Arthur Schaper: Mass GOP Takes On Forever Gas Tax

Friday, October 25, 2013

Arthur Christopher Schaper, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Should Massachusetts stop paying at the pump?

As early as 2003, the University of Massachusetts discovered that middle-class families, the core of civic communities according to the report, had declined to establish themselves in the Bay State, instead opting for no-sales-tax New Hampshire or leaving New England entirely. Forbes Magazine records that the Affordable Care Act has made health care, and thus Massachusetts, unaffordable for residents. Are more people leaving rather than coming to Massachusetts?

Those statistics are ten years old, one may argue. While WCBS Boston shared in 2011 that Massachusetts reaped modest population gains, Boston.com acknowledged that young people learn in Boston (seventy-six colleges, including Harvard and Cambridge), but they end up living (and earning a living) elsewhere because of the cost of housing, the quality of the schools, and the safety of the streets. A good job is often not waiting for graduates. In short, residents leave Massachusetts because they cannot thrive there.

According to Sutton Representative Ryan Fattman, Massachusetts has become hell for business (and thus gainful employment). Now cluttering the business class further, the tax-and-spend statism rubber is meeting the road for all Massachusetts residents. The gas tax went up, along with taxes on cigarettes and (until recently, Go Mass GOP!) on anything related to computer software.

Come July 31, the beginning of a new fiscal year, was perhaps the beginning of more financial frustrations for Bay State voters. The new tax increase also ties the gas tax increase to inflation starting in January, 2015 (the same year when the Obamacare employer-mandate comes into effect).

Imagine that, an automatic tax increase taking you down the road to ruin, or a tax in your face, forever!

In California, the Board of Equalization pushed a gas tax hike because they had to. In other words, so that politicians wouldn't have to, and thus wouldn't lose their jobs.

So, are Bay State residents doomed to paying higher prices for their gas? Not if the Mass GOP has its way, and puts a break on this eternal taking. Kirsten Hughes, Chairman of the Mass GOP, has protested the never-ending spending with the following mantra:

"Happy Taxachusetts Day," Hughes said. "Democrats are the reason taxes are higher today."

Yes, it’s their fault entirely. "Mister Governor" Deval Patrick even defended the tax hikes:

"We've got -- and citizens know it -- a long neglected transportation infrastructure," Patrick said. "It's time to reinvest in our infrastructure for the sake of our growth, for the sake of our economy and for the sake of our quality of life."

The people of the Commonwealth know that their roads, bridges, and thoroughfares are thoroughly done for. And why? Once again, more residents are leaving than staying, and that unpleasant migration will take a toll on bridges (pun intended). Not just the ways, but also the means feel neglected in Massachusetts, i.e. the means of production (workers, businesses, anyone who wakes up the morning expecting more than just barely getting by) are getting tired of making, and yet someone else does all the taking: the Beacon Hill Democratic hypermajority.

Three Republican state representatives, Jamie Kang of Belmont, Rep. Shaunna O'Connell of Taunton and Mary Lou Daxland of Westport, have proposed a ballot initiative to tank the forever gas tax. With a smooth eye for the roving theft of the state legislature, the Republican representatives recognize that an automatic tax increase amounts to "Taxation without Representation." Not only that, but more tax money poured into an economy will automatically create inflation. In effect, a tax on automotives tied to inflation will ride over everyone before anyone can say "Stop!"

No one can blame the Massachusetts Democrats sneaky attempts to fill up their own tank while tanking the state with onerous levies. Their measure craftily permits lawmakers to raise revenue without voting for the tax increases, thus shielding themselves and their party's future politicians from putting their seats on the line. Voters need to siphon off the arrogance which fuels such legislative speeding.

Commonwealth residents have fought wars and lost their lives over this precious right of representation before taxation. Instead of the streets of Boston running red with the blood of bled-dry taxpayers, perhaps this time around the residents will beat down the Democratic hegemony and start sending to the statehouse the political party that rallies for all drivers. Instead of a Boston Massacre, how about a road-rage rally, one where Bay State voters, fed up with paying more at the pump, charge at every lawmaker who approved a rising excise.

Activists of all stripes are lining up to put out the fire on this tax. As for 2014 elections, Republicans are looking good to take back the roads of Massachusetts and make the Bay State a haven for businesses and motorists alike. One hundred thousand signatures are needed to establish the initiative for the November 2014 election.

If you want to assist with the repeal of the automatic gas tax increases, please visit here.

Put a break on the forever gas tax, Massachusetts, and bring back the commuters, the commerce, and the comeuppance which the Democratic stronghold in Beacon Hill so richly deserves.

Arthur Christopher Schaper is a teacher-turned-writer on topics both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A life-long Southern California resident, Arthur currently lives in Torrance. Follow him on Twitter @ArthurCSchaper, reach him at [email protected], and read more at Schaper's Corner and As He Is, So Are We Ministries.

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Arthur Schaper: Mass GOP Takes On Forever Gas Tax

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