TAX NEWS - 2010

Boston Tax: Talk on property tax relief & elimination of the sales tax on alcohol

BOSTON —  Senate Republicans brought the third day of debate on a bill for three casinos to an abrupt halt yesterday, using a tabling tactic to protest maneuvering by Democrats around their attempts to include votes on rollbacks of the state sales and alcohol taxes.

State Sen. Richard R. Tisei, R-Wakefield, said he wanted to use the casino debate to force votes on property tax relief, a rollback of the sales tax and elimination of the sales tax on alcohol.

Mr. Tisei interrupted the Senate session when Democrats offered a further amendment to replace consideration of a proposal he offered to divide up all state casino revenues evenly among property tax payers. He used a similar tactic to interrupt debate on the casino bill Wednesday.

Under Senate rules, members can table any item under consideration until the next session. Senate leaders said they would return to resume the debate today, but some expected another tabling maneuver would delay further debate until Monday.

State Sen. Bruce E. Tarr, R-Gloucester, said the "time out" in the debate called by Republicans will give them a chance to try to force votes on tax rollback proposals they were unable to bring to a vote during budget deliberations earlier this month.

"We are just going to have a little cooling off period," to seek votes on those unrelated tax issues, Mr. Tisei said. "This is our only opportunity to bring this up.".

"We are at the point in the debate where most of the issues around casinos have been decided," he said. "What's left is where the money is going to go. We feel very strongly it should go to property tax relief or it should go back to the taxpayers in some form."

So far the Senate has voted to ban smoking in casinos and to limit community approval referenda in larger cities. It also voted down amendments to allow slot machines at racetracks on a 20-5 vote.