Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker wants to roll back the state’s recently increased sales tax. More surprisingly, the state’s Green-Rainbow Party is making the same pitch. The party’s state committee has unanimously called for a total repeal of the sales tax hike. From yesterday’s press release:

Jill Stein, former Green-Rainbow candidate for Governor, noted that “Over the past few years the Legislature has balanced the budget by turning to every regressive tax and fee in their toolkit. This is not only unfair, but it perpetuates a chronic budget crisis, with cut after cut to vital programs. We will never solve our revenue shortfalls by taxing people who are struggling to make ends meet. It’s time for the wealthy to support the state at the same overall rate as everyone else. Let’s start by repealing the sales tax hike and rejecting any tax hikes that increase the overall burden on low and moderate income people.”

The Greens prefer to raise revenue through a progressive income tax, but note that they want to cut the sales tax first — even though it’s highly unlikely that we’ll move to a progressive income tax structure any time soon. (It would require a constitutional amendment.) This could be shrewd politics, since the Greens have never had significant support among low-income voters; the party’s base, such as it is, has been in wealthy suburbs.

The party may see an anti-tax platform as a way of becoming competitive in a couple of legislative races next year (probably in districts where the Republicans don’t put up candidates). John Andrews, the Greens’ communications director, is quoted thus: “I expect that all GRP legislative candidates in 2010 will be firmly in favor of repealing the sales tax hike.”

The press release does not mention Gov. Deval Patrick, who signed the sales tax hike passed by the Legislature even though he had preferred an increase in the gas tax. Patrick’s popularity has taken a beating in recent polls; it’s unclear whether the state’s liberal-leaning voters will rally around him by next November or look for a Nader-like alternative.

One sign that the Greens are trying to act like a major political party: Their resolution for a repeal of the sales tax hike does not explain how to balance the state’s budget while the quest for a progressive income tax goes on for five or 10 years. After all, elections are won on broad strokes, not troublesome details.