From The Daily Times Chronicle:
Income tax repeal might be therapeutic

by Wendell H. Woodman, September 10, 2002

Nobody is working harder for the Libertarian Party this year than the Democratic Party. State Treasurer Shannon O'Brien calls state government a mess. Warren Tolman says it's broken.

To Robert Reich it's dysfunctional.

Senate President Tom Birmingham nods at their characterizations. So in playing to the cynicism of voters, the Democratic candidates for Governor seem agreed that Massachusetts is a broken, dysfunctional mess. Which just happens to be the Libertarian Party's diagnosis, too. But the elixir in the Libertarian bag of remedies is one that Democrats consider far too draconian - repeal of the state income tax.

The Libertarian asks, "If something's a broken, dysfunctional mess, why chase good money after it?"

There the Democrats and Libertarians part company. The Democrats want to keep their dream of paternalism alive for another thousand years, and the Libertarians want to put the cadaver to rest. In the last gubernatorial contest, Republican Paul Cellucci tied his prospects to a ballot question on reducing the income tax rate. He won.

Carla Howell, the Libertarian candidate for Governor, is going the Republicans one better this year. Her party - the smaller-is-prettier party - wants to put the broken, dysfunctional government on a crash diet by abolishing the income tax.

Just as Paul Cellucci and the tax cut shared the ballot four years ago, Carla Howell and repeal of the income tax are this year' happy couple. Carla has less money for her cause than the Republicans had in 1998, but she's getting unexpected help from the enemy. She's got the Democrats trashing everything the Democrats represent - government failing year after year at triple the rate of inflation.

The Libertarians want to stop feeding caviar to the pandemic of ineptitude and starve it back to something manageable. Instead of wasting further resources on new experiments, they'd like to close down the lab.

The Democrats think the lab needs new direction - and fresh money.

The Republican nominee-apparent, Mitt Romney, is embracing the same theme.

The Libertarian challenge asks that trite old question, "Are you getting more from your government today than you were getting 10 years ago?" The follow-up question asks if you are $9 billion better off. That $9 billion in revenue and spending growth is the equivalent of this year's yield from the state income tax. By cutting the budget back by $9 billion - to a level indistinguishable from services rendered a decade ago, the state could stop taxing your income, claim the Libertarians.

Democrats (and most Republicans) think the ramifications of abolishing the income tax would be frightful - an extremist idea, they say. Well, if Beacon Hill is as broken and dysfunctional as they claim, then what the ship of state probably needs is an extended sabbatical. What better way to force it into dry-dock than to eliminate the income tax?

If voters do choose to abolish the income tax, they should probably elect Carla Howell and trust her to tackle the broken, dysfunctional mess with a ruthless paring knife instead of soapbox rhetoric.