NO MIIA Tax: ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

From Joshua Norman

Representative Ruth Balser (D-Newton) has co-sponsored a new tax surcharge bill (H2501) along with Representative Kay Khan (D-Newton), Senator Cynthia Creem (D-Newton) and two other legislators.  This bill is called the Massachusetts Infrastructure Improvement Act (MIIA) and is modeled after the Community Preservation Act tax surcharge program.  The MIIA allows cities and towns to raise additional revenue for local infrastructure improvement by placing a surcharge of not more than 3% on property taxes.  Like the CPA, the MIIA would require the approval of local voters to take effect.  The state would provide each city or town with matching funds equal to 30% of the revenue generating by the surcharge. 

When analyzing whether Newton should be allowed to implement a tax surcharge to fund infrastructure, we can conclude that a person would be in favor of it or they would be against it.  I can safely say on behalf of all the citizen activists in the Newton Taxpayers Association that we do not favor the thought of another tax surcharge.  And we don’t say this out of a reaction to the three extravagantly expensive property tax hikes that passed in March.  There are a lot of reasons why we are opposed to this MIIA tax surcharge and we’re happy to have the opportunity to discuss them.  Newton taxpayers have already paid for new schools, buildings, streets and sidewalks, but the city has spent the money elsewhere.  That is true, they have spent it elsewhere. 

What exactly do we mean by “elsewhere”?  Here are the three notable items that we think when describing what the elsewhere is:

·         76% of the city’s budget (84% of the school department’s budget) goes to generous pay and benefit packages to its predominantly unionized workforce

·         $13.4M in increased debt service expenses thanks to Newton North

·         $7M/year (net of state aid) in educational services to 538 non-resident students in Newton Public Schools.

We believe it is time to fix the elsewhere in this city and use the money from elsewhere to deal with the roads, and the sidewalks and the new buildings because the money is there.  Any tax increase or surcharge is a poor remedy for poor management and poor stewardship of municipal assets.  The problem is that mistakes have been made.  In Newton its one of those happy circumstances in that no one is responsible for the mistakes, they just happened.  The reality is there have been mistakes, mistakes have been made and that there are people who have been in charge and who are still in charge of our government and administration that have caused these problems.  We believe it is time to look where we have been spending money, to see where the money was supposed to go and put into other areas of spend.

We oppose the idea that the government can hold infrastructure hostage to higher taxes and more government spending. When people talk about infrastructure taxes, people forget that money is fungible. All an infrastructure tax such as a tax surcharge or a debt exclusion override does is put more money into the pot which ends up sifting through to support more of that 76% of what we’re spending on already (compensation and benefits).  But we have found structural things no one is willing to talk about.  For tax grabbers, the solution is always to raise people’s taxes.  They basically say to the public “You want a new school?  You want a better school?  You won’t get unless you pay more in taxes for it” even though the taxpayers have already paid for it and the money was diverted to salaries and benefits for unionized government workers.

In conclusion, the principals of the Newton Taxpayers Association opposed the property tax increase override package in March and oppose the MIIA tax surcharge because we don’t see that we are getting a good value for our tax dollars.  We identified multiple areas of spending that are best described as areas of bloat and we believe that the city government needs to deflate the bloat in order to fund the Mayor’s $1B Capital Infrastructure Program.  With regards to infrastructure, we can easily afford to fund the rest of the Mayor’s Capital Infrastructure Program as well as the necessary maintenance without a new dedicated tax surcharge like the MIIA or another property tax increase via another Prop 2.5 override based on the expected revenue growth over the next 20 years. If the fiscal reforms my group and I have identified were adopted, we wouldn’t need a Prop 2.5 override and if they are not adopted, then the city government shouldn’t be asking Newton residents for more taxes.