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Comments on news posted 2008-06-22 12:08:53: Communities throughout the state of Massachusetts are working to find ways to increase their revenue and one of those ways is to begin taxing phone companies for the poles and equipment that they place on public property. ..
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 | | Only in Massachusetts I just moved from MA after 15 years. This comes as no surprise to me, especially with the Governor and Legislators on Beacon Hill. I am sooooo glad to be out of that socialist paradise. | |
|  spgGrrrr
join:2001-10-31
NOT Texas! | They can't do that! I thought poll taxes were unconstitutional! Oh wait... Never mind...
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| EPS
join:2008-02-13
Hingham, MA | The problem... The problem is that years of Republican Governors and Democratic Legislatures, combined with the states' line item veto, meant that the Democratic Legislature would promise a certain amount of local aid, the towns and cities (autonomous entities in this state) would budget accordingly, and then the Governor would cut the local aid budgets and the towns would have to borrow the difference. This policy helped lower Massachusetts' state tax burden, but over the years this policy has left the towns deeply in debt, which caused property taxes to skyrocket... now, we have a Democratic governor who got elected promising to reduce property taxes- unfortunately, the current economic situation means that the state has a budget crisis. Because no one wants to raise state-level taxes, things like this ("closing loopholes" rather than "raising taxes") are the preferred choice... Meanwhile, a House committee just recommended pay-raises for the state's higher officials, great job guys! | |
| |  amarryatVerizon FiOS
join:2005-05-02
Marshfield, MA
 ·Verizon FiOS
| Re: The problem... said by EPS:1) This policy helped lower Massachusetts' state tax burden, but over the years this policy has left the towns deeply in debt, which caused property taxes to skyrocket... 2) now, we have a Democratic governor who got elected promising to reduce property taxes- unfortunately, the current economic situation means that the state has a budget crisis. rather than "raising taxes") are the preferred choice... 3) Meanwhile, a House committee just recommended pay-raises for the state's higher officials, great job guys! 1). And after lowering the burden, we are still overburdened, especially compared to many other states.
2). Yeah, and he has no control over property taxes. Anyone who believed that was a fool.
3). Standard. "Public service", I think not. Mitt Romney took no salary - he was probably the first politican that I could associate "public service" with. | |
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| | I Did Not Know I did not know that the phone companys had their own poles. In our area I believe that the electric company owns the poles and the telephone companys pay the electric companys for the use of the poles. There is also 2 cable companys running lines on these poles also. Though there may be instances where the phone company must run their own poles. | |
|  BSD24Tier 4Premium
join:2008-04-30
Middleboro, MA | Verizon thinks they are god Verizon again doesn't feel it should have to follow rules that others (especially its competitors) have to. They don't want to have to get local franchise agreements, they don't want to have to abide by the same cap as cable companies when it comes to how many customers in the USA they have for TV service. Now they don't want to have to pay a tax that others do. If it hurts network expansion then how does Comcast, Time Warner, and others do it since they have apparently always had to pay a tax for the poles??
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BSD | |
| Reviews:
 ·Optimum Online
·Verizon FiOS
| tea party state Ma was the site of the Boston Tea Party.. in principal, a State that should be very sensitive to taxing its citizens (yes, it's applied to business.. but who in the end pays those taxes? EVERYONE ELSE). Much like Pennsylvania, Massachusetts bent over backwards for the phone companies to build infrastructure.. to the tune of MILLIONS in tax credits, tax exemptions & other savings. This did NOT result in massive infrastructure increases.. mostly PROPPED up the fiscal bottom line, while trying to say DSL was good e-nuff in markets that had from nothing else to docsis 1.1 offering 3-10x the bandwidth of primitive dsl and that's if you qualified.
When you can't bring change by the trickle down effect (tax exemptions), and you can't bring change by deregulation... what's left? Taxing & Re-Regulation? Maybe. Just Maybe.
But, make no mistake.. this needs to be done properly to convince companies to deploy the technology & offer service. It is very difficult to use taxation as a means to change a company's behavior without the company passing its increased costs onto customers, without some wacky laws that regulates prices as well. Would be nice to start regulating oil & gasoline prices again (because they are out of our immediate control).. in the 80's & 90's that's just what we did.. But as we learn that DEEP last mile fiber is the future.. hybrid & hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are the future. On both accounts we need massive infrastructure changes in this country to make both work. | |
| | | Why not? They tax everything else here, why not phone polls?
Whats next, air? | |
| | | Okay, Okay..... Then when the city or town builds a brand new town or city hall building and needs phone service the phone company can say... "sorry, we don't see a need to put a phone pole out in front of your building because our current customers are being served just fine". Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.....
Massachusettes is the dumbest state.. Do you know it is illegal to live in ther without medical insurance? Yes that's right! Every citizen MUST have a health provider. It's recorded on the NEW state tax form when you get your taxes done. If you don't have insurance they will fine you buy taking your tax credit or refund. Now I may not have all that exact but it's close. Okay so why is it illegal to live there without insurance....? Because it's a law and breaking a law is illegal!
Kind of a silly way to think about it but it's true! | |
| | nozzer
join:2004-06-25
Waltham, MA | Re: Okay, Okay..... its not dumb - its because the rest of us who had insurance were having to pay for those who didn't, and who also generally left their condition till it reached crisis, costing the rest of us a fortune.
i'm not saying its perfect, there is still a massive problem with all the hogs at the trough, ana private health insurance companies | |
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 TechieZeroTools Are Using MePremium
join:2002-01-25
Gibsonton, FL
1 edit |  Keep Increasing Taxes = Better For the Rest of Us
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