 |
Post Office Box 1147
▪
Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945
▪ (781) 639-9709
“Every Tax is a Pay Cut ... A Tax Cut is a Pay Raise”
47 years as “The Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers”
— and
their Institutional Memory — |
|
CLT UPDATE
Monday, October 18, 2021
Massachusetts, USA
Moving In The Wrong Direction Fast
Jump directly
to CLT's Commentary on the News
|
Most Relevant News
Excerpts
(Full news reports follow Commentary)
|
|
This is
signature-collecting season in Massachusetts, the
time of year when activists working to get a
proposed law on the state ballot fan out to busy
intersections, town dumps, and farmers’ markets,
bearing initiative petitions for voters to sign.
Most passersby decline
to help out — many don’t even slow down long enough
to find out what the proposed law would do. Perhaps
they would be less aloof if they considered just how
much effort it takes for private citizens to
actually get a measure onto the ballot....
For a proposed law to
move forward, its supporters must collect signatures
from 80,239 registered voters, no more than a
quarter of whom may live in the same county. Those
signatures then have to be submitted to the
registrars in individual city and town halls for
certification by Nov. 17.
Then come six months of
waiting, during which the Legislature has the option
of enacting the proposed law directly. If it hasn’t
done so by May 4, 2022, supporters will need to go
through a second round of signature-collecting.
They’ll have until July 6 to get an additional
13,374 registered voters to sign petitions. If they
get that far, the measure goes to the fall ballot
and the law’s proponents can begin their election
campaign in earnest.
But that only scratches
the surface of what ballot activists must deal
with....
Facing so many
strictures and hurdles, initiative petition
campaigners know that a significant chunk of the
signatures they submit are bound to be invalidated.
So they have no choice but to collect far more than
the number legally required — at least 50 percent
more, according to Chip Ford, the executive
director of Citizens for Limited Taxation and
a veteran of many Massachusetts ballot campaigns.
CLT, the grassroots activist group that put
Proposition 2½ on the ballot in 1980, is currently
backing an initiative to block an increase in
gasoline taxes. Ford estimates that roughly 120,000
“raw” signatures will have to be turned in by Nov.
17 in order to be sure that 80,239 of them will pass
muster....
Politicians and
political pundits often deride ballot initiatives as
confusing for voters, lacking in nuance, or too
easily manipulated by special interests and
advertising. The odds against any initiative
petition’s success are steep, yet lawmakers
frequently propose new restrictions and requirements
designed to make them even steeper.
But if political
insiders begrudge the initiative and referendum
process, the rest of us have every reason to embrace
it. Ballot campaigns are often the only outlet
available to bypass lawmakers who turn a deaf ear to
the public. It isn’t easy to get a law enacted by
popular vote. Those that succeed have almost
invariably been subjected to more careful vetting,
more thorough debate, and more transparent coverage
than 90 percent of the bills approved in the
Legislature.
When you see activists
collecting signatures for a ballot initiative,
you’re seeing citizen lawmaking at its finest. Want
to stick it to Beacon Hill? Stop and sign the
petition.
The
Boston Globe
Sunday, October 17, 2021
Why Beacon Hill resents ballot
activists
Initiative petitions exemplify democracy at its
finest.
But they infringe on the politicians’ monopoly.
By Jeff Jacoby
An interstate carbon
tax agreement promoted as having 13 mid-Atlantic and
Northeastern members appears shaky after the
Connecticut legislature snubbed the idea in
September, leaving as the only committed
jurisdictions the District of Columbia and
Massachusetts, though the Bay State faces a possible
ballot initiative against it.
While officials from 10
other states have been in discussions to enter the
Transportation and Climate Initiative, or TCI, only
then-Rhode Island Gov. Gina M. Raimondo,
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Connecticut
Gov. Ned Lamont joined D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in
signing a memorandum of understanding in December to
implement the plan....
Baker, a Republican,
unilaterally entered the agreement under the Bay
State’s law requiring emission reductions. The other
two New England states, both with Democratic
governors, require legislative approval to seal the
deal, and lawmakers in each state balked....
“It’s fair to say TCI
is having a hard time getting off the ground.
However, the program was designed to be basically
like a zombie. It dies and comes back to life,” Paul
Craney, spokesman and board member for the
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, which opposes the
agreement, told Fox News.
“It was first rolled
out that a dozen states were doing it, saying
everyone is going to have shared pain for
environmental benefit because you’ve got some big
states mixed in there,” Craney added. “Then we
learned in December, it was three states. Now it’s
one that is fully committed.” ...
If Massachusetts fully
enters the agreement by 2023 as scheduled, about
80,000 vehicles in the state will not have enough
fuel by 2025, according to an analysis by the
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Foundation in August.
To avoid a major fuel shortage later, the analysis
says, Massachusetts drivers would now have to swap
their gas-powered vehicle for an electrical vehicle
at a rate of about 2,000 electric vehicles per
month. But only about 2,000 electric vehicles were
sold in Massachusetts during the entire calendar
year of 2020.
Transportation for
Massachusetts, a coalition of Massachusetts
environmental groups, opposes the ballot initiative
to leave the agreement.
The New
York Post
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
State-level carbon tax climate
agreement struggling to get off the ground
By Fred Lucas, Fox News
Another jump in
consumer prices last month sent inflation up 5.4%
from where it was a year ago, matching the largest
increase in 13 years.
Excluding the volatile
food and energy sectors, core inflation rose 0.2% in
September and 4% compared with a year ago.
The unexpected burst of
inflation reflects sharply higher prices for food
and energy, but also for furniture, cars,
televisions and many imported goods.
Consumer prices rose
0.4% in September from August as the costs of rent
and goods climbed....
For elderly Americans,
however, the increase has resulted in the biggest
increase in benefits in 39 years. Monthly Social
Security checks will rise 5.9% next year, the
government said Wednesday.
The
Boston Herald
Friday, October 15, 2021
A burst of inflation
reflects higher prices for everything from food to
furniture
Seniors and other
Americans receiving Social Security benefits in 2022
will see the largest increase in their payments in
four decades, reflecting surging inflation during
the pandemic.
Next year’s
cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, will be 5.9%,
the Social Security Administration said Wednesday.
The increase will translate to an addition of $92 to
retirees’ average monthly benefit next year,
bringing the amount to $1,657, the agency estimates.
The nearly 6%
cost-of-living adjustment is the largest since 1982,
according to Social Security Administration data.
The adjustment is calculated based on the Labor
Department’s measure of inflation faced by
blue-collar workers.
The Labor Department
said its broader measure of inflation, the
consumer-price index, rose 5.4% in September from a
year earlier, the largest annual gain since 2008.
The Social Security
Administration also said the maximum amount of
earnings subject to the Social Security tax will
increase to $147,000 in 2022 from $142,800 this
year, a 2.9% increase.
The extent to which the
larger-than-usual Social Security adjustment makes
retirees’ and other recipients feel more well off
will largely depend on whether inflation eases next
year compared with 2021, said Naomi Fink, a
retirement economist at Capital Group, an investment
manager.
Consumer prices have
risen at the fastest rate in more than a decade this
year because trillions of dollars in economic
stimulus have supported consumer demand at a time
when supplies for everything from toilet paper to
new cars have been constrained because of pandemic
disruptions.
The Wall
Street Journal
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Social Security Benefits to Increase
5.9% for 2022
Seniors and other Americans receiving Social
Security will see
largest increase in payments in 40 years
As inflation continues
to climb, the Social Security Administration (SSA)
has announced that social security recipients will
see a 5.9 percent increase in their benefits, the
largest such increase since 1982.
The SSA has
historically adjusted benefits to account for
inflation, but these have often been minor, granting
beneficiaries a one or two percent increase. The
announced increase today goes far beyond this norm,
giving another indication of continuing inflation.
“The 5.9 percent
cost-of-living adjustment will begin with benefits
payable to more than 64 million Social Security
beneficiaries in January 2022,” said the SSA in a
press release. The SSA makes the judgment to
increase benefits based on changes in the U.S.
Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index, which
tracks the costs of various products for average
Americans.
Further reflecting the
bite of inflation, the SSA also announced that it
would increase the maximum income taxable under
social security from $142,800 to $147,000.
On Wednesday, the Labor
Department announced that consumer prices had
increased by 0.4 percent during September compared
to the month before, exceeding Dow Jones’ prediction
and sending shivers through the stock market. The
Labor Department’s report also showed that between
Sept. 2020 and Sept. 2021, consumer prices shot up a
staggering 5.4 percent, again exceeding Dow Jones’
estimated 5.3 percent....
The SSA’s historical
cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) reflect this
economic downturn. In July 1980, the COLA achieved
its highest ever level, with a 14.3 percent
adjustment. In January 2009, the COLA reached its
highest until 2022, at 5.8 percent.
In comparison, January
2020 saw a 1.6 percent increase, and January 2021
saw a 1.3 percent increase.
Beyond social security,
the effects of this inflation are being felt across
the United States....
Most notably, Dollar
Tree has been forced to break its decades-long
“Everything’s one dollar” slogan, announcing in a
Sept. 28 press release that some prices would be
increased as a result of inflation. Other chains
have joined Dollar Tree in raising prices.
The increase in social
security benefits is only the latest indication of
increasing inflation.
The Epoch
Times
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Social Security Announces Largest
Benefits Increase Since 1982
Making the latest push
in a decades-long campaign to allow police to stop
and cite drivers solely for failing to wear a
seatbelt, AAA Northeast Director of Public Affairs
Mary Maguire warned that the decline in use during
the COVID-19 era has exacerbated an
already-dangerous pattern that lawmakers and state
officials have been unable to wrangle.
Reform backers have
tried unsuccessfully for years to convert
Massachusetts from secondary enforcement of seatbelt
use, in which police can only cite motorists for
failing to buckle up when they spot another
violation, to primary enforcement, in which seatbelt
use alone would warrant a traffic stop....
"Our secondary seatbelt
law is simply not succeeding. More than 1.2 million
Bay Staters still don't buckle, with usage declining
dramatically during the pandemic," Maguire told the
Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee. "This
translates to more crash victims flooding our
already tapped-out emergency rooms during the
pandemic."
The House rejected
efforts to switch to a primary enforcement mechanism
twice in the early 2000s, with opponents contending
it would represent government overreach and could
lead to civil rights violations. Legislative leaders
have opted not to bring the matter forward for floor
votes in recent years....
Gov. Charlie Baker has
also targeted the area for reform, pursuing
authorization of primary enforcement again this
session after the Transportation Committee did not
act on his seatbelt proposal last year....
Arthur Kinsman, a
regional administrator for the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration, said . . . "It really
is a proven strategy . . . When you look at states
that have a primary enforcement law versus states
that do not, the results are clear."
State
House News Service
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Seatbelt Use Rates Dropped
During Pandemic
Safety Advocates Reframe Push For New Enforcement
Law
“Advocates for both the
first state mandatory seat belt law that we repealed
in 1986 and the current one re-imposed in 1994,
promised it would be enforced only after being
stopped for another violation, never ‘primary
enforcement,” said Chip Ford, executive
director of Citizens for Limited Taxation and
former director of Freedom First which led both
repeal referendum drives. “The safety zealots never
give in and are never satisfied with half a loaf.
They won’t relent until they have it all and then
some. If primary enforcement becomes law their next
pursuit will be to impose an insurance surcharge for
violators, always the endgame—mark my word.”Beacon
Hill Roll Call
October
11-15, 2021
Primary Enforcement of the Seat Belt
Law (S-1591)
By Bob Katzen
Sitting on roughly $5
billion in unbudgeted tax revenue from last year,
the House on Wednesday passed a $303 million budget
to cover old expenses, but delayed choices on how to
spend the bulk of the surplus until later this fall
as the Legislature also considers how to use
billions of dollars in American Rescue Plan Act
funds.
The approach means the
Legislature pushed off deciding whether to embrace
Gov. Charlie Baker's plan to use $1 billion from the
fiscal 2021 surplus to replenish the state's
unemployment insurance system, which employer groups
have been lobbying for aggressively in recent
months.
House Ways and Means
Chairman Aaron Michlewitz and Senate Ways and Means
Chairman Michael Rodrigues announced a deal between
branch leaders on Wednesday morning that would allow
Comptroller William McNamara to close the books on
fiscal year 2021, which ended on June 30.
"This budget addresses
time-sensitive deficiencies that require the
Legislature's attention to close the books on FY21
and sets aside unobligated FY21 surplus funds to be
considered later in the fall," Michlewitz and
Rodrigues said in a statement.
The two Democrats
referred to the bill that passed the House as a
"bill-paying" budget for fiscal year 2021 that would
also give the Legislature additional time to
consider how to spend the remainder of the
surplus....
After fiscal year 2021
tax revenues surpassed expectations by roughly $5
billion, Gov. Charlie Baker filed a $1.6 billion
closeout budget in August that would have directed
$1 billion of the surplus into the state's
unemployment insurance trust fund, which was
depleted during the pandemic.
Baker's plan also
accounts for $2.2 billion in surplus funds being
used to bolster the state's "rainy day" fund, and
the governor proposed additional spending for union
contracts, human service worker pay increases, 800
temporary shelter beds and other priorities....
"Thanks to a strong
recovery and smart budgeting, MA has a surplus -
it's time for lawmakers to return those surplus tax
dollars and pass our plan to deliver small business
relief," Baker tweeted.
The Legislature has
authorized up to $7 billion in borrowing over the
next 20 years to stabilize the fund used to pay
unemployment benefits and spread out the cost to
employers, but business groups have been urging
Beacon Hill to use surplus and ARPA funds to reduce
the burden on employers.
"The sooner the state
uses some of the federal money or excess tax revenue
or whatever they can use to offset the deficit to
employers the better position employers will be in,"
said Chris Carlozzi, state director for the National
Federation of Independent Business.
Carlozzi said more than
30 states have used ARPA or CARES Act funding from
the federal government to pay off some of the debt
accrued during periods of high employment caused by
the pandemic.
"We feel it's a point
of equity," Carlozzi said. "I'm optimistic they will
do the right thing in the end. We were happy to see
Gov. Baker put it in the supplemental budget, but
the point is we need to see this happen soon." ...
In addition to not
transferring any money to the unemployment trust
fund, the House and Senate compromise bill does not
address Baker's revived attempt to implement a tax
deduction on charitable giving.
That charitable tax
break was approved by voters in 2000, but was only
available for one year before it was suspended by
lawmakers. As part of the fiscal year 2022 budget,
the Legislature delayed the implementation of the
tax break for another year, over the objection of
Baker.
State
House News Service
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Lawmakers Push Surplus Decisions
Deeper Into Fall
House Approves $303 Mil Budget To Close Fiscal '21
Books
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
likes to keep an eye on things.
Well, us. She likes to
keep an eye on us — especially what we’re doing with
the money in our bank accounts....
Pelosi defended a
proposal Tuesday to increase the amount of
information financial institutions report to the IRS
about bank accounts, indicating the proposal would
be a part of Democrats’ social-spending package, The
Hill reported.
Republican lawmakers
and banking groups have been ramping up criticism of
the proposal recently.
“Yes there are concerns
that some people have, but if people are breaking
the law and not paying their taxes, one way to track
them is through the banking measure,” Pelosi said
during a press conference.
Concerns like privacy,
overreaching government surveillance of private
citizens, and a little something called the Fourth
Amendment and its protections against unreasonable
search and seizure.
The Biden
administration has proposed requiring banks to
report aggregate inflows and outflows of bank
accounts to the IRS, in instances where accounts
have flows exceeding $600.
Buy a beater car for
$2,000, and you’ve just triggered an IRS alarm....
It isn’t that the
surveillance is tied to national security, or
tracking the assets of terrorist organizations — far
from it.
This is part of the
Democrats’ $3.5 trillion social spending package in
that they realized that “taxing the rich” is more of
a catchy slogan than a workable plan. The numbers
didn’t add up, and Operation Go Through People’s
Bank Accounts was born.
Treasury Secretary
Janet Yellen admitted as much when the plan was
recently announced. Yellen wrote in a letter to
Congress, the government has “a shortage of
necessary funds for key national priorities.” Biden
officials estimate this bank account reporting plan
could bring in upward of $400 billion over a decade.
A Boston
Herald editorial
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
IRS, banks already work to catch tax
cheats
House and Senate
leaders released draft maps of new legislative
districts that put a premium, especially on the
House side, on maximizing opportunities across the
state by drawing up more districts where Black,
Hispanic and Asian residents, or some combination of
the three, account for over half a district's
population.
Despite the U.S. Census
revealing an increasingly diverse state where 67.5
percent of the population is white, on Beacon Hill
the House is still 86.25 percent white, with just 22
Black, Hispanic or Asian members. In the 40-member
Senate, there are just two senators of color.
That's why Assistant
House Majority Leader Michael Moran proudly
announced that the proposed House map exceeded the
requests of advocates by drawing 33
majority-minority districts, 13 more than existed
after the 2011 redistricting process and four more
than the Drawing Democracy Coalition proposed.
On the Senate side,
Senate President Pro Tempore William Brownsberger
proposed to add two new majority-minority districts
to the three that currently exist, including one
major change in the Merrimack Valley where Lawrence
would break away from Andover and anchor a new
incumbent-free district. The new district would
include parts of Methuen and Haverhill in the hopes
of seeing a candidate of color elected to represent
one of the state's most diverse cities....
With parts of her
district proposed to be combined with those of Rep.
Nika Elugardo, Rep. Elizabeth Malia confirmed this
week that she would be retiring after 12 terms in
the House, while Rep. Paul Mark is expected to
announce that he will look to trade a desk in the
House for one in the Senate rather than run against
colleague Rep. John Barrett.
Mark's move, should he
make it, will have been made possible, or at least
easier, by Sen. Adam Hinds decision to officially
jump into next year's race for lieutenant governor,
while Sen. Marc Pacheco said his work in the
Legislature made the timing for him for a run for
state auditor untenable....
State
House News Service
Friday, October 15, 2021
Weekly Roundup - Demography Meets
Cartography
. . . Used to being
called upon for security or during natural
disasters, members of the Massachusetts National
Guard are already driving buses, so maybe it was
just a matter of time before Gov. Charlie Baker
asked them to administer COVID-19 tests in schools
as well.
Baker said he was
calling up 200 Guard members to support testing in
the more than 2,200 public schools signed up to take
part in test-and-stay, symptomatic testing, and
pooled testing programs. Another 250 National Guard
members will be called upon to offset potential
staffing shortages at the Department of Correction.
With Baker's vaccine
mandate kicking in next week and correction officers
among the most resistant, the administration is
preparing for staff shortages at jails and prisons,
and 250 could be on the low end.
The union representing
3,300 correction officers and Department of
Correction employees have sued the Baker
administration in federal court to block the vaccine
mandate, but as they wait for the judge's ruling
it's possible that more than 1,400 prison guards
will be non-compliant come Monday....
When he wasn't fighting
the correction officers in court, Baker started a
brawl with Republican nemesis Jim Lyons over the
MassGOP leader's unrepentant support for a failed
Boston city council candidate who made racist
comments on social media.
Following reports that
Lyons knew before the preliminary election about
Donnie Palmer's anti-Asian remarks, Baker on Friday
told the Dorchester Reporter that Lyons should
resign as head of the party - his party.
Lyons's response?
"Perhaps it is time for
Gov. Baker to reconsider his party affiliation."
State
House News Service
Friday, October 15, 2021
Weekly Roundup
House and Senate
Democrats are more than halfway through the fall
stretch of formal sessions and most of their agenda
items are still under wraps, an approach that will
lead to either a compressed period of significant
activity or further delays on important issues.
With about a month
until formal sessions subside for the rest of 2021,
there's forward progress occurring on the
redistricting and voting reform fronts, with an
election reform bill having cleared the Senate and
legislators gearing up to advance bills laying out
new House and Senate districts sometime after the
public comment period ends Monday.
But a pair of major
spending proposals remain locked down and
legislators are leaving themselves, perhaps by
design, less and less time for robust debates and
negotiations over how to best use last year's state
budget surplus and massive amounts of federal aid
showered on the state to help it through the
pandemic.
Back in June, the
Legislature stowed $4.8 billion in federal funds
into a Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund, where
those monies remain. This week, lawmakers sent Gov.
Charlie Baker a new $303 million spending bill (H
4200) designed to close the books on fiscal 2021 on
the precipice of the state comptroller's legal
deadline to do so.
Within the guts of that
bill legislators propose stashing about $1.5
billion, representing the remainder of last year's
bulging budget surplus, into another new account - a
Transitional Escrow Fund - that would expire June
30, 2022.
In both cases,
legislators are angling to put massive amounts of
money on the sidelines until they come up with plans
to use it, which could come at any time....
Storylines In Progress
Who will turn out for
the Baker administration to speak up for his
two-month sales tax holiday proposal, an idea the
Legislature has turned down but is putting up for a
public hearing on Monday?
State
House News Service
Friday, October 15, 2021
Advances - Week of Oct. 17, 2021
|
|
Boston Globe conservative
columnist Jeff Jacoby's "Why Beacon Hill resents ballot
activists —Initiative petitions exemplify democracy at its
finest;
But they infringe on the politicians’ monopoly"
was published yesterday detailing the hurdles and barriers which
confront citizens attempting to create or change laws through the
initiative petition process. I worked with him on the
difficulties involved from my decades of experience, having
personally managed
and/or coordinated fourteen of those purely grassroots efforts since the mid-80s
— I believe more than anyone else ever has in Massachusetts.
In part Jeff wrote:
This is
signature-collecting season in Massachusetts, the
time of year when activists working to get a
proposed law on the state ballot fan out to busy
intersections, town dumps, and farmers’ markets,
bearing initiative petitions for voters to sign.
Most passersby decline
to help out — many don’t even slow down long enough
to find out what the proposed law would do. Perhaps
they would be less aloof if they considered just how
much effort it takes for private citizens to
actually get a measure onto the ballot....
Facing so many
strictures and hurdles, initiative petition
campaigners know that a significant chunk of the
signatures they submit are bound to be invalidated.
So they have no choice but to collect far more than
the number legally required — at least 50 percent
more, according to Chip Ford, the executive
director of Citizens for Limited Taxation and
a veteran of many Massachusetts ballot campaigns.
CLT, the grassroots activist group that put
Proposition 2½ on the ballot in 1980, is currently
backing an initiative to block an increase in
gasoline taxes. Ford estimates that roughly 120,000
“raw” signatures will have to be turned in by Nov.
17 in order to be sure that 80,239 of them will pass
muster....
Politicians and
political pundits often deride ballot initiatives as
confusing for voters, lacking in nuance, or too
easily manipulated by special interests and
advertising. The odds against any initiative
petition’s success are steep, yet lawmakers
frequently propose new restrictions and requirements
designed to make them even steeper....
Unless you've literally
lived the 24/7 ordeal of managing and coordinating a statewide
petition drive flat-out for the months required to succeed,
nobody can possibly appreciate how much it demands from and
squeezes out of you, how difficult and exhausting the task actually is. Then
if you succeed, immediately follows the months of a grueling,
expensive ballot question campaign. A successful petition
drive then the ballot question campaign consumes more than a full
year of your entire life; 14 months of relentless effort.
I wouldn't curse that job
on anyone and am grateful that today I'm only assisting and
advising. Thankfully there are others willing to take on the
punishment — I don't have enough left
in me to lead another petition drive. For most who have
experienced that ordeal — once is
enough.
The New
York Post had an interesting report on the
Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) last Wednesday ("State-level carbon tax climate
agreement struggling to get off the ground"):
An interstate carbon
tax agreement promoted as having 13 mid-Atlantic and
Northeastern members appears shaky after the
Connecticut legislature snubbed the idea in
September, leaving as the only committed
jurisdictions the District of Columbia and
Massachusetts, though the Bay State faces a possible
ballot initiative against it.
While officials from 10
other states have been in discussions to enter the
Transportation and Climate Initiative, or TCI, only
then-Rhode Island Gov. Gina M. Raimondo,
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Connecticut
Gov. Ned Lamont joined D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in
signing a memorandum of understanding in December to
implement the plan....
“It’s fair to say TCI
is having a hard time getting off the ground.
However, the program was designed to be basically
like a zombie. It dies and comes back to life,” Paul
Craney, spokesman and board member for the
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, which opposes the
agreement, told Fox News.
“It was first rolled
out that a dozen states were doing it, saying
everyone is going to have shared pain for
environmental benefit because you’ve got some big
states mixed in there,” Craney added. “Then we
learned in December, it was three states. Now it’s
one that is fully committed.”
I hope enough signatures
are collected for the "Repeal of TCI" ballot question to get onto
the 2022 ballot. It's past time to put Gov. Baker's failed "multi-state
compact" vanity project out of its misery and ours too once and for
all.
The Boston Herald reported on Friday ("A
burst of inflation reflects higher prices for everything from food
to furniture"):
Another jump in consumer
prices last month sent inflation up 5.4% from
where it was a year ago, matching the largest
increase in 13 years.
Excluding the volatile food
and energy sectors, core inflation rose 0.2% in
September and 4% compared with a year ago.
The unexpected burst of
inflation reflects sharply higher prices for
food and energy, but also for furniture, cars,
televisions and many imported goods.
The Epoch Times report
noted ("Social
Security Announces Largest Benefits Increase Since 1982"):
The SSA’s
historical cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) reflect this
economic downturn. ... In comparison, January 2020 saw a 1.6
percent increase, and January 2021 saw a 1.3 percent increase.
When the miserly Social
Security Administration — which never keeps up
with actual inflation — adjusts its COLA by 5.9% then
you know the honest rate of inflation has to be even
higher.
Buckle-up America, dark
times are ahead.
Speaking of buckling-up,
like The Terminator it's back —
primary enforcement of the mandatory seat belt law has again arisen
like The Walking Dead. I especially hate it when it's
resurrected because I automatically become the media's designated
opposition, because I led the two repeal ballot campaigns long ago
(1986 and 1994). When voters, in their infinite wisdom, for
some reason chose to keep the second law I threw up my hands and
walked away from the issue. But it keeps arising, clawing
always for more power and control, just as we opponents predicted back then the
safety zealots would do. When asked for a comment by Beacon Hill Roll
Call ("Primary
Enforcement of the Seat Belt Law (S-1591)") I responded:
“Advocates for both
the first state mandatory seat belt law that we
repealed in 1986 and the current one re-imposed
in 1994, promised it would be enforced only
after being stopped for another violation, never
‘primary enforcement,” said Chip Ford,
executive director of Citizens for Limited
Taxation and former director of Freedom
First which led both repeal referendum drives.
“The safety zealots never give in and are never
satisfied with half a loaf. They won’t
relent until they have it all and then some.
If primary enforcement becomes law their next
pursuit will be to impose an insurance surcharge
for violators, always the endgame—mark my word.”
The State House News Service reported on Wednesday
("Seatbelt Use Rates Dropped During Pandemic;
Safety Advocates Reframe Push For New Enforcement Law"):
Arthur Kinsman, a
regional administrator for the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration, said . . . "It
really is a proven strategy . . . When you look
at states that have a primary enforcement law
versus states that do not, the results are
clear."
Arthur Kinsman was Senior
Vice President, Public/Government Affairs, for AAA Southern New
England (April 1990 - May 2009). Then he became appointed a
regional administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration, the mandatory seat belt law's primary
advocate/enforcer since the early-80s. Barbara and I dropped
our AAA membership back when Kinsman ran the motorist organization
as it was using our membership dues to advocate for issues, the
mandatory seat belt law being but one of a number of imposed safety
and tax increases with which we vehemently disagreed. That's
also why I never joined AARP, instead became a member of
AMAC
— the alternative which provides
conservative seniors advocacy and the same benefits.
In its
Advances for the coming week
the State House News Service reported [emphasis mine]:
House and Senate
Democrats are more than halfway through the fall stretch of
formal sessions and most of their agenda items are still under
wraps, an approach that will lead to either a compressed
period of significant activity or further delays on important
issues.
With about a month
until formal sessions subside for the rest of 2021, there's
forward progress occurring on the redistricting and voting
reform fronts, with an election reform bill having cleared the
Senate and legislators gearing up to advance bills laying out
new House and Senate districts sometime after the public comment
period ends Monday.
But a pair of
major spending proposals remain locked down and legislators
are leaving themselves, perhaps by design, less and less
time for robust debates and negotiations over how to best use
last year's state budget surplus and massive amounts of federal
aid showered on the state to help it through the pandemic.
The alleged "fulltime
Legislature" is performing as usual. "House
and Senate Democrats are more than halfway through the fall stretch
of formal sessions"
— which means "The
Best Legislature Money Can Buy" is in its tenth month of this
session with only two months remaining, excluding a holiday recess
ahead.
This is how things have
worked for far too long on Beacon Hill. It is
not "perhaps by design." It has become the template!
Last week during our back
and forth discussion for his column on citizen petitions, Jeff
Jacoby noted: "I wish there were a comparable database showing how
many bills have been passed by the Legislature over the past 100
years."
I replied that some
legislator just files a slew of bills multiplied by countless other
legislators and their pet bills, many of them get buried within a
massive "must-pass" hundreds-of-pages monstrosity that’s then
considered a crisis because the session’s about to end, must be
voted on within hours of being released by some secret conference
committee to the full House and Senate with only an up-or-down vote
without amendments allowed, is raced back and forth between chambers in minutes, voted
on in the middle of the night when nobody’s awake enough or has any
idea what they’re voting on, just hoping their pet bills were
included by "the leadership" and wanting to get home before dawn. Would you define
that as one (gigantic) bill passed with one vote, or the multitude
of “innocuous” bills buried within?
I can't help my cynicism
— it has been well-earned the hard way over
many decades of experience, and has been proven out time and time
again.
Back on September 11 we
warned you about the Washington Democrats' assault on your and
everyone else's banking privacy (CLT Alert — "The
IRS Wants ALL Your Banking Transactions!"). Last
Wednesday's Boston Herald editorial added another voice of
opposition to the growing firestorm ("IRS, banks already work to catch tax
cheats"):
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
likes to keep an eye on things.
Well, us. She likes to
keep an eye on us — especially what we’re doing with
the money in our bank accounts....
Pelosi defended a
proposal Tuesday to increase the amount of
information financial institutions report to the IRS
about bank accounts, indicating the proposal would
be a part of Democrats’ social-spending package, The
Hill reported.
Republican lawmakers
and banking groups have been ramping up criticism of
the proposal recently.
“Yes there are concerns
that some people have, but if people are breaking
the law and not paying their taxes, one way to track
them is through the banking measure,” Pelosi said
during a press conference.
Concerns like privacy,
overreaching government surveillance of private
citizens, and a little something called the Fourth
Amendment and its protections against unreasonable
search and seizure.
The Biden
administration has proposed requiring banks to
report aggregate inflows and outflows of bank
accounts to the IRS, in instances where accounts
have flows exceeding $600.
Buy a beater car for
$2,000, and you’ve just triggered an IRS alarm....
This
assault is not and never has been about chasing down wealthy
tax-avoiders. Like so much else with the Democrat/Marxist
marginally-controlled Congress and a rogue White House executive
branch, this is and always has been entirely about acquiring
additional power to track down and persecute regime dissenters of
any income level.
As I
wrote in that CLT Alert, "This is truly scary stuff." I fear
this power-grab is too important to their overall agenda to let it slip
away, whatever the immediate political cost is for them.
|
 |
 |
|
Chip Ford
Executive Director |
|
|
|
|
The Boston
Globe
Sunday, October 17, 2021
Why Beacon Hill resents ballot activists
Initiative petitions exemplify democracy at its finest.
But they infringe on the politicians’ monopoly.
By Jeff Jacoby
THIS IS
signature-collecting season in Massachusetts, the time of
year when activists working to get a proposed law on the
state ballot fan out to busy intersections, town dumps, and
farmers' markets, bearing initiative petitions for voters to
sign.
Most passersby decline to help
out — many don't even slow down long enough to find out what
the proposed law would do. Perhaps they would be less aloof
if they considered just how much effort it takes for private
citizens to actually get a measure onto the ballot.
To begin with, they have to
live in a state in which grassroots ballot initiatives are
permitted — in half the states, such forms of direct
democracy don't exist. Massachusetts, happily, is among the
states that do allow citizen lawmaking. This year 30
proposed ballot measures, involving issues as varied as
liquor licenses, fireworks, and whale-safe fishing gear,
were submitted to Attorney General Maura Healey for
approval. Of those 30, the AG's office
certified only 17 as meeting the requirements outlined
in the Massachusetts constitution, clearing them to advance
to the next part of the process.
For a proposed law to move
forward, its supporters must collect signatures from 80,239
registered voters, no more than a quarter of whom may live
in the same county. Those signatures then have to be
submitted to the registrars in individual city and town
halls for certification by Nov. 17.
Then come six months of
waiting, during which the Legislature has the option of
enacting the proposed law directly. If it hasn't done so by
May 4, 2022, supporters will need to go through a second
round of signature-collecting. They'll have until July 6 to
get an additional 13,374 registered voters to sign
petitions. If they get that far, the measure goes to the
fall ballot and the law's proponents can begin their
election campaign in earnest.
But that only scratches the
surface of what ballot activists must deal with.
Besides confirming that people
signing their petitions are registered Massachusetts voters,
the petitioners must have a separate sheet for each city or
town in their area: If a voter registered in Cambridge or
Quincy signs a petition sheet for Boston, that signature is
thrown out. The petitioners must also ensure that people
sign their full legal names and list their home addresses
exactly as they appear on the voter rolls. No nicknames, no
P.O. box numbers. Otherwise, the signatures are tossed.
In printing and handling the
petition sheets, the signature-collectors must go to
extraordinary lengths to make sure that not a single stray
mark appears anywhere on either the front or back — no note,
no underline, no check mark, no doodle, no highlighting, no
arrow, no coffee stain.
Under Massachusetts law, there may be no "extraneous
markings" on a ballot petition. One errant smudge, one
squiggle, and every signature on the sheet is thrown out.
It's an outrageous impediment, which is just how Beacon Hill
wants it. In 1999, the Supreme Judicial Court
upheld the voiding of more than 3,500 signatures —
enough to disqualify a ballot campaign — because of some
insignificant jottings on the petition sheets.
Facing so many strictures and
hurdles, initiative petition campaigners know that a
significant chunk of the signatures they submit are bound to
be invalidated. So they have no choice but to collect far
more than the number legally required — at least 50 percent
more, according to Chip Ford, the executive director
of Citizens for Limited Taxation and a veteran of
many Massachusetts ballot campaigns. CLT, the
grassroots activist group that put Proposition 2½ on the
ballot in 1980, is currently backing an initiative to block
an increase in gasoline taxes. Ford estimates that roughly
120,000 "raw" signatures will have to be turned in by Nov.
17 in order to be sure that 80,239 of them will pass muster.
Legislators and other political
insiders tend to resent initiative petitions as an
infringement on their governing monopoly, which explains why
citizens trying to get a measure on the ballot face so many
obstacles. If history is any guide, most of the 17
initiative petitions that the attorney general cleared to
circulate will not succeed in garnering the signatures
needed to move forward. Over the past 20 years, no more than
four citizen-sponsored initiatives have made it to the
ballot in any election. The vast majority of would-be ballot
measures are derailed before they ever get to the voters.
Incredibly, in the 102 years since the right of initiative
and referendum was added to the Massachusetts Constitution,
only 84 citizen petitions were ultimately brought to a
vote of the people — and only 38 were enacted.
What is true in Massachusetts
is true nationwide. Between 2010 and 2020, according to
Victoria Antram, a researcher for the nonpartisan political
research firm Ballotpedia, a total of 4,685 ballot
initiatives were filed in the states that permit laws to be
passed at the polls. Only 340 of them survived the
procedural gauntlet and made the ballot. And of those, just
178 were ultimately approved by voters.
By contrast, tens of thousands
of laws are enacted in the state legislatures every single
term. In the 2013-2014 political cycle, for example,
Congressional Quarterly tallied 45,564 bills passed in
the 50 states (and the District of Columbia) — an average of
447 bills approved per state per year. The Washington Post,
crunching the numbers separately, reached
an almost identical result.
Here in Massachusetts, the
Legislature enacted 539 laws in the biennial
legislative session that ended last year. And it did so,
for the most part, without facing so much as a shred of the
public scrutiny that initiative petitions are subjected to.
Indeed, Beacon Hill is notorious for its
lack of transparency. The fate of virtually all bills is
decided behind closed doors by a few powerful members,
with no public input or open debate. "Don't confuse what
goes on in this building with democracy," a seasoned State
House lobbyist told a reporter in a moment of
undisguised exasperation.
Politicians and political
pundits often deride ballot initiatives as confusing for
voters, lacking in nuance, or too easily
manipulated by special interests and advertising. The
odds against any initiative petition's success are steep,
yet lawmakers frequently propose
new restrictions and requirements designed to
make them even steeper.
But if political insiders
begrudge the initiative and referendum process, the rest of
us have every reason to embrace it. Ballot campaigns are
often the only outlet available to bypass lawmakers who turn
a deaf ear to the public. It isn't easy to get a law enacted
by popular vote. Those that succeed have almost invariably
been subjected to more careful vetting, more thorough
debate, and more transparent coverage than 90 percent of the
bills approved in the Legislature.
When you see activists
collecting signatures for a ballot initiative, you're seeing
citizen lawmaking at its finest. Want to stick it to Beacon
Hill? Stop and sign the petition.
(Jeff Jacoby is a columnist
for The Boston Globe).
The New York
Post
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
State-level carbon tax climate agreement struggling to get
off the ground
By Fred Lucas, Fox News
An interstate carbon tax agreement promoted as having 13
mid-Atlantic and Northeastern members appears shaky after
the Connecticut legislature snubbed the idea in September,
leaving as the only committed jurisdictions the District of
Columbia and Massachusetts, though the Bay State faces a
possible ballot initiative against it.
While officials from 10 other states have been in
discussions to enter the Transportation and Climate
Initiative, or TCI, only then-Rhode Island Gov. Gina M.
Raimondo, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Connecticut
Gov. Ned Lamont joined D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser in signing a
memorandum of understanding in December to implement the
plan.
The cap-and-trade initiative would require vehicle fuel
suppliers in participating jurisdictions to buy energy
allowances for CO2 emissions. The volume of allowances for
sale will decrease each year, meaning fuel suppliers will
pay more each year for emissions.
Proponents say this will cut greenhouse gas emissions by 26%
from 2022 through 2032, and bring $3 billion in revenue for
the next decade. Opponents say it will drive up fuel prices
for consumers and is a regressive fuel tax. With regards to
a regressive tax, proponents contend that signatories would
dedicate at least 35% of revenue to transportation needs in
underserved communities.
Baker, a Republican, unilaterally entered the agreement
under the Bay State’s law requiring emission reductions. The
other two New England states, both with Democratic
governors, require legislative approval to seal the deal,
and lawmakers in each state balked.
The idea was launched in 2010 when environmental officials
of these jurisdictions, as well as Delaware, Maine,
Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania
and Vermont, signed onto a “declaration of intent,” though
not directly committing to actions. Environmental officials
from North Carolina and Virginia later announced support
without making commitments.
“It’s fair to say TCI is having a hard time getting off the
ground. However, the program was designed to be basically
like a zombie. It dies and comes back to life,” Paul Craney,
spokesman and board member for the Massachusetts Fiscal
Alliance, which opposes the agreement, told Fox News.
“It was first rolled out that a dozen states were doing it,
saying everyone is going to have shared pain for
environmental benefit because you’ve got some big states
mixed in there,” Craney added. “Then we learned in December,
it was three states. Now it’s one that is fully committed.”
If Massachusetts fully enters the agreement by 2023 as
scheduled, about 80,000 vehicles in the state will not have
enough fuel by 2025, according to an analysis by the
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Foundation in August. To avoid
a major fuel shortage later, the analysis says,
Massachusetts drivers would now have to swap their
gas-powered vehicle for an electrical vehicle at a rate of
about 2,000 electric vehicles per month. But only about
2,000 electric vehicles were sold in Massachusetts during
the entire calendar year of 2020.
Transportation for Massachusetts, a coalition of
Massachusetts environmental groups, opposes the ballot
initiative to leave the agreement.
“The ballot question proposed by TCI opponents threatens our
environment, our health, and our transportation. But that’s
not all,” the group says in a statement. “This poorly
drafted, overly broad petition could threaten any policy or
revenue source designed to eliminate pollution from
transportation. That includes both existing revenue sources
and potential future policies which benefit families and
communities most burdened by transportation pollution.”
In neighboring Vermont, Republican Gov. Phil Scott expressed
skepticism in August during a Zoom meeting of the New
England Council.
“I wasn’t seeing how this could work for Vermont and I am
not convinced today that it works for Vermont,” Scott said,
later adding, “I feel good about the direction we are going
without the need to raise taxes and certainly not a
regressive carbon tax.”
Although the Rhode Island legislature recessed this summer
without adopting the TCI, the Senate passed the measure
without House support, and current Gov. Daniel McKee, a
Democrat, is “totally committed” to the agreement entered by
his predecessor, said Mike Healy, a spokesman for the Rhode
Island Department of Environmental Management.
“Governor McKee supports efforts under TCI to address
climate change and improve public health, and is actively in
conversations with Governors Lamont and Baker on this
initiative,” Healey told Fox News in a statement.
“The Department of Environmental Management continues to
engage legislators, environmental and equity advocates, and
other stakeholders to discuss the benefits of TCI and why
putting the brakes on air pollution and accelerating
innovation in cleaner transit and healthier communities are
so important to Rhode Island,” Healy continued. “We are very
hopeful that both houses of the legislature will take the
issue up early in the 2022 session, pass the bill, and
present it to the governor for signature.”
The Boston
Herald
Friday, October 15, 2021
A burst of inflation reflects higher prices for everything
from food to furniture
By Marie Szaniszlo
Another jump in consumer prices last month sent inflation up
5.4% from where it was a year ago, matching the largest
increase in 13 years.
Excluding the volatile food and energy sectors, core
inflation rose 0.2% in September and 4% compared with a year
ago.
The unexpected burst of inflation reflects sharply higher
prices for food and energy, but also for furniture, cars,
televisions and many imported goods.
Consumer prices rose 0.4% in September from August as the
costs of rent and goods climbed.
COVID-19 has shut down factories in Asia and slowed U.S.
port operations, leaving container ships anchored at sea and
consumers and businesses paying more for goods that may not
arrive for months because there aren’t enough people to
unload ships or truck drivers to take goods to their
destinations.
“The pandemic has affected the supply of goods, causing
prices to rise,” said Michael Klein, professor of
international economics at Tufts University’s Fletcher
School.
The annual increase in the consumer price index matched
readings in June and July as the highest since 2008, the
Labor Department said Wednesday. The consumer price index is
a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid
by urban consumers for goods and services.
The ongoing price gains raise pressure on the Federal
Reserve, whose officials have repeatedly said the increases
will be temporary, and on President Joe Biden, who is facing
an economy of slowing job gains and higher inflation.
Republicans have accused Biden of spurring inflation with
his $1.9 trillion rescue package enacted in March.
“Price increases stemming from ongoing supply chain
bottlenecks amid strong demand will keep the rate of
inflation elevated, as supply (and) demand imbalances are
only gradually resolved,” said Kathy Bostjancic, an
economist at Oxford Economics, a consulting firm.
Higher prices are also outstripping the pay gains many
workers are able to obtain from businesses. Average hourly
wages rose 4.6% in September from a year earlier, a healthy
increase, but not enough to keep up with inflation.
For elderly Americans, however, the increase has resulted in
the biggest increase in benefits in 39 years. Monthly Social
Security checks will rise 5.9% next year, the government
said Wednesday. So will other benefits for veterans and
retirees.
— Herald wire services
contributed to this report.
The Wall Street
Journal
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Social Security Benefits to Increase 5.9% for 2022
Seniors and other Americans receiving Social Security will
see
largest increase in payments in 40 years
Seniors and other Americans receiving Social Security
benefits in 2022 will see the largest increase in their
payments in four decades, reflecting surging inflation
during the pandemic.
Next year’s cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, will be
5.9%, the Social Security Administration said Wednesday. The
increase will translate to an addition of $92 to retirees’
average monthly benefit next year, bringing the amount to
$1,657, the agency estimates.
The nearly 6% cost-of-living adjustment is the largest since
1982, according to Social Security Administration data. The
adjustment is calculated based on the Labor Department’s
measure of inflation faced by blue-collar workers.
The Labor Department said its broader measure of inflation,
the consumer-price index, rose 5.4% in September from a year
earlier, the largest annual gain since 2008.
The Social Security Administration also said the maximum
amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax will
increase to $147,000 in 2022 from $142,800 this year, a 2.9%
increase.
The extent to which the larger-than-usual Social Security
adjustment makes retirees’ and other recipients feel more
well off will largely depend on whether inflation eases next
year compared with 2021, said Naomi Fink, a retirement
economist at Capital Group, an investment manager.
Consumer prices have risen at the fastest rate in more than
a decade this year because trillions of dollars in economic
stimulus have supported consumer demand at a time when
supplies for everything from toilet paper to new cars have
been constrained because of pandemic disruptions.
“If price rises turn out to be fleeting and reflect
temporary supply shocks and they subsequently show much more
modest rises in 2022, then that would be quite positive for
those that got that windfall cost-of-living adjustment,”
said Ms. Fink, who added that scenario could position Social
Security recipients to boost consumption.
“If in 2022 we see equal or even greater price rises and
revisions to long-range inflation forecasts, it’s a
different picture,” she said.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and other Fed
officials have said they expect elevated inflation to be
temporary and to ease as frictions associated with the
economy’s reopening fade. Mr. Powell told lawmakers recently
that it was difficult to pinpoint when that cooling in
inflation might happen.
“Higher prices are generally not good for people who are
living on fixed incomes,” said David Certner, legislative
counsel at AARP. “Social Security may have a cost-of-living
adjustment, but most other income sources that seniors may
have—for example, pension income—are not adjusted for
inflation. So even if Social Security is keeping up with
inflation, it may very well be that other sources of income
are not.”
Roughly half of Americans aged 65 and older relied on Social
Security for 50% or more of their income in 2019, according
to an AARP analysis of Census Bureau data. About a quarter
of seniors 65 and older relied on the benefits for 90% or
more of their income, the analysis found.
Mr. Certner said that items seniors tend to purchase more
frequently, such as medical care and prescription drugs,
often have costs that consume a significant portion of the
annual cost-of-living increase.
Medicare’s trustees in August projected the standard 2022
monthly premium for Medicare Part B, which covers doctor
visits and other types of outpatient care, would increase by
$10 to $158.50. That would consume around 11% of the
increase in retirees’ average monthly Social Security
benefits.
Kathy Dykstra, of St. Clair Shores, Mich., retired in
January from her role as a special-education teacher. Ms.
Dykstra, age 63, said she had intended to retire between age
65 and 67, but the stresses of her job during the pandemic
caused her to stop working earlier than planned.
“The demands were just really, really, really hard. So I
ended up choosing my mental health over all the
expectations,” she said.
Ms. Dykstra said she now lives on an income of roughly
$1,700 a month, $1,100 of which comes from Social Security,
compared with about $3,200 monthly when she was working.
She said she has noticed higher prices recently,
particularly for gas and groceries. Those increases,
combined with her reduced income, have made her choosier
about how she spends her money, she said. For instance, Ms.
Dykstra would dine out two to three times a week when she
was working, but now does so once a week or every two weeks.
“At the point I’m at right now, any increase would be just
wonderful. It really is down to budgeting every dollar that
I have,” she said of the coming Social Security adjustment.
Among those who receive benefits are elderly Americans,
those with disabilities and minor children and spouses of
recipients who have died.
The Social Security Board of Trustees in an August report
said the trust fund that pays benefits is projected to
become depleted by 2034, a year earlier than estimated in
2020. At that time, Social Security income would be
sufficient to pay about 78% of scheduled benefits.
Anqi Chen, assistant director of savings research at Boston
College’s Center for Retirement Research, said her rough
calculations show that 2022’s cost-of-living adjustment
could move up that depletion date by about three months,
given its larger-than-normal size. The determining factor
will be how quickly overall wages paid to U.S. workers rise
relative to the adjustment, Ms. Chen said, since payroll
taxes fund the program. Average hourly earnings for
private-sector workers rose roughly 4.6% in September
compared with a year earlier, according to the Labor
Department.
“If wages are not increasing at the same rate as inflation
in a given year, then what’s going in is going to be
increasing less than what’s going out in benefits,” Ms. Chen
said. “That’s when you get the mismatch.”
The Epoch
Times
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Social Security Announces Largest Benefits Increase Since
1982
By Joseph Lord
As inflation continues to climb, the Social Security
Administration (SSA) has announced that social security
recipients will see a 5.9 percent increase in their
benefits, the largest such increase since 1982.
The SSA has historically adjusted benefits to account for
inflation, but these have often been minor, granting
beneficiaries a one or two percent increase. The announced
increase today goes far beyond this norm, giving another
indication of continuing inflation.
“The 5.9 percent cost-of-living adjustment will begin with
benefits payable to more than 64 million Social Security
beneficiaries in January 2022,” said the SSA in a press
release. The SSA makes the judgment to increase benefits
based on changes in the U.S. Department of Labor’s Consumer
Price Index, which tracks the costs of various products for
average Americans.
Further reflecting the bite of inflation, the SSA also
announced that it would increase the maximum income taxable
under social security from $142,800 to $147,000.
On Wednesday, the Labor Department announced that consumer
prices had increased by 0.4 percent during September
compared to the month before, exceeding Dow Jones’
prediction and sending shivers through the stock market. The
Labor Department’s report also showed that between Sept.
2020 and Sept. 2021, consumer prices shot up a staggering
5.4 percent, again exceeding Dow Jones’ estimated 5.3
percent.
Democrats have insisted that the inflation is transitory,
and is only a normal economic hiccup, a claim that Queen’s
College President and economist Mohamed El-Erian rejected.
Inflation has increased “way beyond” normal transitory
inflation, El-Erian ruled.
Historically, increased inflation has been used as a tool to
lower unemployment and spur economic growth.
However, economic growth remains limited despite substantial
increases in the money supply. Job growth was relatively
stagnant in September, with the United States only adding
194,000 jobs compared to 716,000 in September of 2020.
For Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), these trends are a
concerning sign that the United States is heading for
another period of stagflation, which is marked by economic
stagnation and inflation of the money supply. This anomalous
economic combo was last seen under President Jimmy Carter
and sent the nation into a years-long recession.
The SSA’s historical cost-of-living adjustments (COLA)
reflect this economic downturn. In July 1980, the COLA
achieved its highest ever level, with a 14.3 percent
adjustment. In January 2009, the COLA reached its highest
until 2022, at 5.8 percent.
In comparison, January 2020 saw a 1.6 percent increase, and
January 2021 saw a 1.3 percent increase.
Beyond social security, the effects of this inflation are
being felt across the United States.
Moderate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) who has been hailed as
a hero by Republicans and a villain by Democrats, framed his
opposition to his party’s $3.5 trillion budget resolution on
the grounds of concerns over inflation.
He blasted his party in a Sept. 2 op-ed, writing:
“Democratic congressional leaders propose to pass the
largest single spending bill in history with no regard to
rising inflation, crippling debt or the inevitability of
future crises. Ignoring the fiscal consequences of our
policy choices will create a disastrous future for the next
generation of Americans.”
Manchin concluded the piece, “I, for one, won’t support a
$3.5 trillion bill, or anywhere near that level of
additional spending, without greater clarity about why
Congress chooses to ignore the serious effects inflation and
debt have on existing government programs.”
Concerns over the effects of inflation on programs like
social security have been front and center for Manchin. This
latest increase in social security benefits is unlikely to
go unnoticed by Manchin, who remains adamant that his
party’s budget is “fiscal insanity.”
Speaking to reporters, Manchin expanded on these concerns,
referencing the effects of inflation on his own West
Virginia constituents. He noted that many of the people in
his state, one of the poorest in the union, rely on dollar
stores for basic necessities. Because of inflation, Manchin
said, these stores have been forced to increase their
prices.
Most notably, Dollar Tree has been forced to break its
decades-long “Everything’s one dollar” slogan, announcing in
a Sept. 28 press release that some prices would be increased
as a result of inflation. Other chains have joined Dollar
Tree in raising prices.
The increase in social security benefits is only the latest
indication of increasing inflation.
State House News
Service
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Seatbelt Use Rates Dropped During Pandemic
Safety Advocates Reframe Push For New Enforcement Law
By Chris Lisinski
Massachusetts has long had one of the lowest seatbelt use
rates in the nation, and those figures dropped
"dramatically" during the pandemic, a AAA official told
lawmakers Wednesday.
Making the latest push in a decades-long campaign to allow
police to stop and cite drivers solely for failing to wear a
seatbelt, AAA Northeast Director of Public Affairs Mary
Maguire warned that the decline in use during the COVID-19
era has exacerbated an already-dangerous pattern that
lawmakers and state officials have been unable to wrangle.
Reform backers have tried unsuccessfully for years to
convert Massachusetts from secondary enforcement of seatbelt
use, in which police can only cite motorists for failing to
buckle up when they spot another violation, to primary
enforcement, in which seatbelt use alone would warrant a
traffic stop.
Amid ongoing opposition from some activists who worry about
racial profiling, supporters hope that behavior shifts
during the pandemic and the successful negotiation of a
distracted driving law can buoy a trio of primary seatbelt
enforcement bills (H 2515, H 2543, S 1591) this session.
The statewide seatbelt use rate dropped 4 percentage points
to about 77 percent, Maguire said, which remains well below
the national rate of nearly 91 percent.
"Our secondary seatbelt law is simply not succeeding. More
than 1.2 million Bay Staters still don't buckle, with usage
declining dramatically during the pandemic," Maguire told
the Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee. "This
translates to more crash victims flooding our already
tapped-out emergency rooms during the pandemic."
The House rejected efforts to switch to a primary
enforcement mechanism twice in the early 2000s, with
opponents contending it would represent government overreach
and could lead to civil rights violations. Legislative
leaders have opted not to bring the matter forward for floor
votes in recent years.
While Beacon Hill has remained stuck in neutral on the
issue, supporters of the change say the number of other
states where police do not need a prior offense to punish
the unrestrained has grown to at least 34, the rate of
seatbelt use in Massachusetts has remained near the bottom
of national rankings, and dozens of Bay Staters died every
year who might have been saved had they been compelled to
buckle up.
Rep. Jeff Roy, who filed one of the three bills, said the
state could prevent 14 deaths and more than 500 injuries
while saving about $110 million in health care costs each
year if police could cite unrestrained motorists without
first observing another offense.
"I've heard the opposition argument that it should not be
government's place to tell people to wear a seatbelt in
their own car, but it's important to note that unbuckled
drivers are a danger to other people," Roy said. "A minor
crash or an incident while driving can quickly turn into a
worse situation when an unbuckled driver is tossed from the
driver's seat and cannot control the vehicle or when an
unbuckled driver is thrown from the vehicle entirely."
States that have implemented primary enforcement laws saw
their seatbelt use rates increase between 8 and 12
percentage points, according to Maguire.
Early in the millennium, the Senate pursued the topic in
Massachusetts, approving a primary enforcement bill in 2001
and adding a similar provision to a transportation bond bill
in 2004. But none of those efforts found sufficient support
in the House.
In back-to-back legislative sessions, the House deadlocked
on legislation that would have allowed police to enforce
seatbelt use without another traffic violation.
Representatives voted 76-76 in 2001 and 73-73 in 2003, and
in both cases, the tie vote prevented the measure from
advancing.
House Speaker Ronald Mariano, at the time a representative
who was several years away from ascending to assistant
majority leader, voted against the legislation both times.
Asked if Mariano's position on the issue has changed since
his vote in 2003, his spokesperson Ana Vivas told the News
Service, "The Speaker has long been concerned about
potential racial profiling with primary enforcement
measures, which is why he voted against similar bills in the
early 2000s. He believes merely collecting data on racial
profiling is no substitute for preventing it altogether. The
Chairman and Committee asked thoughtful questions during the
hearing and the Speaker is interested in receiving that
feedback."
One yes vote in the 2003 roll call: Senate President Karen
Spilka, who was then serving her first term in the House.
Gov. Charlie Baker has also targeted the area for reform,
pursuing authorization of primary enforcement again this
session after the Transportation Committee did not act on
his seatbelt proposal last year.
The push for ramped-up seatbelt policing has run into
political obstacles in the past amid concerns that it could
lead to racial profiling of motorists by law enforcement.
Those same issues resurfaced in the spring, when several
civil rights and transportation advocates criticized Baker's
latest proposal.
"Data shows that fines and fees are not a strong deterrent,
or not as strong as education, and this has a strong
potential to cause disproportionate harm -- physical,
psychological and financial -- to Black and brown people in
the commonwealth," Becca Wolfson, executive director of the
Boston Cyclists Union that is a member of the Vision Zero
Coalition, told the committee on Wednesday. "It's dangerous
and irresponsible to add excuses and reasons to stop and
police Black and brown folks."
With an eye on those who remain wary, bill supporters on
Wednesday suggested redrafting or amending the bill as it
moves through the committee process to include provisions
aimed at monitoring for racial profiling.
Roy likened the idea to the approach lawmakers took in a
2019 distracted driving law, which includes language
requiring the Registry of Motor Vehicles to track the race,
age and gender of every motorist at traffic stops ending in
citations and send the data to an outside entity for review.
Maguire also said road safety is an issue with
disproportionate impacts on communities of color. Seatbelt
use rates among Black and Hispanic or Latino motorists lag
rates among white residents, she said, and health data
indicate that people of color withstand a higher rate of
motor vehicle-related injuries.
"We're basically seeing communities of color underserved by
low seatbelt use," Maguire said.
Arthur Kinsman, a regional administrator for the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said the agency has
not been able to find "any statistically significant
difference in terms of how the laws were enforced in
relation to racial profiling" among the more than 20 states
that moved from secondary to primary seatbelt laws over the
past 15 years.
"It really is a proven strategy," Kinsman said. "When you
look at states that have a primary enforcement law versus
states that do not, the results are clear."
Beacon Hill Roll
Call
Volume 46 - Report No. 42
October 11-15, 2021
By Bob Katzen
PRIMARY ENFORCEMENT OF THE SEAT BELT LAW (S-1591) – The
Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee held a virtual
hearing on a measure that would allow police officers to
issue tickets for seat belt violations even if the driver is
not first stopped for another violation as required under
current law. Other provisions prevent officers from
searching the vehicle or occupants solely because of the
seat belt violation and prohibit a seat belt violation from
resulting in a surcharge on motor vehicle insurance
premiums.
The fine for drivers and passengers over the age of 16 who
violate the law would be increased from $25 to $50. The
current additional $25 fine on the driver for each passenger
between the ages of 12 and 16 who is not wearing a seatbelt
would also rise to $50.
“A seatbelt saved my life,” said Sen. Paul Feeney, (D-Foxborough).
“When I was 21 years old, I was driving in the car with my
high school sweetheart, now wife, when I was blindsided and
our car started to flip out of control. I have no doubt that
wearing a seatbelt that day saved our lives. The evidence is
clear: the likelihood of severe injuries and fatalities
drops significantly when people buckle up, yet data shows
that Massachusetts lags the nation in seatbelt usage. If we
can, through carefully crafted legislation, encourage
seatbelt use to save lives as it did mine, then we’re making
a difference in the commonwealth. We should pass this law to
save lives and include a data collection provision to ensure
that it is applied evenly and without bias.”
“Advocates for both the first state mandatory seat belt law
that we repealed in 1986 and the current one re-imposed in
1994, promised it would be enforced only after being stopped
for another violation, never ‘primary enforcement,” said
Chip Ford, executive director of Citizens for Limited
Taxation and former director of Freedom First which led
both repeal referendum drives. “The safety zealots never
give in and are never satisfied with half a loaf. They won’t
relent until they have it all and then some. If primary
enforcement becomes law their next pursuit will be to impose
an insurance surcharge for violators, always the
endgame—mark my word.”
State House News
Service
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Lawmakers Push Surplus Decisions Deeper Into Fall
House Approves $303 Mil Budget To Close Fiscal '21 Books
By Matt Murphy
Sitting on roughly $5 billion in unbudgeted tax revenue from
last year, the House on Wednesday passed a $303 million
budget to cover old expenses, but delayed choices on how to
spend the bulk of the surplus until later this fall as the
Legislature also considers how to use billions of dollars in
American Rescue Plan Act funds.
The approach means the Legislature pushed off deciding
whether to embrace Gov. Charlie Baker's plan to use $1
billion from the fiscal 2021 surplus to replenish the
state's unemployment insurance system, which employer groups
have been lobbying for aggressively in recent months.
House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz and Senate
Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues announced a deal
between branch leaders on Wednesday morning that would allow
Comptroller William McNamara to close the books on fiscal
year 2021, which ended on June 30.
"This budget addresses time-sensitive deficiencies that
require the Legislature's attention to close the books on
FY21 and sets aside unobligated FY21 surplus funds to be
considered later in the fall," Michlewitz and Rodrigues said
in a statement.
The two Democrats referred to the bill that passed the House
as a "bill-paying" budget for fiscal year 2021 that would
also give the Legislature additional time to consider how to
spend the remainder of the surplus.
McNamara faces an end-of-October deadline to balance the
state's finances and file a report for the state's
creditors, though that timeline has been disregarded in the
past.
"In addition to meeting our fiduciary responsibilities,
closing the books on FY21 as expeditiously as possible will
allow us to continue our collective work to craft a
comprehensive American Rescue Plan Act spending bill," the
two chairs said.
The Democrats said a bill to spend ARPA money would be
forthcoming "in the weeks ahead." The Legislature recently
wrapped up a series of public hearings focused on the ARPA
relief money, and House Speaker Ron Mariano has identified
mid-November, when the Legislature breaks for its holiday
recess, as the target for finalizing a bill to spend at
least some of the state's funding.
After fiscal year 2021 tax revenues surpassed expectations
by roughly $5 billion, Gov. Charlie Baker filed a $1.6
billion closeout budget in August that would have directed
$1 billion of the surplus into the state's unemployment
insurance trust fund, which was depleted during the
pandemic.
Baker's plan also accounts for $2.2 billion in surplus funds
being used to bolster the state's "rainy day" fund, and the
governor proposed additional spending for union contracts,
human service worker pay increases, 800 temporary shelter
beds and other priorities.
Both the governor's bill and the Legislature's plan include
about $17 million for shelters, but legislative Democrats
did not include $39 million in rate increases for frontline
health providers or the $40 million proposed by Baker for
one-time bonuses of up to $2,000 for state employees
required to work during the pandemic.
The Legislature's proposal also includes $221 million, or
$185 million less than requested by Baker, for collective
bargaining agreements and public employee wages.
The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation estimated that the
House-Senate agreement would leave about $1.5 billion in
surplus tax revenue that could be spent alongside the $4.8
billion in remaining ARPA funds.
The governor's office did not respond to a request for
comment on the Legislature's approach, but last week reacted
to strong September tax receipts by pushing for lawmakers to
adopt his plan.
"Thanks to a strong recovery and smart budgeting, MA has a
surplus - it's time for lawmakers to return those surplus
tax dollars and pass our plan to deliver small business
relief," Baker tweeted.
The Legislature has authorized up to $7 billion in borrowing
over the next 20 years to stabilize the fund used to pay
unemployment benefits and spread out the cost to employers,
but business groups have been urging Beacon Hill to use
surplus and ARPA funds to reduce the burden on employers.
"The sooner the state uses some of the federal money or
excess tax revenue or whatever they can use to offset the
deficit to employers the better position employers will be
in," said Chris Carlozzi, state director for the National
Federation of Independent Business.
Carlozzi said more than 30 states have used ARPA or CARES
Act funding from the federal government to pay off some of
the debt accrued during periods of high employment caused by
the pandemic.
"We feel it's a point of equity," Carlozzi said. "I'm
optimistic they will do the right thing in the end. We were
happy to see Gov. Baker put it in the supplemental budget,
but the point is we need to see this happen soon."
Carlozzi said more than 30 states have used ARPA or CARES
Act funding from the federal government to pay off some of
the debt accrued during periods of high unemployment caused
by the pandemic. By acting sooner, Carlozzi said, the state
can potentially avoid interest costs once Treasury borrows
the money needed for the UI trust fund and businesses can
plan for future hiring and growth.
The House passed the budget bill (H 4200) on a voice vote
Wednesday afternoon, sending it to the Senate. The Senate
meets next on Thursday, when the House will also be in
session and could finalize and send the bill to Baker's
desk.
In addition to not transferring any money to the
unemployment trust fund, the House and Senate compromise
bill does not address Baker's revived attempt to implement a
tax deduction on charitable giving.
That charitable tax break was approved by voters in 2000,
but was only available for one year before it was suspended
by lawmakers. As part of the fiscal year 2022 budget, the
Legislature delayed the implementation of the tax break for
another year, over the objection of Baker.
The bill does propose to spend $20 million on grants for
state-approved special education schools to address the
impacts of COVID-19, and more than $5.37 million on staffing
and upgrades or expansions to facilities that treat men with
alcohol and substance abuse.
The state's 14 sheriffs would receive more than $25.5
million in additional funding to cover expenses from last
year, and $5 million would go toward supportive housing to
mitigate overcrowding in homeless shelters.
Similar to Baker's bill, House and Senate leaders have also
proposed to spend $2.8 million to reimburse Worcester State
University and Quinsigamond Community College for educating
former students of Becker College's nursing program.
The Boston
Herald
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
A Boston Herald editorial
IRS, banks already work to catch tax cheats
Speaker Nancy Pelosi likes to keep an eye on things.
Well, us. She likes to keep an eye on us — especially what
we’re doing with the money in our bank accounts.
Pelosi is what happens when the “keep your eyes on your own
paper” kid grows up never having learned her lesson.
Pelosi defended a proposal Tuesday to increase the amount of
information financial institutions report to the IRS about
bank accounts, indicating the proposal would be a part of
Democrats’ social-spending package, The Hill reported.
Republican lawmakers and banking groups have been ramping up
criticism of the proposal recently.
“Yes there are concerns that some people have, but if people
are breaking the law and not paying their taxes, one way to
track them is through the banking measure,” Pelosi said
during a press conference.
Concerns like privacy, overreaching government surveillance
of private citizens, and a little something called the
Fourth Amendment and its protections against unreasonable
search and seizure.
The Biden administration has proposed requiring banks to
report aggregate inflows and outflows of bank accounts to
the IRS, in instances where accounts have flows exceeding
$600.
Buy a beater car for $2,000, and you’ve just triggered an
IRS alarm.
Democratic lawmakers have a tentative deal to raise that
threshold to $10,000, and to exempt regular wage payments.
Pelosi noted that the $600 threshold is not set in stone.
“That’s a negotiation that will go on as to what the amount
is,” she said.
The amount is not the point.
It’s the intrusion, and banks say their advocacy efforts
against the proposal has resulted in an inundation of
customer complaints about the idea, the New York Times
reported. There will be more complaints, undoubtedly.
It isn’t that the surveillance is tied to national security,
or tracking the assets of terrorist organizations — far from
it.
This is part of the Democrats’ $3.5 trillion social spending
package in that they realized that “taxing the rich” is more
of a catchy slogan than a workable plan. The numbers didn’t
add up, and Operation Go Through People’s Bank Accounts was
born.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted as much when the
plan was recently announced. Yellen wrote in a letter to
Congress, the government has “a shortage of necessary funds
for key national priorities.” Biden officials estimate this
bank account reporting plan could bring in upward of $400
billion over a decade.
There is no real need to flag accounts — there is already a
legal provision to do so, and it’s been around since 1970.
It’s called the Currency and Foreign Transactions Reporting
Act of 1970 (aka the “Bank Secrecy Act”), which requires
U.S. financial institutions to assist U.S. government
agencies to detect and prevent money laundering.
Specifically, it requires financial institutions to keep
records of cash purchases of negotiable instruments, file
reports of cash transactions exceeding $10,000, and to
report suspicious activity that might signify money
laundering, tax evasion or other criminal activities.
So the tax cheats? They’ve got an Act for that.
This is just a gawk and grab to fund the progressives’
spending spree.
State House News
Service
Friday, October 15, 2021
Weekly Roundup - Demography Meets Cartography
Recap and analysis of the week in state government
Matt Murphy
Almost like a business, the Legislature every 10 years goes
through a corporate reorganization and the employees, in
this case 200 legislators, are forced to wonder what their
fate holds.
Who are the new bosses? Will they like me? Is my job
redundant? Some will look for new opportunities rather than
try to hang on. Others will make the most of the changes, or
even embrace them.
But before finalizing the new business model, the C-Suite on
Beacon Hill tried to make one thing clear this week to
shareholders: they're committed to diversity in hiring.
House and Senate leaders released draft maps of new
legislative districts that put a premium, especially on the
House side, on maximizing opportunities across the state by
drawing up more districts where Black, Hispanic and Asian
residents, or some combination of the three, account for
over half a district's population.
Despite the U.S. Census revealing an increasingly diverse
state where 67.5 percent of the population is white, on
Beacon Hill the House is still 86.25 percent white, with
just 22 Black, Hispanic or Asian members. In the 40-member
Senate, there are just two senators of color.
That's why Assistant House Majority Leader Michael Moran
proudly announced that the proposed House map exceeded the
requests of advocates by drawing 33 majority-minority
districts, 13 more than existed after the 2011 redistricting
process and four more than the Drawing Democracy Coalition
proposed.
On the Senate side, Senate President Pro Tempore William
Brownsberger proposed to add two new majority-minority
districts to the three that currently exist, including one
major change in the Merrimack Valley where Lawrence would
break away from Andover and anchor a new incumbent-free
district. The new district would include parts of Methuen
and Haverhill in the hopes of seeing a candidate of color
elected to represent one of the state's most diverse cities.
The new Lawrence district checked a box for voting rights
groups, but advocates felt the Senate left some
opportunities on the table, including in Brockton where the
possibility existed to group Stoughton and Randolph with the
city represented by Sen. Michael Brady and create another
new majority-minority district.
Unlike 10 years ago when Moran and then-Sen. Stanley
Rosenberg oversaw over a mostly controversy-free
redistricting effort, this year's effort will not be as
clean. But it did shake loose a few apples.
With parts of her district proposed to be combined with
those of Rep. Nika Elugardo, Rep. Elizabeth Malia confirmed
this week that she would be retiring after 12 terms in the
House, while Rep. Paul Mark is expected to announce that he
will look to trade a desk in the House for one in the Senate
rather than run against colleague Rep. John Barrett.
Mark's move, should he make it, will have been made
possible, or at least easier, by Sen. Adam Hinds decision to
officially jump into next year's race for lieutenant
governor, while Sen. Marc Pacheco said his work in the
Legislature made the timing for him for a run for state
auditor untenable.
But while there are many tweaks and
permutations to analyze in the new redistricting plan, state
legislators were not the only group seeing their job
descriptions recast this week.
Used to being called upon for security or during natural
disasters, members of the Massachusetts National Guard are
already driving buses, so maybe it was just a matter of time
before Gov. Charlie Baker asked them to administer COVID-19
tests in schools as well.
Baker said he was calling up 200 Guard members to support
testing in the more than 2,200 public schools signed up to
take part in test-and-stay, symptomatic testing, and pooled
testing programs. Another 250 National Guard members will be
called upon to offset potential staffing shortages at the
Department of Correction.
With Baker's vaccine mandate kicking in next week and
correction officers among the most resistant, the
administration is preparing for staff shortages at jails and
prisons, and 250 could be on the low end.
The union representing 3,300 correction officers and
Department of Correction employees have sued the Baker
administration in federal court to block the vaccine
mandate, but as they wait for the judge's ruling it's
possible that more than 1,400 prison guards will be
non-compliant come Monday.
Executive branch employees have until Sunday to show proof
of vaccination or face suspension and possible termination
if they refuse to get the shot. James Lamond, the attorney
representing the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated
Union, filed a letter with the court Friday informing Judge
Timothy Hillman that as of Wednesday 40 percent of MCOFU
members had not yet shown proof of vaccination.
"As we continue to navigate an unprecedented public health
crisis, well-being and safety remain our priority, and we
appreciate the large number of staff who have submitted
their vaccination attestation forms ahead of the deadline,"
said DOC Commissioner Carol Mici, in a statement about using
the Guard.
The administration said the Guard will not interact directly
with inmates, and DOC said it may also need to bring back
retired correction officers to augment the remaining staff.
While the Baker administration will be scrambling next week
to fill some of the jobs it has, the governor on Wednesday
went to an offshore wind conference to talk about the jobs
he wants.
Baker stopped by the American Clean Power Association's
Offshore WINDPOWER Conference & Exhibition at the Omni
Boston Seaport Hotel to announce that he would be filing a
$750 million bill to invest in technology, research,
development and job training to support the offshore wind
industry in Massachusetts.
That legislation, he said, would also propose to scrap the
requirement that the price of wind power in each state
procurement be cheaper than the last, signaling a greater
prioritization of job creation and economic development over
pure consumer pocketbook protection.
The wind objectives seem to jibe with the priorities
outlined by House Speaker Ron Mariano for the sector this
session, but there could be bumpy waters in the Senate where
one key legislator, Sen. Michael Barrett, has questioned the
all-or-nothing approach to price caps.
When he wasn't fighting the correction officers in court,
Baker started a brawl with Republican nemesis Jim Lyons over
the MassGOP leader's unrepentant support for a failed Boston
city council candidate who made racist comments on social
media.
Following reports that Lyons knew before the preliminary
election about Donnie Palmer's anti-Asian remarks, Baker on
Friday told the Dorchester Reporter that Lyons should resign
as head of the party - his party.
Lyons's response?
"Perhaps it is time for Gov. Baker to reconsider his party
affiliation."
State House News
Service
Friday, October 15, 2021
Advances - Week of Oct. 17, 2021
House and Senate Democrats are more than halfway through the
fall stretch of formal sessions and most of their agenda
items are still under wraps, an approach that will lead to
either a compressed period of significant activity or
further delays on important issues.
With about a month until formal sessions subside for the
rest of 2021, there's forward progress occurring on the
redistricting and voting reform fronts, with an election
reform bill having cleared the Senate and legislators
gearing up to advance bills laying out new House and Senate
districts sometime after the public comment period ends
Monday.
But a pair of major spending proposals remain locked down
and legislators are leaving themselves, perhaps by design,
less and less time for robust debates and negotiations over
how to best use last year's state budget surplus and massive
amounts of federal aid showered on the state to help it
through the pandemic.
Back in June, the Legislature stowed $4.8 billion in federal
funds into a Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund, where
those monies remain. This week, lawmakers sent Gov. Charlie
Baker a new $303 million spending bill (H 4200) designed to
close the books on fiscal 2021 on the precipice of the state
comptroller's legal deadline to do so.
Within the guts of that bill legislators propose stashing
about $1.5 billion, representing the remainder of last
year's bulging budget surplus, into another new account - a
Transitional Escrow Fund - that would expire June 30, 2022.
In both cases, legislators are angling to put massive
amounts of money on the sidelines until they come up with
plans to use it, which could come at any time.
The Senate plans a formal session Thursday and appears to be
poised in the coming days to pass bills outlining genocide
education in Massachusetts (S 2525) and related to licensing
and schooling for Bay State military families (S 2502). -
Michael P. Norton
-- NEXT PHASE OF VACCINE MANDATES: Some parts of state
government are poised to enter the next phase of their
COVID-19 vaccine mandates as deadlines for workers to
demonstrate their vaccination status arrive and focus shifts
to compliance and enforcement.
Gov. Baker set Sunday, Oct. 17 as the deadline for about
45,000 executive branch workers to be fully vaccinated, and
Baker press secretary Terry MacCormack said Friday that the
administration is "encouraged by the response" from
employees completing the verification process ahead of
schedule, with more than 40,000 so far having either
submitted the attestation form or applied for an exemption.
MacCormack said the administration is continuing to gather
information and "will continue to work with employees to
address questions and requests for exemptions."
On Monday, executive branch workers are expected to report
to work as usual unless they have been notified otherwise,
and managers and HR departments will contact individuals who
have not filled out the attestation forms to find out why.
The administration's vaccine policy involves "progressive
discipline," according to an online FAQ, starting with a
five-day, unpaid suspension for managers and bargaining unit
members alike. Continued non-compliance for managers "will
then result in termination of employment," while bargaining
unit members will first move on to a 10-day suspension.
Meanwhile, the end of the day Friday marks the deadline for
senators and Senate staff to file paperwork documenting
their full vaccination or request an exemption under the
vaccine mandate that Senate President Karen Spilka announced
for that branch, and Spilka's office expects to have more
complete information on compliance next week. "Senators and
staff have been very responsive, and we anticipate having a
very high percentage of Senate employees who will be able to
comply with the mandate," Spilka spokesperson Sarah Blodgett
said.
The Senate's reopening working group had recommended that
the human resources department develop enforcement
mechanisms "including, and up to, the termination from
employment of any employee who remains in non-compliance."
On the House side, the vaccine mandate that representatives
agreed to on a 131-28 vote in late September did not set a
date by which lawmakers and staff need to submit proof of
vaccination, but the House's working group is looking at a
Nov. 1 deadline and expects to provide more information to
members soon. The House's policy calls for members and staff
who do not provide proof of vaccination or receive an
accommodation to continue working remotely.
The State House remains closed to the public and details on
its phased reopening are still unclear. - Katie Lannan
Storylines In Progress
Who will turn out for the Baker administration to speak up
for his two-month sales tax holiday proposal, an idea the
Legislature has turned down but is putting up for a public
hearing on Monday?
Monday, Oct. 18, 2021
JOINT COMMITTEE ON REVENUE: Joint Committee on
Revenue holds virtual public hearing on bills addressing the
sales tax, the gas tax, proposed taxes on sugary drinks, and
recommended real estate transfer fees.
The panel has also finally agreed to hear Gov. Baker's bill
that called for a two-month sales tax holiday during August
and September (H 3906) which he filed on June 23.
The Rep. Khan bill imposing a tax on sugary drinks (H 2972)
is titled "An Act To Promote Healthy Alternatives To Sugary
Drinks" and Sen. Lewis has his own version of that bill (S
1914).
The agenda also includes a Rep. Decker bill (H 2870) dealing
with taxes on cigarettes, cigars and tobacco.
Rep. Honan's bill (H 2942) authorizing a new real estate
transfer fee to fund affordable housing in Boston is on the
docket, as well as a Rep. Peake bill (H 3966) establishing a
real estate transfer fee in Provincetown.
Sen. Hinds, who this week launched a campaign for lieutenant
governor, has a home rule petition on the agenda authorizing
a fee on tickets for commercial recreation services in the
town of Charlemont.
Auditor Bump will testify in support of H 2858/S 1877.
(Monday, 10 a.m.,
Hearing Agenda and Access Details)
|
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
▪ (781) 639-9709
BACK TO CLT
HOMEPAGE
|
