Liberty Issues:
Keeping Government's Hands Out of
Our Wallets and Pocketbooks
A Statement of Objectives of the Central Massachusetts Liberty Coalition regarding your Economic Freedoms
The Central Massachusetts Liberty Coalition stands for low taxes, small government, the whole Bill of Rights, and individual responsibility. We celebrate the right of all people to live life as they see fit without harming others.
The CMLC opposes all tax increases. We particularly condemn the graduated income tax.
We call for the immediate repeal of the state sales tax. The sales tax is regressive, falling most heavily on the poor. Collecting the sales tax is one more needless burden on Massachusetts' small businesses. Abolition of the sales tax would create a massive sucking sound at our state borders - the sound of money being sucked out of neighboring high-tax states into Massachusetts, and the sound of Massachusetts money being sucked back from tax-free New Hampshire.
We call for an end to the state use tax, whose enforcement is constitutionally dubious and highly erratic.
We call for an end to burdensome extra taxes on 'unearned' income. All income is earned, whether by the sweat of one's brow or by the pain of denial that lets one save and hold real assets. All fee increases should be approved by the state legislature or the electorate in a general election, as required by the Commonwealth's Constitution. The current practice of delegating this responsibility to administrative agencies is cowardly and unconstitutional.
The CMLC calls for a ban on the use of state or local taxes or bonds for building sports arenas, convention centers, and other grandiose facilities for profitable use of the few. If an athletic facility or convention center makes economic sense, it makes sense for users to pay for it. State-built stadiums and conventions centers represent money torn from the pocketbooks and wallets of working mothers and small business owners, and transferred by the Commonwealth to the paychecks of multimillionaire athletes and well-connected wheeler-dealers.
The CMLC calls for an end to all TIFs and other tax-reduction schemes for the politically connected few. Have you ever seen a property tax break for your local hardware store? Taxes should be imposed equally on all businesses, rather than being limited to firms whose owners lack the political connections to avoid being taxed.
The Social Security system is foundering on the rock of its actuarially-unsound financial structure. Are you 50 years old or younger? Look at your next paycheck. Find your Social Security tax. Kiss your money goodbye. You'll never see it again. Massachusetts cannot completely protect its citizens from the folly of the Federal government, but it can take steps to reduce the impact of unwise Federal policies. In particular:
To help responsible citizens to provide for their retirement, all money placed into retirement accounts should in the year of deposit be exempt from state taxes.
To end unfair taxes that weigh more heavily on the elderly than on the young, income from investments - including accrued earnings in retirement accounts - should be taxed at a rate no higher than income from salaries and wages. To those who argue that investment income has not been earned, we answer: saving money is hard work. If you don't believe us, try it.
Small business are the creative backbone of American commerce. From small businesses will arise the Microsofts and Chryslers of the next hundred years. Job creation is the business of small businesses. Fortune 500 companies progressively downsize, but America's small businesses add millions of new jobs every year. Massachusetts' small business owners are the least politically fortunate people in the state, having neither the political connection, the voting clout, nor the sympathetic benefactors of other parts of the Commonwealth's body politic. The CMLC stands as the defender of small-business owners across Massachusetts.
The CMLC stands for the lowest achievable level of taxation. Consistent with this goal, the CMLC calls for the abolition of TIFs and other tax reliefs given to politically-connected gladhanders at the expense of the Commonwealth's hard-working small business owners. Have you ever seen a special tax break for your local hardware store?
The CMLC calls for the repeal of laws that irrationally interfere with commerce. Blue laws are archaic and unnecessary. Small business owners should decide for themselves when they wish to be open for business. State laws regulating the price and advertising of goods, or the hours in which goods may be offered for sale, injure every consumer in the state, and should without exception be repealed.
State licensing laws should be replaced by voluntarily certification arrangements paid for by their members. State laws licensing occupations are medieval guild rules in modern guise. The CMLC calls for the repeal of all compulsory licensing laws restricting entry into occupations. By deliberate design, these laws hurt every racial, religious, and ethnic group underrepresented in an occupation.
The State Business Insurance tax on employers of six or more employees is unfair to companies that cannot afford to provide Health Care to their employees, and should be repealed.
The Central Massachusetts Liberty Coalition condemns the Weld/Dukakis policy of ever-increasing state budgets, fiscal smoke and mirrors to hide the true condition of the Commonwealth's finances, and massive and irrational increases in the state debt.
The CMLC condemns Federal intrusion into legitimate functions of state government via the attachment of extraneous conditions on Federal funding provided to state governments. We support the responsibility of the Federal government to ensure that its funds are not stolen or spent other than for their appropriated purpose. We condemn the Federal policy for imposing on highway construction funds conditions not related to the construction, design, or maintenance of highways. We call upon the Commonwealth to reject and return to Washington any Federal funds that come with improper strings attached.
The power to spend government money should always be associated with the painful duty - on elected public officials - to impose the taxes to pay for those expenditures. The CMLC calls for a Constitutional amendment forbidding the Federal government to transfer Federal tax moneys to state, county, local, or other levels of government.
Pensions for state employees, without exception, should be put in the form of guaranteed-payment plans with instant full vesting for new employees. The cost of providing pensions for state employees should be born by those who enjoy their services, not by the taxpayers of the future. Correspondingly, state employees should realize that guaranteed-payment/instant vesting pension plans are the only guarantee worth more than a politician's promise that they will ever receive their pension. The TIAA-CREF plans now used by educational institutions across the Commonwealth provide an excellent model for such plans.
The Central Massachusetts Liberty Coalition believes that citizens may reasonably differ as to whether a truly free society would need or want term limits. In our present, imperfect world, the CMLC supports the imposition of terms limits on all elected government officials. Financial incentives to remain in office, such as pension plans other than those with instantaneous full vesting, should be abolished for elected officials. We condemn the scheme used by Governor Weld and his cronies in the State Legislature increase the state legislature's bloated and undeserved pay. We endorse future efforts to overturn this increase via referendum.
The CMLC calls for the systematic privatization of state government functions that can equally well be provided by individuals, businesses, charities, universities, and other voluntary groups. The Commonwealth should concentrate on providing true state functions: courts, the criminal justice system, roads, and public safety.
MassPort should be sold to private parties. The proceeds of the sale should be placed into a permanent endowment, profits from the endowment under a fair return rule being used to pay for the legitimate functions of government.
The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority bonds should be paid, and the Authority ended. We endorse the sale of Metropolitan District Commission lands to private conservation and environmental groups, with deed covenants ensuring that the lands will remain as parks or undeveloped ecological preserves.
The CMLC supports ongoing efforts to privatize garbage collection. There is no reason for municipal governments to compete with private enterprise. Private competition will promote effiiciency, reduce landfill volumes, and encourage financially rational recycling programs.