Several in House consider tax hikes
Lost services could be risky, lawmaker says
Major cuts looming in the House budget due out next week are causing some lawmakers to embrace tax increases as a way to minimize spending reductions that one key lawmaker said would result in lost lives.
Jay Kaufman, chairman of the House revenue committee, echoing Governor Michael S. Dukakis's prediction in 1990 that a recession-era budget would result in deaths, said the Ways and Means draft would be notable for its heavy reductions in human services.
"I for one, having a look at what we're going to be doing next Wednesday, would say that we can probably measure the impact of this budget in terms of lives lost," Kaufman told reporters.
"We're in crisis management mode right now," Kaufman said. "My goal is to do no harm."
Hearing testimony from Governor Deval Patrick's budget chief, local officials, and a slew of interest groups in favor of Patrick's proposed new levies on telecommunications property, alcohol, candy, sweetened beverages, meals, and lodging, lawmakers gave mixed reactions. But the leaders of the revenue committee signaled willingness to approve some of the tax hikes.
Kaufman, a Democrat of Lexington, said new taxes on alcohol and candy would receive legislative support, but was unsure whether the measures would receive majority backing.
Patrick wants to generate nearly $400 million from new telecommunication, meals, and lodging taxes next fiscal year. Patrick also hopes to raise $122 million from repealed sales tax exemptions on candy, sugared drinks, and alcohol, proposals that have found little traction in the Legislature.
Leslie A. Kirwan, secretary of Administration and Finance, leading off a crowded hearing that lasted over four hours, told lawmakers that Patrick was seeking "targeted, responsible revenue solutions."
Kirwan said the Legislature's refusal to adopt Patrick's so-called Municipal Partnership Act two years ago, which included measures permitting municipalities to levy meals and lodging taxes, had cost cities and towns $250 million.
"More than two years have passed, and nothing happened with that bill," Kirwan said.
Some lawmakers have taken hardline no-tax stances. Charles A. Murphy, chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, has repeatedly discounted the prospect of new demands on taxpayers. Ronald Mariano, assistant majority leader of the House, said yesterday that a bevy of tax votes that did not solve the fiscal problems would be viewed unkindly by lawmakers.
Representative William G. Greene Jr., Democrat of Billerica, told Kirwan that Patrick's budget was based on an "extremely high" revenue estimate of $19.53 billion.
Greene said lawmakers would have difficulty taking votes on increasing gas taxes to cut down the transportation deficit in addition to raising other taxes to balance the operating budget.
Advocates for universal healthcare said that new taxes were needed to prevent a retreat from the health insurance expansion launched in 2006.
Advocates for the disabled said Patrick's budget cuts $85 million from disability services, including $78 million from the Department of Developmental Services.
Patrick's health and human services secretary, JudyAnn Bigby, said the new sales tax on alcohol would help the state address some of the nation's highest rates of underage drinking and adult "binge" drinking.
Currently, she said, "In effect, the Commonwealth promotes the consumption of alcoholic beverages."
