January 28, 2012

Latest tax increase

Gov. Deval Patrick will propose hiking the Massachusetts cigarette tax by 50 cents per pack as part of a plan to raise $260 million in new revenues for the state budget, the administration said Friday.


The governor’s plan also seeks to impose the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax on candy and soda — both items are currently exempt from the tax — and expand the state’s bottle deposit law to include bottled water, sports drinks and other beverages.

In addition to increasing the cigarette tax from $2.51 per pack to $3.01 per pack, a 20 percent increase, the plan would double the taxes paid on other tobacco products such as cigars and smokeless tobacco. The tobacco tax hike was expected to raise $73 million, officials said, with the money earmarked to help offset the cost of a recent decision by the state’s highest court that cleared the way for thousands of legal immigrants to join Commonwealth Care, the state’s subsidized health insurance program.

6 comments:

Jahn said...

I am not a political strategist, but shoulnt the gov's handlers at least waited until the brunt of the Feb 1st local real estate tax payments have worn off before breaking this kind of news. Keep in mind for most locales the Feb 1st payment is where it really hits the fan as this is the first actual (vs estimated) tax bill for the municpalities fiscal year and Usually results in a higer q'terly payment. In Worc this year the actual real estate tax bill will not come through until early April (due May 1st)...only 10 mos into the fiscal year w/o a tax rate nor an assessment. Trying pulling that kinda BS if you have real job in any privately held company. The Donald would boot your posterior every step of the way from the 101st FL of the Trump Tower all the to your street level yellow cab ride and your ass would be black & blue.

BTW Deval Patrick & Tim Costa Concordia, WTH is my promised property tax cut....circa 2006?

Jahn said...

So a short while ago I was visiting someone and they had The TV on showing what I guess would be called the Patriots Good Citizen (or whatever they call call them ) Awards?

I ONly caught the 2 minutes or so when the award recipients were named and got their short time in the camera spotlight.

Here's what I saw in 2 mins or so and I DID NOT see the entire ceremony so maybe others can enlighten me if my perceptions(s) are wrong. I saw a Patriot Big wIG (NOT kRAFTIE) ANNOUNCE AND HONOR two recipients in each of the following Occupations.

1. Firemen

2. Police Officers

3. Military

4. Teachers

5. Nurses

Now you can jump all over me, but I am getting darn sick and tired of four of the above five lines of work (military excluded) getting diefied almost everytime I am listening to or observing the media. You might think that no one else works, no on else works hard, and no one else works in a dangerous occupation/job.

In my alwa humble opinion :) where was:

a. the alligator hunter ( commercial fishing) that catches my future alligator steak and my future $600 alligator skin, 2" Cuban heeled, cowboy boots on TV every Monday night on History the channel.

b. Where was the History Channel Ice Road Trucker who hauls pipeline building material to Prudhoe Bay so I'll have oil to keep me warm in winter.

c. Where was the History channel logger who harvests trees so that the tree huggers of the world will have houses to live in?

d. Where was the pizza delivery kid with my Hamburg & Mushroom Pizza?

a. through d. above are in the top five or six most dangerous jobs in the world, yet they never get any face time or awards for the danger they face daily. I forget the exact statistic but everyday a couple of truckers are killed on the highways in this country.

It is high time that if we're going to honor people based on their occuaption that we also include those who are not on gov't payrolls in the sampling process .....which is about 80% of the total workforce in this country. FWIW, I do know that not all nurses are on govt payrolls directly, but i'd guess that the revenues that support thier positions come 30% to 40% from Gubmint. Also ever notice that you dont see any college campus police regularly awarded or Arizona private sector firemen or private school teachers. The bias is just too far over the top and message is basically, private sector workers be dammed when it comes to so called recognition.

A special shout out those who quietly and unassumingly go to war go w/o any fanfare and for really short money.

Anonymous said...

1) you confuse the Pats "good citizen" award job categories with the most dangerous jobs?
2) college cops and private school teachers aren't good citizens in the same way because they work for a priveleged client base.
3) miltary were honored at this event, don't know where "w/o fanfare" comes from. If these guys worked in Worcester instead of A-stan you'd find reasons to rag on them too.

Jahn said...

Anon:

1. No I am not confusing the awards with the most dangerous jobs. I am asking why it always seems only public sector workers who are touted by the media day in and day out has having very dangerous jobs always seem to the be the benficiaries of very public award ceremonies

2. Are you telling me the QCC & Worc State Univ cops are dealing with a privileged client base? Surely you jest or maybe I am missing your sarcasm? So a teacher at Bancroft School who makes 2/3 of what a public school teacher makes cannot qualify for the good citizen award b/c they work at a private school? Only public school teachers who want a new stipend every time they have to stay 15 mins later are the only good citizen teachers?

3. Anon said: "the military were honored at this event"...HUH??....I listed the miltary as being honored at this event? Not sure what you're getting at? I said they go off to war w/o fanfare, meaning unceremoniously.

We need a little more humility amongst those public sector employees whose role as public sector employees seeems to automatically elevate them to God like status. E.g. "I teach your child, how dare you not give me a COLA and a step raise this year"
Or the bumper sticker "thank a teacher if you can read this" Maybe the teacher who drives and/or owns that car should thank the high school dropout assembly line workers who safely put it together.

Anonymous said...

1) You definitely did pull a logical switcheroo here. Your post suggests that these people are being "deified" because of media-bias and a perception that they work harder and in more dangerous situations. This is not the case. The Patriots (not the media) decide to honor some people who visibly and directly work to address public concerns. This celebration isn't a sympton of what your rant is about.

2) Much respect to college cops, but their jurisdiction (and impact) are limited, and focused around young people committed and able to go to college. As for the private school teachers, they should be paid more.

Jahn said...

Anonymous, to your 1st point, I said by inference (by calling it the Pats Citizens Award [my term])that the Patriots make the awards. I never said the media make the awards.

Sorry on that misspelling of "deified" as "diefied". That was not a typo. I admit to the misspellling. As I typed the werd i wuzz knot shure if the "I" or "E" came first so defaulted to the old rule of "I" before "E" except after "C" and sometimes "Y" Looks like the old rule duzz not hold in the case of this wird.

My rant.........surely yew jest? I was editorializing, not ranting :)

Anonymous as re your second point, mi amigo with all due respect to my so called rant and your so called limited jurisdiction and impact of college campus police, here's a partial list of The Sudden Impact of college campus shootings/murder/violence that covers ONLY the most deadly incidents.


A gunman kills 32 people in a dorm and a classroom at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va.

Charles Whitman at the University of Texas at Austin's murders 16 people and 31 are wounded.

Gang Lu opens fire on the University of Iowa campus. Five University of Iowa employees killed, two other people are wounded, and then Gang fatally shoots himself.

Four students were killed and nine wounded by National Guard troops on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio.

Arizona College student walks into an instructor's office and fatally shoots her. A few minutes later fatal shoots himself.

Douglas W. Pennington, 49, kills himself and his two sons during a visit to the campus of Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, W.Va.

Peter Odighizuwa of Virginia's Appalachian School of Law kills the dean, a professor and a student before being tackled by students. The attack also wounds three female students.

Frederick Martin Davidson at San Diego State pulls out a handgun and kills three professors.

A University of Arkansas graduate student kills his English professor in an apparent murder-suicide.

I disagree w/your inference that college cops maybe arent in much danger.

Word verf. dededg ... a dedly coincidence?