“Should higher taxes be off the table when legislators discuss next year’s state budget?” — Boston Globe [opinion] (1/22/2016)
NO
Kevin Loechner
Hull resident, Democratic activist, member of Progressive Massachusetts
House Speaker Robert DeLeo recently declared that the House will propose no new taxes or fees for fiscal 2017. He stated that taxes are “off the table,” a position shared by Governor Charles Baker. This politically driven stance effectively cuts off debate on new sources of revenue to fund state government and strained municipal budgets across the Commonwealth, including this region.
Apparently, this no-new-fees position did not apply to mass transit commuters. MBTA fare increases are coming in July — up to 12 percent on commuter boats, as high as 10 percent on commuter rail. Crunching the data, I calculated that under the maximum fare increase, the last four years will have seen increases of 39 percent to 55.6 percent for train, boat, and bus commuters in the region, not including parking fee increases. And the latest fare increases will not improve service and barely cover the operating deficit.
State aid to local governments has still not recovered to pre-Great Recession levels. For example, Hull’s net state aid in fiscal 2002 was $7.38 million; in fiscal 2016 it was more than 26.6 percent lower, at $5.42 million. Without sufficient local aid, communities have had to seek fee increases or overrides — Weymouth tried and failed this year — or defer capital maintenance, which has been the case in Hull. Constant complaints about increased taxes for diminished services can be found on social media pages across the region.
Opponents of tax increases will talk about waste, fraud, and abuse, or that wealthier people will leave due to increased taxes. But there is not as much waste as conventional wisdom states, and the costs of stopping all fraud and abuse outweighs any savings we would gain. Data also shows that state taxes have little impact on interstate moves. And we have had reforms to state government in recent years, but the resulting financial benefits have fallen short of what is actually needed.
Even those who oppose increased taxes should agree that this is a discussion worth having for maintaining and building a strong Commonwealth. Please consider contacting your legislators and ask them to not take this option off the table in the name of political expediency.
