State Official: Tax Hike To Fund Social Agenda

Because of the state legislature's commitment to preserving essential social programs, it will eventually approve Gov. Michael S. Dukakis' proposed tax hike, Massachusetts Secretary of Human Services Philip Johnston predicted yesterday at the Kennedy School.

Massachusetts has transformed traditional liberal social programs into "good, wise, strong investment" since Dukakis was reelected in 1982, Johnston said, citing commitments to the homeless, the unemployed and working mothers that cannot be abandoned.

In recent weeks legislative leaders have criticized the administration's proposed $13.4 billion fiscal 1990 budget--especially the governor's controversial $604 million tax hike proposal--as excessive at a time when the state faces a $636 million deficit.

"If the governor's tax proposal does not go through the legislature, human services in the Commonwealth will be in shambles. We'll be back to King administration funding," Johnston said, referring to Dukakis' more conservative predecessor. "I can't believe the legislature will allow that to happen."

Johnston, who spoke to 50 Kennedy School students and administators yesterday afternoon at a talk sponsored by the Center for Health and Human Resources Policy, said in an interview later that the legislature and the public would eventually accept the governor's spending plan.

The Dukakis tax plan virtually eliminates the capital gains tax reduction and calls for an increase in gasoline, cigarette and alcohol taxes. Critics have lambasted the proposal as unfair to the taxpayer and detrimental to economic growth.

"There's never been a demonstration in favor of tax increases," said Johnston, a former state legislator. "But we'll have to be calm and tell the people the reality of the budget crunch--that this is a progressive tax increase."