Carla Howell

Carla Howell

Carla A. Howell (born 1955) is an American political activist and small government advocate. She is President of the Center For Small Government. She is most known for organizing tax cut initiative petitions in Massachusetts (called ballot measures in other states). She started an initiative to repeal the Massachusetts state personal income tax in 2002 and again in 2008 and one to cut the state sales tax in 2010. She ran for office in Massachusetts for U.S. Senate (2000), Governor (2002), and State Auditor (1998) on the Libertarian Party ticket.

In December 2011 she became executive director for the Libertarian National Committee.

In 2010 she headed the Alliance to Roll Back Taxes, backing a ballot initiative to cut the Massachusetts sales tax from 6.25% to 3.0% which was on the November 2, 2010 ballot as Question 3. Her group collected and submitted 74,131 approved voter signatures in the fall of 2009, and another 14,023 signatures in the spring-summer of 2010 to qualify the measure.

Howell released her spoof song How Could I Live Without Filing Taxes in 2001 which she wrote and performed.

She earned her MBA from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts (1986) and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Bethany College in Mathematics/Computer Science (1976). She worked at Datamedic, Clinical Information Advantages, Inc., Westinghouse Electric, Computervision Corporation, and Analog Devices, and consulted for numerous small and medium-sized businesses in Massachusetts.