There's another revolution brewing in Massechusetts - we should do the same here.

Boston Tax Party

Massachusetts is about the last place one would expect a tax revolt,
but that's what's brewing in Beantown. The state board of elections
recently certified that citizen activists have gathered the 125,000
signatures required to qualify an initiative for the November ballot
to eliminate the state income tax.

The Small Government Act would repeal the 5.3% income and wage tax,
as well as the state capital gains tax, which reaches as high as 12%.
The ballot initiative would replace the $12.5 billion in taxes
with . . . nothing. "One of the points here," explains Carla Howell
of the Committee for Small Government that is driving the
referendum, "is to force the state legislators to start cutting the
bloated state budget." The political shock of having no income tax
would force the pols on Beacon Hill to make the difficult spending
choices they now refuse to make.

The referendum may seem the longest of long shots in a state
represented by some of Congress's biggest spenders. But the same
initiative was on the ballot in 2002, and though the political
establishment roared with laughter through Election Day, the measure
got 45% of the vote. This time pro-tax forces such as the
Massachusetts Teachers Association are planning to spend millions of
dollars warning of Armageddon.

They have cause to be worried. A Fabrizio poll for Citizens for
Limited Taxation discovered that the average Massachusetts voter
believes that 41 cents of every state tax dollar are wasted.
Coincidentally, that's the share of the state budget funded by the
income tax. One big drain is a pension program that doles out
billions each year to double-dipping pensioners and state workers
retiring at taxpayer expense in their late 40s or 50s.

Nine U.S. states have no income tax, including such economic climbers
as Florida, Nevada, Tennessee and Texas. These states are doing fine
funding schools, hospitals and police without the income levy. Over
the past decade 330,000 Massachusetts residents have packed U-Haul
trailers and left -- more than have even fled Michigan -- and many
have gone to no-income-tax New Hampshire.

"The idea here is to stop being on the defensive in fighting against
big government and to start taking the political offensive," says Ms.
Howell. She says the tax repeal would give every Massachusetts worker
a 5% after-tax pay raise, or about $3,000 extra income per family.
That's attractive when Census data show that, after inflation, state
budgets nationwide are up 18% since 2005 while paychecks have
remained flat.

The forces of the tax-and-spend status quo will descend on this
initiative like British troops after the original Boston tea party,
but somebody has to make an effort to stop the relentless growth of
government.