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Posted on 09/07/2010 8:54:41 AM PDT by raccoonradio
After repeatedly dodging the issue, Gov. Deval Patrick yesterday pledged to implement a state sales-tax rollback if ballot Question 3 is approved by voters in November.
“I will respect the will of the voters,” Patrick told the Herald at a late afternoon campaign stop, after twice refusing to answer the question hours earlier.
“But I think any responsible candidate and any responsible public official has got to be straight with people about what a calamity this will create in their lives.”
Patrick’s promise to set up the framework to slash the sales tax from 6.25 percent to 3 percent if the ballot question is approved drew howls from independent challenger Tim Cahill.
“Maybe he had an epiphany that people want tax relief and are angry with what he did (to raise taxes) in the face of one of the worst recessions in decades,” said Cahill, the state treasurer. “The question I have is whether you can trust him to (keep his word) if he gets re-elected.”
The ballot question, sponsored by the Alliance to Roll Back Taxes, seeks to cut the sales tax on Jan. 1. It was hiked from 5 percent to 6.25 percent in 2009 to raise about $900 million to help balance the state budget.
Cahill, who supports returning the sales tax to 5 percent, said nevertheless he would “do everything in my power” to enforce the tax cut if he’s elected.
Republican Charles D. Baker, who also prefers restoring the sales tax to 5 percent, lashed out at Patrick and Cahill on the issue.
“I don’t think you can trust the governor on this stuff,” Baker said in a phone interview.
Baker also criticized Patrick and Cahill for failing to support a referendum vote that passed in 2000 to rollback the state income tax to 5 percent. When the governor campaigned in 2006, he and Cahill said they wanted to keep the income tax at its current 5.3 percent.
“Neither can be trusted to respect the will of the voters,” Baker said.
In response, Cahill said Patrick is “not the same man” he campaigned with in 2006.
The high-octane tax rhetoric came after several occasions in which talk radio hosts and news reporters were unable to pin down Patrick on the sales tax issue.
As recently as yesterday morning, Patrick told a Boston gathering of union officials he opposed the measure but coyly avoided saying how he’d handle it if it passed. On his way out, he again avoided directly answering reporters.
Meanwhile, Cahill took aim at Baker’s charge in yesterday’s Herald that Patrick was running a negative campaign, calling Baker “hypocritical” since Cahill was targeted with tough ads by the Republican Governors Association.
“He’s just whining about being hit when he’s been hitting people since the beginning,” Cahill said. “Now he’s getting a taste of his own medicine.” Patrick, speaking after the union event, said he would not stand for “other candidates” distorting his record.
=====------------------------- Herald Pulse Gov. Patrick says he will roll back the sales tax if voters pass Question 3. Do you believe him?
4% - Yes, if he says he’ll roll back taxes he’ll do it
20% - He’ll roll back the sales tax and raise taxes elsewhere
69% - He won’t roll back the tax, using some last-minute reason
7% - Question 3 won’t pass - Total Votes: 1,903
Who knows, maybe even IF Cahill votes drain enough Baker votes away to keep Patrick in, it could STILL be a fun four years coming up. More from Barack Jr., more hackery (howayah Chahhhlie! How's the family? Are you goin' to the tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime for our candidate?)
Massachusetts, a proud place for Democrats to call their own. Patrick rules! (/ sarcasm)
>>In response, Cahill said Patrick is “not the same man” he campaigned with in 2006.
Yeah right! Cahill knew what Patrick was for then and Patrick hasn't changed. Where's our property tax relief, Deval? Our extra cops on the street?
I was at the labor day parade in Marlboro yesterday and he got booed all the way down the parade route, which is a few miles long.
It was painful.
I saw that on Holly’s blog. C’mon Raccoon. It didn’t
hurt you that bad.....
SOME OF THE COMMENTS:
—Honest to god, the next thing Deval Paterson will be saying is that the check is in the mail.
—”I will respect the will of the voters,” Patrick told the Herald at a late afternoon campaign stop. C’mon, just how stupid does he think we are? A vote for Deval Paterson or Christy Cahill is a vote for MORE TAXES and the SAME OLD BEACON HILL SHENANIGANS.
—Deval Patrick would swear he was a fomer bible salesman during an election year if it would buy him 5 votes for re-election. Most people in Mass. want to believe Patrick but he\’s worn out his credibility with \”Yes We Can\”
Sorry, it doesn\’t work twice and you know the old saying about fooling people twice..
(Technically it was TOGETHER We Can—or, Together We Con)
—He sounds exactly like his pal OBUMMER. Lie after lie. This is CHANGE we can make in Nov by voting out promisers. Making a promise and not keeping is lying in any language.
—I have explained this time and time again but will try one more time and type slowly this time. The states obligation is first to fund public services like schools , public safety trash pick up etc. Not to make sure all of your friends and relatives get cushy useless high paying public jobs with a good pension after 20 years , not to fund lay abouts and welfare baby mamas who keep dropping illegitimate kids, not to support illegal aliens like aunt zatuni , It is about prioritizing how money is spent just like us tax payers do. It would be like getting paid on a Fri going out to eat at the most expensive restaurant in town , buy a new flat screen TV then going to your boss on Monday and say i need more money to buy food and pay my rent
Well that would make you the FIRST leftist to “honor the will of the voters!!”
6.25%? 5.3%? 5%? 3%? Do your shopping in tax-free New Hampshire. ;-)
BAKER IS FOR ROMNEYCARE and ROMNEY.
NO BAKER. NO ROMNEY. NO ROMNEYCARE.
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I’ll admit I paid $15.95 for a CD of Best of Red Sovine yesterday at Pitchfork Records, Concord NH.
Sales tax: Zero.
But I also ate up in Hanover and paid what I think is 8 per cent meals tax, more than MA. Also paid $4 fee to get into
Lake Sunapee beach (last day of season), was there for about an hour. NH does get money in other ways, but I do like
the idea of no sales tax. (Also how much do their legislators make, $100/yr? Good too.)
I don’t know why NH doesn’t move quickly and convert the Rockingham track in Salem into a Casino... they’d bleed Massachusetts dry.
How about the death penalty? There was talk about it last night on WBZ radio, talking about the three guys who killed a pizza delivery man. “Well, thanks to John Slattery, we have no death penalty in MA”, Dan Rea, who’s on our side, said.
Slattery changed his vote after being persuaded to do so
and the will-of-the-people death penalty was overturned,
IIRC. “Slattery will get you nowhere”, I said.
Of course the GOP also has broken promises; didn’t Weld
promise he’d restore “the joys of busting rock” to
prisoners? (At least he rolled back Registry fees...)
That would make sense. Of course some would complain about the evils of gambling, and it’s been said Philip Markoff
needed money so he robbed and killed for it—thanks to his gambling at “the wonder of it all”, Foxwoods, but that’s
the exception that proves the rule. Yes, a Salem NH casino would do well for the Granite state.
Gambling always seems to be evil until some government controls it... Likewise, drugs.
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