Siphoning Money from the People is Taxing Work for State’s Payroll Patriots

It all depends on your definition of “temporary” and “emergency.”

The good news is, the “temporary” state income tax increase of 1989, which we were promised would be gone after 18 months, is now finally going to be rescinded, a mere 20 years after the voters repealed it in a referendum landslide that the hacks at the State House have been ignoring ever since.

And remember, that referendum in 2000 was only passed after a decade of lying and stalling by the hackerama about how the state couldn’t “afford” to keep its promises.

So this wasn’t a 20-year lie, it was 30 years of deceit. 

The referendum to stop the thievery was pushed through by then-Gov. Paul Cellucci, who died in 2013, and Barbara Anderson of Citizens for Limited Taxation (CLT). She died in 2016.

Consider the other side, the Democrats who fought to keep the con going. They include a long list of crooked House speakers like Good Time Charlie Flaherty, convicted of income-tax evasion, Felon Finneran, convicted of obstruction of justice, Sal DiMasi, convicted of extortion, and Bob DeLeo, named as an unindicted co-conspirator in yet another scandal.

When you consider the ongoing crime wave on Beacon Hill, it’s remarkable it only took taxpayers 30 years to get Stanley Rosenberg et al. to keep their promises.

It could be worse, after all. In 1989, the same year the hacks rammed through the “emergency temporary” tax hike, the Turnpike tollbooths were supposed to come down, since the bonds that had been sold to build the interstate highway had finally been paid off.

Perhaps you’ve noticed there was a slight change in plans. Instead of eliminating the tolls, they’ve, what, doubled them?

Now the hacks are chuckling that this final income-tax cut, from 5.05 back to 5%, “only” means a savings of $39 on an income of $100,000 for the final six months of fiscal year 2020. What’s so funny about that — think how much extra dough everyone would have had if they’d kept their original promise to cut the rate from 5.95 to 5% when they said they would … in 1991.

Chip Ford of CLT sent out a link to some of the old stories and press releases from the referendum on Question 4 in 2000. The taxpayers’ slogan that year was, “Yes on 4, Before They Come Back for More.”

Talk about prescient. Here’s a very partial list of the depredations inflicted by the non-working classes since Question 4: doubling the marijuana and deeds taxes, 75% tax on vaping products, 25% increase in sales tax, imposing sales tax on the excise tax on alcohol (repealed by the voters), an automatic annual gas tax increase (also repealed by popular demand), and coming soon, another shot at a graduated income tax.

Another old CLT slogan: One tax is too many, and a thousand are not enough.

And sure enough, just as the needle that’s been delivering their fix these last 30 years is finally yanked out of their junkie veins, the hacks are queuing up for another hit.

This week they’re touting yet another gas tax — a second gas tax, on top of the 44.9 cents (state and federal) the leeches are already grabbing on every gallon.

They call this latest con the Transportation & Climate Initiative (TCI) but it’s really a TAX — a regional scam to impose a “fee” on carbon emissions from gasoline and diesel. By not calling it a tax, the hacks, led by the shameless RINO governor Tall Deval, think they can push this unconstitutional robbery through without benefit of approval by either the Legislature or the electorate.

The payroll patriots are calculating that the state’s corrupt judges will back them up — because it’s nothing more than the next multi-billion-dollar heist to protect the hacks’ phony-baloney jobs and pensions.

This is the biggest grift being run against working people since that emergency temporary income tax hike of 1989, which was only going to be needed for 18 months, er, 30 years.

National Panhandling Radio (NPR) is parroting the party line, describing this second gas tax as a “regional effort to drive down emissions.”

Correction: It’s a regional effort to drive down the income of people who work, and divert billions more into the pockets of those who don’t.

So the hacks and the climate cultists are scheming this weekend to make this latest heist look like a rescue effort for polar bears, but it’s just another con. Read up on the scam at massfiscal.org and then call your local legislators before Tuesday.

This attempted theft is a real emergency, because this time the hacks aren’t even pretending it’s temporary.

Check out Howie’s latest podcasts at howiecarrshow.com