Think Outside The Box

Massachusetts continuously raises taxes on businesses small and large, individuals, and working families scrambling to make ends meet.  Higher property taxes, gas taxes, sales taxes, water taxes, cigarette and alcohol tax combine to heap enormous added pressures on our wallets and purses.  An immense regulatory schedule with all of these taxes has caused massive migration out of the Bay State.  In fact, Massachusetts is in the top ten list for the state most people flee from to neighboring states that have fewer taxes, rules, and regulations making it easier for people to simply live, raise families or start and grow a business.  We have lost so many residents that we lost a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.  We have one fewer voice on Capitol Hill in Washington as a direct result of an outrageous tax and regulation system.

Since it appears there is no end in sight for taxes to go perpetually up and more rules and regulations to control our lives, homes and businesses, how about we try a new idea to help our towns and communities survive in the slowest recession recovery America has seen since the Great Depression.  Medford is in dire need of more police officers, police and fire station repairs, and our water pipes need to be totally overhauled and/or replaced to keep water rates as low as possible.  If we are not going to pass legislation that reduces some of our highest in the nation taxes on income et al. let's propose that cities and towns can directly keep a portion of all sales taxes.  A mere few cents on the dollar of every generated sale would add more money locally for the types of infrastructure improvements Medford, and many other towns of Massachusetts sorely needs. 

Here is another idea we need to consider concerning a new proposal to raise fees at the Registry for license renewals and registration renewals: let's put Registry machines into our town/city clerk offices which are most often not dealing with a large volume of individuals and very well staffed so that will afford an opportunity for residents of any given town to renew their license or registration, alleviate long lines at DMV offices, reduce road congestion, and allow cities and towns to keep a small portion of the renewal fees for infrastructure improvements and provide a real argument for the ability to actually lower property and other taxes and provide real relief to individuals, businesses small and large, and working families. 

These are ideas that are outside of the box of the same old tired tax, borrow, spend policies we have seen for decades from career politicians in Massachusetts who have been holding office for decades.  New ideas like these, coupled with tax reductions, will create a path towards job growth, personal savings, and Massachusetts residency will grow, as opposed to being in the decline, and everyone in our state, no matter what their political affiliations may be, will prosper.