1 Ammendment Down, 977 To Go...

In preparation to call my legislators for this week's Virtual Rally, I've decided to check out which of the amendments proposed after the release of the House's Ways and Means budget called for increased revenue.

I'm scanning down the list of the 978 proposed amendments, looking for words like tax and fee.

Aha!

This sounds promising:
Amendment #131    Clark, Katherine    Alcohol Tax Exemption

Let's read the text: 

Ms. Clark of Melrose moves to amend the bill by adding at the end thereof the following section:-

“SECTION X. Subsection (g) of Section 6 of chapter 64H of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2006 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out, in line 72, the following words:- “and one hundred and thirty-eight”.”

Umm... So what does that mean??

First off, let's find General Laws. A search on Mass.gov for "2006 General Laws 2006 Official" yielded a helpful "Quick Link" to General Laws.

So far so good.

The General Laws are listed in five parts. Looking at the text of this ammendment, we seem to be looking for Chapter 64H, which according to this page should be found in:  Part I, ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT, Chapters 1 through 182

Excellent. Scanning down... CHAPTER 64H. TAX ON RETAIL SALES OF CERTAIN TANGIBLE PERSONAL PROPERTY. 

Now we're on a roll! Section 6, Section 6, Section 6. Exemptions.

Bingo!

Now what was I loking for? Oh yeah, Subsection (g). This should clear this all up.... 

(g) Sales of tangible personal property includable in the measure of the excises levied under the provisions of chapters sixty-four A, sixty-four E, sixty-four F and one hundred and thirty-eight.

Wait. What?! 

Okay, so this means that the amendment we're looking up removes the sales tax exemption on one hundred and thirty-eight... whatever that is...

Based on the use of large numbers, I'm guessing that refers to a Chapter in the General Laws. Back to Part I of the General Laws!

CHAPTER 138. ALCOHOL LIQUORS.

Paydirt.

So, in the end it all kind of makes sense:

Alcohol/Liquor was among several substances exempted from the sales tax in Massachusetts (including gasoline and special fuels), and this ammendment is removing Alcohol/Liquor from that list.

But why can't this stuff be more clearly stated as they are filed?!

I truly believe that if we want to rebuild the public's confidence in government, we need to make this type of information not only public record, but easily accessible, and in plain language!

What do you think? 

[Note: This is not meant to pick on Representative Clark, or on this particular amendment! This is just one example of a system that has not been set up for ease of understanding by everyday Massachusetts folks like me!]