Gov. Patrick's tax plans get stranger.
Governor Deval Patrick will propose a gradual reduction in the state's corporate tax rate from 9.5 percent to 8.3 percent when he unveils his budget next week, a bid to win business support and jumpstart his stalled plan to tighten what he calls corporate tax loopholes, administration sources said.
The plan is an olive branch of sorts that Patrick is hoping will help revive a cornerstone of his legislative agenda that has failed to move in the face of strong opposition from the business community and House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi.
In a further bid to win corporate support, Patrick may also propose a freeze on an increase in unemployment insurance rates that is due to take effect in March, the sources said.
Patrick will unveil the budget provisions this morning at a Neponset Valley Chamber of Commerce breakfast.
The compromise may not be enough to win over business leaders. While the corporate tax codes would be tightened in January 2009, Patrick wants to delay his corporate tax rate reduction until 2010, and it would be phased in over three years.
UPDATE: More from the Globe and Adam Reilly.
SECOND UPDATE: More from the Herald and Globe.
