Soloway Hits Furcolo's Proposal for Sales Tax

Governor Furcolo's budget calling for a three per cent state sales tax is "ill-considered and a garish violation of the first plank of the Democratic party platform," Arnold M. Soloway, assistant professor of Economics, declared yesterday.

Soloway defended a revised state tax program that he prepared two years ago for the state Americans for Democratic Action, of which he is vice-president. The ADA is promoting Soloway's program again this year as a means of increasing tax revenue.

Both Soloway and the ADA drew heavy criticism from a prominent union official yesterday, regarding their influence upon labor policy, after the State Labor Council also came out against Furcolo's tax program.

"There is an ugly tie-up between top labor in Massachusetts and the ADA," charged William V. Ward, president of the State Council of State, County, and Municipal Employees. "It was after studying Soloway's ADA material that the labor council broke up and officially declared itself in opposition to Governor Furcolo's program."

The four point program set forth by Soloway suggests eliminating deductions for federal tax payments. It also recommends lowering personal exemptions, taxing rental incomes, and improving collection procedures.

ADA estimates that these four changes would yield $118 million in extra tax revenue. At the same time, the group maintains that they would neither increase the burden upon the poor as much as a sales tax, nor "soak the rich."