On October 17th, Radio Boston focuses on Massachusetts Ballot Question One.
The big question: should the Massachusetts state income tax be repealed?
We’ll go into the nitty gritty during the show but some interesting reports have already been featured online. The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation published a twenty-eight pager outlining the expected effects of a repealed state income tax. Read it here.
One of the issues explored in the report include a section on HOW OTHER STATES DO IT? There are nine states in the United States that do not have a state income tax and there seems to be a few major reasons which explain how these particular states make ends meet.
1. Several of the nine states have strategic assets: Alaska (oil), Wyomin (minerals), Nevada (gaming resorts), Florida (tourism
2. Five of the states rely heavily on state and local taxes: Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Washington rank among the top 11 states in terms of sales tax burden.
3. Eight of the nine states rely more on taxes generated at the local leve than MA
4. In fact, New Hampshire (a state without income tax). ranks third in the nation in the burden of state and local taxes.
Carla Howell of the “Yes to Question One” campaign and leader of the Committee for Small Government argues that the state budget could be much leaner. She explains that state employee’s are overpaid with inflated pensions. Outsourcing services to private companies would not only improve their quality, says Howell, it will cut state spending significantly. Ms. Howell will be on our show this Friday along with her colleague Kamal Jain.
Learn more about the “Yes to Question One Movement” by clicking on this link.
