Frequently Asked Questions

  • It will reduce the Massachusetts state sales tax to 3%, starting January 1, 2011 (right after Christmas!)
  • It will create 33,000 new productive, private sector jobs.
  • It will get us half way to a level playing field with New Hampshire’s 0% sales tax and help save our Massachusetts retailers – and jobs.
  • It will attract shoppers from Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York. Another boost for Mass. retailers and jobs.
  • It will rollback state government spending less than 5% to the budget level of 2009, cutting about $ 2.5 billion from $51.8 billion in total state spending. A trivial reduction compared to the doom-and-gloom predictions of “decimation” that opponents claim.
  • It leaves local government spending and all essential services intact.
  • It will force politicians to cut government waste, bureaucracy, and sweetheart deals.
  • An estimated $688 to each of 3,400, 000 taxpayers and workers. Over $900 per family. Every year.
  • Each time you shop you’ll save 3.25% on taxable items such as appliances, household items, pharmaceuticals, computers, electronics, furniture, cell phones, back-to-school supplies, gifts, collectibles, sporting gear, dining out and prepared meals.
  • Buy a $10,000 car and save $325 in reduced sales tax
  • Buy a $20,000 car and save $650 in reduced sales tax
  • It will ratify and keep Beacon Hill’s sales tax increase to 6.25%
  • It will continue to fund state government’s overspending and waste
  • It will take away the only tool we have for rolling back taxes and cutting government waste in the near future. There are not enough pro-taxpayer legislators – even if every challenger were to win this November – to pass a tax cut. A vote was taken to reduce the sales tax twice this year, and it lost by sizable majorities.

Watch the video: What the Teachers Union Prays You Won’t Find Out Before Election Day, November 2nd

  • How much would rolling back the sales tax to 3% reduce state spending? Just $2.34 billion. Out of $52 billion. Less than 5% of total state spending.
  • This requires no reduction in city or town spending and no reduction in local aid.
  • Keep in mind that $52 billion is just what the state government spends. Cities and towns spend an additional $22 billion, every year, paid for by your local taxes (on top of the $5 billion cities and towns get in “local aid” from the state.)
  • How much of that $52 billion is government waste, pork, patronage, and sweetheart deals? 20%? 30%? 40%?
  • Does cutting state spending just 5% go far enough?
  • How much have Massachusetts families been forced to cut since the recession began in 2008 – while state spending continued to rise?
  • Everyday workers, job-seekers, taxpayers and shoppers who believe our current taxes are too high and government spending is too high
  • Retailers, restaurant owners, car dealers and other small business owners and their employees
  • People who understand that we must rein in government waste and force the legislature to reduce reckless overspending in order for our state to get out of this recession and prosper
  • Workers who are tired of funding government largess, including high government worker salaries and lucrative pensions, health care and other benefits that do not exist in the private sector.
  • A surprising number of teachers, fire fighters, police officers and other government workers who are fed up with their unions and who want change.
  • Dozens of candidates running for office in Massachusetts who endorse YES on 3.
  • Groups which profiteer from high taxes, high government spending, and government protections: Teachers Unions, Government Employee Unions, Government Contractor Unions, recipients of taxpayer handouts, and politically-connected corporations.
  • For example, Paul Guzzi was a lead spokesperson for the No on 1 campaign and head of the Boston Chamber of Commerce — which received DIRECT SUBSIDIES from the Massachusetts state government. A conflict of interest?
  • More than 99% of the opposition’s donations come from these powerful, government-funded Special Interests. They were funded, indirectly, by your tax dollars –- not from the general support of individual taxpayers and voters.
  • Politicians hand out high salaries and generous benefits to government unions and government contractors.
  • As a result, government salaries are higher than in the private sector. Government fringe benefits are dramatically higher than in the private sector.
  • Government employees are allowed to retire 13 years earlier than the average private sector worker. At much higher pay.
  • In many cases, we’re paying the cost of two government employees when only one is actually doing a job.
  • Voting YES on 3 puts your tax dollars back into the productive, private sector where we pay only one person to do one job.
  • According to a study by the Beacon Hill Institute, reducing the sales tax from 6.25% to 3% will create over 27,000 new jobs.
  • Economics 101: Tax cuts stimulate the economy and create new jobs. Tax hikes worsen the economy and eliminate jobs.
  • A Beacon Hill Institute study published in 2010 showed that Question 3 will lower the overall level of unemployment, stimulate economic activity and create 27,199 new private sector jobs.
  • No.
  • Remember in 2008 when they said “Vote no” on ending the income tax – or else we’ll have to cut aid to cities and towns? A majority of voters responded by voting no. What did the legislature do earlier this year? They cut local aid.
  • Lesson learned: They will cut local aid whether you vote no or vote YES.
  • No.
  • Remember in 2008 when they said “Vote no” on ending the income tax – or else we’ll have to raise other taxes? A majority of voters responded by voting no. What did the legislature do the next year? They raised FIVE new taxes: the Sales Tax, Meals Options Tax, Alcohol Sales Tax, Satellite TV Tax and a Telephone Wire Tax (raising your utility bill).
  • Lesson learned: They will try to raise your taxes whether you vote no or vote YES.
  • Yes, Massachusetts ballot initiatives are implemented automatically without needing legislative approval. That’s why they are the most powerful tool available to voters to directly change government policy.
  • Since 1919, there have been 57 questions put directly to the voters of Massachusetts; 26 have passed and stand as law today. (Source: www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/elebalm/balmpdf/balmtype.pdf; updated manually for 2006 and 2008)
  • Contrary to the whining of many who claim that the legislature won’t let this tax cut stand, the overwhelming majority of ballot initiatives that were approved by voters stand as law today — including the last 2 tax cut initiatives to pass. Together they have saved Massachusetts taxpayers $12.7 billion over the last 10 years!
  • The governor, Senate President, House Majority Leader, and every candidate for governor has pledged that they will honor the will of the voters if Question 3 passes.

The following Massachusetts initiatives were placed on the ballot, passed by voters in the year indicated below, and stand as law today:

  • 2016 – Marijuana is legalized.
  • 2014 – Automatic gas tax increases is repealed.
  • 2012 – Medical marijuana is legalized.
  • 2000 – State income tax is now 5.3%, reduced from 5.95%. This has saved Massachusetts taxpayers $7 billion so far.
  • 1998 – State income tax rate for interest and dividends is now 5.3%, reduced from 12%. This has saved Massachusetts taxpayers $5.7 billion so far.
  • 1994 – Rent control is repealed.
  • 1994 – Prohibition on stores opening on Sunday morning and holidays is repealed. You now enjoy the convenience of shopping on Sunday in Massachusetts.
  • 2002 – Schools are required to teach only in English.
  • 2008 – Dog racing is banned.
  • 2008 – Marijuana is decriminalized.
  • 1984 – The Bottle Bill requires shoppers to pay a deposit on bottles and cans.
  • 1980 – Prop 2-1/2 forces local governments to restrict property tax increases to 2-1/2% unless an override is passed by voters.
  • Broad-based tax cuts that benefit everyday workers and taxpayers in Massachusetts happen only by ballot initiative. The legislature only passes targeted taxes cuts that benefit special interests, and only if total tax revenue keeps going up. This has been true for decades and is a primary reason why ballot initiatives are an important tool for those who want less government and more freedom.
  • The Legislature has shown their willingness to increase the sales tax, not decrease it. They voted to increase the sales tax by 25% effective August 1,2009 (from 5% to 6.25%). Twice in the spring of 2010 the legislature took a vote to roll it back to 5%. It was soundly defeated both times.
  • The legislature is overrun with incumbents – both Democratic and Republican – who want to keep Massachusetts state spending high. The legislature, along with every governor in Massachusetts – whether Democrat or Republican – has raised state spending by about $1 billion every year.
  • Voting YES on 3 lets YOU decide – instead of the legislature.
  • If every legislative challenger on the ballot this November 2010 were to be elected, and if every one of them was a tax-cutter, there would not be enough votes to reduce the sales tax.
  • Unless voters pass Question 3 to reduce the sales tax to 3%, there will be no broad-based tax cut for everyday voters.
  • To place Question 3 on the Massachusetts statewide ballot in 2010 for a vote of the citizens, its sponsors — the Alliance to Roll Back Taxes — had to first write the text of the proposed law and get it approved by the state Attorney General in the summer of 2009.
  • Then the Alliance and its supporters had to gather 111,000 voter signatures statewide over the span of two required petition drives: one in the fall of 2009 and another in the spring of 2010.
  • The first of the two drives was much more difficult, requiring 66,583 certified petition signatures. The Alliance collected 93,000 raw (pre-certification) signatures from voters across Massachusetts of which 74,131 were accepted by the state Elections Division in December.
  • In the spring, they had to go through this process again, so as to submit another 11,099 certified signatures. The Alliance collected another 18,000 raw signatures of which 14,004 were certified.
  • Massachusetts has some of the toughest petitioning requirements for ballot initiatives. For the fall petition, 93,000 signatures had to be collected from voters in each of the state’s 14 counties. They had to be entered on separate sheets for each of the state’s 351 cities and town. Petition sheets had to be kept free of stray marks to avoid disqualification. Each sheet had to be sorted by city or town, distributed to each of the 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth for certification, picked up from each of those 351 cities and towns, then submitted to the Elections Division in Boston for final certification. All this had to happen within 2-1/2 months between mid-September and early-December of 2009.
  • The Alliance also had to comply with financial reporting requirements, submit a summary of the law, and submit an Argument in Favor of Question 3 for the state’s voter guide.
  • No. Voting for Question 3 took place on November 2, 2010. However, there are many opportunities to fight Big Government in every election, in every state.
  • Vote for every small government candidate or ballot measure that you can. And if there are none on your ballot, vote anyway! Write in your name and vote for yourself – or another resident of your district who’s committed to making government small. This will signal to politicians that you do NOT approve of, nor authorize, their Big Government taxes and spending — but that you ARE ready and willing to vote for small government when it’s on the ballot. This will encourage small government candidates to run for office and will encourage tax cutters to place measures on the ballot to reduce the size of government.
  • This is why it’s important that you VOTE on Election Day (or by absentee ballot) in every election, every year.
  • Be sure to register to vote, especially if you moved recently.
  • If small government voters neglect to register and to vote in every election, Big Government wins. Don’t give them the upper hand. Register to vote in your state today!
  • Already registered? Find other voters you know who want a tax cut. Ask them to register to vote today.