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Categories
- civil rights and civil liberties (13)
- consumer protection (10)
- economic growth and jobs (15)
- education (23)
- environment (10)
- general (2)
- health care (20)
- housing (12)
- labor (16)
- preamble (5)
- safety justice and crime prevention (14)
- social security and the safety net (7)
- taxes and public services (7)
- voting procedures (6)
We suggest transferring this item from the ECONOMIC GROWTH AND JOBS section, with some additional wording at the end of the item:
ReplyDelete"We believe in providing a sustainable revenue source to finance state government programs that support a healthy economy and to provide necessary services for residents of the Commonwealth."
It seems incredible to us that one of the most progressive states in the country does not have a progressive income tax, and shameful that the Massachusetts Democratic Party (the majority party, now overwhelmingly in control here) has not made it a matter of policy and legislative priority to do what it takes (including amending our constitution) to make our tax rates progressive--higher for our wealthiest residents and lower for our least affluent--especially now when the unfortunate amongst us are struggling so to meet their minimum daily needs. We strongly urge the inclusion of the following item in our 2009 Platform:
ReplyDelete"We urge the adoption of an amendment to the state Constitution establishing a progressive (graduated) income tax. The current flat rate tax is regressive and unfair to our lower income residents struggling to meet their daily living expenses. A progressive income tax would help raise additional revenues necessary to avoid or ameliorate present and future budget shortfalls."
We believe that Massachusetts embraces both excellence and fairness and that in order to maintain a vibrant society that can rise to the challenges of the future our resources must be robust. In taxation we support a system that is based on asking more of those who are able and something of everyone.
ReplyDeleteI support the amendment to have a graduated income tax in Massachusetts.
ReplyDeleteI would also state that Massachusetts Democrats support a more progressive federal income tax with federal revenues shared with state and local governments.
Medfield Democratic Town Committee supports:
ReplyDeletePension Reform
1. Create single state/local pension system.
2. Ban "double dipping" in pension systems.
3. Ban use of volunteer or low paying local community service time to increase pension service credits.
Medfield Democratic Town Committee says....
ReplyDeleteIt is time to democratize data. The Commonwealth and local communities should make public data available to the public, allowing the public to use and analyze the data.
Taxes and Public Services
ReplyDeleteIF A GAS TAX IS IMPLEMENTED ASSURANCE SHOULD BE MADE THAT WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS WILL RECEIVE EQUITABLE RETURN FROM MONIES COLLECTED.
STIMULUS MONEY SHOULD BE BASED UPON ACTIVE NEEDS RATHER THAN CHAPTER 70 FOUNDATION FUND
The Estate Tax in Massachusetts should be indexed to inflation and the inflation of property values, which puts many middle and lower middle class families into Estate Taxation even though they are in actuality less affluent than before.
ReplyDeleteI would like to propose doing something about the incompetent offspring of wealthy individuals buying their way into high public office. I would suggest the following plank:
ReplyDeleteWe believe the Inheritance tax should be reinstated at a 100% rate with a 5 million dollar lifetime deduction. The deduction should be indexed by inflation.
We believe that the gas tax should be high enough to fund the state's transportation infrastructure needs, including public transportation, and should be indexed to inflation. Tolls should fund only the maintenance of particular roads and should be equitably distributed across the state, not attached to particular roads or bridges or tunnels because of decisions that were made decades ago.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the comments above that the gas tax should be set at a level that funds transportation and infrastructure maintenance needs. I also agree with indexing this type of tax to inflation, since our legislature has not shown that it has the foresight or courage to raise taxes when necessary to fund public services.
ReplyDeleteIn general, I would like to see some statements of our general goals and values in this section - that Democrats believe we should responsibly fund the public services and infrastructure maintenance that we need, ensuring that we do not operate under structural deficits; that burdens need to be shared between the state and cities and towns, giving localities the options and flexibility they need to raise revenue in other ways than just the property tax; that we are committed to a tax system that does not unfairly burden the neediest; that we are committed also to reducing the costs of government and public services through consolidating of duplicate agencies and functions, regionalization, ending pension abuse, and other reforms.
Christopher Horton said:
ReplyDeleteIn the interests of having those most able to pay bearing a fairer share of the burden, of increasing revenues without further burdening the struggling middle classes, and as a contribution to reducing the inequality of wealth and income in our Commonwealth, we support passage of a constitutional amendment to allow the use of a progressive graduated income tax in Massachusetts.
Christopher Horton said:
ReplyDeleteBecause the practice of cutting state and local spending to balance budgets during economic downturns is economically unsound and socially devastating, we support the passage of a constitutional amendment to allow deficit spending at such times, to be paid back during periods of low unemployment.
Support the Governor's plan to increase the gas tax to pay for maintenance and improvements to the Commonwealth's transportation system. (See the article by Barry Bluestone and Stephanie Pollack on the op-ed page of Thursday, Feb 26 Boston Globe entitled:"Paying cents to save big bucks".)
ReplyDeleteRegionalization would help Manchester. We should regionalize our fire, water, sewage, schools, and save buckets of money.
ReplyDeleteThomas Herrick would like the Party to oppose the Republican position of minimal government which opposes taxes in order to “starve the beast”, and reduce the role of government as an active social force, which leads to detrimental consequences for large numbers of individuals and families.
ReplyDeleteCurrent transportation system in the state is a waste on the economy and the environment. Governor Patrick needs to have public public hearings. Too many Executives are getting raises at the transportation authorities and they should not be. I have advocated for light rail on Route 9.
ReplyDelete• Good transportation
ReplyDelete• Equalize taxation: fair, sustainable—not Robin Hood.
• Idea: increase income tax as source of revenue. We all do better when we do better (income-wise)-Ron Madnick agreed that need to think about income tax as source of revenue.
Taxes
ReplyDeleteWe agree that there is a problem of dependency on property taxes, especially in rural communities, and would like to join with our state representative, Denis Guyer in asking for a commission to:
(1) Determine the effectiveness of the current taxes and fees now levied by the state;
(2) A review of other tax systems which may benefit the Commonwealth;
(3) Consideration of the possible benefits, consequences and/or adverse impacts of eliminating or adding certain taxes and fees;
(4) A review of the possible benefits, consequences and/or adverse impacts of modifying or eliminating any existing tax or fee system;
Public Transportation
ReplyDelete*We believe that there should be expanded access to public transportation in the Boston metro area.
Student safety has been adversely affected by the reduction in Night Owl services to the Allston-Brighton area. The neighborhoods have experienced an 11% increase in sexual assault in the time since the cuts.
Expansion of T hours will permit more economic opportunities for local bars, restaurants, and entertainment venues. These establishments often close early because their customers are afraid of being stranded.
We propose that the T remain open until 3 am on Friday and Saturday nights, as well as a 24 hour dispatch service for safety purposes. The 5 College Area in the Pioneer Valley (PVTA system) is open until 2 am. As such students feel empowered to be members of their outside community as young adults.
TAXES AND PUBLIC SERVICES
ReplyDeletea) Evelyn Bloom (Amherst) proposes a new bullet point:
“We strongly support changing the Massachusetts state Constitution in order to allow for a graduated income tax.”
15 ayes; one abstention.
b) Hwei-ling Greeney (Amherst) proposed phasing out lottery.
The following new bullet point passed with 15 ayes, one no:
“We strongly support phasing out the lottery in favor of just and equitable taxation.”
CIVIL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES
ReplyDeleteIrwin Spiegelman (Amherst) proposed that the Platform recommend that
President Obama move toward peace talks for a 2-state solution in Israel/Palestine. He referred to the recent article in The Nation on this by Henry Seidman, source of the new proviso included below.
Diana Stein (Amherst) wondered what happens if this is done and Hamas still fires rockets into Israel. Re one objection that this is a national issue, she noted that the existing platform includes some of these.
Mike Bell moved and then withdrew the motion that we consider this topic as an ADTC resolution rather than as a provision of the platform. He will however prepare such a resolution for the ADTC.
Votes: 12 ayes, to include the following in the platform; 3 nays:
We ask that the US facilitate talks between Israel and Hamas to achieve a long-term cease-fire, and end of the blockade of Gaza, continue to play a positive role in Gaza re-construction, help in prisoner exchanges, and work with the ICC or other world tribunals to prosecute violations of human rights and the rules of warfare on both sides related to the Gaza war., and
That President Obama set a new course toward ending the conflict by re-starting talks between Israel and the Palestinians (including both Fatah and Hamas), with a new proviso: if the talks fail after one year, international law and United Nations resolutions will be obeyed, and Israel will remove its settlers and occupying army from the West Bank. An exception for the removal of settlers would be an agreement between Israel and Palestinians to swap land, so that the land holding Israeli settlements, say, near Jerusalem would be given up by Palestinians in return for enough Israeli land to make a much-needed connection between Gaza and the West bank.
TAXES AND PUBLIC SERVICES
ReplyDelete• Massachusetts Democrats condemn the tax cuts that leave cities and towns to fend for themselves with only the regressive property tax as the primary source of revenue.
• Massachusetts Democrats favor providing tax relief as soon as fiscally possible, particularly for our senior citizens, whose tax burden has continued to increase under Republican administration policies.
• As we reaffirm our vision for healthy communities as the most effective way to build healthy families, we acknowledge the discrepancy among our urban, suburban, exurban, and rural municipalities in their different population densities, and their fiscal and administrative capacity.
• Recognizing that small communities face unique challenges in providing government services with largely volunteer citizen officials, we support state and regional efforts to educate and empower local officials with the information and resources necessary to carry out their duties in a professional manner.
• We support funding to help rural towns build administrative capacity to provide housing, public health programs, environmental protection, land use planning, and social service support.
• We support comprehensive reform of state zoning and land use statutes in order to enable communities to manage growth and development in ways that will increase affordable housing, protect open space and natural resources, and preserve and enhance community character.
Massachusetts Democrats acknowledge the need for more revenue to fund the wants of the people and therefore recommend that the sales tax be extended to tax the sales of liquor, candy and soda.
[THREAD: TAXES]
ReplyDeleteDo not rely upon casinos and other types of gambling as a solution to budgetary problems.
We believe that casino and slot machine gambling would not promote tax equity, responsible budgeting, sustainable development practices, or a sustainable revenue source, and likely would damage small businesses and agriculture in Massachusetts. Casino gambling would involve our state government in condoning and encouraging behavior that has led - in far too many cases - to personal financial ruin, the breakup of families, domestic violence, and child neglect. Therefore, we strongly oppose expansion of gambling in any form and urge the establishment of progressive taxation as an alternative.
[THREAD: TAXES]
Replace property taxes with progressive, graduated income taxes.
We believe that residential property taxes are inherently unfair, as they are based upon a homeowner’s past investments rather than the homeowner’s current ability to pay. A graduated income tax, under which individuals with higher incomes pay at a higher rate than individuals with lower income, is much fairer to all. The Massachusetts constitution should be changed to forbid towns and cities from levying residential property taxes and to allow them to levy personal income taxes.
We believe that the current Massachusetts state income tax is inherently unfair because people with limited incomes are required to pay at the same rate as those with higher incomes. The Massachusetts constitution should be changed to allow the legislature to levy a graduated income tax under which individuals with higher incomes pay at a higher rate than individuals with lower income.