Welcome to my blog! I'm Victoria, and I love liberty, individual rights, and writing about politics, trials, and current events. Read more about me here.
Filed under:politics,taxes by
Victoria Liberty @ 10:39 pm
In both 2002 and 2008, the Center for Small Government sponsored a ballot initiative to eliminate the Massachusetts income tax. Unfortunately, it was defeated each time. Now, they are sponsoring an initiative – Question 3 – to roll back the sales tax from 6.25% to 3%. This is a much more modest proposal, and not quite as exciting for small government people like me, but hopefully this makes it more likely to pass.
State government simply spends too much and taxes too much. Taxes have gone up and up. Tax increases that are supposed to be temporary end up being permanent. I cannot remember any tax in Massachusetts ever going down in my lifetime. The only way that Massachusetts politicians will ever cut spending is if they are forced to.
Question 3 will cut approximately $2.4 billion from the $52 billion state budget – not as good as the $11 billion that ending the income tax would cut, but a good start. It will allow each household to keep an average of $900 more of their own money each year.
If you live in Massachusetts, please, please vote yes on 3. Even if you don’t like any of the candidates for governor, it is worth going to the polls just to vote on this question. We need to stop this unsustainable spending trend and send Massachusetts in a different direction.
Senator John Kerry (D-MA) is facing a lot of flak for docking his and his wife’s yacht “Isabel” in Rhode Island, where he doesn’t have to pay taxes on it. I actually don’t think there is anything wrong with Kerry’s decision (and the author of this letter in the Globe agrees with me!).
Kerry is a typical Democrat who has voted for tax increases on the national level several times, so his desire to avoid the 6.75% Massachusetts sales tax does come off as inconsistent…but maybe Kerry is starting to realize how excessive taxes are in Massachusetts. I don’t agree with Kerry’s opinions about taxes if his votes are any indication, but I agree with his decision to try to avoid the sales tax (if that was, indeed, the reason behind keeping the boat in Rhode Island). When a tax is unjust, people have the right to do anything they can to avoid it.
Unfortunately, Kerry just said that he will pay the roughly $500,000 in state and local taxes that he would have owed had he kept the yacht in Massachusetts. I wish he had stuck to his guns in order to make a statement against the recent sales tax hike. Wouldn’t it be awesome if our Democratic senior senator took a stand against the ever-growing, ever-spending government of Taxachusetts?
Edit: As Jeff Jacoby points out, Kerry isn’t even doing anything illegal. He is just living his life in the way that makes the most financial sense, given the tax laws.
Carla Howell and the folks at the Center for Small Government are trying to get an initiatie to roll back the sales tax on the 2010 ballot. Toward that end, there is a new campaign called the Alliance to Roll Back Taxes and a new website, RollBackTaxes.com. (I designed the header for it ). We’re aiming to get the sales tax reduced from the new rate of 6.25% to 3%. Check it out!
Filed under:politics,taxes by
Victoria Liberty @ 2:06 pm
Mass. gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos has put a webcam on his site showing the traffic going from Massachusetts to New Hampshire because of the sales tax hike. I think this is a pretty cool, offbeat idea, although he should find out the average number of cars crossing the border per day before the increase for comparison. I bet there will be a difference once the 6.25% sales tax goes into effect.
Terrible but unsurprising news: the Massachusetts state senate voted to raise the sales tax by 25%, as well as repealing the sales tax exemption on alcohol. Big surprise, the big-government-supporting, socialist thieves won, and freedom and justice lost.
All the senators who voted in favor of the tax increase, as well as everyone who protested in favor of it at the state house, should be ashamed! Thanks for taking away my money and my liberty.
). We’re aiming to get the sales tax reduced from the new rate of 6.25% to 3%. Check it out!