The Small Government Act to End the Income Tax is a ballot question that Massachusetts voters will decide on November 5th, 2002. If it passes, it will repeal all Massachusetts state taxes on personal income: wages, passive income (interest and dividends) and capital gains.

If the Small Government Act to End the Income Tax wins:

• Over 3,000,000 taxpayers in Massachusetts will get back an average of $3,000 each in taxes -- every year. That's money you can spend, save, or give away - in your own community.
• You will no longer pay the 5.3% state income tax on wages.
• If you're retired and living on annuity income, you will no longer pay 5.3% tax on interest or dividends that you need to make ends meet.
• You will no longer pay up to 12% capital gains tax for the sale of your home or other assets such as stocks (including tax on stock option "income" you earned but never even saw and that lost market value).

Best of all, there will be $9 billion less that the state government can waste, misspend, hand out in pork-barrel projects, or use for Big Government Programs that fail and that make things worse.

Does ending the income tax go far enough?

* FY 1991 was the last budget signed into law by Big Government Governor Michael Dukakis, before Big Government Republican Governors took over.

How will we fund the state government if we End the Income Tax?

The Massachusetts state government will be swimming in cash from plenty of other taxes still on the books after we End the Income Tax including:

• 5% Sales tax
• Business and corporate taxes
• Death (estate) tax
• Turnpike, bridge and tunnel tolls
• Gasoline tax
• Alcohol tax
• Cigarette tax
• State gambling profits
• Professional licensure fees
• Water and sewer assessments
• Motor vehicle registration and license fees
• Fishing, hunting, and gun license fees
• Cable TV tax
• Long distance phone tax
• Electricity tax
• State room occupancy (hotel) tax
• User fees (e.g., court costs, Freedom of Information Act documentation, etc.)

The state government will also continue to rake in revenues from other taxpayer-funded sources including:

• Bond proceeds (paid for by both current and future taxpayers)
• Lawsuit settlements, e.g., from cigarette manufacturers (another tax on cigarette buyers).
• Investment earnings (money the state government earns on your assets that should be yours)
• Federal grants and subsidies (paid for by your federal taxes)

And this doesn't even include your local taxes such as:

• Property tax
• Auto excise tax
• Local room tax
• Rental car tax
• Taxi medallions
• Building permits
• Liquor license fees
• User fees (e.g., dump permits; marriage, birth, and death certificates; etc.)

In addition, you will continue to pay huge "taxes" for Massachusetts Big Government regulations such as:

• Title V which can force a homeowner to spend $10,000 - $150,000 on an environmentally unnecessary septic system upgrade. If you're a tenant, this cost is passed on to you through higher rent.
• Pork-barrel housing regulations (e.g. building codes) which drive up the cost of a new home as well as the cost of rent and which make living in places like Boston hugely (and unnecessarily) expensive.
• Socialized medicine laws that push the cost of health care through the roof - and make it impossible for you to buy simple, affordable catastrophic health care insurance.

Even after we End the Income Tax, we will still pay High Taxes, and the Massachusetts state government will still be too big.

Ending the income tax is a bold first step towards small government.

We want your input!

Tired of hearing about what the Big Government Special Interests have to "cut" from their budget? What about your budget? We want your input:

Do you have insights into how the Massachusetts state government wastes our money? Where we can and should immediately cut the budget? We want your input: