The Common Wealth of Taxachusetts

And off we go down the path of tax hikes and toll hikes and falling short of making the necessary reforms to keep those hikes from happening.

Bay State consumers, already hard-pressed by a slumping economy, will be slapped with a 25 percent sales tax hike and nearly $1 billion in total tax increases Aug. 1, Gov. Deval Patrick said yesterday after signing a massive transportation reform bill.

Patrick had vowed to veto the sales tax boost if lawmakers didn’t enact transportation, pension and ethics reforms – but all three measures passed.

“I could not support a sales tax increase and ask people to pay for the status quo,” Patrick said in a statement. “Because of (the reforms), I will approve the new revenues we need to bring our budget into balance, offset the need for even more difficult cuts and expand opportunity throughout the commonwealth.”

The transportation measure also means an unpopular toll hike – scheduled take effect July 1 – will likely be averted. The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority board is meeting Monday.

I am not convinced, not in the slightest, that all possible options were considered to avoid increasing taxes. When times are tight for the rest of us, we have to cut our spending. Why can’t the state? I know too many people that have to endure pay cuts in addition to their own spending cuts and times are still rough. I know too many people that have become unemployed in the last year who will also bear the brunt of tax increases at the worst possible time. If they think the state has it rough, as around, they don’t have it so bad.

If someone can explain to me why perfectly good roads are getting repaved and perfectly good highway signs are getting replaced while taxes are being raised, then perhaps you have a shot of convincing me that the hikes are necessary. But I doubt it.

We’re all tired of the incessant rain that has been falling on the Commonwealth for weeks–but there is always hope in knowing that there is sunshine in our future…at least with regards to the weather forecast. As far as the forecast for the economy of the Commonwealth–I see that dreary days well into our future.

Remind me again, why do I bother to stay in Massachusetts?

Aaron Margolis is a life long resident of the Bay State, and works at an architectural firm north of Boston. Aaron has a Master of Architecture Degree from Boston Architectural College and is currently in the process of becoming of a Registered Architect.