CLT
UPDATE
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Former senate president calls for
tax rollback
as strategic chaos rules Beacon Hill
"There is no question of affordability anymore," says
Birmingham, a Chelsea Democrat who spent seven years as Senate president
before running unsuccessfully for governor three years ago.
It is an odd place to find Tom Birmingham, allied with Romney and
Barbara Anderson, the longtime tax cutter, in urging the Legislature
to get on with living up to the 2000 referendum, approved by
*56 percent
of voters, to lower the state's income tax to 5 percent....
In 2002, when times were tough, Birmingham helped freeze the income tax
rate at 5.3 percent and pushed $1.2 billion in tax hikes through the
Legislature.
"That was the right thing to do at the time," Birmingham says. "That was
then. This is now." ...
"The referendum happened," Birmingham says. "We had a full and fair
debate. The side that supported 5 percent prevailed and by a sizable
majority.... It is about keeping faith with the voters. In a democracy
it has to be about 'thy will be done.'" ...
"Eventually," says Birmingham, "the shifting rationale suggests
something more in the nature of the excuse than a justification." ...
He believes honoring the tax cut should take precedence over new
spending or other tax cuts.
"The experience of the last three fiscal years demonstrates [the tax
cut] is affordable without eviscerating core elements of state
government," he says. "After three years of budgetary surpluses, it is
now clearly time."
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
'Thy will be done'
By Steve Bailey
State lawmakers are threatening to renege on a deal to lower
tax bills on everything from downtown Boston office towers to suburban office
complexes, outraging business boosters.
Local business organizations were key players in a legislative deal that allowed
several cities and towns, including Boston, to temporarily boost their
commercial-property tax yield in a bid to shield homeowners from rising tax
bills.
But with commercial tax bills now poised to start declining, Beacon Hill is
considering a proposal that would freeze the current property valuation system
in place for another year....
Begelfer is now working with other business groups to lobby against the bill.
"That was a good faith compromise," Begelfer said. "If you can't believe them on
this, what can you believe them on."
The Boston Herald
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Pols stall commercial property tax relief
The Massachusetts Legislature, which has yet to fully roll
back the "temporary" income tax increase it imposed 16 years ago, is at it
again.
A bill before the Joint Committee on Revenue would shift more of the local
property tax burden onto businesses, despite a promise, only 21 months ago, that
the tax would, over time, be shifted down....
Now the Legislature is thinking about reneging by delaying the promised rollback
— supposedly for one year only — and freezing the rate for the current fiscal
year at 190 percent.
A Telegram & Gazette editorial
Monday, October 24, 2005
Back to ‘Taxachusetts’
Legislature may renege on promise to business
With the clock ticking on the legislative session and a
daunting amount of work remaining to be done, most Beacon Hill insiders expected
the Legislature to be going gangbusters in October.
Instead, the political world was left stunned last week when a group of House
lawmakers, including some members of Speaker Salvatore DiMasi's leadership team,
departed for a vacation in Portugal and Spain....
The Legislature is expected to begin a holiday break on Nov. 16, and debates
over health care, auto insurance and local aid are still pending....
The Legislature takes vacations in December, all of August, and a weeklong break
in the spring....
Barbara Anderson, executive director of the conservative Citizens for
Limited Taxation, said of DiMasi and his leadership team: "This is the most
useless and pathetic group of Democratic legislators I have ever seen in 30
years of political activism."
The Lowell Sun
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Critics: DiMasi failing to lead House
Even some DiMasi admirers were left shaking their heads last
week at the black eye Eugene O'Flaherty, House chairman of the Judiciary
Committee, gave the body by pushing to weaken drunken driving legislation --
then jetting off with several other DiMasi leadership lieutenants and reps on a
10-day vacation during what was supposed to be a working period.
But in an interview yesterday, DiMasi shrugged off most concerns. The Speaker
said that O'Flaherty retains his confidence as a "competent," "knowledgeable"
chairman. As for the vacationing members of his leadership team, DiMasi made it
clear he's not contemplating disciplinary action. "I don't want to mete out any
punishment," he said. "I'm not their parents."
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
A firmer hand on the House
By Scot Lehigh
The wine is flowing and the laughter plentiful as the group
of Massachusetts legislators and their fellow revelers relax inside the
restaurant at Hotel Estoril Eden, a four-star waterfront high-rise with
expansive views of the coast....
The jovial dinner Tuesday night was another highlight on the group's 10-day
excursion through Spain and Portugal, in the balmy climes and laid-back
atmosphere of the Iberian Peninsula. There were casino visits, walks along the
surf, and seaside cocktails at sundown in a cove west of Lisbon known as the
Portuguese Riviera.
The trip, organized by Lida Harkins, the House assistant majority leader, set
off a torrent of criticism as members jetted off last Wednesday, just as the
final frenzied weeks of this year's legislative session began....
The legislative session is scheduled to end Nov. 16, and the trip has become a
distraction for House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi barely a year after taking
over the House leadership....
This week on Beacon Hill, legislators confronted thorny issues ranging from
elderly tax relief to an attempt to reach a compromise on drunken-driving
legislation, as the Harkins-led group of half a dozen lawmakers and former
legislators hopscotched from one tourist spot to another....
Harkins, in a telephone interview from her hotel room last night, defended the
trip, saying the House doesn't have a set schedule and that there has been
little down time this year. She noted that when the House was in session in
August, she spent much of a vacation week in Maine driving often to Boston.
"I basically spent that one week driving up and down the Maine Turnpike coming
to and from sessions," the Needham Democrat said. "I don't think anyone expects
us to work 365 days a year." ...
It was unfair, she said, to suggest that O'Flaherty and other lawmakers left
town with their responsibilities unfilled.
"We saved our money and didn't go anywhere all summer," she said.
The Boston Globe
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Legislators enjoy their Iberian respite
They chafe at flak caused by leaving busy State House
As taxpayers prepare to celebrate the 25th anniversary of
Proposition 2½ – the most successful initiative petition in the history of the
commonwealth – the state Senate prepares to take up a bill to kill the
initiative petition process....
The major point of initiative petitions isn’t to give voters
something to sign; the point is to give voters an issue to decide on the ballot.
In all the years that voters have been making laws, fraud hasn’t been a problem.
It’s not a problem now.
CLT News Release
Thursday, October 27, 2005
S2251 –
Another bill to kill the initiative petition process
heads to the Senate floor
Chip Ford's CLT Commentary
There really are such things as miracles! Former
Senate President Tom Birmingham -- now in the private sector -- has come
around at last: he wants the income tax rolled back to 5
percent, the promise kept, though one presumes he still
doesn't recognize it as a promise long broken.
In an
Associated Press report of Jan. 27, 1999, -- while senate
president and well before his defeat as a candidate for governor --
Birmingham stated: "No such promise was made.... No such representation
was made." In 2000 he helped lead the charge against Question 4,
our income tax rollback (Boston Herald, Oct. 30, 2000, "Gov,
Birmingham to tangle over tax").
When Tom Birmingham, citizen-taxpayer, calls for the
income tax to be rolled back at last, when he acknowledges that Beacon
Hill excuses are wearing thin and sounding lamer, that votes and voters
should be respected even in Massachusetts, maybe there's still some hope
for democracy some day returning.
* The
actual vote result on Question 4 in 2000 was 59
percent yes, 41 percent no -- of votes cast; the usual factor by which
elections are decided. Boston Globe columnist Steve Bailey
reached his "56 percent" apparently by using the total number of
voters who took ballots as his base, instead of the total number of
votes cast, yes or no. He counted the blanks, 129,660 -- those
who didn't vote either way on Question 4 -- as part of his
grand total in computing his percentages. The "yes" vote, 1,438,768,
thus becomes 56% as the percentage of the total ballots.
"That was a good faith compromise. If you can't believe them on
this, what can you believe them on," gasped an apparently-shocked David Begelfer,
CEO of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Association of
Industrial Properties.
Surely Mr. Begelfer is joking, tongue firmly planted
in cheek, right? He's got to be!
Either that or it's his introduction to "The Best
Legislature Money Can Buy" and he actually thought legislators were
people of honor who could be trusted to keep a promise, instead of
burning him and his association like everyone else. I wonder where he's
been all these years, how he missed all the other broken "temporary tax"
promises? It's amazing the Beacon Hill pols can still hook and
reel in anyone with that worn-out scam.
"If you can't believe them on
this, what can you believe them on?" Nothing, Mr. Begelfer, not - a - single -
thing.
Worcester's Telegram & Gazette, though disgusted with
the latest broken promise, at least didn't sound "shocked, simply
shocked" at this latest breach of faith with taxpayers. Just a
statement of general disgust.
Barbara's comment, "This is the most useless and
pathetic group of Democratic legislators I have ever seen in 30 years of
political activism," gained mileage when she was a guest on WRKO AM-680
early Tuesday morning with host Scott Allen Miller. And Chip
Faulkner's published description of voters who sign petitions without a
clue what they're signing as not having "the IQ of an eggplant" also has
been a hit.
"The Best Legislature Money Can Buy" has finally
crossed the line so blatantly that it's come under siege from all
quarters. This includes
The Boston Globe and
The Boston Herald on the same day: for the first time in
recent memory both editorialized from the same position.
House Speaker and nascent shepherd Salvatore DiMasi
and his flock are catching more heat than they're used to for taking the
idea of working even once in a while to a new low -- even for
"professional fulltime" legislators in Massachusetts. The general
consensus is that, considering how well they're paid, citizens and
taxpayers have a reasonable expectation that legislators will show up
once in a while to do "the people's business," for which they allegedly
sought election.
Barbara's "Ode
to our Fair Lads and Ladies" was published as a letter to the editor
in at least The Boston Herald and The Attleboro Sun-Chronicle, that we
know about.
The Boston Globe even sent a team to the Portugal
resort, where some extended-vacationing members of the House of
Reprehensibles were captured for posterity in a couple of fine photos
published today.
Referring apparently to her August getaway, House
assistant majority leader Lida Harkins (D-Needham) complained from
Portugal,
"I basically spent that one week driving up and down the Maine Turnpike coming
to and from sessions. I don't think anyone expects us to work 365 days a
year."
"365 days a year"? They are shameless,
insulting of their constituents' intelligence. Is there even a
single citizen in all of Massachusetts who believes these poor "public
servants" are overworked and underpaid -- even one?
"We saved our money and didn't go anywhere all summer," one
junket-member was overhead to say, complaining about the public heat
back home.
Maybe "didn't go anywhere all summer" -- but weren't
working then either! It's time to get back to the work you're paid
to do, folks -- before another year expires with little to show for it.
The House this afternoon took up Gov. Romney's veto
of the gutted "Melanie's Law" and had sent back with his three
amendments. Today it passed overwhelmingly, 138-2. Last week
it was gutted by a vote of 114-22 -- so what do you suppose suddenly
changed 112 of those great minds?
Strangely, the House no longer allows the roll call
vote tally board to be shown on its televised coverage, so determining
how a rep voted -- even who is or isn't there to vote at all -- lately
is mysteriously missing. Why do you suppose this change has
suddenly happened, after years of traditionally posting roll call votes
the rare times that some are actually forced?
It's chaos these days on Beacon Hill -- as intended.
The more chaos, the less the public and media can follow. The end
of legislative sessions is always planned and scheduled chaos for that
reason. This year the strategic chaos is occurring later than
usual -- with the holidays looming, and another extended legislative
vacation on the horizon, November 16 for the remainder of the year.
Late yesterday we learned that the latest bill to
kill the initiative and referendum process had just been released by the
Elections Laws Committee -- and would be voted on by the Senate today,
less than 24 hours later! We dropped everything, chased
down a copy of the newest legislation, and launched another defense of
the I&R process. Barbara and I banged out a memo to the
Legislature and a
news release, finished last night: CLT associate director Chip
Faulkner rushed into the State House early this morning to put a memo
into every legislator's hand -- at least those who showed up for work
this morning. We sent out the news release to our list of media
across the state first thing this morning; then for good measure, sent a
copy of the news release to every legislator by e-mail.
Thankfully, state Sen. Brian Lees (R-East
Longmeadow), senate minority leader, managed to get the vote in the
senate moved back until next Thursday. This allows CLT another
week to make you aware, and to coordinate with our allies such as Common
Cause and other groups, to mount another effort to "Kill the Bill."
We're crunching the final numbers for our major study
on the effects of Proposition 2½, "Proposition
2½ and You," and designing it in
presentation format for its release in the next few days -- in time for
Prop 2½'s 25th birthday celebration on
November 4th. Completing this project, in the works for months,
while the Legislature ratchets up its last minute strategic chaos, has
brought a slowdown of these regular Updates. We're doing our best.
Thanks for your patience and understanding.
|
 |
|
Chip Ford |
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
'Thy will be done'
By Steve Bailey, Globe Columnist
It is not news when Governor Mitt Romney calls for a cut in the state's
personal income tax rate to 5 percent. The governor did just that --
again -- earlier this month, and it wound up on page B5 of this
newspaper. But when former Senate president Thomas Birmingham, a liberal
champion for more than a decade on Beacon Hill, says it is time -- past
time, in fact -- to honor the will of the voters, then it is time to
recalculate.
"There is no question of affordability anymore," says Birmingham, a
Chelsea Democrat who spent seven years as Senate president before
running unsuccessfully for governor three years ago.
It is an odd place to find Tom Birmingham, allied with Romney and
Barbara Anderson, the longtime tax cutter, in urging the Legislature
to get on with living up to the 2000 referendum, approved by
*56 percent
of voters, to lower the state's income tax to 5 percent. Birmingham will
forever be known as the co-author of the state's landmark 1993 education
reform act and for his fierce battles with his tight-fisted House
counterpart, Thomas Finneran, to protect the billions that narrowed the
funding gap between poor cities and wealthy towns.
Birmingham is not, as he says, "a reflexive tax cutter," and he is "no
fan" of the governor. He was against the tax cut at the time of the
referendum, and debated the issue on television with its chief
proponent, then-Governor Paul Cellucci. In 2002, when times were tough,
Birmingham helped freeze the income tax rate at 5.3 percent and pushed
$1.2 billion in tax hikes through the Legislature.
"That was the right thing to do at the time," Birmingham says. "That was
then. This is now."
Now state revenue is surging. In the first three months of fiscal year
2006, state revenue increased $317 million. September was a particularly
strong month, with revenue up 14.3 percent over a year ago to $1.9
billion, the second-highest monthly take on record. The strong three
months follow a year in which revenue rose 7 percent, the first time
Massachusetts collected more tax money than it did in 2001, the year the
economy collapsed. The state's rainy-day fund is at a near record.
"The referendum happened," Birmingham says. "We had a full and fair
debate. The side that supported 5 percent prevailed and by a sizable
majority.... It is about keeping faith with the voters. In a democracy
it has to be about 'thy will be done.'"
As chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and later Senate
president, Birmingham knows the budget process inside and out, and knows
how the system can be gamed. The Legislature, he says is "consciously
underestimating revenue," using targets even lower than Romney's.
Revenue is steadily rising, he says. "It has not been a blip."
Democratic leaders have cited a litany of reasons -- from a court
challenge to education reform to "structural" deficits to even rising
gas prices -- to explain why they do not want to roll back taxes.
"Eventually," says Birmingham, "the shifting rationale suggests
something more in the nature of the excuse than a justification."
Now a labor lawyer with Palmer & Dodge, Birmingham says he still does
not favor a 5 percent tax rate, but feels the voters have spoken. Of the
Legislature, he says: "You could have a straightforward debate that
healthcare reform will cost $200 million, and it is more important than
the tax cut. But that is not what they are saying. They are saying they
don't have the money."
He believes honoring the tax cut should take precedence over new
spending or other tax cuts.
"The experience of the last three fiscal years demonstrates [the tax
cut] is affordable without eviscerating core elements of state
government," he says. "After three years of budgetary surpluses, it is
now clearly time."
Return to top
The Boston Herald
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Pols stall commercial property tax relief
By Scott Van Voorhis
State lawmakers are threatening to renege on a deal to lower tax bills
on everything from downtown Boston office towers to suburban office
complexes, outraging business boosters.
Local business organizations were key players in a legislative deal that
allowed several cities and towns, including Boston, to temporarily boost
their commercial-property tax yield in a bid to shield homeowners from
rising tax bills.
But with commercial tax bills now poised to start declining, Beacon Hill
is considering a proposal that would freeze the current property
valuation system in place for another year.
The move has sparked the ire of David Begelfer, head of the local
chapter of the National Association of Industrial Properties, a trade
group that represents Boston area developers.
Begelfer is now working with other business groups to lobby against the
bill.
"That was a good faith compromise," Begelfer said. "If you can't believe
them on this, what can you believe them on."
However, Boston officials, who helped push through the original bill
that boosted tax bills on commercial properties, say they are staying on
the sidelines.
While the city does not support the proposal, it won't be fighting
against it either, acknowledged Ron Rakow, the city's tax chief. City
officials instead are focusing on closing tax loopholes, including an
outdated law that allows telecommunications companies to escape hefty
property tax payments.
Return to top
The Telegram & Gazette
Monday, October 24, 2005
A Telegram & Gazette editorial
Back to ‘Taxachusetts’
Legislature may renege on promise to business
The Massachusetts Legislature, which has yet to fully roll back the
"temporary" income tax increase it imposed 16 years ago, is at it again.
A bill before the Joint Committee on Revenue would shift more of the
local property tax burden onto businesses, despite a promise, only 21
months ago, that the tax would, over time, be shifted down.
In January of 2004, a law went into effect allowing communities to
shift, temporarily, a greater share of the local property tax burden to
business property owners as a way of easing the growing property tax
burden on residential property owners. Prior to the bill’s passage, the
maximum shift was set at 175 percent. The 2004 law allowed for a shift
of up to 200 percent in the first fiscal year and incrementally rolled
it back in subsequent years to 170 percent in 2009.
Now the Legislature is thinking about reneging by delaying the promised
rollback — supposedly for one year only — and freezing the rate for the
current fiscal year at 190 percent.
By breaking its promise, the Legislature would make the manifestly
inequitable tax system even more onerous. The basic inequality in the
property tax system was created in 1984 when a law was passed that
permitted municipalities to switch from a single rate for all taxable
property to a two-tier "tax classification" system that allows taxation
of commercial and industrial property at a rate far higher than the
residential rate.
With vacant commercial and industrial sites dotting the landscape, the
last thing Massachusetts needs is to put out the "Not Welcome" sign to
job-producing business and industry.
The state economy is showing signs of regaining life, but confidence
among job- and revenue-creating businesses remains wobbly. Yet another
broken tax promise can only prolong their post-recession jitters.
Return to top
The Lowell Sun
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Critics: DiMasi failing to lead House
By Erik Arvidson, Sun Statehouse Bureau
With the clock ticking on the legislative session and a daunting amount
of work remaining to be done, most Beacon Hill insiders expected the
Legislature to be going gangbusters in October.
Instead, the political world was left stunned last week when a group of
House lawmakers, including some members of Speaker Salvatore DiMasi's
leadership team, departed for a vacation in Portugal and Spain.
This happened just hours before the House was to vote on a bill
toughening drunk-driving laws, and brought House business to a virtual
standstill for the next 10 days.
The Legislature is expected to begin a holiday break on Nov. 16, and
debates over health care, auto insurance and local aid are still
pending.
Some restless lawmakers and observers said privately that the ill-timed
vacation reflected poorly on DiMasi, who has already been under
criticism for a lack of leadership of the House.
The Legislature takes vacations in December, all of August, and a
weeklong break in the spring.
"It's extremely frustrating," said state Rep. William "Smitty"
Pignatelli, D-Lenox. "We have so much to do. Health insurance is killing
cities and towns, and we have a leadership group taking a vacation. If
I'm speaker and somebody takes a vacation, I think the business should
still move forward without them."
The vacation controversy follows several weeks of bad publicity over the
speaker's out-of-state trips and golf outings.
Barbara Anderson, executive director of the conservative
Citizens for Limited Taxation, said of DiMasi and his leadership
team: "This is the most useless and pathetic group of Democratic
legislators I have ever seen in 30 years of political activism."
Jack Clarke, director of advocacy for the Massachusetts Audubon Society,
said that Beacon Hill's leadership triumvirate of DiMasi, Senate
President Robert Travaglini, and Gov. Mitt Romney is unlike others in
years past.
In the 1980s, the relationship between Gov. Michael Dukakis, Speaker
Thomas McGee, and Senate President William Bulger was sometimes testy,
but the competition was good because it created a fulcrum for issues to
move forward, Clarke said.
"Right now, I think there is a power void on Beacon Hill. The governor
has been distracted with his presidential ambitions, and there is also a
new speaker, who we hear could be more engaged," Clarke said. "There is
a real opportunity for someone to seize the day."
In an interview last week, DiMasi ticked off a half-dozen notable
accomplishments as speaker, including restructuring new committees and
creating new ones, passing a balanced budget, more money for local aid,
a housing bond bill, an economic stimulus package, and a "very tough"
drunk-driving bill.
He also pointed to the $80 million energy bill he and Travaglini
proposed to help people pay to heat their homes this winter.
"We're doing an awful lot this year," DiMasi said. He added that if
bills are not enacted by Nov. 16, they can still come up for
consideration next year as the legislative sessions operate on a
two-year cycle. "(Bills and issues) don't die on Nov. 16. There's no
rush to do anything dramatic, because it carries into the next year,"
DiMasi said.
When asked about the perception that the lawmakers' trip to Spain
creates, DiMasi said, "That doesn't mean work isn't being done. Nothing
is being held up. I'm not worried about that."
As House majority leader under Speaker Thomas Finneran, DiMasi's
reputation was that of a behind-the-scenes powerbroker who twisted arms
and kept rank-and-file Democrats aware of where the leadership stood on
key issues.
As speaker, DiMasi has delegated much of his authority to his leadership
team and committee chairs, which most House lawmakers welcomed as a nice
change from Finneran's controlling style.
But DiMasi has also largely avoided the spotlight in contrast to
Finneran, who rarely shied away from the press and accepted the heat
when the House was swirled in controversy.
Some insiders said that Travaglini's more forceful leadership style in
the Senate has produced a more diverse record of accomplishment,
outshining his House counterpart.
Just after the Legislature convened in January, Travaglini aggressively
pushed ahead with a bill legalizing embryonic stem-cell research, and
the bill got initial approval by the Senate in March. DiMasi also
supported the legislation, but Travaglini got credit for being its
primary driver.
Travaglini also unveiled his plan to reduce the number of residents
without health insurance in May, about the same time as Romney
introduced his health care proposal. While DiMasi has pledged to pass a
health care bill this year, some have privately complained that House
leaders waited too long to get involved.
Pamela Wilmot, executive director of Common Cause Massachusetts, said
DiMasi is a "charming person who thrives on personal relationships." But
it's clearly been the Senate, she added, which has set the pace on
Beacon Hill.
"The Senate has been doing lots of innovative reforms over the entire
tenure of Senate President Travaglini," said Pamela Wilmot, executive
director of Common Cause Massachusetts. "There have been a lot of great
ideas coming out and a lot of moving forward on things that have stalled
in the House."
Wilmot acknowledged that because there are four times as many
representatives than senators, finding consensus in the House is often
more difficult and time-consuming.
Some Greater Lowell lawmakers defended DiMasi's leadership style, saying
it has produced a more consensus-driven legislative body.
"He's got another year to prove himself. He's responsive. He's
accessible. When all is said and done, he'll be one of the best speakers
we've ever had," said state Rep. James Miceli, D-Wilmington. "There is
no one who has put forth an agenda that's more in tune with (the current
issues) than he has."
State Rep. Colleen Garry, D-Dracut, said although she finds DiMasi's
agenda to be too liberal, she did not blame him for the sluggish pace.
"I think he's done a good job. They've been trying to take it slowly to
make sure everyone feels comfortable (with the changes)," Garry said.
"To tackle these major issues, there was a lot of learning to be done.
But I think we'll get through some good things for the rest of the
term."
State Rep. Kevin Murphy, D-Lowell, chairman of the Higher Education
Committee, said it was unfair to describe DiMasi as being too laid-back.
"This is what happens when we have a democratic process. He has
decentralized power in the House and put it in the hands of the
committee chairs. When it's more democratic, you have more debate and
more input. The new system is taking a little more time to take hold,"
Murphy said.
Sun Statehouse Bureau reporter Rebecca Fater contributed to this
story.
Return to top
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
A firmer hand on the House
By Scot Lehigh, Globe Columnist
It's been a bad patch for Speaker Sal DiMasi and the House he leads.
Even some DiMasi admirers were left shaking their heads last week at the
black eye Eugene O'Flaherty, House chairman of the Judiciary Committee,
gave the body by pushing to weaken drunken driving legislation -- then
jetting off with several other DiMasi leadership lieutenants and reps on
a 10-day vacation during what was supposed to be a working period.
But in an interview yesterday, DiMasi shrugged off most concerns. The
Speaker said that O'Flaherty retains his confidence as a "competent,"
"knowledgeable" chairman. As for the vacationing members of his
leadership team, DiMasi made it clear he's not contemplating
disciplinary action. "I don't want to mete out any punishment," he said.
"I'm not their parents."
The furthest DiMasi would go was to say: "I have to pay closer attention
to the fact that when I have given these people the authority, they had
better fulfill their obligation by doing the work. If they're not going
to do the work ... then I may have to take action later on."
Here's what a real reformer could do to put things right.
Step one: Give Gene-O the heave-ho. That is, tell O'Flaherty that the
Speaker wants his resignation as a chairman -- and make it clear that if
O'Flaherty won't go quietly, he'll move to strip him of that important
post.
O'Flaherty has given ample demonstration that he isn't leadership
material. Rather, he's a hothead whose intimidating manner and penchant
for the legislative equivalent of road rage are widely known on Beacon
Hill.
Step two: Make clear that the next time a member of leadership indulges
in a long vacation during key working weeks, he or she will face a
similar fate.
Step three: Lean harder into the job himself. After years as a
consummate quip-and-grip insider, DiMasi doesn't seem to realize that he
now occupies a job with statewide visibility. An end to extraneous
travel would help. So would a more active House schedule.
Step four: Fix the drunken driving bill.
Governor Romney intends to send the measure back to the Legislature with
amendments. DiMasi should publicly promise that the House will deliver a
stronger bill -- and then follow through. One particular issue is the
elimination of a provision that would let prosecutors use certified
copies of court documents to establish that a person had previously been
convicted of drunken driving.
Senator Steven Baddour of Methuen, a member of the conference committee,
says House conferees insisted on jettisoning that measure. "If we had
not given up on that, we would not have a bill today," says Baddour, who
favored the provision.
But absent that provision, it will be much harder to crack down on
repeat offenders, legal experts say. (Certainly DiMasi, who made
representing accused drunk drivers one of his specialties during his
days as an active defense attorney, understands as much.)
"You could have been arrested in a different state or in a different
part of the state," says Attorney General Thomas Reilly. "There is no
way the prosecution can always have a police officer there to say, 'That
is the same person I arrested.' It really is absurd."
Certified copies of court records, which suffice as evidence of
suspended licenses and of probation violations, should also be allowed
to stand as evidence of prior drunken driving convictions, Reilly says.
That's not just a prosecutorial viewpoint. "We are not talking about
newspaper clippings, we are talking about certified court records," says
attorney Harvey Silverglate, a civil libertarian. Silverglate, a past
president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, says
court records should be treated as presumptive evidence, meaning that
they would be assumed to be correct, provided the defense has an
opportunity to challenge them.
Yesterday DiMasi insisted that the House had merely been trying to honor
a previous Supreme Judicial Court ruling in nixing that provision.
Noting that the SJC has been asked for an advisory opinion, he said: "If
the court came back tomorrow and said this is constitutional, it will
pass the next day. I guarantee it."
Well, that's a start, anyway. Still, even if one takes DiMasi at face
value, his position is overly cautious.
Asked on Friday about House fears that the certified records provision
would face a court challenge, Reilly had this to say: "That's a
no-brainer. They can challenge it in court -- and I will defend it."
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The Boston Globe
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Legislators enjoy their Iberian respite
They chafe at flak caused by leaving busy State House
By Scott Helman, Globe Staff
ESTORIL, Portugal -- The wine is flowing and the laughter plentiful as
the group of Massachusetts legislators and their fellow revelers relax
inside the restaurant at Hotel Estoril Eden, a four-star waterfront
high-rise with expansive views of the coast.
Buffet tables are stacked. The rich, creamy flan is a must-eat.
"We need another bottle of wine," someone calls out from one of the
tables.
The jovial dinner Tuesday night was another highlight on the group's
10-day excursion through Spain and Portugal, in the balmy climes and
laid-back atmosphere of the Iberian Peninsula. There were casino visits,
walks along the surf, and seaside cocktails at sundown in a cove west of
Lisbon known as the Portuguese Riviera.
The trip, organized by Lida Harkins, the House assistant majority
leader, set off a torrent of criticism as members jetted off last
Wednesday, just as the final frenzied weeks of this year's legislative
session began. The criticism was especially intense because
Representative Eugene L. O'Flaherty, the House chairman of the Joint
Judiciary Committee, flew to Lisbon with the group shortly after signing
off on revisions to a drunken driving bill that watered down the
measure.
The legislative session is scheduled to end Nov. 16, and the trip has
become a distraction for House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi barely a year
after taking over the House leadership.
This week on Beacon Hill, legislators confronted thorny issues ranging
from elderly tax relief to an attempt to reach a compromise on
drunken-driving legislation, as the Harkins-led group of half a dozen
lawmakers and former legislators hopscotched from one tourist spot to
another.
Most days, the temperature hovered around 70 degrees. Last night,
Harkins sipped Baileys Irish Cream from a snifter just as the setting
sun began to cast the Atlantic in orange.
The group was whisked from town to town in a rainbow-striped coach bus.
Yesterday morning they toured the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos, a 15th-century
convent in the Lisbon suburb of Belem, where explorer Vasco da Gama is
said to have prayed before his first journey to India. It is a
commanding site, set back by a carefully manicured garden with marble
benches.
Later they stopped by the Monument to the Discoveries, a towering
concrete tribute to the legacy of Portuguese exploration.
Harkins, in a telephone interview from her hotel room last night,
defended the trip, saying the House doesn't have a set schedule and that
there has been little down time this year. She noted that when the House
was in session in August, she spent much of a vacation week in Maine
driving often to Boston.
"I basically spent that one week driving up and down the Maine Turnpike
coming to and from sessions," the Needham Democrat said. "I don't think
anyone expects us to work 365 days a year."
Other House members in the group included Representatives Gale D.
Candaras, a Wilbraham Democrat, and Christine E. Canavan, a Brockton
Democrat. Also along was former state representative David Bunker, a
Democrat who served one term in the House and now is a staff member on
the House Ways and Means Committee.
Former state senator Henri S. Rauschenbach, a Republican who is now a
State House lobbyist representing many healthcare interests and
hospitals, was also scheduled to attend.
O'Flaherty took heat for making the changes to the drunken driving bill
that weakened it, and then for leaving for Europe before the House or
Senate debated the measure. While the group was traveling, both chambers
passed a joint House-Senate bill by a roll call vote last week.
Yesterday, O'Flaherty appeared to have cut his trip short, checking out
of the hotel before the rest of the group.
Harkins said last night that she was assured there would not be a roll
call vote on Melanie's Bill after they left. She said she and others on
the trip were frustrated at not being able to cast a vote. She has also
pointed out that the lawmakers paid for their trip with private funds,
not taxpayers' money.
"I would say we have been particularly busy for a number of months now,
and there really wasn't any way to predict, without a set schedule," she
said.
Harkins said she and a small delegation from the group met with
Portuguese officials both last week and again yesterday.
Yesterday's meeting was at the Palacio Real das Necessidades, a
well-kept pink stucco building in Lisbon that houses the foreign
ministry.
Harkins said they talked with Portuguese officials about educational
exchanges between the two places, and about the teaching of Portuguese
in Massachusetts schools. (Massachusetts has a sizable Portuguese
population.)
But her group, which appeared to number about three dozen, including
family members, had plenty of time for touring.
A high point was a jaunt to Granada, Spain, to see the Alhambra, a
palace and fortress complex built by the Moors in the 13th and 14th
century.
In Estoril, a seaside town with a laid-back spirit and palm trees, the
group would gather in the hotel bar for cocktails before heading to the
restaurant for dinner.
One night, O'Flaherty and a few others sampled Estoril's main
entertainment attraction: the Casino Estoril, a sprawling complex in the
center of town with rows of slot machines, live music to entertain
gamblers, and a large outdoor garden with exotic flora.
The group was clearly cognizant of the criticism of the vacation. As
they mingled in the hotel bar here before dinner one night, a woman
could be heard complaining about the way the trip had been portrayed in
the news media.
It was unfair, she said, to suggest that O'Flaherty and other lawmakers
left town with their responsibilities unfilled.
"We saved our money and didn't go anywhere all summer," she said.
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