Sales tax to go up 25%
By adamg - 5/20/09 - 12:09 am
From 5% to 6.25%, now that the state Senate has joined the House in a veto-proof vote. Senate also voted to start taxing booze and let cities and towns raise their meal and hotel taxes by up to 2 percentage points.
Comments
Sales tax exemption on alcohol
By neilv - 5/20/09 - 12:50 am
That's their plan for how the masses will survive the economic collapse?
Way to stimulate the
By Dave - 5/20/09 - 12:59 am
Way to stimulate the economy, morons.
About time
By KellyJMF - 5/20/09 - 10:10 am
I was surprised it wasn't taxed already. Alcohol isn't exactly food.
WE NEED AND DESERVE THE
By anon (not verified) - 5/20/09 - 1:24 am
WE NEED AND DESERVE THE RIGHT TO HAVE A BALLOT REFERENDUM!
Vote "YES" to revert the income tax back to 5%!
I'm as liberal as they come, voted for Obama, Hillary, etc. I'm already 100% behind Mihos in 2010. Sorry, Dems. They just don't make good politicians in this state.
They should stick to radio, I find Tom Finneran's show enjoyable.
Somehow I don't believe that
By Rob (not verified) - 5/20/09 - 9:02 am
Somehow I don't believe that you're "as liberal as they come" based on your comment.
I am too. Raising taxes in a
By anon (not verified) - 5/20/09 - 9:12 am
I am too.
Raising taxes in a recession/depression isn't the answer, as any good Keynesian would tell you. Plus, it's a regressive tax that will hurt the people already hurting the most.
This state really does need to take a hard look at where we can cut expenses. Hell, the MBTA receives revenue from the state sales tax and they can't even get their largest union to forgo their guaranteed 4% wage hike.
Who the hell gets a guaranteed 4% wage hike, let alone in a recession mind you!?
More-rangs
By treemont - 5/20/09 - 1:43 am
Hoo the f*hdge is calling "them" n the Senate oof the Commonwealth morons?
Don't U understand that U help vote these freaks into office?? If U didnt want this tax hike then vote UR Senator outta office - got it? If u didnt vote against her/him...or U didnt vote...then dont beeyatch...got it?
If you want change now...in Mass -- overthrow the gov't or LEAVE the Commonwealth...better yet, shut the fudge up...cuz U know what? Ur input is what the weak and sally saw coming...
More taxes
less services
Its a BIG recession, u fudge pakers.
if you think U can do it better then CHANGE it --- just stop beeyatching and DO sumthin.
Otherwise, be well...
This, folks
By Michael - 5/20/09 - 9:18 am
...is why we can't let them cut funding for elementary education.
Thanks
By merlinmurph - 5/20/09 - 9:48 am
I was trying to come up with a similar, clever response to his drivel. You nailed it.
Yikes! I would also assume
By ShadyMilkMan - 5/20/09 - 10:02 am
Yikes!
I would also assume that we need to keep police funding up to keep people like this under control as well. Also fire funding for when he accidentally sets his kitchen on fire.
I believe, in this case, it
By anon (not verified) - 5/20/09 - 12:04 pm
I believe, in this case, it would probably be the pants first.
... then it would spread to the kitchen.
Funny you mention it
By eeka - 5/20/09 - 6:08 pm
Because they ARE making cuts to Early Intervention, and part of the higher sales tax is going to go to restore some of those cuts.
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
Fudge??? As Peter Griffin
By ShadyMilkMan - 5/20/09 - 10:04 am
Fudge???
As Peter Griffin would say "Milk, milk, lemonaide, around the back fudge is made."
meh. that is the same as
By anon (not verified) - 5/20/09 - 7:50 am
meh. that is the same as alot of other states, no biggie. It makes sense too considering the amount of tourism this state has over, say, ohio (which ranges by county from 6% to 7.75 i believe).
and we still don't get taxed for clothes here, which isn't true in many states either.
true, but we also have an
By anon (not verified) - 5/20/09 - 9:14 am
true, but we also have an income tax (which I'm fine with).
Idea being that we don't have some regressive taxes in the name of having a more fair / progressive tax system. Raising one end tends to swing us in the wrong direction if that's the goal.
Breaking it in Taxachusetts...
By rebecca (not verified) - 5/20/09 - 11:06 am
Color me crazy, but truthfully, I don’t think the lawmakers took into consideration the fact that Massachusetts is not just Boston proper. Beacon Hill, Newbury Street, Back Bay, Wellesley, Newton….these areas aren’t the 'burbs. So while there is a real possibility that stores in Boston may not be impacted as tremendously (outside of the inconvenience with pricing modifications, and of course potentially paying tremendously more in taxes) – this increase in tax can and will have the potential to virtually kill smaller beverage businesses that are anywhere in the 25 mile radius to NH. Does this state not care at all about it’s small business community?
To add insult to injury – this is going to be potential affecting the job market for some; yet creating more jobs for the IRS. New tax divisions are going to be set up I’m sure, to regulate this new tax on alcoholic beverage retailers. So more job creation for the federal and government sector….potentially hundreds of jobs lost in the private sector.
I'm a taxpayer AND a small business owner, so I get it from both ends.
New tax division?
By Ron Newman - 5/20/09 - 11:20 am
This is just adding more items to the sales tax. I bet most alcoholic beverage retailers already sell at least some other non-food and non-drink items that are already subject to sales tax.
(also, what does the IRS have to do with the state sales tax?)
new tax division
By rebecca (not verified) - 5/20/09 - 12:59 pm
Actually, not all liquor stores sell sales taxable items - and even if they do, it falls under a different taxation.
For example -- there is a division in the IRS that monitors tobacco tax, one will need to be set up I'm sure to monitor alchohol taxes.
Maybe it's not the IRS, maybe it's the DOR -- whatever the organization is that handles state taxes. I've yet to deal with them, but now - I will have to.
I would not worry about NH
By ShadyMilkMan - 5/20/09 - 11:20 am
I would not worry about NH being a threat for too long. Their entire empire is built on property taxes and we know how crazy that can be. At some point those guys are either going to have to drasticly cut services or raise some of their taxes. I would rather be in Andover then Nashua at the moment.
two things
By tape - 5/20/09 - 11:28 am
a) New Hampshire is LOVING this.
b) Massachusetts is doing its damnedest to make me move somewhere else, and I'm really starting to think about it seriously. Good job, Massachusetts.
Nice road trip, lets head to
By ShadyMilkMan - 5/20/09 - 11:30 am
Nice road trip, lets head to California!
Good Luck
By SwirlyGrrl - 5/20/09 - 11:50 am
Don't get out much, do ya tape?
MA has pretty low local tax burdens as it is, which is quite frankly what got us into the mess we are in right now. Taxes have been stagnant or declining for years now. You won't find many states where you pay less one way or the other - at least not ones that don't feed heavily at the federal earmark trough (by that I mean those lovely high federal subsidy red states and Southern states).
Perhaps you should do some research before you take off - and consider total tax burden as well as the kind of quality of life it buys you.
Depends - dollars or percentages
By Stevil - 5/20/09 - 12:52 pm
As percent of income we are about in the middle. In dollar terms I believe we are 4th in the country (according to a statement from Barbara Anderson the other day).
Declining taxes - not mathematically possible - the state's budget goes up over $1 billion per year. Boston's by about $100 million per year. Where do you think this money comes from?
State expenditures even after the cuts amount to about $4500 per person - or $18,000 per family of 4. City of Boston is another $4000 per person - or $16,000 per family of 4 (some double counting there due to transfer payments - but not huge. That's well over $30,000 per household just for local government.
We've built a house of straw and the winds are blowing it down.
Consider the source
By SwirlyGrrl - 5/20/09 - 2:18 pm
I'm sure that the rats in Allston would happily issue a press statement saying that more rats is an indicator of increased quality of life.
(for them)
If you want to see a large number of charts - enough to make your head go "wonk" on the table - click here here and here.
Barbara Anderson is not
By ShadyMilkMan - 5/20/09 - 2:22 pm
Barbara Anderson is not someone I would look to for as the definitive source on these issues. She surely is not on my Twitter feed at least
If she's not spot on she's close
By Stevil - 5/21/09 - 10:05 am
I checked rankings by the tax foundation here:
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/335.html
Still not sure I understand the methodology 100% regarding taxes paid out of state - but it seems to rank us 5th in the country in state/local taxes paid. Clicked on their census sources also which have data only through 2006 but you would need to manually calculate per capita taxes.
There was a great article in the WSJ entitled "Soak the rich, lose the rich" about how if you raise taxes the rich will move from high tax locations (they cite NY, NJ, OH and CA) to lower tax locations (FL, TX, NV, TN) and this has an enormous impact on job creation because the rich are often business owners.
You can try here - but it's a subscription site - so not sure you can access the article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124260067214828295.html
CA is currently the poster child for this effect and the relatives of your Allston rats are jumping ship like crazy from there (my sister lives in low tax NV and California retirees are still flocking there).
This is a very risky approach. We'll see. Personally I don't think they will get anywhere near the revenue they are projecting. I never thought twice about sales tax - but now I'll be buying on-line and in NH just to spite Beacon Hill. From the sounds of various blogs - many others will as well.
You haven't done your
By anon (not verified) - 5/20/09 - 12:08 pm
You haven't done your research then.
Taxes and Fees are worst in 25 of the other 50 states. In the 25 states they're better, not many are states you'd probably want to move to.
Also, as goes the MA economy, so goes NH. NH is only able to get away with what it does because of a better job market from their close neighbors. It's why their focus is on property taxes as a source of revenue.
I can honestly say that
By jeveuxsavoir - 5/20/09 - 1:11 pm
I can honestly say that considering how much lower the sales tax here is (and with the exemptions, i.e. clothing) than other places I've lived (New York, North Carolina) the idea of paying another 1 cent (1.25, if we must truly quibble over the fractions) per dollar really, really doesn't bother me. In the grand scheme, it's just not that much. And the revenue's got to come from somewhere.
you cant compare tax rates...
By Pete Nice - 5/20/09 - 3:48 pm
from all these states as the cost of living and salaries vary differently. My buddy lives in NH and pays around 12K in real estate taxes on a 375K house. And the educational system in NH is whacked as the poorer parts of the state don't get the money that the poorer parts of MA would get. Thats because the state doesn't have any money to give them, only the rich towns do.
And I don't get the whole alcohol store thing. Are people really going to travel 10 more miles or 10 more minutes to save 28 cents on a six pack of schlitz?
I guess were going to miss
By ShadyMilkMan - 5/20/09 - 3:58 pm
I guess were going to miss out on the binge drinking crowd.
Your right, thank god we do not have the NH system. It is already bad enough in our state between rich and poor towns. As it is a rich towns school looks 5 times better then a poor towns school. Imagine if all of our money came from local property taxes, that would kill Lowell, Lynn, Chelsea, Springfield and even cities like Quincy and Saugus would feel the sting.
Still a gas tax increase?
By Seth - 5/20/09 - 4:13 pm
I'm still hoping for a gas tax increase...