Governor Deval Patrick is set to propose an increase in the state income tax as part of a multipronged plan to raise new revenue for transportation and education, said a person with direct knowledge of the governor’s plan.
Patrick is expected to unveil the plan, at least in part, in his annual State of the Commonwealth speech Wednesday night. Many in and around state government said he is targeting the income tax because it is the only tax that would bring in enough money to fund his ambitious transportation and education agendas.
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Campaign for communities want a higher tax rate to fund unions. you deserve the government you elect, now pay up and shut up.
Except, some of us didn't vote for them. Too bad we also have to pay the tax increase and live with the ongoing mismanagement, scandals.... Bravo for those of us who are leaving, maybe someone only the takers will be left.
someday...
This Governor is relentless in his pusuit of taxing us into the stone age. He has appointed more firends and hacks than anyone I can remember and has got caught, yet he gets a free pass ? Our Governor is now giving us the farewell finger with his ridiculous tax proposals, but what does he care its not his money. Remember this was the guy that promised to lowesr our Real estate taxes in order to get elected. "Together We Can" was the mantra used and some people bought it ! Thanks again Tim Cahill for his second term
Hopefully our legislators will realize they will need our vote to get reelected and comeback with a sensible budget not loaded with special interest feel good projects like expanding the rail service and bloating the education budget and focus on what really needs to be fixed or repaired. While focusing in on this issue they should be looking at cost saving reforms and there are plenty of them not just taxing their constituents relentlessly.
NO WAY!!! My paycheck has already gone down this year and I haven't had a raise in 5 years. How about Patrick and the other fat cats at the state house take a paycut and pay more for health insurance? Furthermore, how about you take that casino money to finance transportation and schools? It is no help to the economy and working people to cut paychecks again!!! We must speak out and contact our represenatives and say NO WAY if you want my vote next election.
But this time, prue, we have to mean it. So far they get away with anything, come the election, and they know it.
So, who will live in Mass and pay these taxes along with a healthy dose of "Cost of Living?" Not retires, that is for sure!
I've been plotting my exit strategy for about 3 years now...once retired, I'm gone.
As a categorical exception, retired teachers, federal civil servants, state and local civil servants, and military career veterans pay no income tax on their pensions, so they don't need to worry about the change in rates. Has anyone put a number on this group's not paying their share? The tax treatment varies from state to state.
In the interest of fairness, somebody needs to have the spine to suggest phasing out this special treatment that clearly favors one group at the expense of the rest. If legislator pensions are exempt from state taxation too, I guess we won't see that any time soon.
"Patrick’s tax and spending plans will be carefully scrutinized, not rubber stamped."......hahahahahahahaha....thanks for the laugh...the crappy 2.3% raise that I had to fight for is now not worth the fight....but I'm glad that our leaders have us laughing as they fist us....
Absolute unmitigated arrogance. First, there is no "economic recovery", and unions and self-interested groups are already fighting over who should get to carve up the pie. The Governor sees the horizon ahead, and wants to do something to please the folks who boosted him into office, and to whom he made promises. So, we get what? Higher taxes on our sweat and labor, re-routed to public employee unions? Trains to nowhere? How the devil does a train to Fall River solve the existing problems with the MBTA? If you cannot make metropolitan Boston mass transit or commuter rail to the affluent suburbs pay for itself, how will isolated spurs to less developed areas (or seasonal runs to the Cape) pay their own way? What we are witnessing is Patrick's version of the redistribution of wealth; taking more and more money from working people, and spending it on more publically funded boondoggles that will benefit only unions, whose members will build the facilities and man the trains - at ever increasing cost. Will somebody in the Statehouse please display a modicum of integrity, and resist this urge to take and spend?
You're wrong. Public transportation projects benefit everyone. Less traffic, less air pollution, less parking problems, less anxiety on the roads.
Giermond: The issue is not "what is benficial"...every social program you can think of, from welfare to education to transportation...can be beneficial. But at what COST? We cannot continue to give the government a bottomless piggybank. You can propose mass transit systems that serve everyone, but you can't afford to build or run them - they simply are not financially feasible. So we need to make some hard decisions. I have no faith that the same government that runs the MBTA at a staggering deficit every year, cannot maintain state roads and bridges, stripped the Pike of its superior maintenance and design, and operates a failing commuter rail system, can now, suddenly, build, run and maintain a whole new transit system, and do so without loading us with the same escalating debt as the Big Dig. I'd love to step out my door into a modern, efficient rail system...but I have absolutely no reason to believe that, after draining by bank account to pay for it, it would be there. It's more likely that I would need to drive to a remote, unlit parking lot in Worcester, to be herded onto an overcrowded 20 year old clunker of a train car, and regularly wait for 45 minutes for a problem on the tracks ahead to be cleared. Sorry; I've fallen for these promises before; keep your grandiose promises until you can clean up your act.
Enough already [starts looking for better job in Texas, New Hampshire or elsewhere]. There are two classes of people is Massachusetts, the working class and the non-working class. And those of us in the first categories can't continue to pay high taxes, EBT, Medicaid, and for all of these political hacks.
The whole country is laughing at you Massachusetts voters! You wanted him, now you got him, so pay up....
I don't know if the whole Country is laughing, I mean look at Bloomberg & Cuomo. Fair to say though..
Actually, less than 50% of us wanted him. Cahill switched Dem to Independent to sabotage the election, syphoned off enough votes ( with the help of taxpayer-funded ads thanks to Lottery funds ) from Baker to let Devolve back in. Of course those ads weren't stopped during the election, despite the obvious conflict of interest we were all screaming about.
If the money actually went to the MBTA I think a tax on miles driven makes perfect sense. The more you drive the more you pay. It would be the perfect positive message to send people who are otherwise disengaged from the idea that their actions have an effect on others.
Agreed. The feeling of Entitlement, and "If it aint about ME, it means nothting to ME!" is the cause of many problems in Boston, and Massachsetts.
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The condition of our state's and nation's transportation infrastructure is a travesty. Roadway and transit are basic necessities and there's no other way to pay for either except through the public sector. If we want adequate and safe roads, we need to pay for them. The gas tax hasn't even been adjusted for inflation for decades....something has to give. I'd rather pay more in taxes than in much more expensive suspension repairs ($600 after hitting a pothole). These types of repairs add-up and people don't even realize that this is the "private" way we absorb a lack of public spending in infrastructure. btw -- I moved here from Texas (and have now been here for 13 years) and Bay Staters who think they need to flee Patrick and his taxes really have no idea how good we have it here.
Like Obama's payroll tax increase, gas tax and sales tax increases are as regressive as you get, HAMMERING the middle class and a minor annoyance for the wealthy.
The payroll tax "increase" you mention is putting the Soc Sec withholding tax back to where it was for many years. That was a temporary redutction, in case you have forgotten. He also fought to KEEP the middle class tax cuts, which did get passed in case you haven't noticed. Nobody likes paying taxes, but get your facts straight.
But that sales tax is coming back down now, right? No? We'll take down that Mass Pike tolls as promised in the 50's? Or at least stop using that money illegally for other than Mass Pike maintenance? Have we stopped putting money in the accounts of the 19,000 EBT recipients that we don't have valid addresses for ( picturing Aunt Zeituni, cocktail in hand on a distant beach ).
This year it's the income tax' turn to go up, the sales tax had its turn in 2009. Wll have another turn in a few years.
Our Governor is dillulsional. Another tax to drive your car, and being taxed 2.4 cents each mile? What is this man smoking??? We are already taxed to the limit. The MBTA is grossly mismanaged, if we as business people mismanaged our business as they do we would be no longer in business. No one to bail us out...except ourselves. Perhaps our Governor should sell his multi-million dollar mansion out there in the Berkshires and donate that money to the MBTA. An increase in the gas tax? Nuts...we are stretched to the limit. What is really scary is, he is serious. I cannot believe anybody with any sense is proposing to tax 2.4 cents per mile....but then again, this is Massachusetts...no wonder people are leaving in droves. Where are our representatives regarding this new proposed tax hike to pay for the MBTA? Oh, forgot again, this is Massachusetts. So far we have paid to bail out banks, car manufacturers and now this...this is ridiculous...and of course we the taxpayers in this tax burdened state have no say in this, just tax us more...time for us taxpayers to revolt, enough is enough....hear that legislatures and Mr. Governor?
Where does the 2.4 cents a mile come from?
97 bravo, it was one of the floated proposals in the transportation commission report. Just meant to distract everyone while the governor proceeds to raise our income tax again.
I would be happy to see an increase in the income tax, and would pay more taxes instead of having to fill out our burdensome forms. I have paid taxes in four other states, and ours is the hardest job in the country. My suggestion: let people have deductions for charity, mortgage on MA houses, and MA sales, property, and excise taxes, then raise rates by as much as is needed to bring in revenue. That way, homeowners and people who spend much of their income on taxable purchases will gte a break, and people with lots of disposable income will pay to keep our state in shape. And by the way, with all the crumbling roads and bridges around us, I'll also pay more gas taxes if I can feel safer when I drive.
Only in Massachusetts will you get so many blind followers saying we need higher taxes. Now is not the time people. The economy is still a disaster. This will set us all back.
We do not need any tax increase - there is more than enough if it wasn't squandered thru mismanagement. More taxes collected only means even more squandered taxes. Enough is enough. Let Patrick pay for zillion dollar losses out of his own pocket like the DPH police lab fraud that released thousands of criminals. or the meningitis fiasco that killed 60 innocent people. If the legislature goes along we make note of those who voted yes at re-election time. Let's bring taxes back to 5 percent.
Live2serve is wrong. Mass public employees do pat a federal income tax, though do not pay a state tax as that money was already taxed. On the fed side, public employees are taxed on 97-98% of their gross pension.
Just great. The MBTA is one of if not the most mismanaged, bureaucratic, bloated, patronage laced, over compensated state controlled organizations in existence. So to solve the problem our Obama like governor feels we should raise income taxes on hard working folks (who have to balance their respective budgets each year) and transfer it to "transportation" so it can be further squandered. How about cutting expenses? No one seems to have the political courage to take on the real issue which is SPENDING! With respect "education", this give back is simply a pay back to the teachers' union for their continued unflinching support for the Democratic Party (can you say Elizabeth Warren). Again, how about "pay for performance" in the schools or a hard look at the very generous and costly pension and health benefits that teachers receive for life working 2/3 of the year. We will not solve our "transportation and/or "education" problems by throwing more money at them. How about a "balanced approach" (ie revenue and spending)!
There are two sides to the debate in play here. Let's try to be good, rational citizens and separate them. One is the "use" of the funds, in this case infrastucture. We can all have a healthy debate on that measure, but I think most folks are in agreement that we need a refresh. Then we next need to discuss the "source" of the funds. The first decision node is 1) cut spending elsewhere vs. 2) increase taxes. Personally, I am extremely confident that there is $1bn/year of wasteful spending we can find that will have almost no economic impact. Our annual budget is now over $30bn/year. 3% savings on that base should be a slam dunk that any professional manager worth his or her salt could find blindfolded. Alas, I see no leadership or willpower to go that direction, so we are left with tax increases. On that score, WHY an income tax? It is laughable to call that "broad-based" when only ~60% of us work. This tax discourages the marginal hour of work at exactly the wrong time. We need people wanting to go work and work hard to get the economy going. Left out of this "broad-based" measure are all the boomers sitting around working down their savings and contributing nothing to tax revenue. A broad-based measure would include everyone, either via a poll tax or a consumption tax. If the only solution in Mass is higher taxes, let's use this time to be honest with ourselves and creative and raise the revenue in a way that does not distort our fragile labor market, further weakening an already tepid recovery.
You're playing their game,seesaw. Rational citizens are no match for Massachusetts politicians.
This is a fool's game. The state has used legitimate transportation needs to raise taxes, doesn't maintain the roads and bridges, doesn't deal with management issues at the T, comes back for more taxes. Forget the 5.6% rate, the voters said to roll it back to 5%. Taxpayer who don't want to be fools should call their legislators (use Secretary of State's database) and tell them to audit the state Department of Education to find out where all our gas tax money, and the 20% of the sales tax that is earmarked for public transportation, is going now. Do the management reforms recommended in the Transportation report. Then get back to us on revenue discussion.
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It's inexorable. The public sector grows as the private sector shrinks. The shrinking private sector is called upon to pay more and more taxes to support the growing public sector. The end game is socialism.
I'm all for investing in the right things, like transportation and education, but where's the effort to reign in spending? As individuals in a difficult economy we've had to take a hard look at what we spend money on and cut those expenses that we can't afford. This state needs to do the same and use those funds to invest in top priorities. The Governor and Legislature seem to have no appetite for doing this. It's tough to get behind any tax increase knowing how much money is wasted in our government.
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Fine, cut spending $1 for $1.
Exactly. Raise $500 million and cut $500 million. Oh, but spending cuts are hard and tax increases are easy. We get what we deserve voting in our current Governor and Legislature. Not a lot of heavy lifters in this group.