End the Income Tax!

Well, it looks like Massachusetts is going to have a ballot referendum to decide on whether to completely abolish that state’s income tax.

Michael Cloud of the Committee for Small Government said his group collected about 100,000 signatures for the income tax repeal, "enough of a cushion to blow back any challenge." When it last appeared on the ballot in 2002, the initiative received more than 45 percent of the vote. Cloud predicted it would pass next year, adding that the group plans to spend $500,000 on ads for the initiative campaign, compared with just $90,000 five years ago.

The initiative would decimate the state budget, chopping it from about $28 billion to $17 billion, which was about the size of the state's 1995 budget, according to Cloud. He said the average household's savings would be about $3,600 a year.

"If the legislators feel like they need more money, they can make their case to the people," he said.

My thoughts…I wonder what Massuchusetts voters, who are not known to be raging "from my cold dead hands" conservatives, and almost passed this initiative back in 2002, getting a very astonishing 45% of the vote (at the time, it was predicting the initiative might – MIGHT! – get 30% support), will do. Hell, I’m even thinking that there may be a really good chance that the iniative will pass in Massachusetts this time around, what with the "it’s nice, but it’ll never happen" factor no longer in play. The first time it was on the ballot, it wasn’t taken all that seriously by media and political elites – indeed, even the Republican Party campaigned against eliminating the tax – so it would make sense that many people didn’t give it much thought, or were persuaded to not vote for it. But this time, they see that this initiative has some real support. Might more people feel that its safer to endorse such a radical plan?

And you know what else? I wonder would happen if the same thing were to be tried here in Ohio? Ohio is much more conservative, demographically speaking. Of course, we did elect Bob Taft twice. But think about it... What if there were no state income tax?