The Boston Globe
Sunday, February 9, 2003
Consumer Beat
By Bruce Mohl
Globe Columnist
Use taxes
A new state effort to collect the use tax from consumers is
bearing fruit, as is an unlikely initiative allowing taxpayers to voluntarily pay a higher income tax
rate.
On this year's tax form, taxpayers who want to help out the
cash-strapped state were given the option of paying a 5.85 percent income tax rate instead of
the standard 5.3 percent rate.
The tax form also has a new line for use taxes, the state's
way of recovering sales taxes lost when residents buy items out of state for use here. Taxpayers
are supposed to pay the use tax, but few do and the state has a hard time
enforcing it.
To the surprise of many at the Revenue Department, a handful
of taxpayers have voluntarily agreed to pay a higher tax rate and an even greater number
are paying use taxes they owe.
According to Revenue Department spokesman Timothy Connolly,
20 of the 234,000 taxpayers who filed their returns as of Feb. 3 had agreed to pay their
income taxes at the higher rate. Another 183 taxpayers paid use tax. The
average payment was $94.32, raising a total of about $17,260.
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The Brockton Enterprise
Thursday, February 6, 2003
Editorial
Finneran uses your money to buy loyalty
Any doubts that House Speaker Thomas Finneran was a con
artist were erased this week when he tried to sneak through a plan that would give big raises to
loyal House members. This comes on top of the 6.5 percent raises legislators
just received and amid a budget crisis that has led to severe cuts almost across
the board.
Finneran tried to slip through the measure on a voice vote
Monday night, but one of his few opponents in the House noticed it and put a stop to it. It would
have allowed Finneran to hand large bonuses to his expanding "leadership
team" without any chance of a veto from the governor. Keep in mind that this
inner circle already receives bonuses of up to $15,000 on top of $53,380
salaries. Finneran knows there is nothing like a wad of cash to keep people in
line.
That didn't stop a group of dissidents from trying to oust
Finneran last month and install Rep. Byron Rushing as speaker. The measure was doomed to fail
and, just as everyone predicted, Finneran punished the legislators who dared to
cross him. Finneran even followed the Stalinist model of banishing dissidents to
Siberia in this case appointing enemies to committees that never meet.
He also stripped most of them of their committee chairs, a
hit to the wallet that carries the warning: "Don't ever dare oppose me again."
That purge was expected, but it was Finneran's attempt to
funnel cash to his lackeys that was most bothersome. Sure, in the big budget picture, it was a
drop in the bucket, but it was still offensive. It was nothing more than stealing
from the taxpayers. It was not as though anyone was even being rewarded
for a job well done; they were just being paid off for being good sycophants for the
speaker-for-life.
Finneran promised a new day on the House, with openness and
honesty. Well, he lied. It is the same old political game of showering money on loyal members
to keep them in line. This is how Finneran maintains power: He simply buys it
with taxpayers' money.
This does not bode well for the hard days ahead as Finneran
and other state leaders go to work on closing this year's budget deficit and dealing with an even
larger one expected next year. The old Tom Finneran power-crazed and
untrustworthy has reared his ugly head. This is bad news for everyone in
Massachusetts.
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The Boston Herald
Friday, February 7, 2003
A Boston Herald editorial
Mass. House shirks tough budget cuts
Why do today what you can put off 'til tomorrow?
That seems to be the philosophy adopted by the Massachusetts
House, which this week voted for a $150 million budget-balancing plan that relies almost
entirely on fund transfers and reserves.
House Ways and Means Chairman John Rogers (D-Norwood), the
plan's author, admits the foolhardiness of this approach in a letter to his House
colleagues sent before Wednesday's vote:
"It should be noted that in all cases where one-time
solutions are employed to address the Fiscal Year 2003 crisis, the underlying structural imbalance is
exacerbated causing the Fiscal 2004 shortfall to be worse."
Exactly. Which makes it all the more mind-boggling that
House Speaker Tom Finneran (D-Mattapan) and Rogers ignored Gov. Mitt Romney's proposals to
increase state employees' share of health insurance premiums from 15 percent
to 25 percent. That would bring in an estimated $21 million before June 30.
Also ignored were modest measures to rein in the soaring costs of Medicaid.
Those could save $39 million.
Of course, the state employee unions and health care lobby
are strong voices on Beacon Hill. But either this is a fiscal crisis or it's not. Since we all know it is, any
weakening of state leaders' resolve to address it by making hard choices
makes next year's problems worse, reduces flexibility if reserve funds are needed
because of a worsening revenue picture, and holds out the false hope to queasy
lawmakers and insatiable special interests alike that there is an easy way
out of this mess.
There is not.
Let's hope the state Senate realizes that and does a better
job than their weak-kneed brethren down the hall.
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The Boston Herald
Friday, February 7, 2003
A Boston Herald editorial
Finneran folds 'em for now
The volatile House pay issue was always more about the
message than the money.
And at long last it seems House Speaker Tom Finneran got the
message.
Even the speaker admits he had been "kicked from one end of
the football field to the other" on the issue and that was before a three-hour House Democratic
caucus Wednesday at which Finneran got more of the same from the very troops he purports
to lead. At least many of them aren't tone-deaf.
The money was relatively insignificant - seven additional
stipends for those holding "leadership" posts of $7,500 each. And the speaker has insisted all
along since he has cut some $200,000 from the House budget, it wasn't a net
increase.
But with cuts being made everywhere in state government, the
timing was nothing short of hideous. The "lucky" recipients wouldn't be the only ones with
a lot of explaining to do to hard-pressed constituents. Every House member
who voted for the darned thing would be held to account.
Those who fought the proposal the hardest - like Rep. Jay
Kaufman (D-Lexington) - know that it was yet another incremental move by an already
powerful speaker to further consolidate his power, to further reward the
faithful.
"There was a lot of anger expressed," said Kaufman. "There
was a lot of emotion over this proposal and over the communication among members and
with the public."
Can loyalty be bought for a mere $7,500 on Beacon Hill? The
sad fact is, yes, often it can.
And Finneran isn't a man to give up easily. In fact, he has
given every indication that he fully intends to bring up the measure again "in due course."
That's too bad because this will never be anything but an
embarrassment to most legislators.
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The Patriot Ledger
Saturday, February 8, 2003
Editorial
House remains blind to budget crisis
The state's budget crisis is huge and getting worse. If the
state were a household, it would have a half-empty refrigerator, a paycheck that's dwindling
each week and sure knowledge that a pink slip is on the way.
At that point, the head of the household would sit down and
devise a future plan, think of ways to save money, and hang on to the few dollars under the
mattress as a last resort.
If the head of the household were Tom Finneran, he'd take
the money from under the mattress, buy some scratch tickets and hope that Lady Luck will
strike. The longer Finneran is in charge, the more chameleon-like he becomes.
The man who used to be known as the fiscal watchdog on Beacon Hill stares the
worst fiscal crisis in decades in the face and talks about how his 160 members
need time to debate and consider.
There's nothing new to debate, Mr. Speaker. House members
know what options are available to them to come up with hundreds of millions in cuts
needed now. Next year the amount is expected to be $3 billion, but for now, let
the great deliberators of the House and Senate consider just $150 million.
The Legislature is not a rubber stamp for Gov. Romney, says
Finneran. That is true, but lawmakers should at least have the stomach to find alternative cuts if
they don't like the $143 million proposed by Romney that need legislative
action. Instead, the House raided a slew of reserve funds and did some
maneuvering among accounts.
They postponed the pain for a few more weeks.
The Senate will act next week, under the leadership of a new
president, Sen. Robert Travaglini, D-East Boston. Travaglini as yet has not shown the
intestinal fortitude that is needed to rein in state spending.
No one can be happy about the serious budget cuts the
governor has made. People with desperate needs - especially the mentally ill - are bearing the
burden of this crisis.
The Senate must remember that next week. Senators must
decide whether it is wise to cut the needy even more severely in order to retain the current level
of benefits for all state workers and keep government running as though Lady
Luck was about to smile on Massachusetts.
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The Lowell Sun
Saturday, February 8, 2003
Editorial
The Speaker's insult
We learned once again this week that House Speaker Tom
Finneran's lust for power has no bounds. While his ploy to surreptitiously gavel in an expanded
round of bonuses to legislative loyalists failed this time, he'll try again. He
admitted as much.
Finneran's politically clever and astute. He knows better
than to give away taxpayer money at a time when all residents are being asked to share in the
pain of Massachusetts' fiscal crisis. That's what makes his latest maneuver so
astounding and so insulting.
Finneran tried to sneak in his bonus pay amendment to a bill
seeking $150 million in budget cuts. Fortunately, he was caught in the act by a Democratic
opponent and forced to pull the bill. Later, even Finneran allies, kept in the
dark, were embarrassed.
Finneran now rewards stipends ranging from $7,500 to $15,000
to 51 legislators in the 160-member House. He was trying to expand the number by
six. Finneran apparently won't be satisfied until he's paid off half the House,
ensuring the speaker of 81 solid votes.
Coming 36 days after the lawmakers' $3,400 pay-raise furor,
and a week after Gov. Mitt Romney sought $143 million in legislative spending cuts, the
speaker's scheming says a lot.
While Massachusetts burns, Finneran fiddles at the trough.
