Governor's Proposal to Repeal Exemption on Sales Tax

To the MAMA membership:

By now, all of you know that Governor Patrick's office is proposing to
repeal an exemption on the sales tax of aircraft and aircraft parts in
Massachusetts. Already, from various members of the state legislature (see
Rep. Humason press release, below), this proposal has been met with
opposition.

It was not too long ago that MAMA put forth a tremendous effort to support
the authoring and introduction of this sales tax exemption bill. And thanks
to people like Rep. Cele Hahn and Sen. Mike Knapik, this bill was
subsequently passed into law, with the aviation industry and state economy
being the beneficiaries. So I know I speak for MAMA when I say that this
latest action by the Governor's office is poorly guided and requires a
"re-set" on the facts.  With this in mind, from each MAMA member, I have two
requests:

1) After soliciting your FBOs and dealers, please cooperate as soon as
possible with the MAC, by providing to Lorraine Bohannon all current
(2006-2007) data concerning aircraft sales, as well as sales on aircraft
maintenance parts and maintenance. This data will augment that which was
gathered in MAC's 2005 survey.

2) Please contact your individual legislators as soon as possible and make
them understand how maintaining the sales tax exemption on aircraft and
aircraft parts has created for Massachusetts a competitive balance with
neighboring states like New Hampshire and Connecticut; and how the sales tax
exemption has, in fact, generated more aviation activity in the state,
meaning more jobs and more revenue.

Thanks.

Russ Maguire, President

MAMA

Do you have a link to the press release referenced in the post or to the
original article? I'd like to get this info out to our EAA chapter's
membership. If the Mass. exemption goes away, the exemption on aircraft
repair parts and service could also go away in Conn. since they only did
it to be competitive with neighboring states.