBTA officials will hold off until at least March before resorting to fare increases or service cuts, waiting for lawmakers as they debate potential tax hikes to address the state’s long-simmering crisis in transportation funding, the T’s new general manager said Wednesday.
MBTA general manager Beverly Scott, in her first extended interview since starting last week, said she hopes lawmakers in the next two months will come up with new funding for the T, relieving pressure on the agency to once more raise fares or cut service to balance its budget.
“These first 60 days are going to be very, very critical,” Scott said. “The last thing I want to have to do is start off the year scaring people.”
Related: Sunday Globe Specials: Great Scott Takes Over as GM of MBTA
Also Wednesday, T officials put the size of the MBTA deficit at $132 million for the budget year that starts July 1.
Scott’s interview came as the T announced another monthly ridership increase, with statistics showing an average of 1.33 million riders each weekday in November — nearly 2 percent higher than in the same month a year earlier, and the third month out of five that ridership has grown since the T raised prices an average of 23 percent last summer. State planners had projected that ridership would fall after the fare hike.
Okay, they have a LOT MORE MONEY COMING IN but are STILL in DEBT?
While higher fares and ridership have meant more money for the T, it’s a drop in the bucket compared with the state’s overall transportation funding shortfall.
Past estimates suggest the state has a roughly $1 billion annual gap between how much it raises to fund transportation and what it should actually spend on highway and transit operations and upkeep, a problem partly masked through heavy borrowing.
When lawmakers approved emergency funding for the T and the state’s smaller bus agencies in June — avoiding steeper fare increases as well as service cuts — they acknowledged it was just a temporary fix. They called on Governor Deval Patrick to propose a larger solution by January.
See: One If By Land, Two if By Sea....
Patrick is expected by Jan. 7 to submit a plan that will be less a blueprint for how to solve the crisis than a tally of what it would cost to shore up the transportation system and pay for expansion. It would probably show how much money could be raised by increased or new taxes, tolls, and fees. Specific recommendations are expected to follow in Patrick’s budget plan for the Legislature.
Representative William M. Straus, co-chairman of the Joint Transportation Committee, said lawmakers will debate how much the state should invest in transportation, and how to raise that money with an eye on the MBTA’s calendar. State law calls for the T to pass a balanced budget for its upcoming July-June fiscal year each April.
“In no sense should people think the T is out of the woods,” Straus said, underscoring that last June’s fix was a temporary solution.
Pressure on the T has been mounting since 2000, when lawmakers ended the longtime practice of writing a check to cover the difference between MBTA expenses and fares.
To help the T balance its budget, the Legislature dedicated part of the state’s sales tax to transit.
Related: Massachusetts Sales Tax Swindle
After it was SOLD TO YOU to PAY for SERVICES like police, fire, and schools -- which were then CUT ANYWAY!
And you wonder why I react so strongly?
But they also saddled the T with debt to pay off politically popular transit expansions, including projects that the state was legally required to complete to offset the air-quality impacts of the traffic generated by the Big Dig project.
Which "lawmakers will be excited by the possibility of bringing new transportation projects to their districts" with the current proposal.
The T responded by reducing staff and generating more money from advertising, while lawmakers have helped tighten employee pension rules and reined in health care expenses.
And yet they are STILL in DEBT!
But annual costs — fuel, electricity, federally mandated door-to-door service for the disabled, and especially debt payments — have grown much faster than the sales tax, which has lagged through recessions and tax-free online shopping.
After I have been told we have been out of recession and doing better than the national economy for years!
Also see: Another Amazing Tax From Massachusetts
Mass. Manipulation of State Economic Numbers
But they would never do that in liberal, Democrat Massachusetts, would they?
Scott, who has led or worked for large transit agencies in several regions, said she believes leaders and the public here understand the issues and want to reinvest in transportation.
She attributed the T’s continued increase in ridership to a recovering economy, relatively high gas prices, and customer service improvements from the T, such as a smartphone application for commuter rail ticketing and next-train countdown signs at subway stations.
Actually, I have been told the economy is down, but you know, whatever spade full of shit needs to be shoveled at the current moment. As for those other amenities, no one really gives a shit. It's not why you are on the T.
Analysts at Northeastern University’s Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy had predicted ridership might hold steady, because fares had not risen since January 2007 and because Greater Boston residents increasingly live or work near transit, with development concentrated around transit stations.
“What people do when they’re faced with an increase is a function in particular of what their alternatives are,” including the ease and price of driving and parking, said Stephanie Pollack, associate director at the center. “If you start raising fares [yearly], you’ll see a much sharper dropoff.”
At South Station on Wednesday, riders interviewed said they absorbed the fare increase as a necessary expense.
The 21st-century equivalent of lowering your trousers and bending over.
“It’s almost like gasoline,” said Paul Toland, a 26-year-old who commutes from Weymouth to downtown, parking in Braintree to take the Red Line. “You’ve got to pay what they tell you.”
Yup, that's the message from the watchdog media, folks.
--more--"
Somehow I get the feeling the Big Pit must be factoring into this somewhere.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Patrick expected to seek increased income tax; Broad-based levy vital to transit, education plans" by Michael Levenson and Eric Moskowitz | Globe Staff, January 16, 2013
Governor Deval Patrick is set to propose an increase in the state income tax as part of a multipronged plan to raise new revenue for transportation and education, said a person with direct knowledge of the governor’s plan.
What an asshole!!!!!!!
Patrick is expected to unveil the plan, at least in part, in his annual State of the Commonwealth speech Wednesday night. Many in and around state government said he is targeting the income tax because it is the only tax that would bring in enough money to fund his ambitious transportation and education agendas.
Those proposals, which he began rolling out this week, call for $1.5 billion in additional spending next year and $2 billion in annual spending in future years to shore up the state’s transportation system and expand early education programs.
Boosting the income tax from the current rate of 5.25 percent to 5.66 percent would raise $1 billion annually, according to a menu of revenue options the Patrick administration released Monday. The remainder of Patrick’s proposals could be funded through other fees or taxes.
State budget specialists say that, besides the income tax, the sales tax would be the only other revenue source that could bring in enough money to finance Patrick’s expansive plans. But the governor signed an increase in the sales tax in 2009, pushing the rate from 5 percent to 6.25 percent, making another increase this year politically difficult.
Swindled again, Massachusetts residents!
“I do have a strong sense it’s going to be the income tax,” said Michael J. Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a business-backed group that tracks state finances. “Fundamentally, the only way you can raise that kind of money is through a broad-based tax.”
Widmer said he had not been briefed on Patrick’s plan. But the person with direct knowledge of the proposal suggested that an income tax hike would feature prominently in the plan.
“It’s never an easy time to talk about raising taxes,” Jesse Mermell, a Patrick spokeswoman, said in a statement Tuesday. “The governor feels the realities of this economy and knows that families are making hard choices every day. He also knows the best long-term solution is more economic opportunity and easier access to education. He is committed to a solution that is dedicated, comprehensive, and competitive — and being competitive means being fair.”
I'm so sick of seeing, reading, and hearing shit-shoveling sophistry, folks.
The administration did not address the income tax issue in the statement.
Strong proponents and fierce opponents of tax hikes are girding for battle.
On Tuesday, a 120-member coalition of liberal groups and unions, calling themselves Campaign for Our Communities, rallied at the State House in support of raising the income tax to 5.95 percent, the rate it was in the late 1990s. That would bring an additional $2 billion annually into state coffers. The coalition includes teachers’ unions, service employees’ unions, and some state and local officials who are allies of the Patrick administration.
Labor just lost me.
“It’s time for us to reinvest in ourselves,” Mayor Will Flanagan of Fall River said in a statement released by the Campaign for Our Communities. “We have an obligation to every family in the Commonwealth to be sure that the economic recovery is felt by everyone.”
What recovery?
Budget specialists say that raising the income tax could unleash a furious competition among many groups and causes — mental health providers, homeless shelters, cities, and towns — that depend on state funding. Many have seen their budgets cut or crimped over the last five years and have powerful advocates.
If their advocates were that powerful would they have seen a cut?
“The pressure will be enormous to spread out additional revenues across most of what state government does,” Widmer said.
House and Senate leaders have said they are not opposed to a tax increase this year, unlike past years when they called the idea a nonstarter. Still, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray have said that Patrick’s tax and spending plans will be carefully scrutinized, not rubber stamped.
Translation: You WILL BE GETTING a TAX HIKE!
Opponents of a higher income tax are sure to point out that Massachusetts voters approved a ballot question in 2000 to gradually lower the income tax rate from 5.95 percent to 5 percent.
Time for another Tea Party, Massachusetts. Maybe then they will start listening to voters.
But in 2002, the Democrat-controlled Legislature effectively froze the rate at 5.3 percent, while adding triggers that would lower the rates further only if certain revenue benchmarks were met.
Related: Mass. Manipulation of State Economic Numbers
Gee, just as the taxes were to be lowered the economy crapped out. What a coinky-dink!
Also see: Mass. jobless rate remains at 6.6%
Even as we lost over 1,000 jobs?
Despite drop in jobless rate, concerns remain
"The unemployment rate fell, but the decline was largely due to some 350,000 workers giving up job searches, rather than more people finding jobs."
Hey, you know the old saying: figures lie and liars figure.
Brighter outlook for Mass. businesses in 2013
Yup, the great American economic recovery is here!
Patrick has already ruled out or strongly downplayed several other possible tax increases. Last month, he said he was not prepared to support a levy on vehicle miles traveled, declaring “I don’t have a mileage tax on deck.”
What is it, on double deck?
This week, he said a gas tax increase is “not my first choice.”
But he'll take it if.... (sigh).
He proposed raising the gas tax by $.19 in 2009, but the Legislature rejected the idea for a sales tax increase.
All so BANKS could GET PAID!
“You remember I tried the gas tax a couple years ago and had my head handed to me,” Patrick said on WBUR Tuesday. To raise enough money for his agenda, he added, the gas tax would have to be tripled, making it the highest in the nation.
I'm really wondering where we are all going to get the money. I guess I'll have to stop buying a Boston Globe in the morning.
As Beacon Hill prepares for the tax fight, the governor has indicated he stands ready to marshal his supporters to back his plans.
Patrick began campaigning for a tax increase Monday, with a presentation arguing that the state needs to spend an additional $1.02 billion annually to modernize and expand its transit system. The presentation included proposals to shore up the MBTA and regional bus services and expand rail service from Boston to New Bedford and Fall River, from New York City to the Berkshires, and from Boston to Cape Cod.
On Tuesday, the governor continued the campaign with another presentation in which he called for an additional $550 million in spending on education this year, increasing to nearly $1 billion annually over the next four years. The plan calls for universal access to early education for children from birth to age 5, extended school days in high-need schools, making college more accessible and affordable, and allowing community colleges to expand efforts to provide skills needed in the workplace.
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And now he wants EVEN MORE MONEY from you!
"Patrick pushes for income tax hike" by Stephanie Ebbert, Michael Levenson and Martin Finucane | Globe Staff, January 16, 2013
Shrugging off the fiscal caution of recent years, Governor Deval Patrick proposed a $1.9 billion tax increase tonight in his State of the Commonwealth address, saying it was necessary for the state to invest more in education and the state’s transportation network to “accelerate growth and expand opportunity.”
Patrick called for a 1 percentage point increase, from 5.25 percent to 6.25 percent, in the state income tax. At the same time, he called for a decrease in the sales tax from 6.25 percent to 4.5 percent.
WTF is this shell game?
While Patrick, a Democrat, was surrounded by the trappings of office and spoke to an overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature, there were voices of dissent. His plan was immediately slammed by House Minority Leader Bradley Jones, a North Reading Republican, who called the tax proposal “economically devastating” and “both reckless and irresponsible.”
The proposal, “if passed, would represent one of the largest tax increases in the history of the Commonwealth, as well as the largest expansion of the state’s government we have seen,” Jones said in a statement....
Unleashed from the political constraints of a re-election campaign — Patrick has said he will not run for a third term — Patrick is proposing the kind of tax increases few politicians, including Democrats, have dared to push. Patrick has previously signed an increase in the state sales tax and has also closed corporate tax loopholes. But the plan he is now proposing dwarfs those in their scope.
Patrick is facing criticism from those who have pointed out that he said during his 2010 reelection campaign that he had no plans to propose a broad-based tax increase.
Oh, he lied during the campaign (yawn)?
The tax proposal also could rally Republicans and anti-tax conservatives in the upcoming special Senate election to replace John F. Kerry and in the 2014 Massachusetts governor’s race....
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