Amherst board urges defeat of Question 1

Daily Hampshire Gazette

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

AMHERST - Citing the need to protect the community from deep budget cuts and maintain Amherst's future well being, the Select Board is urging residents to vote against the Nov. 4 ballot initiative that would eliminate the state income tax.

The unanimous vote by the board came Monday following a presentation in support of the ballot question by Keith McCormic, the Greenfield Republican who is challenging incumbent Amherst Democrat Stanley Rosenberg for his Hampshire-Franklin seat in the state Senate.

Though some are endorsing the measure as a way to return tax money to working families, McCormic said he sees ending the income tax as a means to force the state's elected officials to confront wasteful spending through "open and frank" conversation.

McCormic cited what he considers excessive salaries for public employees, ranging from the chancellor at the University of Massachusetts to the Mass Pike toll workers.

While McCormic works with underprivileged children in Holyoke, and depends on state funding of the program, he argues that the state, even without an income tax, would maintain its commitment to schools and the less fortunate. He trusts that legislators would instead target the bloated government, including a patronage system and waste, that has caused people to leave the state because of the higher cost of living.

"This is the message of Question 1: more than money, we need humanity," McCormic said.

But Select Board Chairman Gerry Weiss asked how McCormic could be confident that the cuts wouldn't simply be foisted on or trickle down to local communities.

"I'm confident the money exists within details of the state budget to prevent that from happening," McCormic said. The alternative, McCormic said, is to suggest that legislators are either corrupt or incompetent.

But at a presentation earlier this month, Rosenberg told the Select Board and other town officials that $12.7 billion, or 40 percent, of the state budget would have to be cut if the income tax were gone.

Board member Diana Stein said Amherst would likely lose all its Chapter 70 school funding without the state income tax.

"If they take our school aid, I don't see where you think this will get replenished from," Stein said.

She noted the replacement would be a regressive tax system, such as increasing property taxes.

But McCormic said high salaries for bureaucrats and expensive state office space are just the tip of the spending that could be reduced.

Amherst resident Robert Phillips, part of the Students United to Save Our Schools organization, said cuts are being made at Holyoke Community College, where he is a student, "We're taking budget cuts already with the income tax in place," Phillips said.

Without the income tax, Phillips said, the fees per credit would more than double, rising from $113 to $241.

Weiss thanked McCormic for bringing his viewpoint forward and agreed that there is probably waste that can be cut. But Weiss was not sure about finding $11 billion to $12 billion.

"I think this is a dangerous way to do it," Weiss said.