Flaherty, McCrea against tax increases

City Councilor Michael Flaherty says he opposes Mayor Menino's plan to increase meals and hotel-room taxes in Boston, saying adding 0.75% to the meals tax and 2% to the hotel tax would unfairly burden local diners and business owners already hard hit by the recession.

Flaherty, who wants to replace Menino, says there's plenty of fat in the existing city budget that could be could to raise the $18 million Menino says the city would gain by implementing the taxes. Both proposals go before the city council on July 19; Flaherty will vote against both.

Kevin McCrea also opposes the new taxes: "The city is not in a fiscal crisis, just a crisis of management."

... If, unfortunately, the tax increase is passed remember that the Mayor promised to have it offset the residential property tax. If he doesn't include that in his legislation, you will see yet another example of him saying one thing and doing another.

Flaherty's statement:

(July 23, Boston) - Mayoral candidate, Michael Flaherty, expressed his opposition to Mayor Menino's efforts to impose an additional tax burden on the city's hotels and restaurants, arguing that he has failed to effectively manage the city's revenue and spending.

"This administration has not even begun to scratch the surface of the inefficiencies that have bankrupted our local government," asserted Flaherty. "Instead of taking a hard look at where he can consolidate or eliminate programs and cut costs such as high-paid consultants, this Mayor looks for the fastest way he can get a bailout."

Flaherty is a strong and vocal proponent for implementing annual performance reviews to identify opportunities to run government more efficiently, trim wasteful spending and redirect funding to critical services. Performance reviews have effectively saved governments across the country millions of dollars. In the state of Texas, where performance reviews first originated, their first performance review generated 1,000 recommendations and $4 billion in savings and revenue in its first budget.

"If we're going to have a discussion about how we can diversify our revenue, then I think we need to have a frank discussion about what this administration has done to make our government run more efficiently and with less money," challenged Flaherty. While the administration has maintained during the budget process this year that it trimmed spending, they failed to provide any evidence that a comprehensive performance review has been conducted and that fiscal waste and abuse have been expunged from City Hall. In fact, under Mayor Menino, personnel expenses have increased by $416 million since 2004, including $220 million in pay raises, expanded overtime and new hires.

Flaherty acknowledges that the city should not be further burdening Boston's homeowners with higher property taxes, but also maintains that the city's revenue management strategies can't unfairly burden resident diners, visitors and local small businesses who are dealing with their own challenges brought on by this economic downturn.

"I am very concerned about the implications of this Mayor's "tax-before-manage" strategy will have on our ability to attract new businesses to our city," said Flaherty. "We've already seen the Mayor try to handcuff our small businesses when he shut down negotiations with Sail Boston, which ultimately brought in a lot of visitors looking for a place to stay and eat. Had we left it up to the Mayor, our local businesses would have missed out on that opportunity to capitalize on a major special event."