Patrick to seek tax cut for businesses and closing loopholes at the same time!

Governor Deval Patrick will propose a gradual reduction in the state's corporate tax rate from 9.5 percent to 8.3 percent when he unveils his budget next week, a bid to win business support and jumpstart his stalled plan to tighten what he calls corporate tax loopholes, administration sources said. The plan is an olive branch of sorts that Patrick is hoping will help revive a cornerstone of his legislative agenda that has failed to move in the face of strong opposition from the business community and House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi.............. "We are in a year where it's clear there's no easy way to solve the budget crisis," said Noah Berger, executive director of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. "And the idea that we continue to leave open half a billion dollars in corporate loopholes when there's a danger of cutting education or local aid or healthcare is increasingly difficult to defend.

We think the quote from Noah Berger in the next to the last paragraph should be the lead, because he articulates the "tough choice" the public and our elected and appointed policy makers face. How do we find the revenues to support the public structures that that enable our healthy communities to thrive?