The Small Government Act

From The Boston Globe: Repeal barely beaten back
Advocates eye future success

by Corey Dade, November 6, 2002

Voters came close to passing a proposal to eliminate the state income tax, sending a strong signal to Beacon Hill about distaste for future tax increases as a way to solve the budget crisis.

With 89 percent of the precincts reporting last night, support for Question 1 captured 47 percent of the turnout, outperforming the projections by about 7 percentage points.

Sponsors of Question 1, led by Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Carla Howell, had hoped for 40 percent in order to assemble a critical mass of public opinion that might dissuade the Legislature from passing a tax increase at the end of the year.

"It goes to show that you can't trust polls," Howell said late last night shortly after conceding her loss in the governor's race. "It also demonstrates that the reporting of how big government must solve everyone's problems is clearly not representative of what all the people believe."

Eliminating the state income tax would take an estimated $9 billion annually out of state coffers and force an immediate 40 percent slash in state spending - a centerpiece of Howell's "Small Government is Beautiful" platform. As a result, advocates said, extra money would flow into the market and create between 300,000 and 500,000 jobs, more than enough to completely wipe out unemployment in the state.

Berry. "I would guess it comes back on the ballot in a little bit."

But the prospect of saving on their tax bills clearly resonated with many voters. The measure fared best in the Berkshires and on the Cape as well as rural towns in Western Massachusetts, according to a Globe analysis of early poll results. In Boston, voters liked it less, with about 37 percent voting for it.

Some voters in Boston said they at least paused to consider supporting it.

Libertarian promoters of the measure tout it as a way to bring revolutionary change to state government, and force a full-scale rethinking of everything the government does.

"We desperately need new jobs in Massachusetts," said Howell. "There's only one way to achieve that, and that's by cutting taxes and shrinking state government."