CLT
UPDATE
Thursday, February 2, 2006
Record revenue rolls into state
coffers
State revenue collections in January jumped 14.1
percent over last January, Gov. Mitt Romney announced on Wednesday,
renewing his call for an income tax cut and his opposition to a proposed
tax on certain employers that don't offer health insurance.
Romney, who called a press conference to announce the news, said the
state is on track to collect $540 million more than what budget writers
anticipated when they finalized the state budget last summer....
Seven months into the fiscal year, collections are up by 9.2 percent, a
trend that has spending and tax cut proponents excited about the
upcoming budget season....
"As revenues continue to rise well above our forecast, well above last
year, the apparent need to finally accede to the request of our citizens
to lower our tax rate to 5.15 percent and then to 5 percent is quite
obvious," Romney said....
But other Democrats and teachers' union representatives today said the
timing is still not right....
"This shouldn't be a knee-jerk reaction," said Rep. Martin Walsh
(D-South Boston) ... "If we put together a couple of years of growth,
then we could look at it."
The Massachusetts Teachers Association, through a statement, urged
lawmakers to increase education aid to local school districts and create
a new formula to distribute that money....
"The focus on these additional revenues coming in leads to a rosier
picture about the state of the economy than really is there," said
Cameron Huff, senior analyst at the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation
...
Romney said the revenue collections are also leading the state to post
its highest balance in its Stabilization Fund ... The reserve fund
currently has $1.728 billion and is projected to reach $2.349 billion by
the end of fiscal 2006 ...
Lawmakers are scheduled this year to consider a constitutional amendment
that would require 1 percent of all state tax revenues to go directly to
the rainy day account. The measure was approved in 2004 by lawmakers
meeting jointly in a Constitutional Convention 181-12. The amendment
must receive 101 votes this session to advance to the statewide ballot
in November.
Romney said today that while he is pleased the state is able to boost
its rainy day fund, he believes the state should return surplus money to
taxpayers, rather than storing it in a reserve account.
"Simply adding more and more money to the rainy day fund, when we have
not honored the vote of the taxpayers to lower their tax rate, would be
a wrong direction to take," Romney said.
State House News Service
Wednesday, February 1, 2006
Tax receipts jump again,
fueling calls for tax cuts, education spending
Year-to-date collections totaled $10.385 billion, an increase
of $877 million or 9.2 percent over last year ...
Romney said the state is on track to collect more revenue in
Fiscal Year 2006 than it ever has in history, following last year’s
record-breaking collections. He said revenues are far in excess of what is
necessary to support planned budgetary spending.
"Someone once said the law requires us all to pay taxes, but it doesn’t say
anything about leaving a tip," said Romney. "That’s certainly the case with our
state’s tax collections." ...
Romney called again for the Legislature to honor the wishes of the voters by
lowering the income tax to 5 percent....
Receipts in January were $80 million above the monthly benchmark that was
adjusted on January 17, 2006, the second upward revision.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Executive Department
News Release - February 1, 2006
Romney announces January revenues total $1.924
The Boston Globe was swamped with more than 13,000 calls
yesterday and approximately 200 customers canceled their subscriptions after
learning that the newspaper had mistakenly released subscribers’ names and
credit card numbers....
Attorney General Tom Reilly’s office said yesterday it would look into the
distribution blunder.
"We take these types of matters seriously ... and look forward to meeting with
Globe personnel on the issue," said spokeswoman Sarah Nathan....
In the meantime, the Globe said it was launching its own investigation into the
snafu and deciding what disciplinary action to take, if any, said spokesman Al
Larkin. Publisher Richard Gilman said it will offer customers credit monitoring
services designed to track unusual activity, and will provide free access to
credit reports for one year. Larkin said the Globe has no reports of any misuse
of customers’ confidential information.
But some customers and security experts yesterday said they were appalled at the
Globe’s response to the problem so far.
"The real question is who did they fire, are they firing anybody, because
somebody should be," said Andrew Jaquith, senior analyst in the security
solutions and services practice at the Yankee Group.
The Boston Herald
Thursday, February 2, 2006
World of trouble unfolds over Globe identity gaffe:
Irate subscribers have no trouble distributing blame
The newspapers said they provided the names and account
numbers of affected subscribers to major credit card companies, which in turn
were notifying the banks that issued the cards. Such notification can trigger
increased safeguards against fraud.
No incidents of fraudulent use of the financial information had yet been
reported, officials of the newspapers said.
In addition, the newspapers said they would offer affected subscribers a
credit-monitoring service to track and identify unusual financial activity and
notify the customers.
The newspapers will pay for the service for a year.
"We remain hopeful that this information will not be misused," the Globe's
publisher, Richard Gilman, said in a statement. "But we want our customers to
know that if any such thing does occur, we will provide them with means to
correct the problem." ...
Peter Katz, a partner in the law firm of Day, Berry & Howard LLP and a
specialist in privacy and data security, said, "On average, businesses haven't
quite followed through to taking serious steps to cut down on the loss of
information.
"Businesses have come to think they own this information," Katz said. "But the
bias has to be the other way, that it's not their property, they don't have any
right to it, and they have to be careful with it." ...
Bruce Spitzer, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bankers Association, said
affected subscribers need to be extra vigilant about unsolicited phone calls,
e-mails, and letters asking for additional personal and financial information.
He said identity thieves often employ such tactics. In addition, he said, these
subscribers need to monitor financial activity in their accounts very closely.
"Chances are there's nothing going to happen," Spitzer said. "But if you stay on
top of it, and report it quickly, you'll be in good shape."
The Boston Globe
Thursday, February 2, 2006
Hot lines deluged after T&G, Globe leak
Reilly looks to see if papers violated consumer laws
Now that times are flush again — or getting there, anyway —
lawmakers won’t exactly beat a path toward reform, especially if it’s proposed
by the GOP governor. But they simply can’t afford to ignore one idea tucked into
Gov. Mitt Romney’s fiscal 2007 budget — a call for state employees to contribute
more toward their health insurance.
A Boston Herald editorial
Thursday, February 2, 2006
Insurance at a premium
Attorney General Tom Reilly’s campaign for governor is in
crisis today after his newly anointed running mate, state Rep. Marie St. Fleur,
dropped out of the race amid embarrassing financial disclosures that threatened
to sink Reilly’s faltering candidacy....
State and federal records show St. Fleur has a $12,700 lien against her home for
unpaid federal taxes and owes $40,000 in federally backed college loans.
A Herald review of her household financial records found a laundry list of
embarrassing problems. Among them:
St. Fleur is facing non-renewal of her driver’s license because she failed to
pay her 2005 excise taxes in Boston.
Registry records show her husband, Jean B. Lauture, also is facing non-renewal
because he owes excises taxes from 2004 and 2005, as well as several unpaid
Boston parking tickets. Lauture has eight license suspensions for unpaid traffic
fines since 1988 and one revocation in 1998 for passing three bad checks,
records show.
Together, the couple drew a $12,700 lien against their Dorchester home because
of tax debts from 1999 and 2003, according to federal records. The couple has
had three unpaid tax debts in the past four years, including bills from the city
of Boston totaling more than $7,100. Those debts have since been paid.
St. Fleur also has a current debt of more than $5,200 from December on her
campaign finance account and has faced a previous enforcement action for
improperly using $5,000 of her campaign finance money to pay for a Honda wagon
in 2001, state records show.
The Boston Herald
Thursday, February 2, 2006
St. Fleur’s drop out drops bomb on Reilly
Chip Ford's CLT Commentary
It's another one of those days in Massachusetts were
there's so much news that it's hard to keep up with. Let's get
started and do what we can with it.
▪ State revenue
continues to pour in, faster than ever before: "the state is on
track to collect more revenue in Fiscal Year 2006 than it ever has in
history, following last year’s record-breaking collections," according
to the Romney administration's news release.
Still, tax-and-spenders like most Democrats in the
Legislature, and of course the Massachusetts Teachers Association and
the so-called
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, say no, the state can't afford
it. Still, they resist the voters' mandate of 2000 to roll back
the 1989 "temporary" income tax to 5 percent.
The "rainy day" stabilization fund is due to be
fatter than it's ever been, but still the mantra is sounded: "The
state still can't afford to listen to the voters who elected them!"
And even $2.3 Billion isn't enough: the Legislature is seeking a
constitutional amendment that will mandate that one percent of all state
revenue be added to it every year, automatically -- just as their pay
raises arrive every two years.
Again I ask: If not now -- with historic
amounts of revenue pouring into state coffers -- then when?!?
▪ The Boston
Globe/Telegram & Gazette is still apologizing for the "inconvenience"
they caused when they made public so many of their subscribers' names,
addresses and credit card numbers. Yesterday their customer
"hotline" melted down in response to the news that
subscribers' financial
security had been compromised.
Yesterday The Boston Globe also set up a
website form so subscribers could check and discover if they were
unsuspecting victims of its incredible breach of security.
Subscriber Lookup
Yes, we have located your name on the list of impacted accounts. We
have tried to recover as much of the data as possible from our
retailers and branches, but we recommend that you monitor your bills
and report any unauthorized transactions to your bank or credit card
company immediately. As a further precaution, we also recommend that
you place a fraud alert on your credit file. If you have further
questions, please contact The Globe hotline at 1-888-665-2644.
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that this incident may
cause.
The Boston Globe just gave out names, addresses and credit card
numbers (now down to 202,000 they think, from their original estimate of
240,000) but feels that it's only an "inconvenience" that we now must
"monitor your bills and report any unauthorized transactions to your
bank or credit card company immediately." Oh yes, today they "sincerely
apologize for the inconvenience" -- as opposed to what yesterday, an insincere apology?
Having your credit card number and address disclosed to the world,
subject to identity theft and fraud is not an "inconvenience"!
That's as if the White Star Line had announced, "Sorry
the unsinkable Titanic hit an iceberg and sank; We sincerely apologize
for the inconvenience that this incident may cause."
For more information see:
Credit Card Identity Theft Alert!
(Feb. 1)
▪ State Rep. Marie
St. Fleur (D-Boston), vice-chairwoman of the House Ways and Means
Committee, flared up and burnt out within a mere 24-hours as a Democrat
candidate for Lieutenant Governor and AG Tom Reilly's running-mate.
She joins a long list of Massachusetts Democrat legislators who don't
feel the need to pay their taxes or other debts like mere working stiffs. They usually
represent the most zealous tax-and-spenders -- giving an even more
radical definition to spending OPM, Other People's Money. Imagine,
she is the second-ranking member of the most powerful committee in the
House, the Ways and Means Committee through which passes all spending
and tax bills before -- if approved by her committee -- they go on to the rest of the
Legislature.
Which brings us full circle, back to today's Item
One: historic revenues again pouring in, the state raking in more
taxes than any time in history, the "rainy day" fund growing to its
fattest level ever but still not enough. Does anyone want to guess
which way Rep. St. Fleur and other tax dodgers and scofflaws like state
Sen. Dianne Wilkerson (D-Boston, convicted of federal tax evasion) and
other pols in the Legislature's growing "Deadbeat Democrats Caucus" will
vote on our tax rollback?
|
 |
|
Chip Ford |
State House News Service
Wednesday, February 1, 2006
Tax receipts jump again,
fueling calls for tax cuts, education spending
By Amy Lambiaso
State revenue collections in January jumped 14.1 percent over last
January, Gov. Mitt Romney announced on Wednesday, renewing his call for
an income tax cut and his opposition to a proposed tax on certain
employers that don't offer health insurance.
Romney, who called a press conference to announce the news, said the
state is on track to collect $540 million more than what budget writers
anticipated when they finalized the state budget last summer.
Tax collections totaled $1.924 billion for January, with the largest
growth in income taxes, corporate and business taxes and withholdings,
the state reported. Seven months into the fiscal year, collections are
up by 9.2 percent, a trend that has spending and tax cut proponents
excited about the upcoming budget season.
The governor, who has proposed a 5.3 percent spending increase for next
year, said the revenue picture should lead to talk about tax cuts, not
tax increases, which the House has included in its bill designed to
bring health insurance within three years to 95 percent of those
residents who currently do not have it.
House and Senate leaders have been negotiating the final terms of that
health care bill since November, and hope to strike an accord by
mid-February. Negotiators say revenues are a major issue in the talks.
"As revenues continue to rise well above our forecast, well above last
year, the apparent need to finally accede to the request of our citizens
to lower our tax rate to 5.15 percent and then to 5 percent is quite
obvious," Romney said. "The ability for us to be able to support a
health care plan that gets insurance for all of our citizens is real. We
don't need new tax revenues."
Recognizing Democrats have been cool to reducing the income tax rate to
5 percent in one year - as voters approved in 2002 - Romney is now
proposing to roll back the rate in two phases, beginning with 5.15
percent. Following the governor's State of the State address earlier
this month, neither House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi nor Senate President
Robert Travaglini outright rejected the new rollback plan
But other Democrats and teachers' union representatives today said the
timing is still not right.
"This shouldn't be a knee-jerk reaction," said Rep. Martin Walsh
(D-South Boston), who noted that lawmakers included in a 2002 tax
increase package automatic triggers that will eventually reduce the
income tax rate. "If we put together a couple of years of growth, then
we could look at it."
The Massachusetts Teachers Association, through a statement, urged
lawmakers to increase education aid to local school districts and create
a new formula to distribute that money. According to the union, state
education spending, known as Chapter 70, is more than $400 million less
than fiscal 2002 levels, when adjusted for inflation, and public higher
education spending is $342 million less than fiscal 2001, also adjusted
for inflation.
"It is good news that our economy and revenues are on the rebound," said
MTA President Catherine A. Boudreau. "Massachusetts students, who
suffered losses when times were tough, should benefit from this
turnaround. The best way to ensure the long-term health and stability of
our economy is to restore funding to our public schools and public
higher education system."
Tax analysts say January is often a month with higher tax collections,
due mainly to the influx of estimated tax payments on capital gains and
other income outside of wages and salaries.
"The focus on these additional revenues coming in leads to a rosier
picture about the state of the economy than really is there," said
Cameron Huff, senior analyst at the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation,
noting the state's slow employment growth. "As long as we're seeing that
kind of moping along, we've got concern."
Lawmakers also point to the slow job growth in Massachusetts, with the
state's unemployment rate remaining unchanged from the month before at
4.9 percent in December, and up from 4.7 percent from December 2004.
"We hear from some employers that they're having a harder time finding
people who meet the qualifications they're looking for," Romney said
today, noting particular difficulty in the engineering, nursing, and
construction fields. "The increase in corporate profits would suggest
that there is the opportunity for corporations to hire more people.
Hopefully some of those that are doing better financially will decide to
expand and use their newfound success to hire more people."
Romney said the revenue collections are also leading the state to post
its highest balance in its Stabilization Fund, which lawmakers and the
administration had raided during the economic downturn. The reserve fund
currently has $1.728 billion and is projected to reach $2.349 billion by
the end of fiscal 2006, according to the administration.
Lawmakers are scheduled this year to consider a constitutional amendment
that would require 1 percent of all state tax revenues to go directly to
the rainy day account. The measure was approved in 2004 by lawmakers
meeting jointly in a Constitutional Convention 181-12. The amendment
must receive 101 votes this session to advance to the statewide ballot
in November.
Romney said today that while he is pleased the state is able to boost
its rainy day fund, he believes the state should return surplus money to
taxpayers, rather than storing it in a reserve account.
"Simply adding more and more money to the rainy day fund, when we have
not honored the vote of the taxpayers to lower their tax rate, would be
a wrong direction to take," Romney said.
Return to top
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Executive Department
News Release - February 1, 2006
Romney announces January revenues total $1.924
Governor Mitt Romney today joined Revenue Commissioner Alan LeBovidge to
announce that revenue collections for January totaled $1.924 billion, an
increase of $238 million or 14.1 percent more than last January.
Year-to-date collections totaled $10.385 billion, an increase of $877
million or 9.2 percent over last year.
Romney said the state is on track to collect more revenue in Fiscal Year
2006 than it ever has in history, following last year’s record-breaking
collections. He said revenues are far in excess of what is necessary to
support planned budgetary spending.
"Someone once said the law requires us all to pay taxes, but it doesn’t
say anything about leaving a tip," said Romney. "That’s certainly the
case with our state’s tax collections."
Romney called again for the Legislature to honor the wishes of the
voters by lowering the income tax to 5 percent. In his proposed budget
for the coming fiscal 2007 year, the Governor proposed lowering the
income tax in two stages – from 5.3 percent to 5.15 percent the first
year, then to 5 percent in the second year.
Receipts in January were $80 million above the monthly benchmark that
was adjusted on January 17, 2006, the second upward revision.
Year-to-date collections are now tracking $540 million above the
year-to-date benchmark corresponding to the original fiscal 2006
estimate of $17.448 billion.
"January’s collections were carried by very strong estimated payments on
personal income taxes and on strong corporate and business payments,"
LeBovidge said. "In recent years, refunds have outpaced collections of
corporate taxes in January, but not this year."
Income tax collections for January totaled $1.363 billion, an increase
of $188 million or 16.0 percent over last January. Withholding tax
collections totaled $811 million, an increase of $46 million or 6.0
percent. Sales and use tax collections were $387 million, up $11 million
or 3.0 percent from last January. Corporate and business tax collections
were $28 million, a rise of $27 million from last January.
Year-to-date income tax collections totaled $6.017 billion, an increase
of $433 million over last year. Income tax withholding for the first
seven months of fiscal 2006 totaled $4.787 billion, up $246 million or
5.4 percent. Total sales and use tax collections were $2.412 billion, an
increase $90 million or 3.9 percent. Year-to-date corporate and business
tax collections were $932 million, an increase of $364 million or 64.1
percent.
Return to top
The Boston Herald
Thursday, February 2, 2006
World of trouble unfolds over Globe identity gaffe:
Irate subscribers have no trouble distributing blame
By Jesse Noyes
The Boston Globe was swamped with more than 13,000 calls yesterday and
approximately 200 customers canceled their subscriptions after learning
that the newspaper had mistakenly released subscribers’ names and credit
card numbers.
Some customers who called a hotline complained of being put on hold for
as long as 15 minutes to find out if they were on a list of as many as
202,000 subscribers whose personal information may have been sent out
with the Sunday Worcester Telegram & Gazette, the Globe’s sister paper.
But another backlash may come from local and federal officials.
Attorney General Tom Reilly’s office said yesterday it would look into
the distribution blunder.
"We take these types of matters seriously ... and look forward to
meeting with Globe personnel on the issue," said spokeswoman Sarah
Nathan.
The Globe said it hadn’t been contacted by Reilly’s office but would
cooperate with any investigations.
Credit and debit card information belonging to thousands of Globe
subscribers was mistakenly sent out with bundles of T&G when internal
reports were recycled as routing slips or "toppers" put on top of the
bundles.
The T&G, which like the Globe is owned by The New York Times Co., also
said as many as 1,100 customers’ personal check information might have
been exposed. The Globe originally estimated as many as 240,000
customers’ data but was able to lower the number to 202,000 yesterday.
The error comes amid a spate of recent security breakdowns at major
companies, such as Ameriprise Financial, Bank of America and ChoicePoint
Inc., leading authorities including the Federal Trade Commission to
clamp down on data breaches, said Jaikumar Vijayan a senior editor for
tech magazine ComputerWorld.
The Globe has "more to fear from those sort of agencies then from
customers" Vijayan said. "Legal issues are something that they need to
be looking out for."
In the meantime, the Globe said it was launching its own investigation
into the snafu and deciding what disciplinary action to take, if any,
said spokesman Al Larkin. Publisher Richard Gilman said it will offer
customers credit monitoring services designed to track unusual activity,
and will provide free access to credit reports for one year. Larkin said
the Globe has no reports of any misuse of customers’ confidential
information.
But some customers and security experts yesterday said they were
appalled at the Globe’s response to the problem so far.
"The real question is who did they fire, are they firing anybody,
because somebody should be," said Andrew Jaquith, senior analyst in the
security solutions and services practice at the Yankee Group.
Return to top
The Boston Globe
Thursday, February 2, 2006
Hot lines deluged after T&G, Globe leak
Reilly looks to see if papers violated consumer laws
By Robert Gavin, Globe Staff
Thousands of concerned and often angry Boston Globe and Worcester
Telegram & Gazette subscribers flooded a special hot line yesterday,
following the disclosure that their credit and bank card numbers may
have been inadvertently distributed with the Sunday T&G.
Meanwhile, the office of Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly is reviewing
whether the newspapers, in releasing the personal data, violated the
state's consumer protection law, which prohibits unfair or deceptive
practices.
"We take these matters involving the release of personal information
seriously," said Sarah Nathan, a Reilly spokeswoman. "We are looking
into it and look forward to meeting with Globe personnel on the issues."
Alfred S. Larkin Jr., spokesman for the Globe, said, "We have not heard
from the attorney general's office, but if we are contacted, we will
cooperate fully with any inquiry."
Subscribers yesterday deluged and initially overwhelmed the call center,
with many customers complaining of busy signals and long hold times. By
noon yesterday, customer service representatives had taken more than
4,200 calls, but had missed about 1,600 subscribers because of the
backup.
Throughout the day, the newspapers added more than 200 customer service
representatives to handle calls and set up a website on which
subscribers could determine whether their names and financial
information may have been released. The site is www.bostonglobe.com/cclookup.
By 5 p.m., the center had taken about 13,000 calls, while cutting hold
time to less than two minutes. The hotline number is 888-665-2644.
The newspapers said they provided the names and account numbers of
affected subscribers to major credit card companies, which in turn were
notifying the banks that issued the cards. Such notification can trigger
increased safeguards against fraud.
No incidents of fraudulent use of the financial information had yet been
reported, officials of the newspapers said.
In addition, the newspapers said they would offer affected subscribers a
credit-monitoring service to track and identify unusual financial
activity and notify the customers.
The newspapers will pay for the service for a year.
"We remain hopeful that this information will not be misused," the
Globe's publisher, Richard Gilman, said in a statement. "But we want our
customers to know that if any such thing does occur, we will provide
them with means to correct the problem."
On Tuesday, the Globe and the T&G disclosed that confidential
information from as many as 240,000 subscribers -- including names,
credit and bank card numbers, and expiration dates for credit cards --
was mistakenly printed out.
The paper was then recycled and used to wrap bundles of the Sunday T&G.
The Globe and the T&G are owned by The New York Times Co. and share a
computer system.
The papers yesterday said they now believe the maximum number of
subscribers who could be affected is 202,000. But they remain uncertain
of the precise number.
While the circumstances that led to the security breach were unusual,
several privacy specialists said yesterday that the underlying causes,
such as the lack of effective policies, are not. In general, said Jeff
Meldman, a professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management, businesses
have improved their policies and practices only after embarrassing
security breaches.
"Historically, there's been a long lag between concerns of coming
problems and actually doing something about it," Meldman said. "It's
always a reaction."
Peter Katz, a partner in the law firm of Day, Berry & Howard LLP and a
specialist in privacy and data security, said, "On average, businesses
haven't quite followed through to taking serious steps to cut down on
the loss of information.
"Businesses have come to think they own this information," Katz said.
"But the bias has to be the other way, that it's not their property,
they don't have any right to it, and they have to be careful with it."
Globe and T&G officials said they have put into place new practices to
prevent future releases of personal information, such as adding a
safeguard to the computer system so only the last four numbers of credit
and debit cards can be printed. In addition, they said, they have
initiated a review of procedures for handling confidential information,
to ensure proper safeguards are in place.
Privacy specialists praised the Globe and T&G for their response to the
security breach, including the quick disclosure and providing credit
card companies with the released data.
"Other companies have taken their time, so we definitely applaud the
Globe," said Eric Bourassa, consumer advocate for the Massachusetts
Public Interest Research Group.
Many subscribers, however, were upset.
In angry e-mails and phone calls, they complained that the Globe and T&G
failed to protect their personal data and questioned how sensitive
financial information could have been so easily accessed, printed, and
released.
About 200 of the Globe's 450,000 home delivery customers canceled
subscriptions yesterday, the newspaper said.
Jean Terranova of Melrose, a personal chef who subscribed to the Globe
for six years, learned she was one of the customers affected. She said
she was considering canceling her subscription, but at the very least
would stop paying by credit card.
"This was all very shocking," she said. "This is a big, big deal and it
hasn't been adequately explained how this happened. I certainly don't
trust the Globe with my credit card information."
Bruce Spitzer, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bankers Association, said
affected subscribers need to be extra vigilant about unsolicited phone
calls, e-mails, and letters asking for additional personal and financial
information. He said identity thieves often employ such tactics. In
addition, he said, these subscribers need to monitor financial activity
in their accounts very closely.
"Chances are there's nothing going to happen," Spitzer said. "But if you
stay on top of it, and report it quickly, you'll be in good shape."
How to get help
To find out if your name and financial information may have been
released, go to www.bostonglobe.com/cclookup. Also, customer service
representatives are available to answer questions at this hot line
number: 888-665-2644.
Return to top
The Boston Herald
Thursday, February 2, 2006
A Boston Herald editorial
Insurance at a premium
Now that times are flush again — or getting there, anyway — lawmakers
won’t exactly beat a path toward reform, especially if it’s proposed by
the GOP governor. But they simply can’t afford to ignore one idea tucked
into Gov. Mitt Romney’s fiscal 2007 budget — a call for state employees
to contribute more toward their health insurance.
The state could save $85 million in the first year by requiring active
state employees to pay 25 percent of their premiums — up from 15
percent. That’s an average increase of $50 a month for an individual and
$117 a month for a family plan. No small change — but neither are the
annual premium increases the state coughs up every year for tens of
thousands of employees it covers. Premiums jumped by more than 11
percent last year, the second-highest increase of any state. And it’s on
a par with what private sector employers require of their workers.
They’ve tried it before. At the height of the fiscal crisis, lawmakers
agreed to a tiered system that increased premiums and co-payments for
some state workers. And funny, we don’t remember a revolt — just some
carefully applied pressure from politically-connected union leaders. So
they quietly allowed the new rates to expire.
Contrary to popular belief, there is no bottomless well of taxpayer
dollars to subsidize state worker health premiums. Yes, the majority
work hard and deserve good benefits. But if we’ve learned anything in
the last few years, it’s that the state must run a lean operation if it
expects to meet its obligations to all citizens — not just those who
make their living at taxpayer expense.
Return to top
The Boston Herald
Thursday, February 2, 2006
St. Fleur’s drop out drops bomb on Reilly
By Casey Ross and Kimberly Atkins
Attorney General Tom Reilly’s campaign for governor is in crisis today
after his newly anointed running mate, state Rep. Marie St. Fleur,
dropped out of the race amid embarrassing financial disclosures that
threatened to sink Reilly’s faltering candidacy.
Reilly, who raised St. Fleur’s arm to welcome her to the ticket Tuesday,
did not appear with her last night as the Dorchester lawmaker faced
reporters at Reilly’s campaign headquarters to terminate her day-old
campaign for lieutenant governor.
"I will keep working to bring change to Massachusetts but will do so
without a formal running mate," Reilly said in a short written statement
handed out by his aides. "As I said before, there are many qualified
candidates for lieutenant governor and I will be happy to serve with any
one of them."
Reilly’s comments came as he faced harsh criticism for tapping St.
Fleur, 43, to be his running mate without scrutinizing her long and
easily accessible history of financial problems. State and federal
records show St. Fleur has a $12,700 lien against her home for unpaid
federal taxes and owes $40,000 in federally backed college loans.
A Herald review of her household financial records found a laundry list
of embarrassing problems. Among them:
St. Fleur is facing non-renewal of her driver’s license because she
failed to pay her 2005 excise taxes in Boston.
Registry records show her husband, Jean B. Lauture, also is facing
non-renewal because he owes excises taxes from 2004 and 2005, as well as
several unpaid Boston parking tickets. Lauture has eight license
suspensions for unpaid traffic fines since 1988 and one revocation in
1998 for passing three bad checks, records show.
Together, the couple drew a $12,700 lien against their Dorchester home
because of tax debts from 1999 and 2003, according to federal records.
The couple has had three unpaid tax debts in the past four years,
including bills from the city of Boston totaling more than $7,100. Those
debts have since been paid.
St. Fleur also has a current debt of more than $5,200 from December on
her campaign finance account and has faced a previous enforcement action
for improperly using $5,000 of her campaign finance money to pay for a
Honda wagon in 2001, state records show.
During a statement to announce the termination of her brief candidacy
last night, St. Fleur, who joined the state Legislature in 1999, said
yesterday was "one of the most difficult days of my life."
"I am withdrawing from the race for lieutenant governor," she said. "As
I do so, I ask that the voices, dreams and hopes of all the individuals
that I had hoped to bring to this race remain a central part of the
Democratic message."
St. Fleur, who had jubilantly vowed to be a voice for working-class
people, did not take questions from reporters, saying she would address
inquiries about her finances after taking a few weeks to sort out the
problems with her family.
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