House tax debate heats up on Beacon Hill
House leadership stifled Republican efforts to soften the impact of proposed tax hikes on Massachusetts residents and businesses during a debate Wednesday.
The House proposal, estimated to rake in up to $612 million from taxpayers to fix the state’s transportation woes, calls for a 5-cent hike in the state gas tax, bringing it up to 29 cents per gallon, and a 9-cent increase on diesel fuel to 33 cents per gallon. The legislation also lays out a nine-tiered system to raise the corporate tax minimum, based on annual sales, from the current $456 to up to $150,000 and eliminates a rental car sales tax exemption worth $110 million.
Amendments filed by Republicans like Minority Leader Brad Jones to soften the economic blow of these measures were rejected during the House debate. One such amendment sought to repeal the gas tax, corporate tax and sales tax provisions of the bill if the so-called millionaire’s tax, a proposed surtax on income greater than $1 million, passes at the ballot in 2022.
“If you’re going to spend that money on transportation, you should be willing to sunset these taxes,” Jones told the Herald. “They are very hellbent on getting this bill through.”
In a counter argument, House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz quoted Speaker Robert DeLeo, who called the revenue package a “bridge” to the millionaire’s tax when he unveiled the legislation last week.
“We understand our transportation needs are not going to be completely solved by this bill alone,” Michlewitz said. “This bill is strictly only $600 million in revenue. By no means is this a cure all to those ailments but it’s certainly a step in the right direction and a step we should be taking today.”
Other rejected amendments would have required the Baker administration’s budget office and the Department of Revenue to conduct a study on the economic impact of the tax changes and exempt municipalities from the gas tax. House Transportation Chairman William Straus argued that the former amendment does not specify a deadline.
Republican strategist and anti-gas tax campaigner Holly Robichaud said, “It is no surprise that the Democrat leadership killed common sense amendments. It has been decades since they cared what the people thought. Beacon Hill is trying to ram these tax increases through in record speed because they don’t want the public to know that once again they are reaching into our wallets. They are putting Taxachusetts on Red Bull.”
Robichaud denounced the legislative package in front of the State House alongside Reps. David DeCoste and Marc Lombardo.
“I’m extremely concerned about the impact these tax increases will have on residents and businesses alike,” Lombardo said.
“I believe this is going to especially hurt communities bordering New Hampshire and that a significant amount of tax money will be lost as we provide even more reason to shop in the Granite State,” DeCoste said.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2uUj1NX
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