Reilly says he would not seek tax hike

CAMBRIDGE -- Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, who has strongly suggested he will seek the Democratic gubernatorial nomination next year, pledged to young Democrats Saturday that he would not raise taxes. His comments came two days after Reilly's probable rival in the primary, Deval Patrick, refused to rule out a tax increase to pay for services.

The gathering of young Bay State Democrats served as the first time both Reilly and Patrick appeared publicly in the same place since Patrick's announcement of his candidacy on Thursday.

Reilly, who has not officially announced his candidacy, told the group, ''I'll take a stand -- that we're not going to raise taxes."

Patrick said last week that he would present voters with a choice of whether to pay for healthcare and education initiatives with spending cuts or higher taxes. He refused to rule out a tax hike.

At Saturday's event, Patrick called a pledge not to raise taxes ''a cheap gimmick," instead opting for a ''no-needless-taxes pledge."

Tim O'Brien, the state Republican Party's executive director, criticized Patrick in an interview for suggesting the state could raise taxes. ''Deval Patrick hasn't been a candidate for more than two days and he's already talking about tax increases, and I think that says a lot about what the voters can expect," O'Brien said. ''Deval Patrick in the corner office could and probably would lead to higher taxes."

After Patrick, a Milton attorney and former assistant US attorney general for civil rights, announced his candidacy, Governor Mitt Romney criticized his opposition to a voter-approved rollback of the state income tax rate, a measure the governor has proposed in his budget the last two years.

Voters in 2000 answered affirmatively to a ballot question asking if the state should lower its income tax to 5 percent over a three-year period. During the economic downturn in 2002, the Legislature halted the rollback at 5.3 percent. Lowering the state income tax rate to 5 percent would mean $225 million less in state tax revenues this year.