Feb. 27, 2020

CONTACT: Evan Lips, communications director, 617-523-5005 ext. 245

WOBURN — Beacon Hill Democrats, despite the state still brimming with historic levels of tax revenue, are clamoring for more, and this time are looking to whack taxpayers at the gas pump as part of a $600 million transportation bill.

Following House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s lead, his underling House leaders are parroting his “revenue can’t wait any longer” plea, this even after 2019 fiscal year tax revenue topped the previous year’s by almost $2 billion and with 2020 estimated to soar beyond that figure.

“Here they are, two years after Speaker DeLeo and company enacted their $18 million in pay raises, crying poor once again,” said Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons. “And here are the Massachusetts taxpayers, again facing a Democrat cash-grab at the gas pump, even after already having voted in droves to kill their dream for an automatic gas tax increase.

“When will the message ever get through to these tax-and-spend Democrats on Beacon Hill? What amount of other people’s money will ever be enough?”

Lyons also pointed to the most recent estimates associated with illegal immigration in Massachusetts, which have pegged the cost at roughly $2 billion.

“And still, the radical Democrats on Beacon Hill want to turn Massachusetts into a sanctuary state,” Lyons said. “They’re already on the verge of granting driver’s licenses to those who entered this country illegally.

“In the end, it will be the law-abiding Massachusetts taxpayer who will be footing the bill for all of this, and these radical Democrats will still demand more.”