A Revenue EXPLOSION!
The city of Boston needs a new revenue source. The Hub is more reliant now on the property tax than it was in 1980, the year when Proposition 2½ was approved, according to a special report by the Boston Municipal Research Bureau. For this year’s budget, the city will rely on property taxes for 60.2 percent of operating revenues, assuming state aid levels come in as expected.
During the great taxpayer revolt of 1980, the property tax represented 58.5 percent.
State aid is expected to decline by $49.2 million. Pensions, employee health insurance and dept service levels continue to rise, and jobs, departmental budgets and the schools have all been cut back significantly.
This year, the city will collect $25 million from new growth. Next year, that number will be significantly less; nobody is building anything new!
What can be done? The city and state already tax the heck out of just about everything under the sun and stars.
But not exactly everything, and one Youngstown, Ohio-based company knows a safe, simple and sizzling way to send tax revenues soaring: fireworks!
The Teller admits it: We love explosions. What’s better than sparkly lights, fire, concussive sound blasts and shockwaves, all in hand-held form?
Phantom Fireworks must have known we were suckers for the amusements that go boom, because the company has sent us a letter to the editor, imploring us to ask the Legislature to reconsider our state’s "outdated consumer fireworks laws."
Apparently, nobody considered testing or improving the quality of fireworks before 1994. Fireworks have always been flighty things, and why try to build a better exploding mousetrap, right? Well apparently they’ve tried anyway, and in the last 15 years, "estimated fireworks-related injuries" have declined by 21 percent, according to Phantom’s letter.
But wait, there’s more! In that same time period, fireworks imports have increased from 117 million pounds to 265.5 million pounds, an increase of more than 125 percent.
"Most consumer products with which any degree of risk is associated, such as ATVs, Jet skis, trampolines and the like, produce increased injuries along with increased use," said William A. Weimer, Phantom Fireworks vice president. "Not so with consumer fireworks where use has increased and injuries have decreased."
The Teller can vouch for that, as we usually set off fireworks while simultaneously jumping on a trampoline, or off the back of a moving ATV.
Apparently, the state of Indiana legalized regulated fireworks use in 2006, and it has resulted in more jobs, more tax revenue and best of all, more explosions!
The saddest part of all? We’re being unpatriotic. One of Massachusetts’ favorite sons – and our country’s greatest statesmen – John Adams, was a fireworks enthusiast who could think of no better way to celebrate our nation’s independence.
According to Phantom Fireworks, Adams wrote to his wife Abigail in 1776 that Independence Day "ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade … bonfires and illuminations (fireworks) from one end of this continent to the other, from this day forward forevermore."
Now, Phantom is the one interpreting "illuminations" as "fireworks," but that’s not too far of a stretch.
So tell your local legislator. We want more firecrackers at Faneuil Hall. We want more bottle rockets on Beacon Hill. We want more Roman candles on the Charles River. We want a revenue explosion!
Appraise Hard, Party Hard
The Teller doesn’t get out much. We have our duty to poor Mother, who gets real squirrelly when we’re not safely at home under her roof. But on Wednesday, the Teller was graciously invited to the Massachusetts Board of Real Estate Appraisers’ (MBREA) 75th Anniversary Gala Dinner and Hall of Fame celebration, so we got gussied up and stepped out on the town.
What a swingin’ bunch of professionals! After a delightful cocktail hour, an informative address by The Appraisal Institute President David Bunton, and a delicious dinner (sorry Mom!), we got down to the main part of the program: the inaugural class of the MBREA.
The evening’s master of ceremonies, Steven Elliot, brought the thunder from the get-go. The first slide of the presentation was a picture of several hall-of-fame appraisers on a road trip to Albany, in all their ’70s polyester glory, on the steps of a mustard-colored Winnebago. The photo’s revelation elicited a few gasps, a few giggles, several nostalgic sighs, and we were off from there.
It quickly became clear that the MBREA is a close-knit, jovial and genial group who love what they do and at least like each other. Elliot’s clipped tone and brusque humor suited the evening well, and the ceremony moved right along.
Timothy Warren Jr., our man-in-charge and check-signer, was an inductee, despite allowing The Teller to continue being published. The MBREA must really like him.
Anyway, thanks are in order. Good show.
