OpEd: Top 10 Meals Tax Facts

Top 10 Things You Need to Know About the Meals Tax:

1) The tax represents a very small cost on your meal bill:

$20 meal = $0.15 tax

$50 meal = $.037 tax

$100 meal = $0.75 tax

2) Most of the towns surrounding Foxborough have adopted the meals tax. Mansfield has the tax on their Annual Town Meeting warrant. Sharon does not have a large number of restaurants, and instead has passed more than $11.8 million in additional tax overrides.

3) Worried about people in Foxborough driving to restaurants in another town to avoid the tax? To get to the nearest town without a meals tax, you would pay approximately FIVE TIMES more in gasoline to drive there than you would in meals tax (based on a $50 meal).

4) Nearby towns have raised significant revenue through the meals tax without driving away business: Walpole $365K, Wrentham = $230K, Franklin = $368K, Plainville = $184K, North Attleboro = $364, Norton = $193K, Easton = $268, Stoughton = $420K. In Foxborough we could raise more than $750K.

5) The decision to NOT adopt the meals tax on October 1, 2009 has cost Foxborough $1.2 million in lost revenue.

6) The state passed the legislation allowing the meals tax to help offset shortfalls in aid. It is unlikely to seriously consider restoration of Local Aid levels if towns do not take advantage of this tool.

7) State Aid is expected to drop from $9.6 million in 2009 to $8.8 million in 2012. This is a difference of $800K. Where will this money come from?

8) Foxborough has become a destination town (Patriots games, Chestnut Green, Patriot Place). With that comes an increased burden on our infrastructure (police, fire, road maintenance). The Meals Tax allows us to share that burden of cost with those who visit Foxborough.

9) If we do not adopt the meals tax, this burden shifts back solely to the residents. We will have to pass overrides, much like some of our neighboring towns. (Remember: the stadium helps increase our tax base from the meals tax, whereas other surrounding towns have adopted the meals tax AND still had to implement tax overrides).

10) Passing the meals tax requires a simple majority. However, merely supporting the tax is not enough. Show up to the Foxborough Town Meeting on May 9 at 7:00 PM at Foxborough High School (with your friends and neighbors) and VOTE.

Collin Earnst