We believe that taxes should be fair and based on ability
to pay, and that budgets should be fiscally responsible and balanced without
gimmicks. We note with pride the success of our Party in achieving these aims
both here and in Washington. We oppose budgets that raid trust funds or rely on
unrealistic economic and revenue forecasts in order to create the appearance of
a balanced budget or to finance tax breaks.•
Massachusetts Democrats condemn the tax cuts that leave cities and towns to
fend for themselves with only the regressive property lax as the primary source
of revenue.
We believe that where state or federal budget surpluses
occur, they reflect the productivity and hard work of all residents and
citizens. We believe surpluses should go to public priorities like needed
investments in education and health care, the strengthening of Social Security
and Medicare, the reduction of public debt, and the provision of tax relief
targeted first to working families, such the Earned Income Tax Credit. We
reject emphatically state or federal tax policies that redirect hard-won budget
surpluses or other public revenues into the hands of a few, or which create
windfalls for the wealthy while offering little or nothing to working families.• We call for Massachusetts
Democrats favor providing tax relief as soon as
fiscally possible, particularly for our senior citizens, whose tax burden has
continued to increase under Republican administration policies that
helps individuals and working families better afford higher education and save
for retirement.
• As we reaffirm our vision for healthy communities as the most effective way
to build healthy families, we acknowledge the discrepancy among our urban,
suburban, exurban, and rural municipalities in their different population
densities, and their fiscal and administrative capacity.
• Recognizing that small communities face unique challenges in providing
government services with largely volunteer citizen officials, we support state
and regional efforts to educate and empower local officials with the
information and resources necessary to carry out their duties in a professional
manner.
• We support funding to help rural towns build administrative capacity to
provide housing, public health programs, environmental protection, land use
planning, and social service support.
• We support comprehensive reform of state zoning and land use statutes in
order to enable communities to manage growth and development in ways that will
increase affordable housing, protect open space and natural resources, and
preserve and enhance community character.
We support the protection of consumers and their
interests in all areas of the marketplace. • We
call for genuine consumer-oriented automobile insurance reform and rate relief,
including close regulatory scrutiny of industry rate proposals and Massachusetts Democrats support implementation of a
“Consumer Choice” automobile insurance system that
wouldto empower car owners with a choice of coveragepolicy options to best fit their needsand significant savings for all motorists.
• We support preservation of current internal financial assistance for urban
and youthful drivers in any automobile insurance rate-setting changes.
• We support providing further long-term automobile insurance rate reductions
through a cost-containment strategy aimed at reducing accident frequency and
attacking fraud.
• We support rigorous policing of sales practices in the insurance industry,
including regular “market conduct” examinations that deter misconduct.
• We support ending gender discrimination in insurance coverage.
• We support new state privacy laws that regulate exposure and/or sale of
private information without the consumer’s consent.
• We support more control over our imported food supply.
• We decry the federal prohibition against negotiating with pharmaceutical
companies to lower the cost of prescription drugs to public insurance
companies. We encourage strategies that aggregate buying power in order to
lower these costs.
• We endorse the monitoringsupport
efforts to promote more competition in the consumer segment of the
deregulation of utilitiesed electricity market
to ensure fair treatment for all, and call for stronger efforts to ensure that
all eligible rate-payers obtain the special rates available to low-income
households.
Developed by Brad Johnson (Boston Ward 4). Presented as a service for the 2005 Massachusetts Democratic Convention by Democracy for America: Boston.