Kudos and Hat Tip to Red Mass Group for uncovering this one.  Governor Patrick has already indicated his support for a “graduated” income tax scheme. Here are Representative Brownsberger’s contact pages.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick recently signed the state’s FY2010 budget. The budget contained roughly $1 billion dollar in additional taxes, including a 25% increase in the sales tax rate. The increase (from 5% to 6.25%), was implemented in part to offset a previously planned increase in Massachusetts Turnpike tolls, and is slated to take effect on August 1.

Yet less than one full week into the new fiscal season, the governor is hinting that even more taxes may be in the offing. Massachusetts currently imposes a flat tax rate of 5.3% on individuals, but Patrick indicated a desire to see this change in favor of a graduated scheme.

“We don’t have many really progressive mechanisms in Massachusetts, and we’re going to have to sort that out in the fullness of time, put it that way.”, Patrick said in a State House News service interview.

The governor has also been a consistent advocate of higher gasoline taxes, citing them as the preferred alternative to other revenue raising measures. He recently renewed his call for their increase by linking them to further reform of the state’s transportation infrastructure.

“I think we still have got to turn to the question of a long-term financing solution for our transportation network,”, Patrick said in remarks to The State House News Service. “We haven’t done that yet. We haven’t finished that work yet, and whether that’s the gas tax or something else, we’re going to have to face those issues, I hope sooner rather than later.”

Budget leaders in both the House and the Senate have been noticeably cool to the notion of higher gas taxes. Senate president Therese Murray explicitly ruled them out, saying

“The Senate has already voted against that,’’

House Ways and Means chair Charles Murphy was equally emphatic, stating flatly:

“A gas tax is not going to pass in the near future, in the House or the Senate. We’ve been very clear on that front.”

The governor’s push for higher taxes comes amid the widespread expectation that he is running for re-election in 2010. Legislators in both the House and the Senate fear that he will run as a populist reformer fighting an upstream battle against a corrupt General Court. Massachusetts has been rocked by a series of ethical scandals, culminating in the recent federal indictment of House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi on corruption charges.

For more info: The State House News Service, Graduated Income Taxes

According to this Boston Globe article, “Political momentum builds for state sales tax increase”. Indeed.  So as the Massachusetts Welfare State begins its latest effort to stave off a death it well deserves, talk turns toward tax increases (i.e. more revenue), again. No talk of meaningful spending reforms that will address the inherent STRUCTURAL inefficiencies characteristic of most government/state bureaucracies. These reforms include Pacheco Law repeal, Project Labor Agreement termination, and sale of the MBTA (rife with corruption and inefficiency) for starters. It goes without saying that the public employee pension gravy train has run its course. Time for these folks to get off the dole and try living in the real world, where pensions are largely a relic of the past. In its essence, Massachusetts has a spending  problem and not a revenue problem. Let genuine reform begin before anyone searches for “new” revenue.

Admittedly, Senator Obama has plenty of company when it comes to economic illiteracy. However, since it is possible he will be this nation’s next President, here is an example of his illiteracy; Obama – Economic Illiterate.

The key to a sound economy; growth, wealth, entrepreneurship. Governor Palin gets it instinctively; McCain’s proposal is more weighted toward growth than not. But in general, Democrats want Americans fighting over the pieces of the economic pie. Republicans want to make the pie larger and realize that the American people are the pie-bakers.

that doesn’t stop some from trying for one: “The GBIO has emerged as a voice on liberal social issues, especially healthcare and housing. It was one of the driving forces behind the passage of universal coverage, as well as the creation of a $150 million trust fund for affordable housing.” How convenient to have a voice without the attendant responsibility of paying for said priviledge. So-called universal coverage is a myth: in its present incarnation, it’s nothing more than a mandatory health insurance scheme which is both immoral AND inherently unworkable. This article serves as a compelling illustration of why church and state should be separate and why the Massachusetts state income and capital gains taxes should be REPEALED.