State income tax abolition, dog racing ban and pot sentencing changes make ballot

By Jeremy P. Jacobs, PolitickerMA.com Reporter

A binding ballot initiative that will abolish the state income tax has petitioned enough signatures to appear on the November ballot, the Committee for Small Government announced Tuesday.

Initiatives that would ban dog racing in Massachusetts and reduce the penalty for possession of one ounce or less of Marijuana have also gathered more than the 11,099 signatures necessary to appear on the ballot in November, their supporters announced.

Carla Howell, the chair of the Committee for Small Government and former Libertarian gubernatorial and senate candidate, said that the initiative would give Massachusetts residents $3,600 per year on average, according to the committee's web site. The state's government, she says, has been on a spending spree.

"Massachusetts state government spending and taxes have doubled in the last 14 years," Howell writes on the website. "This $3,600 a year increase in your take-home paycheck means more family money to spend, save and invest."

Lawmakers and activists have disagreed on the merits of ending the state income tax. In 2002, the same ballot measure earned a surprising 45.3 percent of the vote.

The Committee to Protect Dogs also announced Tuesday that it collected 45,000 signatures in support of its initiative that would place a statewide ban on dog racing. The initiative, named the Greyhound Protection Act, would force state's two dog tracks, Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park and Wonderland Greyhound Park in Revere to close by Jan. 1, 2010. The State Racing Commission would impose a $20,000 fine on any violators.

"Right now, thousands of dogs endure lives of nearly endless confinement at two commercial racetracks in Massachusetts," the Committee to Protect Dogs web site states. "At these tracks, greyhounds are kept for long hours every day in small cages barely large enough for them to stand up or turn around."

Lastly, the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy also announced that they gathered enough signatures to put an initiative that reduces penalties for those found in possession of one ounce of marijuana or less. Currently, according to the committee, possession of any amount of Marijuana warrants a $500 fine and up to six months of jail time. It is also permanently added to the defendant's criminal record.

The initiative would change the law so the penalty to a civil infraction and fined. It would also remove the charge from the defendant's record.

Jeremy P. Jacobs is a PolitickerMA.com Reporter and can be reached via email at noreply@politicker.com.

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