Give citizens a lift by curbing taxes

Good news and bad news for the Massachusetts taxpayer this week. First, the good news.

Every so often the working people of Massachusetts catch a break. And so it was Monday that the Massachusetts Port Authority put the kibosh on a proposal to charge drivers a fee for picking up and dropping off passengers at Logan Airport.

In most parts of the country, celebrating a state agency’s reticence to levy yet another penalty on an already costly excursion would seem farcical, but here in Massachusetts it’s the correct response. The commonwealth often enthusiastically taxes its inhabitants in a redundant fashion, and adding a drop-off fee to the tolls already sucking money out of the pockets of taxpayers would be par for the course.

The supreme example of the Bay State’s adeptness at the fine art of taxation is the motor vehicle excise tax, which “all Massachusetts residents who own and register a motor vehicle must annually pay ... for the privilege of road use,” according to the secretary of state’s website.

That’s over and above all of the other taxes involved in automobile ownership such as a sales tax, a gas tax and various Department of Motor Vehicles taxes and fees.

Nevertheless, we’ve dodged a bullet at Logan.

Once again, we can be grateful for “the privilege of road use” such as the bumpy and treacherous commute on Route 1A, or the claustrophobia-inducing journey through the Callahan Tunnel, which feels more like a dimly lit catacomb than anything. When we arrive at the oasis of the drop-off zone, shuttle buses will lay on their horns and state troopers will bark at us to move along, but at no extra charge.

Now the bad, but not exactly “breaking” news.

On Monday, the Massachusetts House of Representatives shot down some tax proposals designed to reduce the sales and income tax rates.

In the year 2000, voters passed a referendum question rolling back the income tax to 5 percent, but lawmakers quickly maneuvered to make sure it wasn’t to be. Republican Rep. Marc Lombardo gave it another try Monday, but it was voted down. Also voted down was a proposal to return the sales tax to its 2009 level of 5 percent.

Hope is alive, though, as provisions or “triggers” in the current state income tax structure could see it reach that mythical 5 percent mark in the near future.

Also, according to the State House News Service, “Retailers are pushing a ballot question this year to reduce the sales tax rate from 6.25 percent to 5 percent and establish an annual sales tax holiday.”

So once again the voters of Massachusetts may, at least symbolically, get to vote on their own tax fortunes this November.

Republicans have not gotten much help from Gov. Charlie Baker on either of these items, though both were priorities during his unsuccessful 2010 campaign.

This is the state government we have. The political culture is to advocate on behalf of the state behemoth at the expense of the citizenry.

Other than the geographical beauty that was created millions of years before our state government, it becomes harder and harder to see what “privilege” exactly we are enjoying at such a high price here in the commonwealth.

We need to be a better, more accommodating state because some of the warm climes like Florida are calling.

Florida has no state income tax, and a flight to sunny Orlando takes just three hours. If you act now you can have a friend drop you off at Logan at no charge.