By Jon Hurst        August, 1, 2017

Small businesses are the backbone of the Massachusetts economy. Unfortunately, the concerns of these businesses have recently been ignored by Beacon Hill.

Over the past several years, our members have become increasingly frustrated with the lack of urgency in addressing the very real challenges they face over unfair competition from online sellers and tax-free New Hampshire stores.

As a result, RAM will file four different ballot initiatives with the Attorney General’s office for certification - the first step in the process to have the question appear on the November 2018 ballot.  The ballot initiatives propose to:

1) Reduce the sales tax to 4.5% from 6.25%
2) Reduce the sales tax to 5% from 6.25%
3) Reduce the sales tax to 4.5% from 6.25% and establish an annual two-day sales tax in August
4) Reduce the sales tax to 5% from 6.25% and establish an annual two-day sales tax in August

Over the next month, we will be continuing our discussions with our membership, as well as other stakeholders, as to which of the four petitions we will seek to put in front of voters.

We are not taking this step lightly as we know the process to place an initiative is long and costly. Yet our membership’s strong support combined with the rapidly changing consumer spending marketplace requires us to take action.

The facts are clear that our increasingly discriminatory sale tax application incents spending outside of the Commonwealth instead of locally, and our working families and our seniors on fixed incomes are getting hurt by a high, and regressive sales tax.

Over the course of this effort, we are going to put a spotlight on the growing problem of the unevenly and unfairly applied sales tax and look forward to earning the support of voters across Massachusetts.