To: Bill who wrote (567250 ) 4/21/2004 12:10:56 PM From: MulhollandDrive Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 769670 bill....did you see this? kerry wants "the rich" to pay more in taxes, yet when given the chance to put his money where his mouth is....he completely blows it...wonder if teraysuh followed his lead..yet another reason to not release her tax return?heritage.org We've heard it said lately that Americans aren't interested in any more tax cuts. Following the President's tax cut packages of 2001 and 2003, taxpayers have had enough and are willing to kick in a bit more, their "fair share," as some deem it. Thanks to the state of Massachusetts, we can now test this claim. As Howie Carr writes in the New York Post, Massachusetts gave taxpayers the option this year of paying a 5.3 percent state income tax, which is the current rate, or the old rate of 5.85 percent. By April 15, the state received 2,104,326 tax returns. In total, 624 taxpayers elected to pay the higher rate. Assuming that joint and singler filers chose the higher tax at the same rate, that's about 0.03 percent of taxpayers. Senator John Kerry, who pays income tax in the state and wants to raise some Americans' taxes, was not among those who chose the higher tax. Massachusetts--or "Taxachusetts," as it's known to some (well, many, actually)--is notorious for its residents' statist tendencies, and one would expect that a larger proportion of its taxpayers would feel obligated to pay the higher rate than elsewhere. In other words, 0.03 percent is probably high, relative to the country as a whole. There might be a point at which Americans feel undertaxed, but we're certainly nowhere near it now if even Bay Staters are feeling the pinch.