Filling the Budget Hole with Struggling Homeowners

This gets my vote for stoopidest idea of the year:

Gov. John Lynch is looking at a proposal that would tax refinancings the same way we now tax real-estate transfers.

The basic idea is to pull refis into the existing tax, and to lower the current 1.5 percent tax rate. Eleven other states already have a similar tax in place. It's not clear if the proposal will be ready by the time the Senate meets to vote on a budget plan on Wednesday.

That's right. In a state whose Totally Awesome Pledge shackles homeowners to come up with the lion's share of revenue for the state, and during an economic crisis where folks are re-financing to lower rates not to buy boats like in bubble times, but to save their homes prior to foreclosure, some in our Democratic majority government are thinking of taxing them instead of the capital gains tax the House wants (or what the Senate wants, gambling).

Dean Barker