TANK THE AUTOMATIC GAS TAX HIKES SAYS REVENUE ABOVE PROJECTIONS REINFORCES THE NEED TO REPEAL LINKAGE TO CPI Boston, MA...Today organizers for the ballot initiative to tank the automatic gas tax hikes pointed out that tax revenues are once again above projections showing that taxes should not be automatically increased. We are entering the second year of revenue being above projections. Why would we want to saddle drivers with automatic tax increases when we dont know if how much is going to be collected? Its not as if the legislature would ever return money to the people. If more revenue is needed, then there should have to be a vote of the legislature, stated Rep. Geoff Diehl.Last year the Department of Revenue collected $627 million above projections. Already 4 months into the new fiscal year, the state has taken in $273 above expectations. Just in October revenue was up 11%. If the state cannot predict revenues, then how can they predict the need for the gas tax being increased annually? This automatic tax hurts the middle to lower income families the most. It is time to stop punishing the hard working taxpayers, added Diehl. One of the reasons tax revenue increased in October was due to one-time settlements. Diehl has been pushing for a tax amnesty plan that he believes could have been used to fund transportation. The October revenues strongly suggest his plan was a better alternative to raising taxes. We have collected over 60,000 signatures to repeal the gas tax being linked to inflation. People feel that it is simply not fair to increase their gas taxes year after year without a vote of the legislature. For every person we get to sign, they tell ten people about what amounts to a trick by this legislature on the people. So far, we have educated 600,000 voters, said Steve Aylward, who is the lead sponsor of the initiative. When people find out about taxation without representation, they are appalled. This issue is cutting across party lines, said Marty Lamb, one of the sponsors of the initiative. Six weeks ago Tankthegastax.org started collecting signatures statewide. They have built a grassroots team of 100 town coordinators and have roughly 1000 volunteer collectors. Supporters of the ballot initiative include Marty Lamb, Chris Pinto, Republican National Committee woman Chanel Prunier, Les Gosule who passed Melissas law in 2012, Jeff Bailey, State Representative Leah Cole, Stephen Coulter, Alex Vispoli, State Representative Geoff Diehl, State Representative Jim Lyons, State Representative Marc Lombardo, Rick Gleason of the Massachusetts Motorcycle Association, Rich Howell, Paul Craney of Mass Fiscal, Desiree Awiszio, Jamie Kang, Mike Mosca, Marylou Daxland, Katie Regan, John OMara of the Northborough Tea Party, Agatha Bodwell, State Representative Ryan Fattman, State Representative Shaunna OConnell, former State Representative Dan Winslow, Suzie Scholl and many more. The attorney for the group is former U.S. Attorney Mike Sullivan
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 19:22:20 +0000