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Advocates Seek Tax Hikes In Massachusetts

By Paul Tuthill

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-963475.mp3

Springfield, MA – A coalition of public employee unions, liberal activists, and advocates for special interests in Massachusetts have launched a campaign to raise taxes on the rich. They floated their proposal as state budget writers in the Massachusetts House proposed to slash state spending next year by the largest amount in two decades .WAMC's Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief PaulTuthill reports .

Massachusetts does not have a spending problem..it has a revenue crisis, in the opinion of John Bennett..the head of the Western Massachusetts chapter of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council He says the state can not keep cutting spending to solve its budget problems
Bennett says that money can be found through a bill filed in the Massachusetts Legislature called an Act to Invest in Our Communities.. It would raise the state's income tax rate from the current 5 point 3 percent to 5 point 95 percent, but would nearly double the personnal exemption. That, its proponents claim, would mean 60 percent of the state's wage earners would not face higher taxes The bill would also sharply increase state taxes on capital gains and investment income.
This campaign to raise taxes is backed by a coalition that includes the Massachusetts Teachers Assocation, the state AFL-CIO, several anti-poverty groups, including Arise for Social Justice and Neighbor to Neighbor, advovates for higher education, children and the elder .. Many of the same groups that successfully campaigned last year to defeat a referendum to slash the state sales tax.
They rolled out their latest effort the same week the leadership of the Massachusetts House presented a proposed 30 point 5 billion dollar state budget, which calls for deep spending cuts to close a projected one point five billion dollar deficit.. Under the house budget proposal, local aid to cities and towns would be slashed by seven percent. Many social services would be cut or eliminated, including funding for emergency homeless shelters, dental care for the poor, and home health services for the elderly..
Etta Williams of Springfield, a retired nurse, called the cuts short-sighted
State Representative Steven Kulig, of Worthington, who is vice-chair of the budget writing House Ways and Means Committee said hard choices had to be made, because the state is faced with the loss of federal stimulus money that propped up spending the last two years, and the rainy day fund has been drained. Kulig said House Speaker Robert Deleo declared back in January the next state budget would have no new taxes..
What is part of the budget discussion is a controversial provision that would allow mayors and town managers to unilaterally set co-pays and deductibles for municipal employee heath insurance..
Labor leaders have attacked the proposal as an attempt to take away collective bargaining rights..Tim Collins, president of the Springfield Education Association says the legislature should be working to lower health care costs .not simply shifting the costs
The Massachusetts house has scheduled budget debates and votes for the last week of April. Advocates for the legislation to raise taxes on the rich plan to rally at the Statehouse in early May.