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CLT UPDATE
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Season's Greetings
|
Senate President Stanley Rosenberg hinted at
2017 agenda items Tuesday, highlighting climate change,
housing, education funding, and economic issues for low- and
middle-income families while not dismissing the possibility
of raising taxes to help pay for those initiatives.
"We still have some huge needs around
housing and homelessness, we haven't done a multi-year
commitment to education funding in a long time, we did
improve funding on transportation but there's still a big
gap compared to what people want us to deliver, and let's
not forget the opioid heroin crisis," he said....
Asked whether the Legislature might hike
taxes to raise the revenue to pay for the litany of issues
he laid out, Rosenberg said, "We have to think about what we
need, what it's going to cost and do we have the revenue to
support it." ...
Last week, House Speaker Robert DeLeo said
he was "not ruling out" the possibility of raising taxes,
while Gov. Charlie Baker said he would work to dissuade
DeLeo and Rosenberg from pursuing tax hikes.
Rosenberg, when asked Tuesday about tax
increases being "on the table" clarified that, "Taxes aren't
quote on the table. They're just not off the table." ...
Lawmakers last raised taxes in 2013, hiking
the cost of a gallon of gas by 3 cents and a pack of
cigarettes by $1. Four years before that, at the nadir of
the Great Recession, lawmakers increased the sales tax to
6.25 percent, up from 5 percent.
On the issue of taxes, Rosenberg said that
his chamber is ready to pursue tax reform in Massachusetts,
specifically related to the state's flat income tax.
"We are prepared to work on making our tax
system more progressive," he said, specifically citing "a
lot of pretty big tax loopholes" and the impact of the
income tax on low- and middle-income families as
problematic. "Basically we have a 19th and 20th century tax
system for a 21st century economy. We could stand to take a
hard look at it to see if we can make it fairer and more
progressive."
State House News Service
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Rosenberg ticks off focus areas for legislating in 2017
The fact that revenue growth remains slow at
a time when more people are working than at possibly anytime
in the state's history demonstrates, according to Baker,
that he and lawmakers need to be careful about excessive
spending.
Baker said numbers suggest to him an
"underlying softness to what people are making and earning"
and serve as a reminder that reaching for additional revenue
through broad-based tax increases would be a mistake.
Baker's messaging on taxes, however, is sure
to be read with a magnifying glass by legislative leaders,
particularly those in the House like DeLeo who, for the
first time in several years, have not yet reflexively ruled
out tax hikes.
"If the Legislature wants to flatten the tax
code or make other kinds of adjustments to close loopholes
and do other stuff like that then I'm open to that," Baker
said. "But if you're asking me if I would support an
across-the-board tax increase on working families here in
the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the answer to that one is
no, I would veto that."
So begins the guessing game of what kind of
tax hikes he would support, or at least not fight (AirBnb?)
and what he will oppose (gas tax?).
State House News Service
Friday, December 16, 2016
Weekly Roundup — Recap and
analysis of the week in state government
By Matt Murphy
The thought of state Rep. Paul Heroux
running anything above the level of a lemonade stand is
laughable — unless, given his
record, you don't mind higher taxes and spending...
In the four years he has been Attleboro's
state representative, his legislative record on taxes has
been abysmal. Over two biennial taxpayer ratings consisting
of 40 votes on tax-related issues, the Attleboro Democrat
has received a 20 percent rating according to Citizens
for Limited Taxation....
The only thing Rep. Heroux could run is the
city into the ground, if he ever got his hands on a
municipal budget.
The Attleboro Sun-Chronicle
Saturday, December 17, 2016
Letter to the editor by Chip Faulkner
Communications Director
Citizens for Limited Taxation
Like most local elected officials, [State
Rep. Denise] Garlick’s world revolves around the T’s her
constituents care about: Town. Trees. Teens. Troubles.
Trains. So it didn’t take her long to realize that these
eight minutes were serious business.
But social media isn’t what got her moving.
Garlick says what she reacts to, what really sticks in her
gut, is conversation. And in this case, it was the heartfelt
phone chats and face-to-face interactions she had in the
supermarket or at one of her favorite breakfast haunts in
Needham, Fresco. Those, more than anything, set in motion
the meetings she arranged that ultimately led to this note
coming from her office a few months later: “Great News! Town
of Needham Commuter Rail Riders! Starting November 21, 2016,
the 8:02 am (Train #606) from Needham Heights will return!”
...
Over a grilled corn muffin at Fresco,
Garlick explains. It’s simple, she says. Talk, don’t just
tweet. Call, don’t just post. Join, don’t ignore. Picking up
the phone and sharing your story with your representative,
introducing yourself at a public meeting and speaking out,
organizing a 5K in support of a cause, all of those dwarf
the impact any Facebook post, e-mail, or tweet will have....
That computer in your pocket is an amazing
device. It tells you how to avoid a traffic jam, when the
Red Sox traded for an ace, and it reminds you to pick up
toothpaste on the way home. But it’s most powerful as a
telephone. So the next time you’re angry, go ahead, post it,
tweet it, e-mail it. But after that, dial your rep, or
better yet, buy her a corn muffin, so you can really be
heard.
The Boston Globe
Thursday, December 15, 2016
The trick to getting politicians to listen is simple
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
As we approach Christmas 2016 with a new year
on the horizon I'd like to thank those of you who've made a generous
end-of-year contribution to Citizens for Limited Taxation. That gift
has allowed CLT to keep plugging along for you and all taxpayers through
year's end and into 2017. If you haven't yet, you can still mail us a
much-needed contribution from the package we sent you, or make one by credit
card here,
as CLT's financial situation is still touch-and-go.
As you can read in the news reports included in
this Update and from those we included in previous recent Updates, the
Democrat leadership on Beacon Hill already has tax increases up for
consideration. Such consideration this early —
before the next Legislature is even officially sworn in and seated next
month — does not bode well for us taxpayers.
It seems the discussion is not so much whether higher taxes are to be
imposed but which ones they can get away with easiest.
That's our Legislature's holiday message.
The political trick is to quickly pass tax
increases early in a new two-year legislative term with the hope that voters
will forget the cause of their pain by the time legislators stand for
re-election.
State revenue growth
remains slow, despite more people working, because the income of
working people is and has been stagnant if not lower. Gov.
Baker recognized this, pointing to an "underlying softness to what
people are making and earning." In light of this, he advised
against raising additional revenue through broad-based tax
increases, such as the income, sales, or gas taxes.
The Department of Revenue
yesterday reported that tax collections over the first two weeks of December
were up by $39 million over the same period last year, a 4 percent increase
in over-the-year tax collections. Still that is not enough for Bacon
Hill spenders. More Is Never Enough (MINE) and never will be. No
matter how much they take from us, they manage to spend more than comes in.
"There's always more where that came from" is the attitude. That's
just the nature of the beast, and what we're up against.
In closing, I'm passing on some good advice
from the Boston Globe's Doug Most ("The trick
to getting politicians to listen is simple")
that you as activists will find useful and effective:
That computer in
your pocket is an amazing device. It tells you how to
avoid a traffic jam, when the Red Sox traded for an ace, and
it reminds you to pick up toothpaste on the way home.
But it’s most powerful as a telephone. So the
next time you’re angry, go ahead, post it, tweet it, e-mail
it. But after that, dial your rep, or better
yet, buy her a corn muffin, so you can really be heard.
If I don't get a chance again before the
holidays arrive, we at Citizens for Limited Taxation wish you and yours a
very Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
At the very least, the coming new year promises much excitement!
P.S.
Barbara and I used the Christmas holly graphic (above) every Christmas in the
heading of her Christmas letter to her family and closest friends.
Each year she’d write her letter then I’d format it, add graphics and
photos, and get it printed; she’d include it along with each card she sent.
I thought I’d roll it out one more time for this.
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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State House News Service
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Rosenberg ticks off focus areas for legislating
in 2017
By Colin A. Young
Senate President Stanley Rosenberg hinted at
2017 agenda items Tuesday, highlighting climate
change, housing, education funding, and economic
issues for low- and middle-income families while
not dismissing the possibility of raising taxes
to help pay for those initiatives.
"We still have some huge needs around housing
and homelessness, we haven't done a multi-year
commitment to education funding in a long time,
we did improve funding on transportation but
there's still a big gap compared to what people
want us to deliver, and let's not forget the
opioid heroin crisis," he said.
Rosenberg also added, "Of course, we're going to
continue to work on economic issues for all
folks, but particular for low- and
moderate-income people."
Rosenberg said he also expects the Senate to
focus in 2017 on an issue that held Beacon
Hill's attention for much of the current
session: energy. That work led to a law giving
hydropower and offshore wind prominent roles in
the state's energy mix, but Rosenberg said the
legislative work on energy is not done.
"We made a lot of progress in this term but we
have to continue to deal with greening our
energy supply, dealing with climate change,"
Rosenberg said on Boston Herald Radio, adding
that climate change "really threatens the
stability of our economy if we can't deal
effectively with sea rise and with severe
weather conditions, so that's got to be one of
the big focuses."
Asked whether the Legislature might hike taxes
to raise the revenue to pay for the litany of
issues he laid out, Rosenberg said, "We have to
think about what we need, what it's going to
cost and do we have the revenue to support it."
At a revenue outlook hearing held last week,
estimates of state tax revenue growth provided
by economists, analysts and others ranged from
2.65 percent to 5.2 percent for fiscal year
2018. Baker administration officials and
legislative leaders need to agree on a consensus
revenue estimate in January.
Last week, House Speaker Robert DeLeo said he
was "not ruling out" the possibility of raising
taxes, while Gov. Charlie Baker said he would
work to dissuade DeLeo and Rosenberg from
pursuing tax hikes.
Rosenberg, when asked Tuesday about tax
increases being "on the table" clarified that,
"Taxes aren't quote on the table. They're just
not off the table."
"I know in your world that may mean the same,"
he told Morning Meeting hosts Hillary Chabot and
Jaclyn Cashman, "but in our world it doesn't
mean exactly the same thing."
Lawmakers last raised taxes in 2013, hiking the
cost of a gallon of gas by 3 cents and a pack of
cigarettes by $1. Four years before that, at the
nadir of the Great Recession, lawmakers
increased the sales tax to 6.25 percent, up from
5 percent.
On the issue of taxes, Rosenberg said that his
chamber is ready to pursue tax reform in
Massachusetts, specifically related to the
state's flat income tax.
"We are prepared to work on making our tax
system more progressive," he said, specifically
citing "a lot of pretty big tax loopholes" and
the impact of the income tax on low- and
middle-income families as problematic.
"Basically we have a 19th and 20th century tax
system for a 21st century economy. We could
stand to take a hard look at it to see if we can
make it fairer and more progressive."
The Attleboro Sun-Chronicle
Saturday, December 17, 2016
Letters to the editor
To the editor:
The thought of state Rep. Paul Heroux running
anything above the level of a lemonade stand is
laughable — unless,
given his record, you don't mind higher taxes
and spending ("Heroux mulls run for mayor," Dec.
12 ).
In the four years he has been Attleboro's state
representative, his legislative record on taxes
has been abysmal. Over two biennial taxpayer
ratings consisting of 40 votes on tax-related
issues, the Attleboro Democrat has received a 20
percent rating according to Citizens for
Limited Taxation. In other words he has
voted against the taxpayers 80 percent of the
time - favoring them on only eight of 40 votes.
One of Rep. Heroux's votes was in favor of the
graduated income tax - a constitutional
amendment likely headed for the 2018 statewide
ballot. The last time the grad tax was on the
ballot in 1994, Attleboro voters rejected it
soundly by a 71-29 percent vote
— even higher than the statewide vote of
69-31 percent. This vote alone shows how out of
touch he is with his own constituency
— yet he's thinking of a mayoral run?
The only thing Rep. Heroux could run is the city
into the ground, if he ever got his hands on a
municipal budget.
Chip Faulkner
Attleboro
Communications Director
Citizens for Limited Taxation
The Boston Globe
Thursday, December 15, 2016
The trick to getting politicians to listen is
simple
Whether you need a pothole fix, or a champion
for your deepest beliefs, give your
grandparents’ method a try.
By Doug Most
Eight minutes. It’s not a long time. You can
scramble up a couple of eggs and toast in eight
minutes. You can read this essay in eight
minutes. You can even have a meaningful
conversation in eight minutes.
But when eight minutes gets lopped off your
morning routine with no warning, that’s when you
realize how important they are. Getting the kids
to school is more rushed. The lines on the T or
the expressway feel like they never move. That
morning meeting downtown is harder to make.
Denise Garlick, a state representative for a
trio of metrowest towns, learned this year just
how important a lousy eight minutes can be to
her constituents. That she helped restore those
eight minutes to their lives is an example of
how local government can, and should, work. But
the fact that Garlick chose to act so swiftly on
this particular issue, of all the items on her
long to-do list, is an especially valuable
civics lesson in today’s political climate.
So let’s all learn from it.
Back in the spring, the MBTA and its commuter
rail operator, Keolis, moved the 8:02 a.m.
inbound train from Needham Heights to 8:10. Big
whoop, right? Suck it up, suburbanites, and
deal. Well, if you rely on that 8:02 to get
downtown by 8:50 so you can attend a daily 9
a.m. meeting, and now you can’t arrive till 9:10
or 9:15, that means you have to take the train a
half-hour earlier. Except your kids can’t be
dropped off at school before 8. So now what? Or
if you hop off the train at Ruggles to teach a 9
a.m. class at Northeastern, now you have to
drive and pay for parking. Or if you normally
see patients at Brigham and Women’s at 9, now
you can’t start till 9:15, which means your day
— and theirs — has to start later.
When we’re angry about a delayed flight, or our
cable company’s customer service, or a
restaurant’s failure to refill our water glass,
we take to the Web and sound off, hoping for
likes and retweets. And in Needham, I joined in
that chorus in the days and weeks after the
schedule change. Facebook and Twitter lit up
with venom. E-mails were fired off to Keolis,
the MBTA, and to Denise Garlick.
Like most local elected officials, Garlick’s
world revolves around the T’s her constituents
care about: Town. Trees. Teens. Troubles.
Trains. So it didn’t take her long to realize
that these eight minutes were serious business.
But social media isn’t what got her moving.
Garlick says what she reacts to, what really
sticks in her gut, is conversation. And in this
case, it was the heartfelt phone chats and
face-to-face interactions she had in the
supermarket or at one of her favorite breakfast
haunts in Needham, Fresco. Those, more than
anything, set in motion the meetings she
arranged that ultimately led to this note coming
from her office a few months later: “Great News!
Town of Needham Commuter Rail Riders! Starting
November 21, 2016, the 8:02 am (Train #606) from
Needham Heights will return!”
I celebrated, I admit it. But after that I
wanted to understand how government can seem
useless and dismissive of public concerns one
day and reverse a bungled decision so smartly
and efficiently the next.
Over a grilled corn muffin at Fresco, Garlick
explains. It’s simple, she says. Talk, don’t
just tweet. Call, don’t just post. Join, don’t
ignore. Picking up the phone and sharing your
story with your representative, introducing
yourself at a public meeting and speaking out,
organizing a 5K in support of a cause, all of
those dwarf the impact any Facebook post,
e-mail, or tweet will have.
“People need to figure things out together,” she
tells me, “instead of figuring them out in
isolation.”
When Garlick wants to make a point about how
government’s working or, as it may be, not
working, she has this little exercise she goes
through: When speaking to a group about advocacy
and citizen empowerment, she’ll ask everyone in
her audience to stand up. And then she’ll begin
a series of questions.
Are you a registered voter? Everyone remains
standing.
Do you vote in every election — local, state,
federal? A big group sits.
Do you belong to a community group or local
organization? Another group sits.
Do you know your state representative? Sheepish
looks all around.
By now, Garlick, who was elected in 2010, can
usually count on two hands those still standing.
“And those numbers are diminishing,” she says.
Somehow, the basics that used to be obligatory,
just standard business in a democracy, began to
be seen as all that is required of us. Voting,
reading, and sounding off, we should be doing
those things. Go ahead and post an Election Day
selfie, but you can’t stop there.
That computer in your pocket is an amazing
device. It tells you how to avoid a traffic jam,
when the Red Sox traded for an ace, and it
reminds you to pick up toothpaste on the way
home. But it’s most powerful as a telephone. So
the next time you’re angry, go ahead, post it,
tweet it, e-mail it. But after that, dial your
rep, or better yet, buy her a corn muffin, so
you can really be heard.
Doug Most, a former editor of the Globe
Magazine, is the Globe’s director of strategic
growth initiatives. |
| |
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this
material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes
only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪
PO Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
▪ 508-915-3665
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