State Tax Update Archive
[2003 - 2004] [2002 and Older]

Maine Activist Spearheads Referendum Coalition
Mary Adams, a long-time friend of the taxpayer in Maine, recently won some well-deserved publicity in the Bangor News. The News reported 6/30/01 that Adams's group The Adams Report was among 70 other coalition group members, including the Maine Militia, Maine League of Women Voters, Maine Taxpayers Network, Natural Resources Council, the Maine Peoples Alliance, the Maine Reform Party, Maine Green Independent Party, and the Libertarian Party of Maine, all of whom successfully killed "11 bills aimed at weakening the referendum process" by working together, according to the News. The opposition (and supporters of the 11 bills) included such political heavyweights like Governor Angus King (I), the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine, and the Maine Forest Products Council. Among the limitations sought in the 11 bills were: banning the collection of referendum petition signatures on election day, preventing petition signature collectors from getting closer than 250 feet from polling booths, increasing the number of signatures required, and requiring that signatures be collected from all 16 Maine counties for a question to appear on the ballot.

Massachusetts Activists Defend Automatic Tax Refunds
Chip Ford of Citizens for Limited Taxation challenged state House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran (D) 7/16/01 to explain how increasing the state's rainy day fund will benefit taxpayers. Ford said that the real motivation behind Finneran's proposal is to circumvent automatic tax refunds that would be triggered by the state's larger-than-expected 2001 budget surplus of $500 million. "You can't keep moving the goalpost and calling the game fair," said Ford. "We already have one of the largest rainy day funds in the country. When is it enough?" (Boston Globe, 7/17/01) Another friend of the Massachusetts taxpayer, Gov. Jane Swift (R), is working on $200 million in cuts to the state budget despite criticism from Secretary of State William F. Gavin. The largest chunk of cuts target $75 million in pork spending projects.

New Hampshire Spending Tobacco Settlement on Budget
Since the 1998 tobacco settlement, state lawmakers have used nearly all the money collected to balance the state budget, rather than spend it on tobacco prevention and treatment. Former state Sen. Jim Squires earmarked $3 million of the $40 million the state gets each year for prevention and treatment programs, but this year the state is dipping into even these funds in addition to spending the other $37 million as it has in previous years. "My motivation in driving New Hampshire into the litigation shortly after becoming attorney general was entirely because of the public health issue," said state Attorney General Philip McLaughlin. "I didn't get into this to be a collection agent for the state" (Union Leader, 7/23/01). Mr. McLaughlin would do well to remember that when money enters state coffers, it is certain to be spent. Furthermore, "public health concerns" were an obvious front for tax-and-spend politicians who derived their motivation to sue the tobacco industry from the belief that they, and not taxpayers, know what's best.

Socialized Health Care in Maryland, and a Tax Holiday
The Maryland Citizens Health Initiative solicited help drafting its "Health Care for All" Plan in May, announcing that 1,900 organizations support the creation of state-sponsored, socialized health care in Maryland. Among the first programs to emerge from the "Health Care for All" coalition is "Melanoma Monday," an event with a mission "to promote sun safe behavior to Marylanders and make those behaviors the social norm" (www.medchi.org). Again, clearly the state knows best how we ought to conduct our lives (note: deep, profound sarcasm). Happier news for Marylanders in the short term, however: Maryland apparently will enjoy a surplus for FY01 and a sales tax holiday for one week, starting August 10, 2001. The sales tax in Maryland is 5%; the tax holiday is planned to coincide with back-to-school shopping and to support Maryland merchants, as opposed to those across state borders where sales taxes are always lower.

And A Sales Tax Holiday in Florida, Too!
Florida's sales tax holiday begins Saturday, July 28 and will run for nine days until August 5. The tax-free status will apply to items costing $50 each or less; in past years the status applied to items costing $100 or less.

Gov. Sundquist Likely to Veto Tennessee Budget
The Governor had proposed $339 million in additional budget spending that the legislature left out of its no-new-revenue budget, passed 7/12/01.