The New Budget

Governor John Volpe's new $728 million budget provides badly needed funds for education and mental health facilities in Massachusetts. But Volpe's plans will depend on revenue from a proposed three percent sales tax and the Governor has failed six times to slip his tax bill past the Democratic-controlled Massachusetts legislature. Unless the governor's seventh try for the sales tax turns out to be the lucky one, few of the proposed improvements will ever be realized.

In a series of recent reports, the state government has shown great concern for improving the institutional network of state supported schools. But the reorganization of public education recommended by the Willis committee and the racial balancing suggested by the Kiernan report still require financial support. Encouragement of reform from Beacon Hill will mean little if the legislature is unwilling to underwrite the expense of improvement. Public school buildings are deteriorating and teacher salaries, particularly in the western parts of the state, are far below the scale of states with comparable per capita incomes.

The new budget exceeds last year's by 55 million. Funds for education take up a quarter of that proposed increase. Second only to the proposed education allotment is the $6 million increase in state support for mental hospitals. The money would help alleviate the extreme overcrowding that occurs in many state mental health clinics.

But as Volpe has clearly and frequently stated, an additional $200 million must be collected to finance these projects and the governor has very few alternative sources of revenue to exploit. If he were governor of almost any other state, he could consider raising the rates of the graduated income tax applying to higher income groups. This is the sort of measure that most Massachusetts Democrats would like to recommend. But the graduated income tax is unconstitutional in Massachusetts, and an amendment must be passed by the state legislature in two separate sessions before it can be presented to the voters. Even if the bill passes the legislature approval by the electorate is far from assured. Facing well financed opposition in 1962, a graduated income tax amendment was buried four to one.

Democratic leaders who support the graduated income tax must wait at least three more years before they can present a revied bill to the voters and they seem to have no alternative program at the moment that would provide the necessary state revenue.

The sales tax fight has held up approval of new revenues for so long that by March the state will have no money to support existing services. Volpe will have to sign a bill of some kind at that point, but only the full $200 revenue package will finance the education benefits in his $728 million budget.

The sales tax would not only provide new revenues, but would allow significant cuts in the exhorbitant Massachusetts property tax--now in some cases nearly twice the $70 per $1000 of valuation common in many other states. With these high valuation rates Massachusetts will be unable to attract and keep the industrial capital necessary to fill state coffers.

The drawbacks of the sales tax are obvious: it penalizes families with low incomes and high consumption rates more heavily than those with higher incomes and high savings rates; and it should not be considered a solution to the state's financial woes. But until an improved graduated tax plan can be presented to the voters, Massachusetts will need the sales tax to provide the necessary income. A limited graduated tax in the future still would make possible a drop in the sales tax to two or one percent, providing a balance of sales and income tax revenue.

To provide the funds needed for education and mental health, the legislature should support Governor Volpe's sales tax proposal. Its chances have brightened as two Democratic senators have already said they will switch their votes to support the new tax. Those with reasonable doubts should consider ways to make the graduated income tax more palatable to the voters. Future financial crises would involve easier choices if the two tax sources, incomes and purchases, could both be tapped at moderate levels.