I remember when Massachusetts passed 1980 Massachusetts Proposition 2½ in the 1980s. It was a revolutionary citizen petition at the time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_Massachusetts_Proposition_2%C2%BD
It said that you cannot pay more than 2.5 percent of your property value in local taxes. The only way it can be over-ridden is by citizen ballot.
When I lived in Newton, MA citizens voted one year for an override.
So even in highly liberal Massachusetts, you as a taxpayer were somewhat protected. And Prop 2 and 1/2 was probably instrumental in enabling Mass. to attract lots of high tech business.
Hey, rlmorel, what’s your assessment as a Mass. citizen on the ground?
My dad was a plank owner in Citizens for Limited Taxation way back in the Seventies, something I am quite proud of, because that says a lot about my dad. He had been somewhat vilified on his school board and Selectman seat in town politics since he was a conservative, and specifically a fiscal conservative. Leftists hate it when someone who they expect to rubber stamp their spending actually digs in their heels on principle, not on the expectation of some corollary benefit, political or budgetary.
I cannot comment on the pointed impact of Proposition 2 1/2 on my taxes except to say I feel in my gut that if Proposition 2 1/2 weren’t there, we would be worse off from a tax perspective than we are now.
Proposition 2 1/2 has been the ONLY thing in my entire adult life (that I can recall) that has even ostensibly had the welfare of the taxpayer in mind in this state. But even saying that, they did what Leftist politicians do-they simply find ways around it, and never get called out on it. They take money from this fund or that which may be exempt in some way, the way a company may budget something out of operational funds versus a capital request, so the funds don’t have to travel the bumpy road of getting a capital request for money approved.
All that said, I freely admit this-I am conflicted in efforts by the state to attract business. On one hand, I am for the efforts of a state to attract business by manipulating tax agreements in some way to get a specific company to locate in the state and provide jobs.
On the other hand, why not make the overall tax environment favorable to all employers and companies including ones that didn’t get a special deal to move there?