By Owen Boss
Staff Writer
NORTHAMPTON - Supporters of a Proposition 2½ override seeking a boost in state aid to cities and towns got little encouragement from area legislators at a meeting Monday night.
More than 60 people turned out for the meeting, which was sponsored by Yes!Northampton, a nonprofit group that emerged in support of recent Proposition 2½ overrides in the city, at the Community Room at JFK Middle School. Many called on Sen. Stan Rosenberg, D-Amherst, and Rep. Peter Kocot, D-Northampton, to support bills that would restore the state tax rate on income and dividends to 12 percent, while exempting income of seniors, a plan members said would generate an estimated $500 million a year, almost exclusively from those at the top 5 percent of Massachusetts earners.
Although both Rosenberg and Kocot said that kind of legislation would help ease budget shortfalls on cities and towns statewide, they said the idea was not realistic given the commonwealth's current political climate. Kocot said the current budget crisis is bigger than any other in the recent past.
"The last two recessions, which were both described as the worst recessions since the Great Depression, lasted four and five years respectively and during those two recessions we had between a $4 billion and $6 billion problem," Kocot said. "Last year alone we dealt with a $5 billion gap and over the 22 months since the beginning of this recession, we've had a $9 billion problem to solve. This is beyond anything that we have ever faced."
Before passing out a documented roll call vote showing that only nine of 160 House member supported legislation to restore the tax rate to 12 percent, Kocot explained how legislators bridged a $5 billion budget gap in last year's budget and how they plan to close an estimated $2.7 billion in the upcoming fiscal year.
"I don't want to raise anyone's taxes. That is not the fun part of my job. But clearly, every community has needs and we need to raise additional revenues just to fund the basic services that we offer," Kocot said. "Clearly, 9/11, the meltdown on Wall Street, the wars that we have been waging in Afghanistan and Iraq have all diverted a great amount of revenue from this community and from the commonwealth."
Rosenberg shared Kocot's belief that an income tax increase would be extremely difficult to pass in the state Senate and referenced a similar vote this year to restore the state income tax to 5.7 percent.
"We had 11 out of 40 senators who voted in favor of that bill," Rosenberg said. "So the analysis that Peter gave you is a essentially consistent with what happened in the Senate and with what we can conceive happening going forward."
Rosenberg also mentioned that many state senators have vowed not to vote for new taxes in the 90 days remaining in the current term and others have said they won't vote for new taxes until the debate surrounding expanded gaming in the commonwealth is resolved.
"The problem there is that expanded gaming, if it passes, would mean we would see revenue 18 to 24 months down the road at a minimum," Rosenberg said. "Casinos or slot machines at race tracks are not going to save our hides for Fiscal '11 and the revenues they would generate would barely be visible on the budget for Fiscal '12."
Another problem with passing the legislation in time for this year's budget, Rosenberg said, is that the Senate can't enact new taxes or tax increases because the House didn't address taxes, and "all money bills and revenue bills by law have to start in the House."
Mayor Clare Higgins praised Kocot's and Rosenberg's efforts to limit reductions in state aid but drew applause from the crowd when she said not enough has been accomplished with the city facing a $480,000 cut in state aid.
"We all have to take it upon ourselves to call our state legislators and to ask them to look at how we do this because I think the whole system is fundamentally broken and I don't think it works anymore." Higgins said. "The amount of state revenue that comes back to us doesn't cover the base-line costs for things people expect to get on a local level, including street lighting, street paving, education and public safety. We can't afford to do all of those things with the amount of money coming in."
Other ideas raised at the meeting included eliminating the sales tax exemption on candy, soda, which could generate an estimated $51.7 million annually for public health programs; ending the tax exemption on cigars, smoking and smokeless tobacco; and taxing revenues generated at hospitals statewide.
"We can no longer afford for-profit health care in this state," said Randy Phillis, a faculty member of the biology department at UMass Amherst. "It is literally sucking the life out of all of us and it is a huge waste of money."
Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com
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