The State sales tax has risen to 6.25%.
A ballot measure to cut the sales tax to 3% has generated an enormous response from residents across the commonwealth.
Democrats and Republicans alike share the belief that the sales tax should be cut.
By how much and when is the question.
If the sales tax were cut by more than half, there would be dramatic changes in the amount of money coming back to cities and towns for education, for the elderly programs and for state programs across the board.
There would also be less money for outrageous state pensions, outrageous state waste and outrageous and egregious state programs of every kind.
So much is at stake as voters decide to vote for the cut or to hold off in the belief that cutting the sales tax would destroy the quality of life in this state from one end of it to the other.
Let’s face it; virtually no one in this state wants to sacrifice anything of his or her own to make government right.
Nearly everyone in Massachusetts believes everything about government is about entitlement.
When it comes to making things right or continuing the gravy train, the gravy train gets precedence every time.
However, this is a new era that has come upon us since the national economy nearly collapsed two years ago.
If Question 3 gets an affirmative vote – we’ve learned from history, that the Legislature will do its very best to ignore the will of the people.
Not much is at stake with this vote.
If the measure wins – there will be a debate in the Legislature.
If it loses – nothing happens.
The debate if it wins will be about how much the cut will be when all is said and done.
If the tax is lowered by one or two percentage points, there will be less money to go around but we’ll be paying less in taxes.
We already pay so many taxes that it is both comical and pathetic but in the last analysis it is more pathetic than comical.
Slashing the state sales tax isn’t the beginning of the end.
It is the end of the beginning, as Sir Winston Churchill said many years ago.