Hooray, Hooray

[Kcwhippet]

It happened mainly because of the backing of MassPack. That's the Massachusetts Package Store Owners Association. There were two ballot questions - No. 1 was to repeal the alcohol sales tax, and No. 2 was to repeal the sales tax altogether. Question 2 was a no brainer to fail, so MassPack decided to lay low and let all the flak fly over No. 2. I was involved in planning meetings, and we decided to wait until Oct. 15 to start our campaign to repeal the alc. sales tax. That was only two and a half weeks before voting and we we did a full bore campaign with signs in stores, bag stuffers with plenty of info, TV and radio commercials, bumper stickers and more. We hit fast and hard and those that wanted to keep the tax never really had a chance to get organized and hit back. So, we won and there is no more tax. Almost everyone who's come into the shop since Jan. 1 has commented and they've all been favorable. What hasn't been mentioned is that there's also a state excise tax on alcohol (in addition to the federal excise tax), and I'm sure the legislators will quietly raise that tax to try to make up for the perceived shortfall.

[This message has been edited by Kcwhippet (edited 01-07-2011).]