Rep. Birmingham opposed any attempt to increase taxes on low wage earners as part of a 10 percent state tax increase proposed by Boston Mayor James Michael Curley and half-heartedly endorsed by Gov. Joseph Ely, the Boston Herald reported March 7, 1931, p. 1.
Curley recommended the tax increase to pay for public welfare expenditures, old age assistance, expansion in state activities, and Ely’s public works program. Boston would get $1 million from the increase, while other cities and towns would get rest of the money based on their last income tax returns. Curley directed Corporation Counsel Samuel Silverman to work with Tax Commissioner Henry Long in drafting a tax bill that would apply the tax increase retroactively to the 1930 tax year. The mayor dismissed arguments that the increase was unconstitutional, citing a similar tax imposed on foreign and domestic corporations in 1918 to pay for the war bonus and the income tax increase in 1923 to pay for national bank tax reimbursements. Curley threatened to increase the city’s real estate tax if he didn’t get the 10 percent state income tax hike. Even though much of the Curley tax increase would go to the cities and towns, local officials were not sure such an increase in the tax burden was advisable, according to a canvass by the Boston Herald. The newspaper spoke to state legislators, mayors, and selectmen, who acknowledged the need for additional funds but feared the political backlash such a tax increase might create. Business leaders were virtually united in their opposition to the mayor’s tax proposal, arguing that it would burden tax payers and slow any economic recovery.
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