November 21, 2008
Wicked Local
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – Emboldened by the electorate’s rejection this month of an income tax repeal, a broad coalition of human service advocates, organized labor, and community groups is mobilizing to lay the political groundwork for major tax increases, confident that Beacon Hill will join them in seeking new revenues.
Lawmakers joined a meeting of roughly 65 people in Boston Wednesday night, just two weeks after the election, to discuss outreach and education, emphasizing the need for new monies to maintain public infrastructure and programs.
“I’m talking about comprehensive tax reform,” said Judy Meredith, a veteran human services lobbyist who is organizing the campaign. “Let’s look at the income tax, let’s look at the sales tax, let’s look at a lot of the corporate and business taxes.”
The campaign, incorporating some of the state’s most progressive power centers, comes as Beacon Hill entertains a broad menu of new revenue sources, including toll hikes, gas tax increases, higher registry fees, and expanded gambling. Job loss has accelerated, with the state disclosing Thursday that October’s job loss was the steepest since March 2005. The state has netted 12,500 new jobs since January 2007, when Gov. Deval Patrick, who pledged to add 100,000 jobs during his four-year term, took office, replacing Mitt Romney.
Separately on Thursday, economists predicted a net loss of 135,000 jobs in Massachusetts before a recovery begins in mid-2010. The down economy has significantly widened gaps between state spending and revenues.
Meredith said the group was intentionally avoiding deciding on specific proposals, instead hoping to build the political will behind new revenues, apparently aside from a separate movement blossoming within the Legislature to raise the gas tax.
“We’re not going to put a tax package together,” she said. “Somebody’s going to put a tax package together – the governor, the Legislature, somebody.”
The 5.3 percent state income tax generates $12.5 billion and the sales tax brings in $4.1 billion. Combined, the two bring in nearly four-fifths of all state tax dollars. Total state tax collections 4.5 months into this fiscal year are up 0.2 percent over the same period last fiscal year, significantly below the initial estimate of 3.8 percent.
Meredith said state Sen. Patricia Jehlen, Senator-elect James Eldridge, and Rep. Denise Provost attended the Wednesday night meeting, at the Service Employees International Union offices in Boston.
Coalition for Social Justice co-director Debra Fastino said attendees discussed changing the image of government in the eyes of citizens as a way to make a tax increase more palatable, should one become necessary. She added, however, that when it comes to new taxes, “I don’t think anyone wants to talk about them publicly right now.”
“We’re always looking for revenue, as well,” she said. “When we have to discuss taxes with the general public, at least we have laid the groundwork to some degree. We need to continue to educate people, create a drumbeat.”
She said attendees discussed promoting greater government transparency and encouraging public officials to develop better relationships with their constituents.
Tax and government advocates are also aware that public opinion of government is at a low ebb, with national leaders facing all-time low approval ratings and a seemingly endless spate of misbehavior by public officials, including allegations against elected officials, driving perceptions of waste and corruption.
Not all attendees were convinced that the meeting was a prelude to a call for a tax increase, or whether it was simply a discussion of how to educate people on the good work of government.
“It wasn’t necessarily a sign of an appetite for new taxes,” said former Sen. David Magnani, who leads the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network. “The consensus that came out of it yesterday is that people do not have a very good understanding of what government does for folks.”
Cortina Vann, a community organizer with the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, said she “might have missed a portion” of the meeting but that she heard no clamoring for new taxes. She said people talked largely about tactics that worked in defeating Question 1 and encouraging a dialogue between lawmakers and community groups.
Provost said she had left the meeting early but came away with the impression that there was no appetite among the general public for tax increases. Meredith said she expected public sentiment to develop favorably.
Magnani said in a phone interview that there is a disconnect between citizens and their government.
“What they hear about in the newspapers is generally negative and when they walk down the street they don’t realize it was paved with tax dollars. There’s just very, very little understanding,” he said. “If there’s a homeless person not in front of their doorway, it may be because some government shelter is caring for that person.”
Asked about Meredith’s comments, Magnani said, “That’s kind of a step ahead of where we went yesterday.”
“In terms of broad-based taxes, the truth of the matter is it has to make sense to people,” he said. “People have to believe that the money is being well-used. That was my focus [at the meeting].”
Barbara Anderson, president of the Citizens for Limited Taxation, said the renewed push for higher taxes should have been expected in the wake of the Question 1’s defeat, by a 70-30 margin, on Nov. 4.
“The voters screw up, and the politicians teach them a lesson,” she said. “Although I’m beginning to doubt they’re teachable.”
A sales tax increase would be unlikely because of the competitive pressure from New Hampshire, which has no sales tax, Anderson said. And property tax increases have repeatedly proved unpopular, as recent efforts to override Proposition 2 ½ have seen general failure.
“The argument will be to restore the 5.6 or the 5.95 (income tax) rate, just as we keep talking about restoring the traditional 5 percent rate,” Anderson predicted, referencing the rollback to 5 percent that voters mandated in 2000 but which the Legislature froze in 2002 to deal with a fiscal crisis.
Going back to employers, who were hit with a historic tax increase this year, for more would likely prove equally difficult, Anderson said.
“I do think that going after the business community after the business community supported them on Question 1 would be a tad ungrateful, so they’ll go where the money is,” she said. “And that’s the income tax, unless we’re all unemployed.”
Meredith said she expected that Gov. Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, and House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi would decide among themselves how to advance a tax hike.
“The three of them are going to say, ‘OK, who’s going to do it first?’ This is where you’re looking for leadership,” said Meredith, whose group worked with senior Patrick staff during the push against the income tax repeal.
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You just cannot make this stuff up. Do these folks have a conscience? Let’s hope this sentiment does not seep over the border into New Hampshire.