{"id":4807,"date":"2013-05-21T12:23:46","date_gmt":"2013-05-21T16:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=4807"},"modified":"2013-05-21T12:23:46","modified_gmt":"2013-05-21T16:23:46","slug":"in-a-one-party-state-whom-do-legislators-represent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/21\/in-a-one-party-state-whom-do-legislators-represent\/","title":{"rendered":"In a one-party state, whom do legislators represent?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Massachusetts state representative, Cory Atkins<\/a>, recently proposed adding a sales tax on aircraft in Massachusetts<\/a>. Neighboring states either don’t have sales tax at all (New Hampshire) or mostly exempt aircraft (e.g., Connecticut). It isn’t surprising that a politician would dream of taxing a $60 million Gulfstream at 6.25 percent and spending the resultant $3.75 million on worthy projects supervised by wise bureaucrats (cf. the Big Dig<\/a>, which could have been fully funded with sales tax revenues from just 3,893 Gulfstream G-650s (8 built so far says Wikipedia<\/a>)).<\/p>\n

What is surprising about this proposed new tax is that it is put forward by a representative from a town, Concord, partly occupied by an airport, Hanscom Field. Arguably the town would be better off if the airport were shut down and the land converted to McMansions paying property tax, but a shut down is not possible due to the fact that the airport is used by the adjacent Hanscom Air Force Base and the airport is owned by Massport, which would not cede its authority and revenue source to Concord. The airport generates a lot of jobs for people involved in hangaring airplanes, piloting them, fixing them, and fueling them. A tax on airplanes would result in hangar, repair, pilot, and fuel jobs moving to Nashua, New Hampshire, a 10-minute flight away. Why would a politician want this for the town that she represents?<\/p>\n

One obvious argument would be to minimize noise from those Gulfstreams. But if the Gulfstream lives in Nashua, along with its pilots, flight attendants, fuelers, mechanics, and hangar crew, it will need to perform twice as many operations at Hanscom Field to get a passenger off to Teterboro, Dulles, or Palm Beach. Instead of landing and taxiing to its hangar, the plane will taxi, unload, and then noisily depart for its New Hampshire home.<\/p>\n

I’m not surprised that a politician would propose a new tax but wouldn’t one expect it to come from a politician whose district did not include airport-related businesses and employees? Even the most peace-loving Congressmen nearly always support more military spending in their own district. Could it be the one-party nature of Massachusetts politics that accounts for Ms. Atkins’s war on Hanscom Field?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Massachusetts state representative, Cory Atkins, recently proposed adding a sales tax on aircraft in Massachusetts. 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