Before we start complaining about the 6.25 sales tax increase…

take a look at some of the other states in the country and compare…

Here’s the stats on a few…(thanks to AAA for the info)

Arnie’s running a state with a whopping 8.25 sales tax.  Sheesh, that makes Massachusetts’ increase seem like peanuts!  And that’s not including the local sales tax in Cali which can add up to 10.75%!

Our nation’s capital may only have a sales tax rate of 5.75% but they get you at 10% on restaurant meals and rental cars, 12% on parking and 14% on hotels.

Indiana has a sales tax of 7%…Minnesota 6.875%…Mississippi 7%

Missouri’s is 4.225%.  But don’t visit St. Louis…the city has a tax rate of 9.241%

Nevada is ranking it in at 8.10% and on the Las Vegas strip it’s 12%

Although New Hampshire loves to boast about having no sales tax, visiting there can be costly at 9% on meals and room occupancies

New Jersey is 7% and New York City’s total sales tax is 8.375%

Alas, the smallest New England state, Rhode Island, beats Mass with a 7% sales tax rate.

Many of these states (aside from Mass) also add on their own local town or county taxes ON TOP of the state sales tax.  So, when you look at the big picture of all these other states, paying a 6.25% sales tax in Massachusetts really isn’t all that bad.  Compared to most of the country, the rate is kind of the norm, even better than most.

Something to make you feel even better about paying higher sales tax.  Be grateful you don’t live in Canada.  They get you in all different ways…province tax, country tax, city tax…you practically have to pay to BREATHE up there!

Why should the seniors be the only ones?

This is in reference to the new bill they want to pass that will make it mandatory for drivers over 85 to take a road test to renew their license.  Why should they be the only ones?  Personally, I think anyone who has been driving for at least five years should take a road test and it should be REPEATED every five years.  And I’ll bet a lot of people wouldn’t pass those tests, either.

As someone who works in the auto insurance industry, I see accidents reported on a daily basis (I’m the one who has to take the brunt of those calls).  Most of the calls I take are from people either my own age (late 30’s) to middle age.  Very rarely do I ever get a call from someone over age 65.  So, either these people are getting into a ton of accidents and just don’t want to report them, or they aren’t getting into as many accidents as we may believe.

I’m not siding with the elders.  I don’t agree it’s right for some 80-something driver to run over a poor innocent child.  However, I don’t agree it’s right for a parent to back over their own child in their driveway either (two very recent incidents occurred but didn’t get HALF the press coverage the one did regarding the 80-something year old driver).

What’s good for one driver, should be good for ALL drivers.  When a 30-year-old driver does not know what the word “yield” means, it’s time to take a driving test again (that is a true story, btw.  A driver failed to yield to oncoming traffic; naturally, he drove forward when he shouldn’t have, colliding with an oncoming car; when he was asked by the cops why he did not yield, his reply was “what does it mean to ‘yield’?”.  I wish I were kidding, but I’m not).

As for the parents running over their children, I can only wonder why the child was there in the first place.

We are all human beings.  We all forget things after a while.  Not everyone can remember every rule and regulation of the road.  So let’s ALL get retested, for safety sake!