Quotes of Note about Carla Howell's
Question 1 to End the Income Tax

The Boston Globe, November 7, 2002:
"The biggest surprise Tuesday night didn't turn out to be the governor's race, after all. It was the big vote in favor of eliminating the state income tax."

"To my knowledge, no one took any polls indicating that nearly half the voters wanted to scrap the income tax."

The Boston Globe, November 8, 2002:
"The election results brought another warning shot across the Democratic bow: the unexpectedly strong vote (45 percent) for a ballot question that would eliminate the state's
$9 billion income tax altogether."

Boston Herald Editorial, November 7, 2002:
"Living in Massachusetts and being bombarded constantly (before, during and after the campaign season) with the demands of public employee unions (teachers, police officers, state workers), we tend to forget at times that they do not represent the needs and the desires of most voters."

"That and the fact that as another former Republican governor, Bill Weld, so aptly put it, Massachusetts people want government 'out of their bedrooms and out of their pockets.' "

"We have only to look at the exceedingly narrow defeat of Question 1 - the repeal of the state income tax - to realize that is as true now as then. Some 45 percent of voters (nearly 900,000 people) were perfectly willing to take $8.5 billion out of state coffers and put it back in their own pockets."

The Boston Globe, October 10, 2002:
"Howell seemed the most successful at shaping the debate. Her trumpeting of her ballot initiative to eliminate the income tax in Massachusetts... kept the candidates returning to the subject of taxes throughout the hour."

The Boston Globe, October 18, 2002:
"Howell has altered the landscape of this year's race, leading the successful drive to get an initiative on the Nov. 5 ballot that would eliminate the state income tax."

Boston Herald, October 6, 2002:
"Heavy-duty tax talk - hiking taxes, cutting taxes, even outright abolishing taxes - has suddenly overtaken the gubernatorial race as the state's fiscal crisis deepens."

Boston Herald, April 8, 2002:
"In Massachusetts, Howell has become the Libertarian brand, building name recognition with her 'Small government is beautiful' mantra."

National Review, November 7, 2002:
"The voters recognized the need for lower taxes in bad economic times. While the elite media, often graduates of prestigious universities, have no comprehension of basic macroeconomics, it appears that the public has begun to develop some. The initiative to completely eliminate the income tax in Massachusetts, which had been ridiculed by editorialists throughout the Commonwealth, came within a whisker of victory. The Democrat-controlled legislature should see this result, as clarion calls to see cuts in the state budget"

Massachusetts News, December, 2000:
"Most people give Carla Howell and Michael Cloud a tremendous amount of credit for popularizing the idea of ending the state income tax."

The Boston Globe, November 7, 2002:
"The line of demarcation between conservative New Hampshire and the more liberal Bay State appears to be fading. Just like their neighbors to the north, Massachusetts voters don't like taxes. Nearly half - 45 percent - voted to support a ballot question calling for the elimination of the state income tax."

Boston Herald, November 7, 2002:
"Romney - and the Legislature - will be under enormous pressure to resist higher taxes, in the wake of the stunning 45 percent vote in favor of abolishing the state income tax."

"That's 881,738 citizens willing to strip almost $9 billion out of a $23 billion budget if the tax had been ended this year. Carla Howell and her Libertarians, who sponsored referendum Question 1, did their job. It's a strong message for lower taxes for the Democratic-dominated Legislature, too."

The Union Leader, November 7, 2002:
"The income tax is so unpopular that a ballot measure to kill it in Massachusetts got nearly 50 percent of the vote on Tuesday. "

The Boston Globe, November 7, 2002:
"Governor-elect Romney, who opposed the measure, already has begun to recite its narrow defeat as a mandate. 'The response to Question 1, with so many people saying they wanted to see an elimination of the income tax was, if you will, underlining the fact that people do not want to see taxes go up in Massachusetts, and they'd like to see them come down,' Romney said yesterday."

Howie Carr, Boston Herald, November 8, 2002:
"(There is) deep consternation in certain circles about another huge number that was rung up on Tuesday - 881,738, to be exact."

"That was the number of Massachusetts citizens who voted yes on Question 1, to abolish their state income taxes. Some people are scratching their heads, saying, what message was this mean-spirited 45 percent of the electorate trying to deliver to Beacon Hill?"

"As one of the 881,738, I can answer that question. We meant to stop paying state income taxes. We desired to opt for the New Hampshire solution. We wanted a 5.3 percent pay raise."

The Boston Globe, November 6, 2002:
"Howell came closest to hitting the jackpot with her ballot initiative to repeal the state income tax, which drew substantial support."

The New Bedford Standard Times, November 6, 2002:
"The put-the-brakes-on-government theme was picked up in the referendum questions, where a total repeal of the state income tax came within a statistical whisker of passing, despite the universal condemnation of the political establishment."

The Boston Globe, November 6, 2002:
"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."

LA Times, September 29, 2002:
"Its mere presence on the ballot signals a triumph for the Libertarian Party, which has long espoused an anti-tax philosophy in Massachusetts and which collected about [120,000] signatures to place the proposal before voters. The initiative's existence also reflects a creeping cantankerousness among some segments of the always unpredictable Yankee electorate."

"Not one Beacon Hill lawmaker has endorsed the measure, which one state senator said would turn Massachusetts into 'the Idaho of the East Coast.'"

"The very simplicity of Howell's proposal is why (Michael) Widmer (whose organization - Massachusetts Tax 'Payers' Foundation - is the major Question 1 opposition), for one, fears that some citizens may embrace it."

Boston Herald, September 23, 2002:
"Howell's ballot question to eliminate the state income tax - and the campaign for governor she has built around it - shows more ideological courage than Republican Mitt Romney or Democrat Shannon O'Brien will probably ever have."

The Boston Globe, September 20, 2002:
Regarding Carla Howell's ballot Question 1 full page ads in the Globe:

"WITH THE PRIMARIES over, it's time to say a kind word about the candidate who impressed me most in the closing weeks. That would be Libertarian Carla Howell.

Her approach lets you read her reasoning, spot the holes, mull the pros and cons, and make up your own mind. It's almost the only ad I saw during the primary season that treated voters like intelligent adults. Which is just the point, Howell says.

'We are respectful of the voters, and of the intelligence of newspaper readers,' she says. 'People are thoughtful and want real information.' "

The Boston Globe, October 18, 2002:
"Howell has altered the landscape of this year's race, leading the successful drive to get an initiative on the Nov. 5 ballot that would eliminate the state income tax."

Boston Weekly Dig, October 16, 2002:
"Question 1, which would eliminate the Massachusetts Income Tax, could quite possibly be the single most important ballot question Massachusetts voters have ever considered."

Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard, professor of public management at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, September 29, 2002:
"The proposed income tax ban (is) 'a sleeper'...With voter turnouts averaging less than 30%, the bill could entice cranky citizens sick of wondering what the state does with the money extracted from their shriveling paychecks."

Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), October 17, 2002:
"Recognizing the most brazen move in state tax reform history, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) urges Massachusetts voters to vote 'yes' on Question 1 - to repeal the state income tax entirely."