Unions raise $1.3m to fight Mass. ballot drive to cut sales tax

The Boston Globe reports:

Determined not to be caught off-guard in a volatile election year, labor unions are pouring money into an effort to fight a deep cut in the state sales tax, campaign finance reports show.

A group of unions — fearing mass layoffs of teachers, firefighters, and other state and municipal workers — has raised $1.3 million so far this year to defeat Question 3, one of two antitax measures on the November ballot. Supporters have raised $76,000.

Similar ballot measures failed in 2002 and 2008, but the money flowing into the campaign to defeat the measure shows that opponents of the ballot question are taking nothing for granted in a year that has already produced political surprises across the country.

Opponents say passage of the question, which would cut the sales tax rate from 6.25 percent to 3 percent, would open up a hole in the fragile state budget of more than $2 billion and lead to Draconian cuts at the state and local levels.

Draconian enough that all three major gubernatorial candidates — Governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat; Charles D. Baker, a Republican; and independent Timothy P. Cahill — oppose Question 3.

Where would unions be without big government? Nowhere.