CLT
UPDATE
Sunday, April 13,
2003
Predicted tax hike game plan
solidifies
"I'm fearful that what's being set up is a series of intolerable cuts, instead of doing what needs to be done: reforming state government," Romney said. "The easiest way to create an outcry that will lead to higher taxes is to cut everything."
Despite legislative leaders' claims that taxes are "off the table," House leaders are openly raising the specter of possible hikes.
House Judiciary Chairman Eugene L. O'Flaherty (D-Chelsea) said the political discussion will "inevitably" turn to tax hikes once the pain of severe budget cuts sinks in.
"The House budget will be a realistic budget, as dire as that may be," O'Flaherty said.
"Once those dire consequences are realized, I believe political pressure will be put on elected officials in the House and Senate to engage in that (tax) discussion."
The Boston Herald
Sunday, April 13, 2003
House budget chief rips Romney spending plan
Shawn Feddeman, the governor's press secretary, acknowledged the tough road ahead for the governor's proposals, but said the Legislature's criticisms have little merit.
She said lawmakers want to ignore Romney's proposals so they can save the existing structure of state government. Talk of severe cuts, she said, may be designed to build momentum for a tax increase.
"It's simply not credible for anybody to say that the governor's numbers don't add up," Feddeman said. "For the Legislature, preserving the status quo seems to be the only answer. They make every excuse for not making change." ...
With the state facing a $3 billion gap between revenues and the amount of spending needed to maintain the current level of services next year, Rogers and Murray said, the only real route is severe budget cuts, including to the state Medicaid program and funding for school districts.
But Feddeman said the alarms now being sounded about crippling budget cuts are similar to those heard last year as a prelude to a $1.2 billion tax package.
Mayors and town managers are already calling for higher state taxes, and Finneran has quietly resumed meetings with editorial page editors of the state's regional newspapers, a strategy that helped deliver tax votes a year ago.
The Boston Globe
Sunday, April 13, 2003
Legislators poised to reject Romney plan
State leaders should consider reforming the state's sales tax by cutting the rate and applying it to include untaxed consumer goods and services, a Boston-based conservative think tank says in a new report.
The study from the Beacon Hill Institute, which is part of Suffolk University, claims the state's 5 percent sales tax unfairly takes a bigger bite out of lower income residents' salaries than wealthy residents' pay....
Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said it's a bad idea to cut the sales tax.
The Boston Herald
Sunday, April 13, 2003
Group eyes abolishing or cutting sales tax
Baghdad Bob is alive and well on Beacon Hill, and he's apparently cloned himself....
At a hearing Thursday, Rosenberg said, "There's no hidden agenda or bias or intent to thwart the will of the voter."
At which point Chip Ford of Citizens for Limited Taxation said, in a stage whisper, "Well, now we know where Baghdad Bob has resurfaced."
What's perplexing is why the Finneran fedayeen are suddenly so hot and bothered about ballot questions. Three years ago, the voters cut state income taxes and the Legislature responded by repealing the last phase of the reduction. Since the solons already ignore the mandates of the voters with impunity, why even bother to change the rules?
"They're concerned about the day Tom Finneran is gone," said Barbara Anderson of CLT. "Someday, possibly, there might be leadership that abides by the will of the people, and they want to be ready."
The Boston Herald
Sunday, April 13, 2003
Baghdad Bob has nothing on state hacks
by Howie Carr
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
The Bacon Hill Cabal is just so predictable
... and in a negative way, so very reliable.
Back on Jan. 23 we warned that House Speaker Tom Finneran was
reprising his "fiscal crisis" bus tour strategy in that day's CLT
Update titled "Another
'blended approach' tax hike plotted":
Warm up the Finneran Express bus for another "fiscal crisis" tour across the state; the "blended approach" trial balloon has been released....
On Feb. 3, in our CLT Update "Teachers union
'sharing the pain' with tax hike call," we stated:
The Tax Hike Express is warming up, readying to roll out on
its next excursion. Every day now we're hearing more and more about
"bodies and blood, bone and cartilage" in an attempt to soften up
the public, hearing more about a growing "courage" on Beacon Hill to
hit the tax hike road once again.
Only as "a last resort" they claim for the moment
-- before government restructuring and downsizing has even been proposed --
and they expect us to take them seriously.
On Feb. 6, when the pols were still assuring everyone
that "tax hikes are off the table" and most were still buying
it, our CLT Update, "An
old act revisited," predicted:
We're being set up once again....
We understand the tax hike MTF is advocating this year is
an increase in the state sales tax.
The first sacred cow, Gov. Romney's advocacy of MTF's
much-touted reform of state employees' share of health insurance costs, again has been dodged ... as will be every other
sacred bovine with a vocal special interest in the days ahead, again.
When the slush funds -- excuse me, "rainy day" and "dedicated"
funds -- are wiped out
as the Bacon Hill pols stubbornly refuse to reform whatsoever this government train
wreck ... well hey, their "only solution" will of course become either
"blood in the streets" or ... another tax hike.
And today we read in the Boston Globe that "Finneran has quietly resumed meetings with editorial page editors of the state's regional newspapers, a strategy that helped deliver tax votes a year ago."
My goodness, what a surprise. Perhaps he put a new muffler on
his bus, yet it's happening precisely as we
predicted it would, months ago. And the pols dare ask us, "How did you ever
get so cynical?"
Howie Carr's great column in today's Boston Herald captures
the duplicitous spin on Beacon Hill perfectly, but maybe he and I got it bass-ackward?
Perhaps Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the Iraqi information
minister now better known to the world as "Baghdad Bob," was educated
at one of Massachusetts' world-class institutions of higher learning, a
destination for many foreign nationals, and perhaps he learned his trade of
insulting prevarication in the face of obvious facts at the feet of the masters,
The Best Legislature Money Can Buy ... The Great and General Court of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Then we could add "The Big Lie" to the Bay State's
list of successful foreign exports.
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Chip
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The Boston Herald
Sunday, April 13, 2003
House budget chief rips Romney spending plan
by Elisabeth J. Beardsley
House leaders launched a frontal assault on Gov. Mitt Romney's budget yesterday, accusing the governor of "exaggerating" his reform savings by nearly $1 billion in a blow-by-blow dismissal of many of Romney's key proposals.
In a letter to fellow lawmakers, House Ways and Means Chairman John H. Rogers (D-Norwood) said Romney's budget is packed with hidden program cuts and "unrealistic savings estimates" that minimize the severity of the state's $3 billion deficit.
"If we were to rubber-stamp this proposal, we very likely would be facing close to $1 billion in (emergency) reductions next year," Rogers said.
"We applaud the governor for his bold reform proposals," Rogers added. "But we must be extremely careful not to associate huge savings with those proposals, for fear that that puts us out of balance."
The letter, obtained by the Herald, will be distributed to lawmakers tomorrow.
Romney spokeswoman Shawn Feddeman dismissed suggestions of inflated numbers as "laughable." She said there's "absolutely no question" that the administration's numbers add up to the $2 billion in reform savings Romney claimed in his February State of the State address.
"With the Legislature, preserving the status quo seems to be the only answer," Feddeman said. "They continue to make excuses and poke holes in the governor's proposal, instead of considering his proposals to reform and make meaningful change to state government."
The House's critique of Romney's spending plan comes as lawmakers gear up to debate the annual budget during the worst fiscal crisis since the Great Depression.
Rogers warned that the House budget, slated for release in 10 days, will be "considerably more severe" than Romney's - with a bottom line that's "hundreds of millions" of dollars lower than the governor's $22.9 billion proposal.
With House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran having ruled taxes "off the table," Rogers said cities and towns should brace for a local aid cut of up to 20 percent, or $1 billion - quadruple Romney's $232 million cut to cities and towns.
Rogers insisted he's not considering new taxes, but Republicans are suspicious after Democratic leaders last year generated support for a $1.2 billion tax hike by rolling out an "Armageddon budget."
In his letter, Rogers dismisses nine separate Romney plans, worth a combined $948 million - including controversial proposals to raise $30 million by selling human-service properties and $4 million by closing Department of Mental Retardation facilities.
Objecting to the specter of "deficit borrowing," Rogers rejects Romney's plan to save $191 million by having the state absorb debt from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority - a key component of Romney's plan to merge transportation agencies.
Rogers also accuses Romney of "inflating" the amount of money that can be raised through court fees. Romney claims $45 million, but Rogers says it's more like $18 million.
The House budget chief also dismissed Romney's $263 million in workforce reform proposals, pointing to "scant detail" offered by the administration.
And Rogers rejects Romney's plan to give the state pension fund $180 million worth of land instead of cash, citing "suspect" valuation data and opposition from pension overseers.
The Romney administration had already abandoned several of the proposals Rogers highlighted, including a $75 million plan to wring "blocking" payments from casinos and an $89 million plan to impose new fees on health insurers to help pay for Medicaid.
Rogers said the House isn't rejecting Romney's proposals in a knee-jerk fashion, noting that he likes the governor's plan for restructuring the labyrinthine health and human services bureaucracy.
"But we have our own ideas on how to do that," Rogers said. "We probably have better ways to reform, building upon what the governor has suggested."
In an interview Friday, Romney - who had not seen Rogers' letter at the time - told the Herald he's leery of House leaders' threats of massive local aid cuts and devastating program cuts.
Romney, who has pledged to veto any new taxes, said lawmakers who reject reforms are locking themselves into a no-win choice between tax hikes and program cuts.
"I'm fearful that what's being set up is a series of intolerable cuts, instead of doing what needs to be done: reforming state government," Romney said. "The easiest way to create an outcry that will lead to higher taxes is to cut everything."
Despite legislative leaders' claims that taxes are "off the table," House leaders are openly raising the specter of possible hikes.
House Judiciary Chairman Eugene L. O'Flaherty (D-Chelsea) said the political discussion will "inevitably" turn to tax hikes once the pain of severe budget cuts sinks in.
"The House budget will be a realistic budget, as dire as that may be," O'Flaherty said.
"Once those dire consequences are realized, I believe political pressure will be put on elected officials in the House and Senate to engage in that (tax) discussion."
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The Boston Globe
Sunday, April 13, 2003
Legislators poised to reject Romney plan
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff
After six weeks of examining Governor Mitt Romney's budget plan, the Legislature appears ready to reject the vast majority of his restructuring proposals, turning instead to far deeper budget cuts.
Starting just days after Romney filed his budget on Feb. 26, House and Senate lawmakers have been piecing together a case against his government reorganization proposals through a raft of statements, reports, and letters that have been released to the public. Deep skepticism has been sounded about Romney's plans to streamline court management, merge the Turnpike Authority and the Highway Department, and shake up the public higher-education system, among other proposals.
The harshest analysis to date of Romney's budget plan is to be delivered to House members tomorrow. The House Ways and Means chairman, John H. Rogers, is sending a letter contending that about $950 million in savings the governor is banking on in his budget is based on "false revenue assumptions."
"The problems our state faces and the actions necessary to solve them will prove far more difficult than the administration's PowerPoint presentations suggest," wrote Rogers, a Norwood Democrat. "Our reliance on real numbers will produce a budget that is considerably more severe than the governor's proposal."
The criticism is being made at a crucial time for Romney. Next week the Legislature will begin debating the budget for fiscal 2004, which begins July 1. And Romney is planning to file the most comprehensive government-reorganization proposal in decades on May 1, under a provision of the state Constitution that will force the House and Senate to take up-or-down votes on the entire package.
Romney has pegged much of his political fortune to his reorganization plan, which he has said is crucial to helping the state cope with its fiscal crunch. But at this rate, unless the governor presents changes that are far more acceptable to legislators, his plan appears headed for defeat.
Shawn Feddeman, the governor's press secretary, acknowledged the tough road ahead for the governor's proposals, but said the Legislature's criticisms have little merit.
She said lawmakers want to ignore Romney's proposals so they can save the existing structure of state government. Talk of severe cuts, she said, may be designed to build momentum for a tax increase.
"It's simply not credible for anybody to say that the governor's numbers don't add up," Feddeman said. "For the Legislature, preserving the status quo seems to be the only answer. They make every excuse for not making change."
Romney is hoping for help from the public in the weeks to come to pressure the Legislature to push for an overhaul in lieu of many service cuts and tax hikes. Feddeman said Romney and Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey will maintain an active public schedule to solicit that support and ask citizens to contact their representatives.
But House and Senate leaders have spent the past few weeks trying to knock down the governor's argument that his proposals represent an alternative to cuts. Budget writers said administration officials lacked sufficient details to explain their proposals. House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran accused Romney of misleading the public about his ability to cut waste from government.
And in a constant refrain, House and Senate members have said Romney's ideas simply will not do enough to close a $3 billion budget gap next fiscal year. The governor leaned heavily on revenue from new fees and one-time transactions, and his estimates for savings were often overly optimistic, they argue.
"It doesn't add up the way he gave it to us, and we're still tallying it, because they're still making changes," said Therese Murray, a Plymouth Democrat and the Senate Ways and Means chairwoman. "We are going to have to make more cuts, because the numbers are not there in that budget."
According to Rogers's letter, the governor was wrong to assume, among other things, that he could save $180 million by transferring state property to the pension fund, since such a move goes against the fund's investment policies; $263 million from various nonspecified "workforce reforms"; $178 million from a tax on health insurers that the administration has since conceded could not materialize; and $191 million from a merger of the Turnpike Authority and the Highway Department, since the money must be preserved for debt service on bonds.
Last week task forces appointed by Finneran issued a flurry of reports on Romney's ideas. The task forces recommended that nearly all of Romney's major ideas be rejected: They want to maintain the office of University of Massachusetts president William M.
Bulger, keep Boston Municipal Court open and leave courthouse budgets under the control of the Legislature, and not force state workers to contribute more to their health insurance.
With the state facing a $3 billion gap between revenues and the amount of spending needed to maintain the current level of services next year, Rogers and Murray said, the only real route is severe budget cuts, including to the state Medicaid program and funding for school districts.
But Feddeman said the alarms now being sounded about crippling budget cuts are similar to those heard last year as a prelude to a $1.2 billion tax package.
Mayors and town managers are already calling for higher state taxes, and Finneran has quietly resumed meetings with editorial page editors of the state's regional newspapers, a strategy that helped deliver tax votes a year ago.
House and Senate leaders maintain that taxes are not on the agenda.
Rogers and Murray both promise that their budget proposals will not include new taxes.
Legislative leaders say they are open to changing the way state business is conducted.
A special Senate committee is scheduled to start public hearings on Romney's restructuring proposals this week.
Some of Romney's proposals will be part of the House budget, while many others will be rejected, Rogers said. House members' own changes will also be included, he said.
"There is no resistance to reform," Rogers said. "We welcome reform, but we have to be extremely careful not to inflate any cost-savings associated with reform."
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The Boston Herald
Sunday, April 13, 2003
Group eyes abolishing or cutting sales tax
by Jon Chesto
State leaders should consider reforming the state's sales tax by cutting the rate and applying it to include untaxed consumer goods and services, a Boston-based conservative think tank says in a new report.
The study from the Beacon Hill Institute, which is part of Suffolk University, claims the state's 5 percent sales tax unfairly takes a bigger bite out of lower income residents' salaries than wealthy residents' pay.
The report says the state should consider cutting or abolishing the tax, or at least reducing the tax and spreading it among items and services that are exempt.
"We have a tax-reform proposal that is aimed at helping the poor," said David
Tuerck, the institute's executive director.
The report, for example, says working women are unfairly hurt because many don't have time to buy groceries, which are exempt, and instead buy take-out meals and other restaurant food.
The report also says inner-city residents are hampered by car taxes because they need cars to get to jobs in the suburbs, while suburban residents can take mass transit into the city.
Tuerck also said wealthy residents tend to spend more on professional services than poor residents, so taxing consumer services could help address that inequity.
Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said it's a bad idea to cut the sales tax. It's already the lowest among the 45 states with sales taxes, he said. Besides, he said, exemptions for groceries and most clothing prevent the tax from falling unfairly on the poor.
Noah Berger, executive director of the liberal Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, said the institute's report "raises some interesting questions."
"Examining the base of the sales tax could make sense, but it's important to look at each item they might expand it to," he said. "Groceries would seem to be the last place where we want to expand the sales tax."
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The Boston Herald
Sunday, April 13, 2003
Baghdad Bob has nothing on state hacks
by Howie Carr
Baghdad Bob is alive and well on Beacon Hill, and he's apparently cloned himself.
The war is coming to an end - a premature close, as far as the hacks at the State House are concerned, because they haven't quite finished their own looting spree yet.
Dammit, they had been counting on at least a few more weeks of "quagmire," during which time they were planning to "decapitate" the wallet of every taxpayer in the state.
But now they have to move faster than a half-brother of Saddam Hussein. And of course the hacks are telling fantastic lies about their sneaky scheming - much like the now-vanished Baghdad Bob.
Example one. The Democrats - the Baath party of Massachusetts - seek to hike the auto-excise tax on new cars, but they claim it's not really a tax increase because, wink-wink nudge-nudge, they'll also reduce the taxes on older cars. Yeah, right, and if you believe that one, you probably bit when Baghdad Bob said Allah was grilling the stomachs of the mercenary Al Capones in hell.
Example two. The House is going to vote tomorrow on a plan that will allow the local strongman, House Speaker Tommy "Taxes" Finneran, to jack up the pay of his fedayeen at will.
But no problemo, we are assured. No pay raises are planned. Well, OK, there's going to be a chairman's post created, for an extra 15 large, but that's all, scout's honor, cross their hearts and hope to die.
That's about as believable as Baghdad Bob's assertions that the infidels were committing suicide by the hundreds in their tanks at the gates of Baghdad.
Example three. Remember ballot questions on pressing issues? Sen. Stanley Rosenberg (D-Amherst) wants to put an end to this outrageous expression of democracy, and has introduced legislation to increase the number of signatures needed to put a question on the ballot from 65,825 to 110,000.
At a hearing Thursday, Rosenberg said, "There's no hidden agenda or bias or intent to thwart the will of the voter."
At which point Chip Ford of Citizens for Limited Taxation said, in a stage whisper, "Well, now we know where Baghdad Bob has resurfaced."
What's perplexing is why the Finneran fedayeen are suddenly so hot and bothered about ballot questions. Three years ago, the voters cut state income taxes and the Legislature responded by repealing the last phase of the reduction. Since the solons already ignore the mandates of the voters with impunity, why even bother to change the rules?
"They're concerned about the day Tom Finneran is gone," said Barbara Anderson of CLT. "Someday, possibly, there might be leadership that abides by the will of the people, and they want to be ready."
Example four. The Senate's taxation-committee chairwoman is asking the Department of Revenue to come up with numbers as to how much revenue would be raised by jacking up the income tax or hiking the minimum corporate tax.
Naturally, in the finest tradition of Baghdad Bob, Sen. Cynthia Creem (D-Newton) denies that her inquiries about raising taxes have anything to do with raising taxes.
"I want to know," she said, "all the options that are available to us."
And you think there's been a lot of plundering in Baghdad? Here in Boston, the taxpayers are taking a bath - or should I say, a
Baath?
Howie Carr's radio show can be heard every weekday afternoon on WRKO AM 680, WHYN AM 560, WGAN AM 560, WEIM AM 1280, and WXTK 95.1 FM.
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