I do not support Governor Patrick's proposal to raise the income tax nor his boost in state spending. But his proposal to cut the sales tax demonstrates he is operating on a political level light years ahead of the state's Republican leadership.
For full disclosure I will point out that I ran for state rep arguing the GOP should push for large cuts in the sales tax instead of small cuts in the income tax. My humiliation in the primary shows this may not be a great issue. But I still believe it could be.
The governor will try to sell his plan as tax reform not a tax increase. The GOP must be careful how they fight against the plan. Embrace the sales tax cut but argue for revenue neutrality on any sales tax decrease. Most likely the much higher income tax will pass anyway but the Republicans can argue against the excessive income tax increase and take credit for a sales tax decrease.
I argued the sales tax should be cut in 2 or 3 steps to 3%. Should we get to 4.5-5% this could be a helpful issue for the next GOP governor candidate to run on. The 4.5% rate can likely be achieved with no income tax increase if the state budget grows at a very small rate. This is unlikely in the end but should give the Republicans in the legislature a strong case to argue.
