“I personally remain prepared to go further and increase the gas tax to better fund both roads and transit infrastructure.”
You voted for the sales tax, you voted to Tax the Tax on beer and wine(ya that’s right! you taxed a tax!)
What won’t you tax? Should I just sign over my check to you? is that your limit?
What’s wrong with you? We (I mean people working i n the private sector) are struggling to make ends meet. We are cutting back on everything. Is there ANY tax you won’t vote for?
We have to vote your butt out before you bankrupt us all…
Jim, I couldn’t agree more. There are many of us with a similar mindset. I feel fortunate that I was able to accept a job in June that pays me 35% less than my previous job. That’s just salary-forget about my health co-pay. It sickens me when I see our elected officials vote for tax increases and then turn around and vote to increase funding to avoid layoffs for their friends and collegues in state government(check out Will’s 2010 budget postings and supplementary budget detail). The disconnect between our reps and the citizenry has never been larger. I feel a change coming on…
Guys, thanks for speaking out.
Most of us in state government are pretty serious about cost-cutting and fairness to the taxpayer. But I know we can do better and I don’t mind your keeping the pressure on.
Well, not everybody sees it like jimlenk. For the past two decades America & Massachusetts have been delivering tax cuts more to the wealthy and the corporations than to the people who are struggling. Hedge funds have paid a lower effective rate than ordinary small businesses on the federal level, and at the state level since the gas tax is a set number of cents per gallon, every year that goes by inflation makes the gas tax smaller.
Will, I liked your idea to raise the threshold at which the state collects income tax and raise the rate on the income over the threshold. That shifts the burden further away from lower and middle income people.