LETTER: A Response to Joel D'Errico

"In politics stupidity is not a handicap." --Attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte.

To the Editor:

A Response to Joel D’Errico

While I agree with Joel Derrico on the state audit situation, I disagree strongly with his wish to cut the state’s income tax level by 20%, to 4%.
Why?
Massachusetts already has low taxes.
1. The tax rate has already been lowered significantly from 6.5%.
2.Food is not taxed.
3.Most items that people purchase are not taxed
4. Tax-Free Weekend, now enshrined into law, will cost last year, (Neal Riley (of CBS Boston, 6/11/26) said “The state said the 2025 sales tax holiday generated $3.65 million in indirect tax revenues "due to increased economic activity."
5. While food is a necessity, alcohol is not, but when the legislature voted to tax alcohol some years ago, a referendum overturned that.
6. Further, we lack a progressive tax system, where the higher one’s income the higher rate of taxes. Referenda have voted against a progressive tax. The millionaire’s initiative corrected this, but not by much.
And the result of all this is that the state borrows and pushes the problem onto the shoulders of our children and grandchildren, just as occurs at the national level.  (Unless otherwise noted, the figures below come from https://www.us-debt-clock.com/states}

Thus, only one state (Connecticut) has a higher per-capita debt than we, a figure of $6,571, and the average state debt for all 50 states is ca. $3,500 to $5,000, and some states are under $2,000.

Even former Governor Mitt Romney has said the rich ought to pay higher taxes (Guest Essay in The New York Times, December 19, 2025)

As Franklin Roosevelt said, “The measure of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; It is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.

But, as Napoleon Bonaparte said, “In politics, stupidity is not a handicap.”

Samuel A. Oppenheim
Franklin