Dear Editor:

Thousands of men and women of the Massachusetts recreational marine trades are struggling statewide to stay afloat in a burdensome tax environment in a down economy. Massachusetts boat tax policy is the gift that keeps sending Massachusetts jobs to Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and, now, Maine with that state's recent reduction of its sales- or use-tax rate to 2% for out-of-state residents that keep their boats in Maine.

Sandwiched between tax-free havens to the north and south, fewer and fewer boats are built in, bought in, registered in and docked in Massachusetts, reducing the demand for marine trades employees statewide. The issue is about jobs, not creating a tax haven for affluent recreationalists. Indeed, fewer than 2% of boats registered in Massachusetts exceeded 40 feet as of 2007.

Massachusetts must adopt its own competitive boat tax policy. Rhode Island's boat sales tax repeal in 1993 increased its marine industry employment by 20% within two years and within five years, gross revenues in the Rhode Island marine industry grew by 52%.

Boasting over 1500 miles of saltwater coastline and over 2500 square miles of inland waters, Massachusetts possesses the "infrastructure" to rebuild what has been lost. All that is needed is the tax policy to allow it.

Jack Kent III
President
Massachusetts Marine Trades Association