Fox News 4/30/10: Should Massachusetts Reduce Its Sales Tax?. To Massachusetts resident Carla Howell, the only good government is small government. Massachusetts currently has a sales tax of 6.25 percent. Carla, who is a registered libertarian, is now supporting a ballot initiative that would cut it to 3 percent. She says the only way to cut big government spending is to cut big government funding. But not everyone is as excited as Carla about a reduced sales tax. “If this passes it will be a complete disaster for Massachusetts,” said Donna Kelly-Williams. “Once again we will be passing a burden onto our kids." Kelly-Williams is a nurse in Cambridge and a member of the Massachusetts Coalition for our communities, the main group opposing Howell’s initiative. She points out that the cut would leave a $2.5 billion hole in the state budget.