'Thy will be done'
It is not news when Governor Mitt Romney calls for a cut in the state's personal income tax rate to 5 percent. The governor did just that -- again -- earlier this month, and it wound up on page B5 of this newspaper. But when former Senate president Thomas Birmingham, a liberal champion for more than a decade on Beacon Hill, says it is time -- past time, in fact -- to honor the will of the voters, then it is time to recalculate.
''There is no question of affordability anymore," says Birmingham, a Chelsea Democrat who spent seven years as Senate president before running unsuccessfully for governor three years ago.
It is an odd place to find Tom Birmingham, allied with Romney and Barbara Anderson, the longtime tax cutter, in urging the Legislature to get on with living up to the 2000 referendum, approved by 56 percent of voters, to lower the state's income tax to 5 percent. Birmingham will forever be known as the co-author of the state's landmark 1993 education reform act and for his fierce battles with his tight-fisted House counterpart, Thomas Finneran, to protect the billions that narrowed the funding gap between poor cities and wealthy towns.
Birmingham is not, as he says, ''a reflexive tax cutter," and he is ''no fan" of the governor. He was against the tax cut at the time of the referendum, and debated the issue on television with its chief proponent, then-Governor Paul Cellucci. In 2002, when times were tough, Birmingham helped freeze the income tax rate at 5.3 percent and pushed $1.2 billion in tax hikes through the Legislature.
''That was the right thing to do at the time," Birmingham says. ''That was then. This is now."
Now state revenue is surging. In the first three months of fiscal year 2006, state revenue increased $317 million. September was a particularly strong month, with revenue up 14.3 percent over a year ago to $1.9 billion, the second-highest monthly take on record. The strong three months follow a year in which revenue rose 7 percent, the first time Massachusetts collected more tax money than it did in 2001, the year the economy collapsed. The state's rainy-day fund is at a near record.
''The referendum happened," Birmingham says. ''We had a full and fair debate. The side that supported 5 percent prevailed and by a sizable majority. . . . It is about keeping faith with the voters. In a democracy it has to be about 'thy will be done.' "
As chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and later Senate president, Birmingham knows the budget process inside and out, and knows how the system can be gamed. The Legislature, he says is ''consciously underestimating revenue," using targets even lower than Romney's. Revenue is steadily rising, he says. ''It has not been a blip."
Democratic leaders have cited a litany of reasons -- from a court challenge to education reform to ''structural" deficits to even rising gas prices -- to explain why they do not want to roll back taxes.
''Eventually," says Birmingham, ''the shifting rationale suggests something more in the nature of the excuse than a justification."
Now a labor lawyer with Palmer & Dodge, Birmingham says he still does not favor a 5 percent tax rate, but feels the voters have spoken. Of the Legislature, he says: ''You could have a straightforward debate that healthcare reform will cost $200 million, and it is more important than the tax cut. But that is not what they are saying. They are saying they don't have the money."
He believes honoring the tax cut should take precedence over new spending or other tax cuts.
''The experience of the last three fiscal years demonstrates [the tax cut] is affordable without eviscerating core elements of state government," he says. ''After three years of budgetary surpluses, it is now clearly time."
Steve Bailey is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at bailey@globe.com or at 617-929-2902. 