Massachusetts Will Vote on Abolishing the State Income Tax

1. Mordoc
   September 29th, 2008 at 11:23 pm

   Oh, good god, what an idiotic idea. The combination of unfunded mandates and no income tax is going to destroy what little infrastructure that state already has. All the idiots who complain about taxation should go out and pave their own damn roads. Asstards.

2. Alex
   September 29th, 2008 at 11:37 pm

   Seven states do just fine without levying personal income tax.

3. Tempscire
   September 30th, 2008 at 12:03 am

   Texas has a sales tax that seems to be working quite well for us. Why can't they do that? Just eliminating 45% of one's budget seems a little...well, foolish and short-sighted. And as the article suggested, property tax (or something else) would just go up to compensate. Everything has to get paid for one way or another and there's only so many expenses that can be cut.

4. David B
   September 30th, 2008 at 5:56 am

   People don't necessarily want to do away with taxes entirely (money to run things has to come from somewhere) but we would like to see the money spent properly. I live in California and despite having one of the highest rates on all taxes, the legislature never seems to spend money on things like the massive infrastructure problems we have. We all have to live within a budget yet the politicians look to the people as an endless piggy bank. Need more money jus raise fees or raise taxes. There will come a breaking point and maybe it's been reached in Massachusetts.

5. Christophe
   September 30th, 2008 at 6:03 am

   NH : no sales tax, no income tax, plenty of fireworks. Take that neighbour taxachussets!

6. Jimbalaya
   September 30th, 2008 at 7:31 am

   The money has to come from somewhere, or else programs (and teachers, police, and fire department are in this list of affected programs) won't be able to continue as they have.
   Be realistic - everyone who previously received money from income tax will be fighting to continue to receive that money. "Lucrative employee pensions" and "government waste" are not going to just go away because you've cut funding.
   If the question was "should we abolish income tax and replace it with ____" (heh, maybe we could replace these questions with madlibs instead), then I might consider it. Otherwise, it's reckless.

7. sparge
   September 30th, 2008 at 8:05 am

   If I'm not mistaken, if this question passes it then becomes a proposed law, which must be approved by the legislature and governor.

8. Jimbo
   September 30th, 2008 at 8:15 am

   Massachusetts is such a horrible place. I don't care what they do to themselves as long as they bulldozer over the mess.

9. Tom
   September 30th, 2008 at 11:23 am

   Most money comes from state taxes on corporations and business. There are also use fees.

   Taxing income is basically mass armed robbery. Taxing business is much better, as it is much closer to voluntary (just the cost of doing business, and such).

   The government that governs least, governs best. The states should fund infrastructure and fire and police services, and their various licensing agencies(DMV, Health department, etc), and that's about it.

10. Mr. Binky
    September 30th, 2008 at 11:57 am

    Not everybody is Mass supports this, kiddos. And Massachusetts is not a horrible place, thank you very much.

11. Jimbo
    September 30th, 2008 at 12:59 pm

    @Mr. Binky YES IT IS!

    Nothing good has EVER come out of Massachusetts.

    Come down here to the south and you will find out what good people are like.

12. CheeseDuck
    September 30th, 2008 at 1:55 pm

    @Jimbo

    Whatever. No one cares about your opinion. Continue normal commenting Neatorama readers.

13. sparge
    September 30th, 2008 at 2:00 pm

    Apparently "good people" insult others based solely on where they are from.

14. MassJimbo
    September 30th, 2008 at 2:34 pm

    @Jimbo

    The American Revolution came out of Mass. We were also the first to abolish slavery. What do you deem to be good things?

15. Chuck
    September 30th, 2008 at 3:17 pm

    It'll never happen. The majority of Bay Staters vote against ballot questions on principle.

16. Jean
    September 30th, 2008 at 4:21 pm

    Families, businesses and individuals sometime have to budget and cut back...the government never has to do that. It just takes more and more and spends it...poorly. Very little of that tax money you send it actually makes it into improvements or infrastructure maintenance.

    I've had jobs in the public sector, both at the State level and Federal. I hate to break it to you, but the main goal of any middle-level employee isn't to spend your tax money wisely, it's to advance and secure his/her career. Nobody can get fired and once you get high enough on the ladder, you get a pay raise ever year, no matter what the economy is doing or how much you've accomplished.

17. Mr. Binky
    September 30th, 2008 at 4:21 pm

    haha, ok Jimbo. Very good point there but I'm afraid I'll have to disagree.

    What do you hate? Liberals? Gays? Winter?

    And yeah, historically, AMERICA did come out of Massachusetts. You know, freedom and stuff.

18. Johnny Cat
    October 1st, 2008 at 1:26 am

    I'm gonna host a Boston Tea Party party in honor of Irony if this is true.

19. Jeremy
    October 4th, 2008 at 11:49 am

    We need to vote NO on question 1. Like someone said earlier, cutting the budget significantly will not just cut "waste". Tons of jobs will be lost that will affect you -- emergency services, road and bridge maintenance, snow removal, teachers, schools and universities. Tuition would go up, and quality of education would go down. This income tax law doesn't specify what will get cut, so the "men in charge" won't cut their own salaries (which is the waste) and will instead cut government jobs (yay, more unemployment!). Other states do not have income tax, but that is because they've had years to budget and raise other taxes accordingly. Please do not succumb to the same greed and selfishness you see elsewhere.. vote NO on question 1.

20. Nelson
    October 20th, 2008 at 4:32 pm

    I absolutely support this. Peabody just announced they are putting up for vote having the police department honor 9-11 by paying officers who work on it overtime. Meanwhile Deval just announced a rather large deficit and is putting forth legislation to proceed with budget cuts. I'm all for honoring 9-11 but was now really an appropriate time for this? I hope they are egging for any town help fiscally. This just underlines the poor judgment and mismanagement of our income. Yes, property taxes may become higher, but you will actually be taxed on what you have, not on what you make which ironically may benefit you more than you think. Especially when you aren't double taxed on your income as well as what you purchase with. New hamshire gets by alright, I think if nothing else its a good wake up call. It doesn't mean we can't go back to having income tax after Massachusetts has proven it can spend appropriately and effectively. -My 2 cents

21. Julie
    November 7th, 2008 at 6:39 am

    Would this have overridden prop 2 1/2? If all this money is needed for roads and bridges, why are they in such disrepair?

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