Income Tax Hike Finds Support at Budget Forum
  Labor Secretary Suzanne Bump, left, with Margie Ware, led a discussion group on fiscal concerns at Town Hall. It was one of dozens of forums being held by the Patrick administration across the state. |
Of the 20-odd residents at Town Hall on Friday night, more than a half-dozen hands shot into the air to support town resident Margie Ware's suggestion that a progressive tax should be considered.
Labor Secretary Suzanne Bump said officials were astonished at how often the idea had come up when they compared notes at a Cabinet meeting in Boston earlier on Friday.
"It was a surprise that we all had heard at least one on the floor say that they would support graduated income tax," said the Great Barrington resident. It was enough, said Bump, to unnerve one lawmaker at a session to joke they'd have to call 911 for her.
However, there's been no stomach in the Legislature for even talking about an increase in the income tax. That may change as lawmakers are forced to cut billions from the budget over the next two years.
Ware, a former selectman, said afterward that it shouldn't have caught them off-guard since backing for a progressive income tax had been pronounced during Patrick's run for governor two years ago.
 Ron Patenaude, president of UAW Local 2322, talks insurance and health-care spending. |
This was Bump's second discussion group this week and the last planned for Berkshire County; Registrar of Motor Vehicles Rachel Kaprielian appeared at Pittsfield City Hall on Tuesday evening.
Advertised as a way for residents to have input into the budget debate now raging on Beacon Hill, they were also a platform for Gov. Deval Patrick to drum up support for his solutions to the state's financial crisis.
Patrick's budget earlier this year was built on savings through significant reforms of transportation agency, pension and ethics and lobbying along with new revenue through sales taxes candy, alcohol, soda, expansion of the bottle bill, 1 percent local meals and rooms taxes, and a controversial 19-cent gasoline tax dedicated to transportation.
Lawmakers have, for the most part, ignored the governor's tax suggestions, although the reforms are working their way through the Legislature. Instead, the House budget for 2010 includes a 1.25 percent increase in the sales tax.
But a precipitous drop in revenue in April has put that budget some $1.6 billion out of balance, say Senate fiscal policymakers. In its spending plan released earlier this week, the Senate eviscerated programs and line items to balance the budget.
There was also support in the crowd for lifting the sales-tax exemption on candy, alcohol and soda. John Lipa, of the Berkshire County Regional Employment Board, said Massachusetts should take Canada, which taxes such foods heavily, as an example. "Look to our friends up north and think big."
There was also support for the gas tax, though no as strong.
Most had concerns particular to their fields: Northern Berkshire Healthcare President Richard Palmisano Jr. said the failure to fully pay for Medicaid and Medicare services was hitting community hospitals hard and that changing their ability to negotiate with managed care provided could cost them $200 million.Brian Handspicker, a leader in the local arts community, was upset that the Senate budget had cut the Massachusetts Cultural Council by 57 percent. Such cuts could significantly affect the Berkshires' creative economy, he said.
Bump said the economy will recover slowly and the question has become "how do we support the services we've come to depend upon?"
Citizens are invited to hold their own forums or to express their concerns and suggestions at www.mass.gov/governor/forums. The 90-minute forum, including a taped message from the governor, will be broadcast on WilliNet.
