78-03-A6
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Tax Limitation 1978 Style[edit]
Transcript[edit]If you live in California you know by now that the sky is scheduled to fall on June 6. If you live in Massachusetts, the date hasn't been set, but the sky is definitely loose and expected to fall between now and 1980. Who do we have to thank for these timely warnings? None other than the good folks who brought you record-breaking public budgets, burgeoning bureaucracies and ever-higher taxes. And what is going to cause the sky to fall? In California, it is called the Jarvis-Gann property tax limitation initiative--Proposition 13 on the primary election ballot. In Massachusetts it is the Tax Limitation amendment and it is wending its way through the Bay state's complex initiative process on its way to the ballot. The Massachusetts amendment would limit state spending to a fixed percentage of the public gross income. Some 56,000 signatures were required to petition the legislature in Boston to take up the matter. Proponents got 87,000. One-quarter of two consecutive state legislatures must vote to put it on the ballot (some 70 votes). Donald Feder, who heads Citizens for Limited Taxation, says they have about 40 votes now. Their timetable is to get on the ballot by 1980. Officials in Massachusetts are squirming, just as they are in California. Governor Michael Dukakis has said the measure would put the state --QUOTE-- "in a fiscal straitjacket"--UNQUOTE-- to which angry taxpayers are probably crying, "Right on!". In California, Howard Jarvis, a 75-year old veteran battler of high taxes, stunned the spenders in Sacramento when his petition drive netted more than 1.2 million signatures--an all-time record. The measure, if passed , will limit property taxes to one percent of assessed valuation. To prevent a tax shift" from local to state government, it would require a two-thirds vote of the legislature to enact any change in state taxes. Jarvis contends that local essential services need not be cut back; that intelligent pruning combined with distribution of the state's huge treasure surplus (nearly $3 billion) back to the local level will solve the problem. Meanwhile, some of the spenders in the legislature--scared stiff that they will no longer be able to buy votes with other peoples money--are sounding like a Greek chorus. They are crying "tax shift" and warning that state income and sales taxes will have to go up to make up for local budget cuts. Their assumption is that government costs can only go up, never down. Jarvis is getting ready to cut them off at the pass by collecting signatures for yet another initiative. It would limit even further the legislature's ability to raise sales and income taxes. If both measures pass, the legislators will finally have to do what they fear most--make choices and set spending priorities. This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening. |
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