Left In Lowell

UPDATE: As Charley says, these are the two more important loopholes to close, though the total revenue generated by the whole list is also important, in my opinion. The two are:

1. Letting business shift income to out of state subsidiaries to avoid taxes, and
2. Claiming different kinds of corporate identities between their federal and state tax returns. Let’s tax a duck like a duck, and not like a swan.

According to this Boston Globe report, DiMasi, self-styled King of Beacon Hill, has decided unilaterally to quash Patrick’s proposal which would help close the state’s budget deficit without too many cuts and without the rainy day fund (hint: we’re supposed to be in a good economy right now…it’s about to be crushed by real estate problems among others, so I wouldn’t dive into that rainy day fund just yet).

The Globe says that the House Ways and Means committee is going to come out with its own version of the budget by mid-April. This is your chance to say to DiMasi, you ain’t the boss of the voters. Call the House Ways and Means committee and express your views about closing the tax loopholes that only will affect the largest businesses in the Commonwealth and make them finally pay their share. (To view the proposals in a neat table format, BMG has it here.)

The main number for the whole committee is: (617) 722-2380. Here are the individual members and their responsibilities and the towns they’re from. You can get the list, with links to the members’ phone numbers and web pages, here. If one of these is your Rep, call them especially.

Robert A. DeLeo of Winthrop - Chair: 617-722-2990 or 781-289-8965
Marie P. St. Fleur of Boston - Vice Chair: 617-722-2380
James E. Vallee of Franklin - Assistant Vice-Chair: 617-722-2380 or 508-528-1095
Theodore C. Speliotis of Danvers
Frank M. Hynes of Marshfield
Thomas P. Kennedy of Brockton
William C. Galvin of Canton
Louis L. Kafka of Stoughton
William G. Greene, Jr. of Billerica
John F. Quinn of Dartmouth
Paul Kujawski of Webster
Colleen M. Garry of Dracut
Harold P. Naughton, Jr. of Clinton
Geraldine Creedon of Brockton
Barry R. Finegold of Andover
Alice K. Wolf of Cambridge
Elizabeth A. Malia of Boston
Walter F. Timilty of Milton
David Paul Linsky of Natick
Mark V. Falzone of Saugus
Anne M. Gobi of Spencer
Mary E. Grant of Beverly
William Lantigua of Lawrence
Robert M. Koczera of New Bedford
Christopher N. Speranzo of Pittsfield
Michael J. Moran of Boston