TheAgitator.com
Sign of the Apocalypse?
Saturday, August 17th, 2002Voters in Massachusetts(!) will have the option this November of completely eradicating the state’s income tax. Should it pass, the state’s annual budget would shrink from $23 billion to $14 billion, effectively mandating a less intrusive, more streamlined, more responsive state government. On average, it’d give the average resident of the state an extra $3,000 to throw back into the economy.
Of course, those who have the most to lose if the referendum passes — politicians and bureaucrats — are predicting Armageddon. Note the state rep who says the measure could turn the state into “the Idaho of the East Coast.” What’s wrong with that?
And check this quote from the president of the poorly-named “Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation,” responding to the argument that the private sector will address the state services the measure would eliminate:
”There’s no connection between their argument and reality,” he said. ”Is the private sector going to pay $5 billion to cities and towns? It’s a total fraud and shows no understanding of how the government spends its money.”
Hmm. Perhaps if the private sector isn’t willing to pay $5 billion “to cities and towns,” then maybe the projects and programs those cities and towns are spending that $5 billion on aren’t all that necessary. Could that be?
And I don’t think you really need to “understand how the government spends its money” to understand that a) it has too much money to spend, b) it doesn’t spend that money nearly as efficiently as the private sector does, and c) if you take said money away, government won’t be able to spend it anymore.
The measure is polling at about 37%, a pretty remarkable number considering that we’re talking about Massachusetts. And it’s quickly gaining momentum in a state rife with government waste and mismanagement.
There’s one catch: even if the measure passes, the state legislature still has the power to repeal it. I’d guess that if it passes, you can pretty much count on that happening.
Idaho sucks.
Idaho-Udahoe..Why all this name calling.
Tell you what Radley, if Ole Mass goes “no tax” (it’ll never happen) I want to see how many of those little weenies refuse it, send it back (it’ll never happen).
Awesome.
I wish I lived there to vote for it
It’ll never happen here in the People’s Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but it’s fun to think about.
Incidentally: one of those oh-so-vital programs that would suffer from the cut is the street-musician office. That’s right: In Boston, street corner musicians must audition and apply for permits, which gives them access to a predetermined territory.
Yeah, the state really needs that $9 billion.
Oh yeah, and another thing:
Why isn’t New Hampshire the “Idaho of the East Coast?” They don’t have state taxes there (though I hear the property taxes are right up there)
If Armageddon is upon us with the removal of Tax from Taxachusettes, why didn’t it already hit when New Hampshire decided to go without?
Notice that in 11 years the budget went from $10B to $23B – 130%!!! – and this proposed cut doesn’t take it all the way back to where it was 11 years ago but is to a point 40% higher.
I sure wish my income was 130% higher than it was 11 years ago – but I’d settle for 40% myself.
Umm, I don’t think that you made a very good case as to why the income tax ought to be repealed.
I’d bet money that the municipal budgets are full of wasteful spending designed to ensure the re-election of the reigning petty officials in their townships. But what makes one think that if that aid–which is funded by the state income tax–were cut off, it would be the unnecessary waste that would be cut off? Perhaps the local officials actually would make cuts to schools, roads, hospitals etc.–and then blame it on the tax cut.
People should be able to keep as much of their money as is possible. And governments should spend the money on the common weal, not on pay-offs to organized and powerful but narrow interest groups.
But that doesn’t mean that every tax cut or proposal for a reduction in the size of government is as good as every other.
I think that hard and fast spending caps are a better way to begin to beat back the size of government. Then, as alternative streams of revenue become available, tax rates can happily begin a race to the bottom.
(P.S. – This initiative is going to lose in Nov.–and bad. The outcome is a 55-45 loss–if they’re lucky. You heard it here first.)
Efforts are starting in Tennessee to put a hard cap in the state constitution on spending and taxes – a Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights similar to the very effective one in the Colorado constitution. I’ve got a lot about it on my blog, http://www.hobbsonline.blogspot.com
I live in Tennessee and have been following/participating in the budget debacle that has taken place in our state for the past several years. In tennessee our wallets have been under attack by the state goverment over the past few years by corrupt state officials who, through propaganda in the local media and scare tactics have attempted to make tennesseans believe that an “Income Tax” or the buzz word is “Tax Reform” was the only way to keep the government from shutting down. What a crock. This is a lie. All the media coverage that was done on the subject was slanted in favor of the income tax. So, it was the people of tennessee protesting the capital with the help of radio talk shows and internet that kept the state of Tennessee from passing an income tax. And yes it is the wasteful spending, stupid govt. officials that are trying to take more of your money for thier porkbarrel, kick backs wanted, projects that are the real problem. I have lots of examples that i could use, don’t have time to go into them all though. Biggest example is the medicaid disaster know as Tenncare. giving free medical coverage to millions of people living in state, some on the roles are dead, some live in other countries, some already have health care from current jobs but don’t want to pay for it. I am writing to let the people of Mass. know that you don’t have to stand for it. You can stand up to your, so called elected officials. Call them, write them scathing emails, protest the capital if you have to. I’ve done it and it does work. The gutless ingrates don’t know what to do when they see a mob of taxpayers on the front lawn of thier cozy gov’t office building. I dare say they would probably wet themselves. But you don’t have to put up with it. You just have to get organized and put the pressure on your elected officials and stop believing all the lies about the gov’t won’t be able to function without the income tax. It’s all a bunch of bull#$%@. Power to the Taxpaying people. Good luck.
RIGHT ON!!!
This was my response to a recent article in the Economist about Tennessee’s refusal to pass a state income tax:
To The Editor:
It is not a deficient revenue mechanism which fails Tennessee. As with the U.S. and Europe, it is the vision by which we govern that fails us. It is time to, in Tennessee, the United States and, in fact, the Western World, to replace the Entitlement State with a Personal Responsibility Society. A Personal Responsibility Society is one in which each individual is responsible for himself or herself and family. The State, and thus Taxpayers provide order, fight crime, provide education, roads, courts and jails, but little else. Ask not what government can do for you–ask what you can do for yourself and your own family.
Tennesseans went to the streets to protest higher taxes because a significant portion do not believe in the Welfare/Entitlement mentality which grips and afflicts the West. We cherish Freedom and Opportunity over Security (economic) and Egalitarianism (Equality). We adamantly oppose government taking more of what we have worked for and we will go to the streets again to stop the oppression of higher taxes and more government.
I recognize that this view is divergent from that of most people on the continent and in Washington. Was it not Bastiat who noted the risks to Democracy when the masses learn to vote themselves benefits at the expense of the taxed minority. In 1776 the problem was “Taxation Without Representation”. In 2002 the problem for freedom and democracy is “Representation Without Taxation”. Too many live at the expense of plundered Taxpayers, voting all the while for representatives who seek to increase taxes to buy more votes from the untaxed. How much more oppression will Taxpayers will take?
Our Governor, whom I knew for years and supported, campaigned against an income tax. He betrayed his supporters by supporting not only a huge tax increase and corresponding government spending increases, but an income tax–the single most hated tax in Tennessee.
If democracy and representative government mean anything, it is that no matter how strongly elected officials believe they know “better” than those who elected them, in the end it is a government of the governed. In Tennessee, the budget “crisis” occurred because certain elected officials thought they knew better and refused to accept the fact that the people of Tennessee reject big government and high taxes. Just because everyone else is doing it does not make it right.
The questions the people of Tennessee pose for the United States and the West is: “How much government is too much government?” “How high must taxes be to be regarded as tyranny?” “Why should those who studied in school, stayed in school, had no children out of wedlock, obtained employment, kept employment, got married and raise children in the context of marriage pay horrendous taxes to support the lifestyle of the irresponsible?” The day is coming across the West when those forced to pay decide not to. The sooner reform is achieved, the less disruptive the ensuing changes will be.
The answer from Tennessee is end the Entitlement State and replace it with a Personal Responsibility Society—all of Western Civilization would benefit from such a change in governing in the future.
Christian Lanier
Attorney At Law
Suite 150, 615 Lindsay Street
Chattanooga, TN 37403
lanierpa@voy.net
Lanierlaw@comcast.net
Office: 423-756-1015
Residence: 423-843-1759
Idaho of the east? Idaho has an income tax. But regardless of that, Idaho isnt a filthy socialist state. So I guess that Massachusettes could take that as the highest form of compliment.