Romney Didn't Raise Taxes--But Raised "Fees"
Posted by Stephanie Taylor on August 29, 2007 at 10:19 AM
Mitt Romney likes to claim that he didn't raise taxes when he was governor of Massachusetts--but he did impose a number of "fees," including fee hikes on the blind, the mentally retarded and gun owners.
A survey of states by the National Conference of State Legislatures found Massachusetts led the nation during Romney's first year, raising fees and fines by $501 million. New York was second with $367 million. Nine other states raised fees and fines by more than $100 million.
During Romney's tenure, it became more expensive to:
...use an ice skating rink, register a boat, take the bar exam, get a duplicate driver's license, file a court case, install underground storage tanks, sell cigarettes or alcohol, comply with air quality rules and transport hazardous waste.
So is Romney misleading voters when he bills himself as the anti-tax candidate?
"It's a shell game," said Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. "He can still say he didn't raise taxes, but fees are taxes by another name. It's a trick."
Comments (7) «
What do you expect? Here in Massachusetts we know enough not to trust Tricky Mitt.
When he isn't rasing fees and lying that he's against passing more costs on to taypayers, he's flip flopping on major issues.
He lies and then flip flops to cover it up. Nice package.
Here in Oregon, over 17,000 patients have paid a fee of $150 and gotten a doctor's signature ( over 2500 doctors have signed) on the application for the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program. A few years ago the fee had been lowered from $150 to $100, but 2 years ago our State legislature felt that the surplus funds that the program was generating was embarrassing, so they confiscated $900,000 and put it into the General Fund to pay for DHS programs. Unfortunately, they took all the money that the program needed to run, so they had to raise the fees.
The OMMP fees are paid yearly, and no one gets a free ride: renewals are $100, new licenses are $150, and low income patients pay $20.
Here in Oregon, over 17,000 patients have paid a fee of $150 and gotten a doctor's signature ( over 2500 doctors have signed) on the application for the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program. A few years ago the fee had been lowered from $150 to $100, but 2 years ago our State legislature felt that the surplus funds that the program was generating was embarrassing, so they confiscated $900,000 and put it into the General Fund to pay for DHS programs. Unfortunately, they took all the money that the program needed to run, so they had to raise the fees.
The OMMP fees are paid yearly, and no one gets a free ride: renewals are $100, new licenses are $150, and low income patients pay $20.
EVERY REPUBLICAN ALWAYS SAYES: "WE GOP DON'T RAISE INCOME TAXES.
THEY just raise taxes on Property, Taxes on Goods,
taxes on finance accounts, and every other Tax that won't show raising
Taxes on income. No matter, that you can't buy a home or any other goods.
We have really taken our collective eye off the ball on the issue of taxes.
Grow up people! If you want the government to provide services and protections to our citizens then we have to pay for it. Paying taxes will NEVER go away so stop complaining about it and start paying attention to how our taxes are spent.
We have allowed the corporate lobbyists to usurp our influence on elected officials and bureaucrats. We have allowed the system of revenue collection by our various government taxing bodies to become a burden upon the majority of Americans that are working class while those that are wealthy pay proportionately less contributions to our general welfare.
The politicians will continue to pander to the voters with promises of low taxes or pledges not to raise taxes and we all suffer when we blindly fall for that bunk. Come on, we are smarter than that! We all need to grow up and realize that paying our taxes is an investment in US, the United States of America and we need to manage our investment better by making sure those tax dollars go to infrastructure improvements, schools, healthcare and REAL national security-like agencies that share databases and information on "persons of interest", inspecting cargo coming into our ports, and making sure that our First Responders are well trained and well equipped.
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