CITIZENS
for
Limited Taxation
40 Years as the Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers
Post Office Box 1147 9 Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945
(508) 915-3665 9 staff@cltg.org 9 www.cltg.org
Dear Taxpayer;
Why should you be interested in Citizens for Limited Taxation?
The short answer: It’s the best financial investment you can make.
For forty years CLT and its members have worked tirelessly to keep your
taxes as low as possible. Meanwhile our insatiable state government strives
relentlessly to take more from you. CLT has been the taxpayers’ firewall, their
voice — your voice.
Since 1980 CLT, led by Barbara Anderson, has provided homeowners a cap
on property tax increases with its Proposition 2½, saving you thousands of your
dollars every year after year.
A little known or appreciated part of Prop 2½ is its dramatic reduction of
your annual auto excise tax. Under our law it was dropped from $66 per $1,000
assessed value to $25 per $1,000 — a reduction of 62% — year after year, every
year since 1980.
For example: If your vehicle's assessed value is $20,000, your annual excise
tax bill is now $500; an annual 62% savings to you.
Before CLT's Prop 2½, that tax would have been $1,320; This year it
saved you $820. You’ve benefitted from that savings this year, and every year
since 1980. (See the enclosed chart.)
Though a number of legislators, public employee unions, and other specialinterest groups have attempted to change, water down, amend, or end-run Prop
2½ over the years — to diminish or eliminate your tax savings — CLT has been
here to thwart them time after time.
We’ve also managed to increase your savings from other taxes. In 1986, CLT
led the repeal of the Dukakis .625% income tax surcharge.
– Over –
Every Tax is a Pay Cut . . . A Tax Cut is a Pay Raise
In 2000, CLT once again used the initiative petition process to collect enough
signatures for a ballot question rolling back former Gov. Dukakis’ 1989
“temporary” income tax hike — from 5.95% to its historic 5%. Gov. Paul Cellucci
was our partner in this grueling campaign, which was overwhelmingly approved
by the voters: The income tax rate dropped to 5.3% by 2002, where the
Legislature “froze” it, “temporarily.” CLT keeps reminding Beacon Hill about the
“will of the voters,” and the rate just dropped to 5.2% — a significant decrease
from 5.95% that leaves more money in your paycheck.
We also partnered with Gov. Mitt Romney to prevent a retroactive capital
gains tax in 2003, and were the first organization to oppose and argue for the
repeal of the recent tax on computer services.
How much has CLT saved you so far?
Citizens for Limited Taxation is a truly grassroots organization funded
entirely and exclusively by its members. It receives no grants, no government
funding — nothing but what each member can afford to contribute to keep it
fighting for them and their interests. Of necessity, CLT operates lean and mean.
Never have so many benefitted so much from so few — the members and
taxpayer activists of Citizens for Limited Taxation.
Contributing to CLT is one of the best investments you can make,
with a financial return difficult if not impossible to find anywhere
else.
Without CLT to repel the relentless attacks, Proposition 2½ will gradually be
eroded; its property tax limit, auto excise tax reduction, and renter’s deduction, if
not outright repealed, will be whittled away little by little, a death of a thousand
cuts until eliminated.
The next assault will likely come from the legislative “Tax Fairness
Commission,” so-called, which is due in March to release its recommendations to
change the Massachusetts tax code. One of the initial recommendations being
discussed is changing Proposition 2½. A second is to take another run at
imposing a Graduated Income Tax.
Under the state constitution Massachusetts has a flat income tax rate; all
2 of 4
taxpayers pay the same percentage. A Grad Tax amendment would impose a
number of separate tax brackets based on income. If it’s ever successful, the
strategy will be “divide-and-conquer” — increasing tax rates by brackets, picking
us off one bracket at a time, never causing enough critical mass to be reached for
effective resistance in a taxpayer revolt.
There have been five previous Grad Tax ballot question attempts — CLT led
the battle to defeat the most recent in 1994. In fact, CLT was born in the mid‘70s to fight and defeat the 1976 Grad Tax effort. As you can see, it keeps coming
back. If CLT is still here, we may soon need to fight it again. Since it requires a
ballot question to amend the Constitution, even a friendly governor will need a
grassroots organization to campaign against, debate and defeat it.
You can help keep CLT fighting for you and your interests with the most
generous contribution you can afford – or you can prepare to pay far, far more to
the government if CLT can’t afford another battle. Who will then oppose Beacon
Hill’s grabs for more? What will happen to you when it starts to take back all the
successes we’ve achieved for taxpayers like you over the decades?
CLT has been the taxpayers’ firewall for four decades, your voice on Beacon
Hill. CLT has provided four decades of institutional memory to the debate.
Contributing to CLT is the best investment you can make, with a financial
return difficult if not impossible to find anywhere else.
Please take a moment right now to respond with your most generous
contribution. Consider it a wise investment.
Help keep CLT alive and fighting for you – and saving you lots of money.
With best regards,
Chip Ford
Director of Operations
3 of 4
Proposition 2½ and the Auto Excise Tax
Most people know Proposition 2½ as the CLT-sponsored initiative petition that caps property tax increases — but forget that it also reduces the annual automobile excise tax from
$66 per thousand dollars assessed value to $25 per thousand dollars assessed value. This
table shows how much CLT’s Proposition 2½ saves you each year just in auto excise taxes.
VALUATION
$1,000
$1,500
$2,000
$3,000
$4,000
$5,000
$6,000
$7,000
$8,000
$9,000
$10,000
$11,000
$12,000
$13,000
$14,000
$15,000
$16,000
$17,000
$18,000
$19,000
$20,000
$21,000
$22,000
$23,000
$24,000
$25,000
$26,000
$27,000
$28,000
$29,000
$30,000
$35,000
$40,000
CURRENT EXCISE
$25.00
$37.50
$50.00
$75.00
$100.00
$125.00
$150.00
$175.00
$200.00
$225.00
$250.00
$275.00
$300.00
$325.00
$350.00
$375.00
$400.00
$425.00
$450.00
$475.00
$500.00
$525.00
$550.00
$575.00
$600.00
$625.00
$650.00
$675.00
$700.00
$725.00
$750.00
$ 875.00
$1,000.00
PREVIOUS EXCISE
$66.00
$99.00
$132.00
$198.00
$264.00
$330.00
$396.00
$462.00
$528.00
$594.00
$660.00
$726.00
$792.00
$852.00
$924.00
$990.00
$1,056.00
$1,122.00
$1,188.00
$1,254.00
$1,320.00
$1,386.00
$1,452.00
$1,518.00
$1,582.00
$1,650.00
$1,716.00
$1,782.00
$1,842.00
$1,914.00
$1,980.00
$2,310.00
$2,640.00
SAVINGS
$41.00
$61.50
$82.00
$123.00
$164.00
$205.00
$246.00
$287.00
$328.00
$369.00
$410.00
$451.00
$492.00
$533.00
$574.00
$615.00
$656.00
$697.00
$738.00
$779.00
$820.00
$861.00
$902.00
$943.00
$984.00
$1,025.00
$1,066.00
$1,107.00
$1,148.00
$1,189.00
$1,230.00
$1,435.00
$1,640.00
Prepared by Citizens Economic Research Foundation for Citizens for Limited Taxation
Citizens for Limited Taxation
PO Box 1147 • Marblehead, MA 01945
(508) 915-3665 • www.cltg.org
Barbara Anderson
I joined CLT as a young volunteer activist
in 1978, because my family’s property tax was
outrageously high and increasing every year.
During the Proposition 2½ campaign, I became executive director.
Many of our original activists who have
retired continue to support us because they
realize, as I do, that politics won’t retire from
harassing us! On a fixed income, we worry
about being able to afford our homes if anything happens to Prop 2½. For example, CLT
recently stopped a bill that would have made
it Prop 5, doubling the allowed annual levy
increase. I’m afraid I’ll be expected to pay
for the Massachusetts government’s unfunded
liabilities, a crisis waiting to happen, with
increases in my property tax.
It’s time that the CLT members who have
been limiting taxes for all Massachusetts
taxpayers stop carrying the burden alone.
This is why we are asking you to join us.
I’ll help keep CLT fighting for me!
Enclosed is my contribution to CLT of:
“ OTHER __________
“ $1000
“ $500
“ $250
“ $100
“ $50
“ $30
Please Print Clearly
NAME:
ADDRESS:
APT #:
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PHONE: (
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E-MAIL?:
Please make your check payable to CLT
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I’m not yet on your computer e-mail list but would like to receive your
regular e-mail updates on my computer! My e-mail address is:
( PLEASE PRINT VERY CLEARLY )
You can e-mail CLT at: staff@cltg.org
Visit CLT’s website at: www.cltg.org
CLT can accept all contributions, including corporate, but they are not tax deductible.
PO Box 1147 • Marblehead, MA 01945 • (508) 915-3665
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Citizens for Limited Taxation
PO Box 1147
Marblehead, MA 01945-5147