TAX CUT, HEALTH CARE, MARIJUANA INITIATIVE DRIVES

Statewide voters in 2000 may make decisions about issues ranging from an
income tax cut to legalization of marijuana to universal health care after
Attorney General Thomas Reilly today advanced ballot questions about those
and nine other public policy issues.

As attorney general, Reilly must rule on whether proposed ballot laws are
constitutional.

Reilly also certified a constitutional amendment to strengthen parents'
rights. It has a shot at appearing on the 2002 ballot. He rejected four
petitions, including ones allowing public aid to private and parochial
schools, and repealing adoption reforms passed by the Legislature this
spring. The state constitution prohibits efforts tinkering with either the
courts or religion.

Gov. Paul Cellucci said he plans to use both his GOP campaign organization
and Barbara Anderson's Citizens for Limited Taxation to gather the
necessary signatures to put his $1.4 billion income-tax rollback question
on the ballot. Irritated by the Legislature's outright rejection of his
calls to roll the income tax rate back to 5 percent from 5.95 percent over
three years starting in January, the state's chief executive is turning to
the public for help.

"The people in the Legislature aren't listening. They're not doing what's
right for our families and right for our economy," Cellucci said this
afternoon after officially filing his petition with Secretary of State
William Galvin. "Despite 28 tax cuts ... we are still the fifth-most taxed
state in the county. This is very important for the economic future of our
state."

Before any of the approved 13 measures appear on the ballot for popular
review, sponsors face weeks of canvassing neighborhoods and shopping
centers to collect 57,100 signatures of support from voters. Then if the
Legislature doesn't act by May 3, sponsors must collect an additional 9,517
signatures by July 5, 2000 to put the questions on the November ballot.
Galvin must print forms that the petition organizers will use to gather
signatures; the forms will be ready Sept. 15.

Cellucci said that leaves enough time for legislative leaders to commit to
lowering the income tax to 5.75 percent for next year. House Speaker Thomas
Finneran and Senate President Thomas Birmingham are currently negotiating
the 61-day-late state budget, which includes a House provision to lower the
tax rate to 5.75 percent. The Senate has proposed leaving the income tax
rate untouched and instead offering new tax breaks to the elderly and the
working poor.

"You might as well go to 5.75 because it's going to happen next November
anyway," Cellucci told Finneran and Birmingham through reporters. "Maybe
that will help the current budget impasse. If they want to compromise
between the House version and the Senate version by adopting what we've
recommended, that would be great."

While the tax rollback effort has drawn most of the attention, other
veterans of the initiative petition process, like Harold Hubschman, are
promising well-orchestrated campaigns. Last year, the state's highest court
blocked Hubschman's effort to abolish tolls on the Masspike. The Brookline
consultant is back this year with a plan granting tax credits to people who
pay auto excise taxes or road, bridge or tunnel tolls.

"People love their cars and they hate to be taxed on travelling," said
Hubschman, leader of the Commuter Tax Relief Coalition. "The issue is not
that people don't want to pay for government services. They just hate taxes
on their cars."

Although Hubschman collected 150,000 signatures for his "Free the Pike"
campaign in 1997, the Supreme Judicial Court threw the question out on the
grounds that it would have forced the state to break its contract with
Masspike bondholders. Pike bonds, which often finance roadwork, are repaid
with toll revenues.

Hubschman said this year's effort preserves tolls by having the state
reimburse drivers about $500 million in toll and excise tax receipts. He
said polls conducted for his campaign show 75 percent of voters favor
eliminating the excise tax, while 62 percent would like to abolish tolls.

Both Cellucci and Hubschman said the state can easily afford their
respective $1.4 billion and $500 million efforts. But sponsors of a plan
calling for universal health care by 2003 say they aren't ready to talk
about how much their plan would cost.

Sponsored by the Ad-Hoc Committee to Defend and Improve Health Care, the
initiative petition calls for universal health care, a patients' bill of
rights and a moratorium on non-profit hospitals converting to for-profit
companies. This morning, committee representative Sarah Bennett said costs
wouldn't be much higher than what residents already pay. Health care costs
may even be lower if administrative and management expenses could be cut.
She said the organization is currently trying to decide upon a funding
mechanism.

Other initiatives OK'd by Reilly today:

* Increase the tax credit granted to residents who give to charity. Former
assistant AG Cheryl Cronin, who has also served as a lawyer for the state
Democratic Party, is leading the campaign.

* Allow the possession of marijuana and expand the law allowing people
caught with marijuana to argue they need it for medical reasons. Georgetown
lawyer Steven Epstein, who unsuccessfully defended Anderson's 1997 tax-cut
initiative from a challenge by the teacher's unions, is leading the drive
for the six related questions.

* Make possession of marijuana a civil, not criminal offense. Noted state
ballot law expert and former First Assisstant AG Thomas Kiley is leading
the campaign. Kiley, who is often hired to attack or defend ballot
questions before the SJC or the Ballot Law Commission, said he is running
the effort because his younger brother died of a drug overdose.

* Clarify the rights of parents to discipline their children, and limit the
right of government to intervene between parents and children. Philip Shea
Jr. of the Woburn-based Fatherhood Coalition filed the petition for a
constitutional amendment.

* Prohibit dog racing. David Vaughn of Jamaica Plain is leading the effort.

* Allow Sunday sales of liquor with approval from the local licensing
authority. Argeros and Linda Hiou of Alexandra's Liquor in Salem are
leading the campaign.

* Open up cable networks to internet service providers like America Online.
The petition was filed by J. Christopher Grace, who listed a Newbury Street
address.

* Allow parents to bury the remains of miscarried stillborns. Undeveloped
fetuses are currently treated as medical waste. Michael and Jean Morrisey
of Lexington filed the petition.

* Require schools to notify parents if pesticides are being used near
schools; filed by MassPIRG.