CLT
UPDATE
Tuesday, December 6, 2005
It's official: Legislature repeals
Retro Tax
House and Senate lawmakers approved a bill Monday
designed to repeal a retroactive capital gains tax hike from 2002 and
send out about $275 million in tax rebates over the next four years.
A spokesman for Gov. Mitt Romney said he's expected to sign the bill.
The legislation should bring relief to taxpayers who had begun receiving
notices telling them to pay capital gains taxes from 2002.
Associated Press
Monday, December 5, 2005
Lawmakers pass bill repealing
retroactive capital gains tax hike
It took two decisions by the Supreme Judicial Court to
convince lawmakers that no matter what sleight of hand they chose, they could
not change tax law in the middle of a calendar year. That left two choices -
rebate taxes paid by those under the new rate or collect retroactively from
taxpayers who reported capital gains in the first part of the year under the old
rate.
Because most Democratic lawmakers have an aversion to giving money back to the
people who earned it, the retroactive tax bills went out - along with bills for
interest that accrued while the Legislature was fiddling and diddling with the
issue....
Lawmakers opted to stretch the $275 million in tax rebates over four years
(Imagine if taxpayers asked to do that!), although taxpayers due $1,000 in
rebates or less will get a lump sum payment.
Gov. Mitt Romney hung tough on this one - amending a legislative proposal to
collect those back taxes. But he won with the help of angry constituents
everywhere, who refused to sit back and take it.
A Boston Herald editorial
Saturday, December 3, 2005
Angry taxpayers score a big win
Despite spiraling gun violence that continues to claim young
lives, overtaxed Boston cops are logging more than 500 lucrative detail shifts a
day, pocketing hefty paychecks for traffic duty while the city struggles to
control crime, a Herald review found....
Critics have long argued that detail assignments waste public resources on a job
that could easily be performed by civilian flaggers.
"Police are supposed to be our most respected public employees, and most of the
time we see them standing at the edge of a hole with coffee in their hands,"
said Barbara Anderson of Citizens for Limited Taxation. "It
doesn’t help their image, but it does help their paycheck."
The Boston Herald
Friday, December 2, 2005
Cops cash in, at what risk?
'Detail' shifts lure police as crime strains staffing
A policy report released this week links $3.1 billion worth
of cuts in state funding for health care, education, emergency and affordable
housing services, child care and social services made between 1991 and 2001 to
increases in homelessness, teen smoking, teen pregnancy and poor MCAS
performance.
The report, "Kids, Cuts and Consequences," was drafted by the liberal policy
group Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center and the Home for Little Wanderers,
New England's largest, private, nonprofit child and family service agency....
Noah Berger, executive director of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center,
said the goal of the report was "not to point fingers," but rather cast light on
the plight of children in danger of losing critical state services....
Berger's group has found an odd bedfellow in the typically conservative
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.
"Through the fiscal crisis of 2001-2004 services were cut dramatically all
through state government," said MTF President Michael J. Widmer. "I can't vouch
for the particular impacts on kids," but Widmer said his group is against the
proposed reduction in state income tax from 5.3 to 5 percent.
And, in its own report released earlier this month, the MTF called for the state
to boost funding to local governments to reduce municipal reliance on property
taxes that, Widmer said, "fall disproportionately on the poor."
But not everyone agrees with Berger's call for increases in social spending.
Good government watchdog and advocate of the Proposition 2½ local tax cap,
Barbara Anderson said the report is an emotional plea from a group with a
stake in the state's social spending.
"No matter how much you give these people, it's never enough," she said. "You
never hear anybody calling for cuts to social programs, but somehow our tax
dollars never seem to make it there."
The Brockton Enterprise
Sunday, December 4, 2005
Study: Kids hurt most by new cuts
Former University of Massachusetts president William Bulger
won a huge victory in court Monday when a Superior Court judge ruled that his
pension must be increased to over $200,000 a year.
Judge Ernest B. Murphy ruled that Bulger must receive a housing allowance and a
portion of an annuity in his pension. The housing allowance and annuity had been
discounted as perks during Bulger's reign as president of the UMass system.
Murphy's ruling will add roughly $45,000 in annuity payments and a
$29,000-a-year housing stipend. Bulger's pension will rise from $179,000 to
$208,000 per year....
"He's become a predator on our paychecks, that's the way I can describe Billy
Bulger," said Chip Faulkner, associate director of the Massachusetts
Citizens of Limited Taxation....
"The old argument used to be that with public employees, they earn a relatively
low salary, but good benefits," said Faulkner. "What it's turned into now is
huge salaries and huge benefits. That's why government costs so much in
Massachusetts... That's why we have one of the highest income tax rates in the
country."
The Daily Collegian
University of Massachusetts
November 30, 2005
Judge rules Bulger entitled to higher pension payment
Economic development bills should be designed to help 6
million Massachusetts residents, not 40 state senators. The latter appears to be
the goal of the economic stimulus bill passed by the state Senate.
State tax revenues are coming in higher than projected, but that's no reason to
dole out special projects to help a single district in the guise of economic
development....
Some of these projects may deserve state aid, though Nantucket can probably
afford to enlarge its network of bike paths on its own. But these earmarks
should be excised unless senators can show they will have a strong regional
economic impact....
The House version of the stimulus bill avoids the temptation to load up with
special projects, and at $336 million it is far less costly than the Senate's
$494 million package.... House and Senate conferees are trying to resolve
differences between the two versions this month. Legislators should consider it
in the cold light of January, after the gift-giving season is past.
A Boston Globe editorial
Tuesday, December 6, 2005
Christmas in the Senate
Chip Ford's CLT Commentary
It's all but official now, the law of the land with
Governor Romney's signature. After a long battle by CLT, its
members, and a lot of other afflicted taxpayers, the retroactive capital
gains tax is about to become just a bad memory, another flawed law
finally acknowledged by "The Best Legislature Money Can Buy." It was
adopted during the Legislature's revenue feeding frenzy of 2002 (see:
CLT Update, Jul. 25, 2002, "Beacon
Hill "village idiots" betray us again"), the biggest tax increase in
state history. Congratulations taxpayers!
*
*
*
Another perennial report is out on the unnecessary
cost of police "details," and again don't expect anything to change in
Massachusetts -- the only state that uses high-cost police at roadway
construction sites instead of far lower cost flag men and women.
With pubic employee unions controlling the predominantly Democrat
Legislature and its agenda, taxpayers always come in a distant second
place. Come Police "Detail" Day at the State House, most of our
"representatives" in the "Great and General Court" will once again be
found hiding beneath their desks. (How long has this boondoggle
been discussed ad nausea? See: "Police
Details" on the CLT website.)
*
*
*
The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center is out
with another tax-and-spend report, as it exists to do. Formerly
known as TEAM (in these quarters better known as "Tax Everything And
More" before its abrupt name-change), its conclusions have been ratified
by none other than the so-called
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation -- no surprise here. We
have frequently charged that MTF is nothing more than a shill for the
tax-and-spend brigade, providing it with MTF's overrated stamp of
legitimacy as cover. Our longtime observation has now been
recognized by The Brockton Enterprise. I'm sure that none of us
find MTF to be at all "an odd bedfellow" of the big-spenders; just a
usual member of Gimme Lobby chorus -- unless a tax increase
targets its fat-cat big-business membership. (Remember
how quickly MTF president
and spokesman Michael Widmer
came around to opposing the retroactive capital gains tax -- after
he'd "received more e-mails on this than on any subject since I came to
the foundation, 15 years ago.")
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 |
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Chip Ford |
Associated Press
Monday, December 5, 2005
Lawmakers pass bill repealing
retroactive capital gains tax hike
House and Senate lawmakers approved a bill Monday designed to repeal a
retroactive capital gains tax hike from 2002 and send out about $275
million in tax rebates over the next four years.
A spokesman for Gov. Mitt Romney said he's expected to sign the bill.
The legislation should bring relief to taxpayers who had begun receiving
notices telling them to pay capital gains taxes from 2002.
The problem dates back to the state's most recent fiscal crisis, when
lawmakers approved a capital gains hike to begin in May 2002.
The state's top court struck down the tax, saying it was
unconstitutional to create a new tax midway through the year. The court
said the tax must go into effect either at the start of 2002 or 2003,
but not in between.
Under the legislation, anyone who did not pay capital gains taxes during
the first four months of 2002 won't be required to pay those taxes
retroactively -- and anyone who paid the capital gains taxes during the
last eight months of 2002 will get a rebate.
Paying the rebates out over four years will mean a loss of revenue of
between $56 and $69 million a year for the state.
Anyone owed $1,000 or less will get a one-time lump sum rebate.
Return to top
The Boston Herald
Saturday, December 3, 2005
A Boston Herald editorial
Angry taxpayers score a big win
No sooner did those retroactive capital gains tax bills start arriving
in taxpayers’ mailboxes than the angry letters began to flow in -
certainly at this newspaper and apparently on Beacon Hill too.
So Thursday, Senate President Robert Travaglini and House Speaker Sal
DiMasi caved to the pressure - and it was a beautiful thing.
"Anybody who got a retroactive notice is going to get another notice
saying disregard the first notice," Travaglini said.
It took two decisions by the Supreme Judicial Court to convince
lawmakers that no matter what sleight of hand they chose, they could not
change tax law in the middle of a calendar year. That left two choices -
rebate taxes paid by those under the new rate or collect retroactively
from taxpayers who reported capital gains in the first part of the year
under the old rate.
Because most Democratic lawmakers have an aversion to giving money back
to the people who earned it, the retroactive tax bills went out - along
with bills for interest that accrued while the Legislature was fiddling
and diddling with the issue. The screams of pain - and anger - could be
heard in households throughout the commonwealth - including a lot of
good Democrat households. In all some 48,000 taxpayers were on the
receiving end of those bills.
"In the end it wasn’t liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican,
but everyone heard it so frequently and loud and clear," said Sen. Mark
Montigny (D-New Bedford). "Ultimately when people started to receive
bills, the outcry was loud enough."
Lawmakers opted to stretch the $275 million in tax rebates over four
years (Imagine if taxpayers asked to do that!), although taxpayers due
$1,000 in rebates or less will get a lump sum payment.
Gov. Mitt Romney hung tough on this one - amending a legislative
proposal to collect those back taxes. But he won with the help of angry
constituents everywhere, who refused to sit back and take it.
Return to top
The Boston Herald
Friday, December 2, 2005
Cops cash in, at what risk?
'Detail' shifts lure police as crime strains staffing
By Casey Ross
Despite spiraling gun violence that continues to claim young lives,
overtaxed Boston cops are logging more than 500 lucrative detail shifts
a day, pocketing hefty paychecks for traffic duty while the city
struggles to control crime, a Herald review found.
"We are down the better part of 200 officers in the city," said state
Rep. Marty Walz (D-Back Bay). "In the meantime, what are we doing? What
is the impact of the detail work? My primary concern is we don’t have
enough officers on the streets preventing and solving crimes."
Walz said she fears that the high detail pay combined with the
relatively light duty creates a disincentive for officers to work
overtime patrol shifts during which they could be more useful in
combating mounting street crime.
Police records show about one-fourth of the department’s 2,058 uniformed
officers are assigned to daily detail duties that range from Big Dig
traffic shifts to security in supermarkets and department stores. The
details leave scores of officers working 14-16-hour days on a regular
basis.
While cops insist the details put more eyes on the street, some
officials fear the $33- $47-an-hour jobs are limiting the department’s
ability to stretch threadbare resources to combat surging crime. Two
more young men died because of gun violence this week — increasing the
year’s homicide tally to 66 — while another street battle in Dorchester
sent bullets flying outside an elementary school.
"How can they be effective (on patrol) if they’re working that many
details in a week’s time?" said Sam Tyler, president of the Boston
Municipal Research Bureau. "You want to have confidence that officers on
duty can perform at a peak level."
Police union officials say department regulations prevent details from
taking precedence over patrol overtime shifts or regular tours of duty.
Patrolmen’s union president Thomas Nee said cops assigned to stand
outside construction sites and direct traffic have a primary
responsibility to the city and the safety of its residents. He said an
off-duty officer who broke up a gunfight Wednesday night in Mattapan and
shot one of the combatants was only in the area because he was returning
home from a detail assignment.
"I can’t tell you how many times a detail officer has been the back-up
in an incident or helped avoid a tragedy," Nee said last night. "These
assignments put an additional 300 to 400 officers on the streets at
private expense, not taxpayers’ expense."
Details are supplemental assignments for officers who fiercely defend
them as a useful service that increases police street presence while
reducing deadly accidents. Most assignments are paid by private firms
who must hire officers for road work, but many also are funded by state
agencies such as the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.
A Herald review of a week’s worth of detail records found that Boston
cops made well in excess of $600,000 from Nov. 3-10, including a median
daily pay of more than $17,000 from the taxpayer-funded Big Dig.
Critics have long argued that detail assignments waste public resources
on a job that could easily be performed by civilian flaggers.
"Police are supposed to be our most respected public employees, and most
of the time we see them standing at the edge of a hole with coffee in
their hands," said Barbara Anderson of Citizens for Limited Taxation.
"It doesn’t help their image, but it does help their paycheck."
Devil in the details
The Herald reviewed one week’s worth of Boston police detail assignments
between Nov. 3 and Nov. 10, finding the department’s officers made well
in excess of $600,000 for standing at construction sites or directing
traffic. Here are some other statistics from the review:
l
Hourly detail pay rates: Captain $47; lieutenant $42; sergeant $40;
patrolman $33.
l
About 500 officers per day worked detail shifts; the department has
2,060 uniformed members.
l 133
officers worked four or more detail shifts.
l 40
officers worked six or more detail shifts.
l
Weekly detail pay for a patrolman logging five, eight-hour shifts:
$1,320 before taxes.
l
Median daily cost of taxpayer-funded Big Dig details: $17,400.
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The Brockton Enterprise
Sunday, December 4, 2005
Study: Kids hurt most by new cuts
By Tim Grace, Enterprise staff writer
If he wasn't playing basketball at the Old Colony YMCA, 14-year-old
David Stanton of Brockton isn't sure where he'd be or what he'd be
doing.
"It's probably good that I can come here," he said. "There's not much
else to do around here except get in trouble."
Stanton is one of hundreds of Brockton kids involved in after-school
programs at the YMCA, programs that would shrink drastically or even
disappear altogether if the state funding that helps keep them afloat
were to dry up.
Cutbacks in state funding for programs like those at the YMCA wouldn't
be unprecedented.
A policy report released this week links $3.1 billion worth of cuts in
state funding for health care, education, emergency and affordable
housing services, child care and social services made between 1991 and
2001 to increases in homelessness, teen smoking, teen pregnancy and poor
MCAS performance.
The report, "Kids, Cuts and Consequences," was drafted by the liberal
policy group Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center and the Home for
Little Wanderers, New England's largest, private, nonprofit child and
family service agency.
Sandy Wixted didn't need anyone to tell her about the impact of recent
reductions in state aid to programs that support children and families.
"We're reeling from the cutbacks," said Wixted, director of Catholic
Charities South in Brockton. "We have at least 20 calls a day for all
types of assistance, and half of them ask for help with rents due to an
unexpected loss of income, complicated by multiple health problems, or
family disruptions. We do everything possible to move people out of
homelessness, but our requests are up. We are only able to help about 50
families from over a thousand who ask us for rental assistance each
year."
According to the report, Massachusetts cut per-pupil state funding for
education more than any other state between 2002 and 2004. Within that
cut was an 80 percent reduction in remediation programs for children who
have trouble learning the reading, writing and math skills tested on the
MCAS exam.
When funding for teen pregnancy prevention efforts was cut by 38 percent
in one year, the report claims teen birth rates began to climb in many
high-risk communities.
And when the state reduced funding for anti-smoking programs by 91
percent, the steady decline in smoking rates among children slowed and
illegal cigarette purchases by minors jumped dramatically.
Faced with an increase in need for services brought on by a sluggish
economy and a reduction in state support, local charitable groups have
been forced to make difficult choices.
Wixted's Catholic Charities office was forced to close its downtown
Brockton detox center.
The office used to receive state funding for a program that trained
immigrants to become certified nursing assistants.
"But that's been cut back and it's a struggle to find private funding,"
said Wixted.
"As a society, we say we value our children," said Evelyn Straun,
regional director of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children. "But where we apply our dollars doesn't always line
up with that sentiment."
Although MSPCC receives little state funding, Straun said cuts in social
services have a tremendous impact on the group's efforts.
"If you're worried about whether you're going to make the rent, how can
you worry about whether your kids are acting out in school," she said.
Jack Kelly, senior vice president and chief operating officer of the Old
Colony YMCA in Brockton, said reduced state funding has forced the YMCA
to cut programs, staffing and salaries.
"We've got some entry-level staffers making less than $19,000. That's
just not making it," Kelly said.
"When vital programs for vulnerable children and families are fully
funded the statistics show that children and families in the
commonwealth do much better," said Joan Wallace-Benjamin, president and
CEO of the Home for Little Wanderers. "As soon as we stopped fully
funding programs like early intervention, homelessness prevention, teen
pregnancy prevention, foster care recruitment and remedial education
programs, we start to see folks who don't just slip through the cracks,
they disappear."
Noah Berger, executive director of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy
Center, said the goal of the report was "not to point fingers," but
rather cast light on the plight of children in danger of losing critical
state services.
"Government is not just the people on Beacon Hill," Berger said. "Our
government is the schools that educate our children, the police that
keep them safe, the social workers that help children at risk of abuse
or neglect, and the healthcare safety net that 450,000 children rely on
for basic medical care. This report shows vividly how, when the state
budget is cut to pay for tax cuts, critical elements of our children's
lives are affected: their education, health care and physical safety."
Berger's group has found an odd bedfellow in the typically conservative
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.
"Through the fiscal crisis of 2001-2004 services were cut dramatically
all through state government," said MTF President Michael J. Widmer. "I
can't vouch for the particular impacts on kids," but Widmer said his
group is against the proposed reduction in state income tax from 5.3 to
5 percent.
And, in its own report released earlier this month, the MTF called for
the state to boost funding to local governments to reduce municipal
reliance on property taxes that, Widmer said, "fall disproportionately
on the poor."
But not everyone agrees with Berger's call for increases in social
spending.
Good government watchdog and advocate of the Proposition 2½ local tax
cap, Barbara Anderson said the report is an emotional plea from a
group with a stake in the state's social spending.
"No matter how much you give these people, it's never enough," she said.
"You never hear anybody calling for cuts to social programs, but somehow
our tax dollars never seem to make it there."
Return to top
The Daily Collegian
University of Massachusetts
November 30, 2005
Judge rules Bulger entitled to higher pension payment
By Dan O'Brien, Collegian Staff
Former University of Massachusetts president William Bulger won a huge
victory in court Monday when a Superior Court judge ruled that his
pension must be increased to over $200,000 a year.
Judge Ernest B. Murphy ruled that Bulger must receive a housing
allowance and a portion of an annuity in his pension. The housing
allowance and annuity had been discounted as perks during Bulger's reign
as president of the UMass system.
Murphy's ruling will add roughly $45,000 in annuity payments and a
$29,000-a-year housing stipend. Bulger's pension will rise from $179,000
to $208,000 per year.
Bulger's lawyer, Thomas Kiley praised the decision saying to the Boston
Globe, his client "has served in positions of great importance to the
citizens of the Commonwealth."
The judge's decision has come under fire by several public and private
leaders, including Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly.
"I don't believe he's entitled to anything he requested... This sets a
precedent that could be very expensive for this state, and we're
prepared to appeal this decision," Reilly said in a statement.
UMass originally resisted paying Bulger the additional money in his
pension because officials considered the housing and annuity payments as
perks.
"He's become a predator on our paychecks, that's the way I can describe
Billy Bulger," said Chip Faulkner, associate director of the
Massachusetts Citizens of Limited Taxation.
A recent review published in the Boston Herald on Nov. 6 shows several
retired state employees making six-figures on their pension plans. The
article said that out of all 57 state retirees making six figures, 31 of
them are former employees of the UMass system.
"The top 10 highest paid retirees draw between $130,000 and $230,000 a
year," the Herald article stated.
"The pension should be based on salary, on pay, and not on perks,"
Reilly said. "Enough is enough, but unfortunately in this case, enough
is never enough."
"I understand how most people think that's an excessive pension, but
that's the way it goes," said UMass journalism professor Stephen Simurda.
"Bulger is getting a very large pension, but he spent a very long time
in service to the state and legislature and here at UMass. And the
percentage is based on his earnings over that time and he made a fair
amount of money."
"The old argument used to be that with public employees, they earn a
relatively low salary, but good benefits," said Faulkner. "What it's
turned into now is huge salaries and huge benefits. That's why
government costs so much in Massachusetts... That's why we have one of
the highest income tax rates in the country."
While Reilly, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate in 2006 also blasted
the judge's decision, his potential political rival, Republican Gov.
Mitt Romney agreed with his opinion.
Romney called the new additions to Bulger's pension "excessive."
Return to top
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, December 6, 2005
A Boston Globe editorial
Christmas in the Senate
Economic development bills should be designed to help 6 million
Massachusetts residents, not 40 state senators. The latter appears to be
the goal of the economic stimulus bill passed by the state Senate.
State tax revenues are coming in higher than projected, but that's no
reason to dole out special projects to help a single district in the
guise of economic development.
Perhaps the best-known project is a $55 million package of
transportation improvements around Fenway Park. The expansion of the
Ruggles and Yawkey commuter rail stations is a sound investment, but the
highway enhancements are not so pressing -- and we say this knowing that
The New York Times Co. owns 17 percent of the Red Sox.
The Senate slipped in many other goodies, such as $25 million for the
CitySquare development in Worcester, $17 million for a highway
interchange in Freetown, $5 million to revitalize Quincy center, $3
million for a study of a tunnel under D Street in South Boston, $2
million for flood control in Peabody, $2 million for a cranberry bog
renovation program, $1 million for repairs to the Stoughton train
station, $4.3 million to build decks over the Mass. Pike for a Back Bay
development, $2.5 million for a food distribution facility in Westfield,
$1 million for parking improvements in Pittsfield, and $1 million for a
bicycle path on Nantucket.
Some of these projects may deserve state aid, though Nantucket can
probably afford to enlarge its network of bike paths on its own. But
these earmarks should be excised unless senators can show they will have
a strong regional economic impact.
The Senate bill also contains an intriguing proposal to allow cities or
towns to establish special development districts that could float bonds
for infrastructure improvements. Property owners would be assessed
special charges to pay off the bonds, sparing municipalities the need to
finance improvements directly. The proposal was advanced by Senator
Richard Moore, Democrat of Uxbridge, who says the concept has been
employed successfully through special legislation for individual
projects. However, no hearing has been held on the plan. It needs a
thorough airing, not a rush to passage tagged onto a larger bill.
The House version of the stimulus bill avoids the temptation to load up
with special projects, and at $336 million it is far less costly than
the Senate's $494 million package. Both bills contain worthwhile
proposals to further the development of brownfield sites and create a
state director of broadband development to promote high-speed Internet
access in remote areas. House and Senate conferees are trying to resolve
differences between the two versions this month. Legislators should
consider it in the cold light of January, after the gift-giving season
is past.
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