bostonpatriot

Deval Patrick has proposed the “Municipal Partnership Act” in order to allow City’s and Town’s to raise revenue from meals taxes and to impose property taxes on telecommunications equipment. Taxes which will be paid for by the customers of those businesses in order to balance Town budgets that as a result of the real estate boom have been growing faster than the rate of inflation. And are now growing faster than tax revenues are increasing because the real estate market prices are falling.

As these meals taxes are optional and not all cities and towns have many restaurants, it is a measure largely of benefit to the City of Boston and Cambridge and will not help poorer communities that are averse to raising the tax burden on their own people.

So, this seems like another attempt to grow the State budget at the expense of local communities who can then be blamed for not raising their own taxes to make up for diminished local aide from our income and sales taxes.

The shell game continues.