(interesting local take on a statewide problem. – promoted by eli_beckerman)
The town of Lenox has quickly learned that the lodging tax that it imposed last year and the meals tax it is proposing to add next year are not enough. My fellow residents are being asked to fill out a survey by December 6 to tell the Selectmen “which services are the highest priority.” The town “faces the prospect of either needing to reduce services to keep in line with the financial resources available to us OR seeking voter approval for a Proposition 2-1/2 override in order to increase our property tax revenues to pay for the services you want.”
As I witnessed on the campaign trail, the long-term effects of regressive taxation are regressive service cuts. Translation: lower and middle income residents are asked to shoulder more of the tax burden, as a percentage of their income and assets, while the services they most depend upon are disproportionately cut.
The legislature does not provide towns with many tools to deal with the problem. Local aid has been cut by over 45% in the last decade. The lodging tax and meals tax are simply band-aids that don’t change the underlying trends. Even regionalization of services, often described as ‘transformational’ is simply a more difficult band-aid to administer. I’m not against regionalization where it makes sense, but it is not transformational. There will be a one or two year blip to slow the trends somewhat, but the benefits will not be sustainable. These band-aids have no effect on slowing down health care costs or of reversing the regressive burden of taxation.
Many towns in the area are further down the regressive tax and benefits spiral than Lenox is, but the legislature’s inaction is pulling many communities further down the drain every year, especially in the western part of the Commonwealth.
My answers to the three survey questions follow.
1)How satisfied are you with the municipal services provided by the Town of Lenox? The choices are ‘Very Satisfied,’ ‘Satisfied,’ and ‘Not Satisfied.’ My answer: SATISFIED
2)If services have to be cut would you: a) make the same percentage cut to all departments – have all share equally in cuts; or b) review services and make cuts to only certain departments based on priority needs; if you choose ‘b’ please mark below which town functions you would target for service reductions. My Answer: A. (For those residents who chose B the list of departments to make disproportional cuts to was:
a.Administrative Services
b.Education
c.Elder Services
d.Library Services
e.Public Health & Construction Inspection
f.Public Safety
g.Road Maintenance and Repaving
h.Snow Removal
i.Youth Programs
j.Zoning, Planning, Permitting
3)To avoid service cuts would you be willing to increase property taxes more than 2-1/2% (A % 2-1/2 increase equals about $100 for the average home owner.) My answer: NO. Additional comments on question 3: PROPERTY TAXES ARE REGRESSIVE WE ALREADY SUFFER ENOUGH FROM REGRESSIVE TAXATION. LOCAL AID NEEDS TO BE RESTORED BY INSISTING THAT THE LEGISLATURE INTRODUCE PROGRESSIVE INCOME TAXES AND CHANGE ITS BUDGET PRIORITIES.
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Final thoughts –
It is painful and polarizing for residents to pit one municipal department against another. We must expect that town departments manage themselves responsibly, but I will not rank favorites. So I answered A to question 2. If the legislature continues to be callous, then it will force us to make cuts, which should be administered evenly.
There are other ways out, but the solutions are above the town level.
A progressive income tax from 0% to 8.2% can be established to raise an additional $1.5 billion per year. With such a system the tax burden would be lowered for anyone making less than $90,000. This can be achieved by establishing an individual exemption from taxes on the first $36,000 per year, and taxing income beyond that at 8.3%.
Progressive taxation is an American invention that most other democracies have adopted, with which they have built strong public infrastructure that local economies thrive upon. It’s time for us to recapture that spirit and make a radical change in budget priorities. The tools are there to do it now.
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I agree about the regressive taxes. I will not support one more regressive tax. I’ve had enough. It is time for a progressive tax in Massachusetts and it’s also time to drop the Bush tax cuts on the top 2%. There is just no reason to continue to feed more money into bottomless pits. It’s doing nothing for our economy except ruining it.
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But without Prop 2 1/2 overrides, schools would would get killed.
Great to push for a progressive income tax. It wasn’t going to happen last year, and it’s not on the list, so far as I can see, this year. Or the year after.
Sooo….
I’m all for putting pressure on the legislature, but sacrificing the well-being of our municipalities on principle amounts to biting off our noses to spite our faces. The eternal conundrum: how to fight for a better future without sacrificing our very survival in the present?
I’m trying to figure out how a party like the Greens can demand better while accepting political realities. It’s why I reluctantly support preserving the income tax and most prop 2 1/2 overrides; it’s why I reluctantly support the administration’s HCR package; it’s why I reluctantly–okay, not so reluctantly–support legalizing casinos; it’s why I reluctantly vote for Democrats (almost) anywhere a Green isn’t on the ballot.
Makes me a bad Green, I know. But I will not sacrifice one job, real or potential, one insured person, or one student in the name of a higher principle or a long-term goal.
Meanwhile, we’re losing hundreds of millions … maybe billions … in state revenues … by not legalizing weed. THAT we can do, and we can do it next year. Jill was joined by numerous candidates across the state (including Candidate Laugenour!) in pushing this. It’s a win-win campaign for the GRP (and allows us to make common causewith social libertarians and others). The momentum is with us on this. Let’s milk it.
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Towns that can afford it get good schools.
Towns that can’t do not.
Regressive taxation increases the inbalance, further.
But even a relatively well off town like Lenox is becoming polarized every year.
This country introduced the concept of public education to the world, which the democratic world embraced.
Sadly, although we introduced a great concept, we’ve adopted a model that others have rightly avoided.
How much further down the path shall we go?
Property tax increases cannot keep pace with cost increases. There are a few brave town managers who are showing voters these trends. To look at the long term picture and believe that property tax increases are the only realistic solution presents a scary picture indeed.
If our leaders don’t think larger who will?
Hey, at town meetings I’ve always voted for the school budget even when the select committee advised against it and even though I don’t have children.
I’ll be talking to my town board about progressive property taxes. Not sure if our legislature allows that, but it may be a stop gap. Others have suggested that our town buy a lottery ticket every day …