Posted on 05/07/2008 10:04:33 AM PDT by Disturbin
BOSTON —— The Massachusetts Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday night to raise the cigarette tax by $1 a pack and close hundreds of millions of dollars in so-called corporate tax loopholes.
The House passed a similar tax package last month. Gov. Deval Patrick generally supports an increase in the cigarette tax, but the $1 boost will be tied up in negotiations over corporate tax rates before it reaches his desk.
The Senate tax package, which passed 31 to 6, would raise nearly $472 million in revenue next year. The House passed a tax package last month that would bring in $80 million less than the Senate.
The differences likely will have to be worked out by a conference committee before a bill can be sent to the governor.
Massachusetts smokers already pay a $1.51 excise tax on a pack of cigarettes. The average price of a pack of cigarettes is $5.41, including the state tax, according to Tobacco Free Mass. The cigarette tax was last raised in 2002, when the Legislature nearly doubled it.
Unlike the House, where a number of legislators said smokers were being unfairly targeted, there was little debate on the cigarette tax in the Senate.
"The Senate's proposal is a reasonable representation of everyone's interests that provides predictability and fairness," Senate President Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, said in a statement after the vote. "It's a bill that is sensitive to the needs of the business community to help them maintain their competitive edge while also generating appropriate and much-needed revenue for state services."
Republicans charged that the Senate's corporate tax changes, a mix of rate cuts and loophole closings that would raise $297 million, would cost jobs in Massachusetts.
"Companies are finding it more and more difficult to expand and relocate to Massachusetts, and they are doing it in other states," said Sen. Richard Tisei, R-Wakefield, the chamber's Republican leader. "How will it lead to job creation in Massachusetts?"
Sen. Marc R. Pacheco, D-Taunton, who voted for the tax package with the rest of the SouthCoast delegation, rejected Republican arguments that the tax hikes were not needed. He blamed former Gov. Mitt Romney's administration for leaving the Patrick administration with a "structural deficit," on top of unmet needs in transportation, education and human services.
The Legislature is grappling with ways to close a $1.3 billion gap between projected revenue and the cost to maintain current services.
Sen. Pacheco said this week's news that April tax collections were $400 million higher than the same month last year did not mean the state was out of its fiscal hole. Patrick administration officials said the money appeared to be a temporary bump that did not fully reflect the economic downturn for the 2009 fiscal year to begin July 1.
"One month does not tell what the economic situation is going to be in the tax revenue for the year," Sen. Pacheco said. "You can't just add up the revenue piece. You have to add up the expense side and what we are not paying for."
The Senate and House bills both adopt two major loophole closings that the governor has sought.
One, called "combined reporting," would bar multi-state companies from shifting profits to headquarters in other states to avoid paying Massachusetts taxes. Another, called "check the box," would prevent companies from claiming a different tax status on federal and state tax returns.
Massachusetts would become the last state in the nation to adopt "check the box" and the 23rd to have combined reporting.
The Senate would also cut the corporate tax rate from 9.5 percent to 8 percent over three years, beginning in 2010. The House bill would cut the rate to 7.5 percent over three years, beginning next year.
The Senate defeated a proposal for a 5 percent tax on alcoholic beverages to raise $87 million for drug abuse treatment.
Senators filed amendments for other tax increases, including local option meals taxes, an end to the tax exemption on utility poles, and the expansion of the state's hotel room occupancy tax to vacation home and condominium rentals.
In the end, those amendments were dropped when it became clear they would not pass. Instead, the Senate approved a study commission on municipal revenue options, with a report due Dec. 1.
What the hell did you mean by that?
“A tax on the poor that liberals support”
Bingo, I hope they raise it another $1. It will be the only way to get our taxes back that the government as redistributed to the poor!
It’s been a long time since the Whiskey Rebellion and Shays’ Rebellion, hasn’t it? We just bend over and take it like good little serfs now.
“In college I paid $3.19 a carton for cigarettes and $3.29 a 6 pack for Natural Light.”
Geeze. You must be older’n dirt.
(I mean that in a nice way, of course. I remember nickle candy bars.)
We’ll take the corporations that Mass. doesn’t want, but they have to keep their smokers.
That was 1976 in NC.
That, and he hasn’t be governor for years.
I’m sure the Russian mob and Hezbollah are happy to hear about this, too. They make a lot of money off this sort of thing.
True, I remember when butts were $2.02 a carton and Bud was $3.69 a case in Mass. You could also buy a rifle at 18, 16 with a note from Mother.
Ah, another of FRs resident rabid smoker-haters. That’s what I thought you meant. Still another ‘convenient’ or ‘selective’ conservative....”I believe in freedom and rights, EXCEPT where _______(fill in the blank) is concerned, because I don’t like it.” Gotcha.
Corporations don't pay taxes, not one red cent. Blackbird.
Wanna bet on it? And why do "journalists" always talk of government confiscation as if it were a charitable contribution?
I buy mine from the Native Americans (formerly Indians) for $13.00 per carton.
Thanks for the ping!
As far as I can tell, it’s apparently OK to express spittle-flecked hatred as long as you use a biblical reference as your tag line.
Not bad, but even though we have the Hawks :-(, I'd still rather live here. I've personally seen the gun control billboards in the city that was the heart of the American revolution. My kid went to college in Boston, so I got a first hand report on what it was like and nothing I've seen or heard since then has led me to believe it has improved.
Yeah, I hadn’t noticed that. What a fine Christian attitude.
Funny how not too far from the Shays’ Rebellion site is Amherst, moonbat capital of western Mass.
At this point, people are far too scared of their government to protest like that. Unless, of course, they’re illegal aliens demanding benefits which they’ve not earned.
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