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Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said his group opposes the measure because the state could not afford to reduce the sales tax. "Where would this money come from, what programs would be cut?" Widmer said. "We've already had two, three, four rounds of cuts."
He says voters are clearly more angry now than they were a year ago, and would be more eager to vote for the tax repeal, even though it means giving up nearly $100 million a year in revenue for the state. That's not chump change. But there's another ballot question this year that could punch a much bigger hole in the state budget by shaving the sales tax from 6.25 percent to 3 percent. Widmer estimates that could cost as much as $2.5 billion a year, or nearly 10 percent of the entire state budget.
