January 21, 2010 – Old Colony Memorial – By Emily Wilcox

PLYMOUTH — A plan that would have made it more expensive to eat out got kicked out by voters Tuesday.

A whopping 79.8 percent of the impressive 60 percent of Plymouth voters who turned out at the polls this week said “no” to a proposal to implement a .75 percent local meals tax. The new tax was created by the state legislature last year to provide Massachusetts communities with a new way to increase local revenue in response to cuts in state aid....

State Rep. Vinny deMacedo, R-Plymouth, who was also against the new tax, had a similar take on Tuesday’s vote.

“People understand that the economy is bad and it’s bad for one of our major industries, which is tourism,” he said. “Three or four restaurants have closed in the last half of the year. They’re in very precarious positions and we can’t put any more burden on them. I don’t think people mind giving their fair share. It’s not that they don’t want to give more money; it’s that they don’t have more to give.” 

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