Closing loopholes

SAY WHAT?

By Representative Matthew C. Patrick

I believe the Cape Cod Times Editorial should be clarified for the benefit of your readers. While Massachusetts may be fourth in per capita tax burden that’s like saying we should put ourselves in the same category as Mississippi which has a much lower median income. Do we pay our government employees on the same scale as many of the southern states?

We do not because we wouldn’t have many good state and town employees, policemen, fireman or teachers. It just costs too much to live here in Massachusetts not to pay people a living wage. The cost of living is much higher in Massachusetts and any northeastern or west coast state so measuring tax burden with a per capita comparison is just plain misleading.

A much fairer way of measuring our tax burden is in proportion to our ability to pay and since we have one of the highest median incomes in the nation we are ranked much lower when compared to other states. Using US Census data the nonprofit Mass Budget and Policy Center found we are ranked 46th in the nation in total taxes (state and local) as a percentage of our income.

The organization you cited, The Tax Foundation (April 8th, 2004 Wall Street Journal) ranks Massachusetts 36th based on income, property and other state and local tax collections. So, it’s safe to assume Massachusetts is somewhere between 36th and 46th. Either way we are well below the mid range of states. The Wall Street Journal article written by Nancy Keates had this to say about Massachusetts, “…Massachusetts – once nicknamed “Taxachusetts,” but now ranked a respectable No. 36 on the Tax Foundation’s list, (Credit the lower income and property tax rates the state enacted years ago.)”

Using US Census data the nonprofit Mass Budget and Policy Center found we are ranked 46th in the nation in total taxes (state and local) as a percentage of our income.

You should also tell us which budget items you consider wasteful so we can take the money from them to fund increases in Chapter 70 which we all agree is important to Cape Cod. Tell me what line items to take money from or eliminate so we can reduce the income tax rate from 5.3% to 5%. Doing so will cost us $550 million. It gets confusing to me and perhaps you can help me find the waste, fraud and abuse in our budget. Don’t forget we already cut $3 billion from our budget and used $2 billion in rainy day funds to smooth things over. We reduced our annual contributions to the retirement fund to support the budget. Even the venerable Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation says we have a structural deficit of $700 million dollars and it would foolish to lower the income tax rate at this time.

I’m glad you support closing corporate loopholes. I am a cosponsor of that amendment in the budget.