Title: Expands Retail Tax to Include Computer System Design Services
Vote Smart's Synopsis:
Vote to pass a bill that expands the retail tax and increases the tax on cigarettes and on gas.
Highlights:
Expands the retail tax to include “computer system design services” (Secs. 23 & 24).
Defines “computer system design services” as the planning, consulting, or designing of computer systems that integrate computer hardware, software, or communication technologies and are provided by a vendor or a third party (Sec. 23).
Increases the cigarette tax from $0.10 to $0.15 for vendors of tobacco products (Sec. 19).
Increases the gasoline tax from $0.21 to $0.24 per gallon of gasoline (Sec. 17).
Requires the gasoline tax to be adjusted annually by the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index from the preceding year, effective January 1, 2015 (Secs. 18 & 37).
Requires the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to appropriate at least $100 million annually to be spent on repairs and improvements to municipal ways and bridges (Sec. 4).
Authorizes the revenue generated by the Department to be derived from the following areas (Sec. 27):
Fees collected by the Registrar of Motor Vehicles;
Funds contributed to the Motor Vehicle Inspection Trust Fund;
Funds contributed to the Massachusetts Transportation Trust Fund; and
Other funds directly collected by the department.
Requires the Department to classify and fund the salaries and benefits of its employees as operating expenditures on or before June 30, 2016 (Sec. 29).
Establishes a “value capture commission” to report on the effectiveness of the commonwealth’s current value capture policies and recommend whether certain policies from other jurisdictions be implemented (Sec. 31).
The computer system design services retail tax provision has since been repealed by legislation passed by both chambers and approved by the Governor.
In Massachusetts, a new bill number is assigned when a new version of the bill is drafted. The bill number was changed to H 3415 for the House Passage stage.