Romney Supports Tax Policies That Will Help The Rich Get Richer
Supports Bush Tax Cuts For The Wealthiest Americans
In September, 2011 Mitt Romney Said He Would Keep The Bush Tax Cuts In Place. The Washington Post reported that “Romney said he would keep the Bush-era income tax cuts unchanged.” [The Washington Post, 9/6/11]
CBO: One-Third of The Bush Tax Cuts Went To People With the Top 1% of Income, Who Earn On Average $1.2 Million. “Fully one-third of President Bush’s tax cuts in the last three years have gone to people with the top 1 percent of income, who have earned an average of $1.2 million annually, according to a report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to be published Friday… The new estimates confirm what independent tax analysts have long said: that Mr. Bush’s tax cuts have been heavily skewed to the very wealthiest taxpayers.” [Washington Post, 8/13/04]
Romney Opposed Funding A Jobs Plan With The So-Called Buffet Rule
Mitt Romney Said He Wanted Keep The Bush Tax Cuts And Disagreed With Warren Buffet On Raising Taxes On The Wealthy. The Boston Globe reported that “…several times today, he was asked about the New York Times opinion piece by billionaire Warren Buffett calling for increased taxes on the wealthy as a way to cut the deficit. “I disagree with Warren. And I do want to keep the Bush tax cuts in place,” Romney said. “If he’d like to pay more, I’d like him to write a big check. A few billion from Warren would help out, so send it in Warren, and get your friends to do the same, that’d be terrific…I say that kind of tongue in cheek.”“ [The Boston Globe, 8/16/11]
Romney: A Stimulus Approach [To Fixing The Economy] Hasn’t Worked. In an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN, Romney said, “Well, infrastructure enhancement in this country is a positive way to long-term improve the job prospects in America. But, look, a stimulus approach has not worked. The idea of item by item looking for a quick solution, throwing a little gasoline on the fire, that hasn’t worked.” [CQ Transcriptions, 9/15/11]
Romney Promised to Lower Corporate Taxes
Romney Promised To Introduced A Bill To Reduce The Corporate Tax Rate To 25%. In Romney’s “Believe in America” plan for jobs and economic growth, on Romney’s first day in office he would submit the “American Competitiveness Act” which “reduces the corporate income tax rate to 25 percent.” [Believe in America: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth, Pg. 6, 9/6/11]
Romney Increased Taxes And Fees By Over $700 Million A Year
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation: Romney Administration Raised Taxes And Fees By $740-$750 Million A Year. According to the Boston Globe, “Fees and taxes have increased more than $700 million a year under Governor Mitt Romney and Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, a leading budget specialist said yesterday. Michael J. Widmer — president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, which closely tracks state finances — said the state has raised roughly $740 million to $750 million per year by increasing fees and corporate taxes gained from what the Romney administration describes as ‘closing loopholes.’” [Boston Globe, 9/27/06]
Factcheck.org: Massachusetts Department Of Administration And Finance Estimated Romney Fee And Tax $424 Million Per Year, Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation Puts The Total At $740-$750 Million. According to Factcheck.org, “As we’ve noted before when the subject of Romney’s fee vs. tax increases has come up, the Massachusetts Department of Administration and Finance says that fee increases during Romney’s tenure added up to $260 million per year, with another $174 million raised from closing some corporate tax “loopholes.” The independent Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation puts the revenue total of fee hikes and tax loophole-closings at between $740 and $750 million a year.” [Factcheck.org, 1/31/08]
Cato Institute: Claim That Romney “Stood By A No-New-Taxes Pledge” Is “Mostly A Myth.” In 2006, the Cato Institute reported, “…Romney will likely also be eager to push the message that he was a governor who stood by a no-new-taxes pledge. That’s mostly a myth. His first budget included no general tax increases but did include a $500 million increase in various fees. He later proposed $140 in business tax hikes through the closing of ‘loopholes’ in the tax code.” [Cato Institute, Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors: 2006, 10/24/06 ]
Club For Growth: As Governor, Romney Broke A Campaign Pledge To Not Raise Taxes By Using Fee Hikes And Tax Loophole Closures Totaling $542 Million. According to the Club for Growth, “[Romney] pledged to balance the budget without raising taxes and touted his fulfillment of that pledge… While it is true that Governor Romney did not impose any broad-based tax hikes…he imposed a slew of fee hikes and tax ‘loophole’ closures,” which totaled $542 million from FY2003 through FY2006. [Club for Growth, 2012 Presidential White Paper #5, 6/7/11 ]
Non-Partisan Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center: Romney “Was Responsible For The Largest Raise Of Fees In Our History.” According to MSNBC First Read, “‘There is a difference between fees and taxes,’ contended Noah Berger, president of the non-partisan Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. ‘But Romney was responsible for the largest raise of fees in our state’s history.’” [MSNBC First Read, 6/6/11]
In Romney’s First Year He Increased Fees More Than Any Governor
National Conference of State Legislatures Study: In 2003, Massachusetts Imposed More Fee Hikes Than Any Other State. According to Congress Daily, “A survey of states grappling with spending crises has found that Massachusetts imposed more fee hikes than any other state in the nation this year — at least $500 million, the Boston Globe reported. GOP Gov. Mitt Romney and the Legislature, faced with a multibillion dollar shortfall, made it more expensive to get a marriage license or a divorce, file a court case, buy a house, renew a driver’s license, or tap into a host of other state services. The study by the National Conference of State Legislatures found that Massachusetts was one of 30 states that enacted fee increases this year.” [Congress Daily, 8/28/03]
During Romney’s First Year As Governor, Massachusetts “Increased Hundreds of Fees. According to the Boston Globe, “For example, in his first year in office, the state increased hundreds of fees, making it more expensive to get a driver’s license, marry, or buy a house. Those changes, which [the administration] defends as limited in scope and long overdue, brought in an additional $260 million.” [Boston Globe, 10/24/05]
In His First Year As Governor, Romney Proposed 90 New Fees Or Fee Hikes. According to the Associated Press, “Romney proposed 33 new fees and 57 fee hikes in his administration’s first year, including raising the costs of using an ice skating rink, registering a boat, taking the bar exam and getting a duplicate driver’s license. A survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures found Massachusetts led the nation at the time in such increases, raising fees and fines by $501 million.” [AP, 12/30/09]
Massachusetts Tax Burden Went Up Under Romney
Tax Foundation: Under Romney, Massachusetts Tax Burden Increased From 10% to 10.6% Of Per Capita Income. According to the Boston Globe, “Data compiled by The Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, shows that during Romney’s four years as governor, the state and local tax burden in Massachusetts increased from 10 percent to 10.6 percent of per capita income.” [Boston Globe, 6/29/07]
Tax Foundation: Under Romney, Massachusetts State And Local Tax Burden Increased 6.5%. According to The Tax Foundation, a conservative tax research organization, in 2002 (the year before Romney came to power), the state and local tax burden in Massachusetts was 9.3 percent. In 2006, Romney’s last year in office, the state and local tax burden of Massachusetts had increased to 9.9 percent. Thus, under Romney, Bay Staters saw their taxes burden increase by 6.5 percent in real terms. [The Tax Foundation, 8/7/08]]
Factcheck.org: Under Romney, Massachusetts Tax Burden Increased From 5.93% To 6.57%. “In Massachusetts, the tax burden figure went up under Romney, from 5.93 percent to 6.57 percent.” [Factcheck.org, 10/12/07]
Romney Increased The Gas tax
Romney Raised The Massachusetts Gas Tax. According to the Washington Post, “Whether Romney ‘turned around’ Massachusetts is in dispute: He closed a $3 billion budget gap but also raised the gasoline tax and other fees while cutting aid to localities.” [Washington Post, 9/20/07]
Boston Globe: Romney’s Gas Tax Increase Was “Excessive.” According to the Boston Globe, “Romney has asserted that the fee increases totaled only $260 million in fiscal 2004 but that ignores at least $71 million in new fees implemented shortly after he took office. One major fee hike was clearly excessive – a 2-cent-per-gallon increase in a special gasoline fee, implemented during the fiscal crisis without fanfare, even though it affects every motorist in the state. The increase generates about $60 million per year for a program to clean up contamination around underground fuel storage tanks, but since its inception has produced surpluses of more than $40 million a year above the actual cost of the program, according to a report done by the Department of Revenue in response to a Globe request. Raised from half a cent to 2.5 cents per gallon in April 2003, ostensibly to pay for a backlog of cleanup claims, the fee is on top of the 21-cent-per-gallon state tax on gasoline.” [Boston Globe, 6/29/07]
Boston Herald Editorial: Romney 2.5 Cent Per Gallon Gas Tax Was A Tax, Not A Fee. In an editorial, the Boston Herald wrote, “The first is the elimination of the underground storage tank cleanup fund which turns the state’s 2-and-a-half-cent surcharge on every gallon of gas into a tax, not a fee. We’d be certain the [Romney administration] was going to veto this one . . . if [they] didn’t propose it [themselves] The tax is a pass-through from gas wholesalers to retailers to, guess who, drivers, raised with the administration’s blessing on April 1… once the fund to clean up underground storage tanks is eliminated, the money – some $ 60 million per year – will go into an unrestricted account, where it can be spent on just about anything. And that’s what makes it a tax.” [Editorial, Boston Herald, 6/28/03]
Published: Jan 1, 2011