The Boston Globe: Ax the Sales Tax (Also the Income Tax)

A constitutional amendment to eliminate the sales tax and replace the flat state income tax with a progressive scale based on income would be a bold solution. It would both alleviate the tax burden for low- and moderate-income families and generate enough revenue to right our budget ship before the next recession hits.

A couple of years ago, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that, while Massachusetts households making less than $70,000 paid 1.7 percent of their income in sales taxes, those making over $252,000 paid just 0.54 percent. So wealthy households paid one-third of the tax rate of lower income households. That’s pretty regressive. Read more