LOWELL — Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Doughty and his working mate Kate Campanale visited town Tuesday to announce a two-tiered tax reform plan focused towards state companies and residents.
At a press convention on the South Common, Doughty outlined a few of their 10 proposed insurance policies, together with lowering the company earnings tax from 8% to 7% over 4 years, lowering gross sales tax from 6.25% to five%, stopping property tax will increase by promising state support to communities and eliminating the “rolling stock” tax that trucking firms pay to ship merchandise.
While different states have racked up 10 tax cuts for residents in recent times, the commonwealth has but to chop any taxes, Doughty mentioned. This is an issue, he mentioned, as a result of enterprise house owners and residents are leaving the state.
Doughty, who oversees a producing facility in Jamaica Plain, mentioned he usually hears from different companies that they’re contemplating shifting elsewhere. Doughty referred to as this “one of the greatest losses in our state,” as these companies start to speculate elsewhere, and Massachusetts loses out.
“I’m a business owner, but I’m also a father, a grandfather and a citizen of this great state,” he mentioned. “We used to have some of the highest taxes in the country, and right now, the other states are moving ahead of us. There’s so many states that have begun to lower taxes.”
The technique is to harness the state’s $3.5 billion surplus and “large rainy-day fund” to encourage companies and residents to remain right here. Doughty added that the commonwealth has change into some of the costly locations within the nation to dwell, so he got down to discover a steadiness between decreasing taxes and nonetheless having sufficient to offer wanted providers.
Doughty mentioned he plans to observe the “Baker Administration formula”: sustaining state support to municipalities throughout the commonwealth. Cities equivalent to Lowell, he mentioned, will have the ability to depend on and know what funding they’ll obtain three or 4 years down the road.
“The funds that the state sends are critical for future infrastructure and for planning,” he mentioned. “We’re the only team in the race that have said that we will continue to follow that same formula for providing state funds.”
Like Gov. Charlie Baker, Doughty mentioned he hopes to keep up the non-public earnings tax at 5%.
On gross sales tax, Doughty referred to New Hampshire, which has no gross sales tax. Massachusetts elevated its gross sales tax to six.25% in 2009, however Doughty mentioned he suggests lowering it once more with the intention to defend the economic system.
“We want to reduce the sales tax. This is particularly important for communities like Lowell and those that are on the northern border next to New Hampshire,” he mentioned. “Anything we can do to reduce that will help our businesses and our realtors and our restaurants that are here on this side of the border.”
Another proposal is to extend the Earned Income Tax Credit, which helps households with low and reasonable earnings. Campanale, who served as state consultant for the seventeenth Worcester District for 2 phrases, ending in 2018, mentioned she and Doughty plan to extend the credit score from 30% to 40% of federal credit score.
“The earned income tax credit that we propose in here, it really helps not just people with families, but everybody with low income,” Campanale mentioned after the press convention. “We’re trying to help everybody, and those tax credits are really important.”
Doughty and Campanale first stopped on the State House round 11 a.m. Tuesday and continued from Lowell to Haverhill at 3 p.m. to make the identical announcement.
Doughty is working in opposition to Geoff Diehl, a former seventh Plymouth District state consultant, within the Sept. 6 Republican main.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”