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Jiggering the tax rolls
By adamg on Fri, 03/02/2007 - 8:56am
As a Boston homeowner, sure, I'd love to see my property taxes go down $200 a year, which is what Tom Menino says would happen if the legislature passes Deval Patrick's proposal to let local governments raise their own meals and telecommunications taxes.
But is Tom Menino making a mistake by trying to get the legislature to ensure that all the money from such taxes goes to property-tax relief? Legislators on the other sides of the Charles and Neponset don't really care all that much about Boston homeowners; they care even less about the mayor of Boston telling them what to do - especially when the speaker of the House (Boston's own Sal DiMasi) has already come out against the whole local tax thing.
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Comments
Show Me The (Tax) Money!
The Alliance of Boston Neighborhoods has been working on the issue of offsetting increases in fees and taxes against the rising tide of property taxes.
http://www.abnboston.org/files/category-5.html
For those of you in West Roxbury and Roslindale who have been hardest hit by increases, ABN does a terrific presentation on what has happened to create such an increase in residential taxes and how we can work to solve the crisis permanently.
You can contact ABN ( www.abnboston.org) and arrange for a presentation to your community group.
Yes to offsets
The concept of using additional fees as an offset is outstanding for the following reasons:
1) There are no net new taxes on any Mass residents. It actually exports a lot of our taxes by forcing out of state and foreign visitors to pay for our services.
2) All Mass cities desperately need to diversify their income streams. This is a small step in that direction.
3) This is not a new "sandbox" for the politicians to play with. The money is not incremental (the city of Boston has no need for more money - they already spend $10,000 per household running the government around here - if that's not enough, no amount is).
4) It's a home rule petition. Each town has the right to do this or not. If people don't want to pay an extra $1 for dinner for two to have adequate police, fire and inspecitional services, they can eat elsewhere. No one is being forced to eat in Boston or other towns where the law is enacted.