New Mass. Taxes Proposed If You Move Around

The Boston Herald reports:

You’ve heard of the “tax-anything-that-moves” crowd?
Well they were out in full force at the State House yesterday - under the able direction of their movement’s founding father, former Gov. Michael Dukakis, who is establishing his place as the Jimmy Carter of ex-Bay State governors.
Dukakis and a group of Democratic lawmakers were there to lobby for a bill that would finance billions in commuter rail expansion projects by taxing - you guessed it! - just about anything that moves.
Literally.
For starters there’d be a new tax on all vehicles - a “greenhouse gas reduction fee” - tied to vehicle registration fees. That’s on top of the existing sales and excise taxes, the gas tax and the various and sundry other government penalties for the offense of (gasp!) driving a car in the commonwealth.


There’d be a new hotel tax in the communities that would benefit from the expansion projects. Just the kind of burden that economically challenged New Bedford, Fall River, Springfield, Lynn and Fitchburg really need.
There’d be a new tax on every trolley tour and whale watch ticket sold in the affected communities. Ditto for rental cars and airline tickets for flights landing or taking off from those cities.

Some people want to return to a hunter and gatherer society.