Activists again propose vote to end income tax

A proposal to abolish the state income tax received a surprising amount of support in the 2002 elections. Now, activists are reviving it, hoping to place it on next year's ballot.

The activists filed their proposed ballot question yesterday with the attorney general's office.

"I think our surprising and extraordinary vote in 2002 demonstrated that anything is possible, and people are going to take this much more seriously this time around," said Carla Howell, who is leading the campaign to abolish the tax.

The proposal received 45 percent of the vote in 2002, despite critics' warnings that it would plunge state government into chaos.

Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a business-backed budget watchdog group, said the proposal is "absolutely unreasonable" and would dry up state funding for education and healthcare.

"The voters would rue the day. . . . Essentially, she's trying to repeal the 20th century," Widmer said. Income taxes account for $10 or $11 billion of the state's budget of about $27 billion, he said.

Howell -- a former Libertarian candidate for US Senate, governor, and state auditor -- said the cut would be a "huge benefit" for average people.

The income tax abolition was one of 13 proposals for new laws and constitutional amendments filed with the attorney general's office by a 5 p.m. deadline yesterday.

Other proposals included a ban on dog racing in the state, and decriminalization of the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana.

Proponents still have a lot of work ahead of them, including the collection of tens of thousands of petition signatures. The attorney general's office said only a few of the proposals filed typically make it to the ballot.

Once a ballot initiative has been certified by the attorney general, activists proposing a new law or a constitutional amendment would have to collect about 67,000 signatures by late this year. If the Legislature does not enact a proposed new law, activists have to gather another 11,099 signatures by the middle of next year to get the proposal on the 2008 ballot.

For constitutional amendments, the procedure is different. After collecting the roughly 67,000 signatures, the proposal must be approved by at least 25 percent of the Legislature in 2008 and then again in 2009 or 2010 in order to get on the 2010 ballot, the attorney general's office said.