State Representative Jay Kaufman dispelled the myth of “Taxachusetts” at Monday night's meeting. Lauren C. Ostberg State legislators came to Somerville Monday to kick off a discussion about taxes in the state. "I want to see if we, as a Commonwealth, can have an adult conversation about taxes," said State Representative Jay Kaufman, a Democrat. He opened the meeting at Somerville City Hall with several broad strokes. "I think our tax system is broken, and I don't think we can fix what's wrong with our tax system as is," he said. "We have to peel back some of our thinking and go from there."

Kaufman, who has served as Chair of the Committee on Revenue for a year and a half, and admits to a steep learning curve, asked the public to help him surmount the intellectual, if not the political, challenge of forming good tax policy.

"What can we do to fix it?" he asked the dozen or so Somerville residents who attended Monday's forum.

He dispelled the myth of "Taxachusetts" – currently, 10.5 percent of Massachusetts residents personal income goes to state and local taxes, almost one percentage point below the national average of 11.3 percent. This disparity represents a potential $3 billion in revenue for the state.

State Representatives Denise Provost and Carl Sciortino, and State Senator Patricia Jehlen invited Kaufman to address their constituents. Kaufman began with a few definitions of a "good" tax policy: adequacy, transparency, simplicity and quitability were fairly standard, but his inclusion of "congruence with broader policy goals," framed most of the discussion.

Representative Provost said she observed a great deal of inconsistency in the formation and execution of the governor's proposed policies. "If there is no mechanism for aligning tax policy and substantive policy goals, how do we get it?" she asked.

Kaufman credited Norma Shapiro of the ACLU for introducing him to the idea, and proposed, as example, Governor Patrick's proposed sweet-snack tax, which would generate additional revenue and was also "good health policy."

The discussion covered health insurance, small businesses, property tax, education and transportation issues, but generated very little controversy.

Transportation came up first.

"As someone who hasn't driven since 1997, I resent that a large part of my taxes are going to highway projects and no to transportation projects," said Kristi Chase, a City Hall employee and a longtime resident of Ward 3. "It seems strange to me that we're subsidizing people living far away and wasting energy."

Jim McGinnis, similarly, said that he was "very disappointed that a gas tax was off the table." According to his memory, gas taxes have not changed since 1991. He believes that a gradual increase to a tax of, say, 25 cents a gallon would give the state much-needed revenue, and would also be "a great way to silently push people to do something good for them, anyway."

Kaufman said the proposed gas tax represents close to one billion dollars in revenue. Opponents to that tax were very vocal, and brought up the disproportionate impact on those living in communities without quality public transportation.

State Representative Carl Sciortino added that last year's debate over the propose gas tax led to the initiation of a pilot program that charged a tax based on miles traveled, versus cost of fuel.

Another constituent asked if there was a way, in general terms, to use taxes as a means of penalizing certain behaviors, say, the use of fossil fuels, and then funnel those funds to promote hiring and investment in small businesses.

Kaufman mentioned that Senate President Therese Murray is working on a proposal to encourage small businesses to expand employment. Sciortino said business income tax had decreased for three years.

As a small business owner, photographer John Heyman was concerned about healthcare costs. The cost of these benefits means that he cannot justify the expense of a new employee, and often sources jobs to independent contractors. As a relatively healthy man, he pays more than $500 a month for his own coverage.

"I know, it's inexcusable," said Kaufman. For the short-term, he floated the idea of improving business markets by offering incentives for hiring employees, or, alternatively, finding a way to aggregate small-business employees to make a larger, and therefore less costly, insurance pool.

"Long-term, though, I think we need to unlink insurance and employment. Offering healthcare is a strange, paternal system we've created, and it gets in the way of business decisions," he said.

Kaufman answered short questions about the proposed casino, the August 2009 sales tax hike and the challenges of building a local tax base with an increasingly internet-based consumer population.