Comments on: What Is Massachusetts Ballot Question 1?

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:03:08 +0000

Do you people even know where most of the state income tax goes towards, building
stupid roads and bridges and also directly into the pockets of greedy, evil
politicians. Enough with the corruption. The threats are ridiculous. with the 2.5
proposition they cannot raise our house taxes. Building better roads? In case you
haven’t noticed, Boston has some of the worst roads in the country, they haven’t
done anything about it now and never will. It will hurt at first, but wee need to
take the state back in our own hands. Enough with overpriced taxes

By: LOUDelf

LOUDelf — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:21:17 +0000

DaveO-

Well put commentary! Very objective.

Kevin Loughlin-

There’s a problem with your argument: Mass has a flat tax. So while you can twist
some numbers, they still don’t change the outdome. Everybody pays the same 5.3%
rate. So, someone earning 3 times the income, pays 3 times the tax. Someone making
$35k/year may need that extra money much more than a higher income person as
fixed-priced items are a higher percentage of their wage (gas, food, etc), so I’m
not quite sure how this would affect lower income more adversely. In fact, I submit
that the lower income brackets might benefit MORE from this.

By: brad

brad — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:32:05 +0000

no, the state has to cut the budget by 70% after what they are mandated to do.. wake
up and stop being so selfish and greedy.. i understand that it’s tough times out
there but look around and realize that we’re not driving on dirt roads (NH) and we
have programs that actually do something for our community. approving question one
will be one mistake that we won’t be able to get back.. look down the road, try two
or three years, we’ll be in crisis mode. then people will be like, “oh, thats where
that money went. i never knew. oops”. it’s not too late to wake up and realize
that eliminating that revenue will throw us to the sharks with nothing to protect
us… vote NO, and your conscience will thank you for it later… thanks

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 23:43:55 +0000

I look at it this way. If the state has to cut its budget by 40% because we
eliminate the state income tax (according to their TV add). They are still taking
another 60%. So, If you save $2,000 in state income tax, the state is still taking
$3.000 out of our pockets in forms of sales tax, gas tax, excise tax, just to name a
few.

Please, spare me the song and dance about cutting programs. The state needs to cut
the entitlements in this state and get rid of all the corrupt politicians. The only
thing is most of the people in this state are too stupid to know where the money is
coming from for all these programs.

All the public giveaways are coming out of our pockets you dummies.

Time to send a message, VOTE YES

By: DaveO

DaveO — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 01:15:32 +0000

Yes, those are good points. For a low income family (Widmer mentions those with an $850 per year income tax burden) an extra $70 or so a month is no doubt very helpful. You mention the impact of service cuts, but there will surely be a scramble for new sources of revenue as well. A 2½ increase in property taxes would hurt a lot more for folks at lower income levels. There more I think about this, it feels like a Libertarian, idealogical stance. I don’t personally see it as a socially equitable one either.

By: Kevin Loughlin

Kevin Loughlin — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:19:39 +0000

While the income tax is eliminated for everyone, it favors the citizens who are better off financially, for two reasons.

Doing the math shows that to get $3,700 in savings from the elimination of the state income tax would require an income of about $70,000. (5.3% of $70,000= $3,710)

A person with an income of $35,000 would save $1855, while a person with an income of $150,000 would save $7950.

The person making $35,000 or less is more likely to be subjected to the state budget cuts required by the loss of revenue. In this way the elimination of the state income tax is not as equitable as it is portrayed to be.

This is a simplistic view as it does not factor in the deductions that reduce your taxable income, which are more often than not applicable to the higher income brackets.