On Monday, April 26, Hingham Town Meeting will be asked to pass a new local tax on restaurant meals - and "meals" can be anything from a cup of coffee to a full banquet. The South Shore Chamber of Commerce and the Hingham Business Council oppose the tax and urge a "no" vote.
The amount of the new tax is not large, but there are significant reasons to oppose it.
Once in place, we are concerned it will become easier to raise the new meals tax further. The meals tax is a "local option" tax, which opens the door to allow communities to impose various "band-aid" fixes for its budget problems. Overall tax policy aside, the meals tax is fundamentally unfair in that it singles out a specific segment of our local economy and forces its customers to pick up the tab.
The Braintree Town Council and the Abington Board of Selectmen have wisely rejected voted the meals tax for their towns. In Plymouth, voters rejected the tax by a 4-to-1 margin. A "yes" vote at Town Meeting would leave Hingham as the only community on the South Shore to tax restaurant meals.
The South Shore Chamber of Commerce and the Hingham Business Council will oppose the meals tax at Town Meeting next Monday and we urge you to oppose it as well.
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