Tax Code Reform Should Keep Health In Mind
How do you attach a dollar figure to a value?
That’s the unenviable job that the state lawmakers face each year in writing the state budget — a process now officially in motion.
Most residents would agree that things like education, aid to cities and towns, bridge repair, and public safety are important public structures that we all depend on.
Public health generally receives less attention. And yet, every Massachusetts resident and business depends on the state’s public health system – those structures that protect our food and water from contamination, prevent the spread of infectious disease, ensure safe health care facilities, and prevent disease and injury. Our very health and economy rest on strong public health.
Unfortunately, due to shortsighted decision making, funding for public health has been decimated in the last 18 months.
But this disturbing trend will not dominate public discussions. Instead, the talk will be of taxes.
At the Massachusetts Public Health Association, we don’t believe that taxes are good or bad, but rather that we must strive for an overall tax system that is fair, efficient, stable, and adequate to address our common priorities. Individual taxes can move us closer to these goals — or farther away.
The tax reforms recently proposed by Gov. Deval Patrick will bring us closer to a fair and stable tax system, and for this we applaud his leadership. His reforms target just a few of the hundreds of tax exemptions and credits currently on the books — a list that totals more than $20 billion!
Some of these exemptions serve important public purposes and should be protected, such as exempting most clothing and food from the sales tax because they are necessities of daily life. However, many of these exemptions serve no timely, compelling purpose.
In this time when basic public services are whittled down to the bone, these exemptions put funding for schools, roads and public health at risk.
Up In Smoke
Patrick’s proposals to eliminate the sales tax exemption on soda and candy and to close a tax loophole on non-cigarette tobacco products, such as smokeless tobacco, are particularly important.
These exemptions currently provide a financial incentive — particularly to price-sensitive teenagers — to use products that wreak havoc on the health of individuals and are important contributors to the chronic diseases driving skyrocketing healthcare costs.
Controlling the cost of health care is essential for successful businesses, strong state finances, and the financial wellbeing of families across the state — but we can’t accomplish this goal when our tax policy encourages the use of unhealthy products.
Closing these two loopholes will raise $67 million (of a total $160 million from all the reforms proposed). Make no mistake: these are dollars which will otherwise be cut from local aid or other widely-supported expenditures.
The governor proposes to use these funds in part for programs to prevent young people from starting smoking or developing costly and debilitating diseases in the first place.
Public health is about preventing disease before it starts. We have the opportunity to express the common value of prevention through a change in the tax code.
We think that’s something we can all agree on.
Valerie Bassett is the executive director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association. Robin Toft Klar is vice president of the board of directors.
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