Massachusetts GOP Blasts Beacon Hill Dems Over Tax Uncertainty

By Evan Lips | January 9, 2018, 15:56 EST

House Speaker Robert DeLeo spoke to reporters ahead of the pay raises veto override vote. (Evan Lips — New Boston Post)

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Republican Party on Tuesday issued a politically-charged statement in response to remarks made by House Speaker Robert DeLeo regarding the potential for new taxes.

The Winthrop Democrat told reporters that it is “much too early to discuss” the possibility of a tax hike, as Republic Governor Charlie Baker has until January 24 to roll out a state budget. 

In a press release featuring the subject line “Dems Again Fail to Protect Taxpayers,” the Massachusetts GOP accused DeLeo and the Democratic Party of “refusing to rule out tax increases on hardworking Massachusetts families, continuing an abysmal session that has seen them accomplish little beyond a pay raise for themselves.”

MassGOP Chairman Kirsten Hughes in a prepared statement said “Beacon Hill Democrats just won’t learn.” 

Using last January’s pay raise vote as a reminder, Hughes added that “after a year where they achieved next to nothing except a massive pay hike for themselves, they’re already floating the idea of new taxes on hardworking families.”

“The broad support for Governor Baker’s fiscally responsible approach to protecting taxpayers, as well as Republicans’ gain of a key Democrat held Senate seat last month should be a stark warning for Democrats on Beacon Hill and their colleagues running for governor who promise to rubber-stamp massive new taxes.”

Last month, a little less than a week after former state Senator Brian Joyce, a Democrat from Milton, was indicted on federal money laundering and racketeering charges, voters in the Worcester and Middlesex Senate district elected Fitchburg Republican Dean Tran to succeed outgoing Democrat Jennifer Flanagan, who left after being tapped by Baker to serve on the new state Cannabis Control Commission. 

Tran defeated Democrat Susan A. Chalifoux Zephir by 676 votes in a special election that featured 15,693 votes cast overall — a far cry from the more than 50,500 votes cast in 2014 when Flanagan defeated Republican Richard M. Bastien by a little more than 10,000 votes. 

Flanagan ran unopposed in 2016 before being named by Baker to a $120,000 job working on the marijuana panel.

Tran’s win bumped the roster of Senate Republicans to seven, compared to 33 Senate Democrats.