Bravo to Baker for giving tax-spike idea the boot

Thank you, “Tall Deval”!

Tuesday’s Boston Herald reported on a call for higher state income taxes from 91 “Massachusetts economists,” a phrase that — like “Minnesota Nice” and “Rocky Mountain Oysters” — denotes you’re not dealing with the real thing.

Hardly a surprise that egghead academics who live off the public dole (and thanks to student grants and loans, that’s true at private colleges, too) want to keep the cash rolling in and don’t care where it comes from.

Also no surprise in the Herald’s reporting that Democrats like Karen Spilka and Robert DeLeo “have both hinted at tax increases” to fill the revenue hole created when the government orders virtually every tax-paying private business to close.

Of course they’re gonna raise taxes — they’re Massachusetts Democrats. Texas Democrats want you to keep your guns, Vermont Democrats want you to smoke your pot, and Massachusetts Democrats want you to hand over your wallet. Expecting anything different would be … unnatural.

Not to mention dumb.

Thus my praise for Gov. Charlie Baker, who has been saying for weeks he’s not willing to raise taxes in response to the devastating damage from the state’s economic lockdown. Is he personally responsible for some of that damage? Yep. For maintaining the lockdown long after “flattening the curve” had been achieved? Definitely. Is his current teary-eyed clinging to the rigid lockdown requirements based entirely on emotion and politics, instead of data and reason? Or course!

But all that would be true under a Democratic governor, too. The only difference is that she would be champing at the bit to stick the state with higher taxes at the same time while Gov. Baker says no.

What more do you want from a Massachusetts “Republican”?

This is why I’ve never understood the juvenile “Tall Deval” foot-stomping from the talk-radio crowd. Expecting Charlie Baker to act like a Republican is as ridiculous as expecting Massachusetts economists to support free markets. Whaddayou — nuts? You want an actual GOP governor? Move to New Hampshire.

Michael Goodman at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, one of the academics who signed the letter, says Baker needs to “open his mind” to tax increases. Goodman also likes to quote former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s “never let a good crisis go to waste,” as Goodman put it, and views the COVID-19 crisis as a “kind of New Deal-style opportunity” to force through socialized medicine and other progressive plans.

If Baker were in fact just a more vertically enhanced version of Deval Patrick, the answer from the corner office would be, “Let’s do it! And get me some new drapes while we’re at it.”

But he’s not. Baker really and truly is “not a Democrat.” That doesn’t make him an actual Republican, or a supporter of individual liberty, but he’s as close as you are gonna get in Massachusetts politics.

If you disagree, if you think there’s some Trumpian army ready to rise up and rule in Massachusetts, check out last week’s special election results. Republicans are down to just four seats in the 40-seat state senate. Any fewer and they’ll be eligible for special protection from the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Republicans bashing Baker should enjoy the luxury of their “Tall Deval” cheap shots while they can. When he’s gone, his replacement will be an actual Deval — an unapologetic, big-spending, tax-raising liberal.

So thanks, Gov. Baker. In Massachusetts’ politics, “it could be worse” is about as good as it gets.

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Michael Graham is a regular contributor to the Boston Herald. Follow him on Twitter @IAmMGraham.

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