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September 3, 2010

The Salem News Fri Sep 03, 2010, 06:00 AM EDT

Gov. Patrick better hope that a majority of Massachusetts voters are opposed to the ballot question calling for a reduction in the sales tax. Because this week he as much as told them that if they favor the tax cut, they'd better vote to boot him out of office as well.

If there's one thing that has voters on edge these days it's the feeling that those on Beacon Hill have little regard for their priorities — and too much for those of the various special interests.

Voters should think long and hard before voting to cut the sales tax from the current 6.25 percent to 3 percent in November. The result would be a loss of $2.4 billion a year in revenue at a time skyrocketing Medicaid costs and other expenses are making it difficult for the state to cope with taxes where they are now.

Patrick, in an interview on WTKK-FM radio Wednesday said the effects of cutting the sales tax by more than half would be "calamitous," adding that it is important the state's leaders "not ... just encourage the voters to drive the truck off the cliff."

All three of Patrick's opponents have said they oppose a wholesale reduction in the sales tax as proposed in the ballot question. Republican Charlie Baker and independent Tim Cahill have both said they would like to see it rolled back to 5 percent — which was the rate before the Legislature voted to increase it by 1.25 percent in 2009. (In that same session, lawmakers also voted to end the exemption for alcoholic beverages — already subject to a state excise tax — and allow cities and towns to add a sales tax of their own on hotel rooms and restaurant meals. There is a separate question on the ballot calling for repeal of the sales tax on alcohol.)

Proponents of the ballot question say the tax cut will result in the creation of new jobs, keep more shoppers in Massachusetts, and generate enough new economic activity to offset some of loss the state suffers due to the reduction in the rate.

While earlier ballot questions calling for a reduction in the sales tax have failed, a Suffolk University/7 News poll this past May showed 49 percent in favor of cutting it this time and 44 percent opposed.

Those numbers are likely to change as the public employee unions and others ramp up their efforts to defeat this latest initiative in the coming weeks. But there's no mistaking the fact voters want to see a change in the mindset on Beacon Hill, which holds that there are some things — particularly public employee salaries and benefits — that are untouchable.

Patrick deserves credit for taking on the police unions over road details and the Quinn Bill. But the cutbacks at the state and municipal levels have hardly resembled those in what some government employees, with good reason, describe as "the dreaded private sector."

The widening gap has some contemplating measures as drastic as the one that's on the ballot this November. And though the consequences may be grim, those candidate who say they will ignore the voters' will do so at their own peril.

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