DiNatale Votes in Favor of Repeal of Alcohol Tax/Roll-back of Sales Tax to 5% (04/27/10)
Posted 2010-04-28 18:34:41
Move to repeal tax on alcohol shot down
By Matt Murphy, mmurphy@lowellsun.com
Posted: 04/28/2010 06:37:35 AM EDT
BOSTON -- Many local Democratic House lawmakers crossed the aisle Tuesday to join their Republican colleagues in an ill-fated attempt to repeal the alcohol- and sales-tax hikes enacted last year.
As the House entered its first full day of budget deliberations, Republican leaders offered two amendments to cut taxes, including one to eliminate the sales tax on alcohol and another to roll back the sales tax to 5 percent.
Both attempts to cut taxes were defeated, but not before garnering support from dozens of Democrats -- many of them local lawmakers whose districts sit near the New Hampshire border.
"It hasn't generated real revenue because when these taxes were put in place, unemployment continued to rise," said Rep. Dennis Rosa, D-Leominster. "And it doesn't help the retention of jobs, because all you have to do is go to the New Hampshire border. So I have to be parochial. We are losing sales to New Hampshire."
Rosa said he's seen the impact of the tax increase on his own businesses, where sales-tax receipts at his auto-body and discount-parts shops are down 20 percent.
The Legislature and Gov. Deval Patrick raised the sales tax last year from 5 percent to 6.25 percent and lifted the exemption on the sale of beer, wine and liquor.
The sales-tax increase has been projected to generate up to $900 million in new revenue for the state this year, while the liquor tax could raise about $100 million.
Under the amendments filed by Republican Minority Leader Brad Jones, R-Reading, both the sales-tax rollback and the liquor-tax repeal would have gone into effect on July 1, 2011, having no impact on the budget for the next fiscal year.
Rep. Stephen DiNatale, Fitchburg, said he wanted to vote in favor of the alcohol-tax repeal because he never had a chance to do so last year. The new tax was included in the budget by a conference committee and never came to the House for a full vote.
"I did not have an opportunity to vote on that and participate in the debate," said DiNatale. "I didn't agree with it from the beginning."
DiNatale did, however, vote in favor of the 25 percent increase to the sales tax in 2009. He now says he would vote to roll it back to 5 percent.
"It didn't quite work out the way I was hoping," DiNatale said. "My intent at the time was local aid and there was a promise of substantial local aid for Fitchburg. We did get some money and it did save some jobs, but we're still looking at 9 percent unemployment and that increase has had an impact on our small businesses."
The House voted, 82-67, to send the liquor-tax repeal to study, effectively killing the amendment and blocking an up-or-down vote on the actual repeal. The House later voted, 96-55, to similarly send the sales-tax rollback amendment to study.
Voting against sending the bills to study were DiNatale, Rosa, Robert Rice, D-Gardner, and Lewis Evangelidis, R-Holden.
A vote against the study was essentially a vote in favor of the tax repeal.
"Since I've been here, I've gotten used to the tactic of avoiding votes on the issues, and I'm kind of tired of it. Whether you're for or against an issue, we have to be responsible to our constituents," Rosa said.
The House also defeated several attempts to raise taxes to avoid deep cuts next year to state services and local aid.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo made a no-new-taxes pledge when the House filed its budget earlier this month, and his members followed through by rejecting appeals for a tax on candy and soda, which were proposed by the governor.
The House also rejected amendments that would have taxed private college endowments above $1 billion, and an attempt by Rep. Matthew Patrick, D-Falmouth, to raise the tax on stock interest and dividends from 5.3 percent to 12 percent.
[Back to News]
|
|
|
