Other states have found options
By LANCE TAPLEY | January 6, 2010
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (www.ncsl.org) and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (www.cbpp.org), 2009 tax increases around the country — many temporary — included:-Oregon’s Democratic legislature and governor added new brackets to the income tax. Couples making over $500,000 a year will pay 11 percent through 2011. Corporate income-tax rates were also increased. By raising taxes Oregon has managed to avoid severe program cuts.
-Connecticut’s Democratic legislature and Republican governor instituted a “millionaire’s tax,” boosting the top income-tax rate from 5 to 6.5 percent for couples making more than $1 million. Income taxes also were raised for big corporations.
-Wisconsin’s Democratic legislature and governor created a new income-tax bracket of 7.75 percent for couples earning more than $300,000.
-Legislative Democrats and governors in New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Delaware also passed income-tax hikes for their wealthier citizens. Hawaii did so as well (that state’s top rate now is 11 percent for couples making more than $300,000), with Democrats controlling the legislature but with a Republican governor. California, with a similar political division, increased the percentage taxed in each income bracket. A number of states have gone after capital gains more aggressively.
-Sales taxes were hiked in a dozen states. Massachusetts’s sales tax went from 5 percent to 6.25 percent. California has increased the sales-tax rate by a cent.
-Tobacco and alcohol taxes were increased in 15 states. Connecticut’s cigarette tax went from $2 to $3 a pack and New Hampshire’s from $1.33 to $1.78.
-Business tax breaks were lowered in Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, and Nevada. New Hampshire will tax business profits more heavily. New Hampshire also increased its food and lodging tax from 8 to 9 percent.
Related:
Instead of cuts: guts, Mean everything to nothing, Bay State's top lobbyists, More
- Instead of cuts: guts
Let’s assume, reader, that you’re concerned about economic and social justice. For those in real need — people who are poor, sick, old, mentally ill, addicted, disabled — you want decent care. You’re concerned, too, about proper funding of schools, community colleges, and university campuses.
- Mean everything to nothing
My favorite movie-advertising phrase is "based on a true story." Translated into English, it means: "more or less, a big fat lie."
- Bay State's top lobbyists
Nearly everyone in Massachusetts felt the pinch of the recession in 2009 — even Beacon Hill lobbyists had to tighten their belts.
- Fed up and low down
Just kidding. Of course they’ll lose.
- Your words are not your own
Plagiarism is a serious charge.
- Can the Netroots triumph in Rhode island?
Stories of State Representative David Segal’s nascent, underdog run for Congress invariably make a nod to the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. And rightly so.
- Heck of a Guy
Scott Brown’s stunning victory in January’s special US Senate election continues to reverberate through Massachusetts politics.
- An Obama confidant on the surge in Afghanistan
Twenty-four hours before President Barack Obama announced a 30,000-troop escalation of the Afghan War, one of his key foreign policy advisors provided a view of the president’s thinking at Brown University.
- The power of money
While a cadre of conservative Democrats continues to conspire with Washington's mendacious Republican minority to block national health-care reform, the nation's largest health-benefits company — amusingly called WellPoint — is going about its business of screwing policyholders and scoring record profits in the process.
- Bragdon vs. Trevorrow, Greens, District 120
Charles Bragdon and Anna Trevorrow vie in the East End legislative race
- Lynch’s left flank
US Representative Stephen Lynch has held Massachusetts’s ninth congressional district since 2001 — a fact that has irritated the state’s liberals ever since.
- Less
Topics:
News Features
, cigarettes, Income Taxes, National Conference of State Legislatures, More
, cigarettes, Income Taxes, National Conference of State Legislatures, National Conference of State Legislatures, Sales Tax, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Tobacco, Nation, alcohol, budget cuts, Less