CLT UPDATE
Friday, January 11, 2008
Gov. Patrick to end-run Legislature
on Illegals
Gov. Deval Patrick is seeking to do an end-run around
Beacon Hill lawmakers to offer in-state college tuition breaks to
illegal immigrants, setting up a potential clash with the Legislature,
which shot down a similar plan in 2006.
Patrick, who repeatedly said during his gubernatorial campaign that he
backed tuition discounts for illegals, put his money where his mouth is
yesterday, telling reporters he’s looking into ways to get it done, with
or without lawmakers’ support.
“We have had some legal research done to see whether it’s possible to
address that question without legislation,” Patrick said during remarks
at the Omni Parker House. “The answer to that is by no means clear.” ...
His words prompted a swift and harsh response from Republican lawmakers.
“To do this explicitly against what the Legislature has wanted to do
certainly smacks of an end run,” House Minority Leader Rep. Bradley H.
Jones said, accusing Patrick of running the state “like a kingdom or a
monarchy.”
“If he thinks he can do it legally, I have no doubt he will do it. But
it’s wrong for the commonwealth. It sends the wrong message,” Jones
(R-North Reading) said.
State Sen. Robert L. Hedlund (R-Weymouth) vowed to go to war with
Patrick should the governor pursue the tuition breaks without
legislative backing.
“Even if he finds a way to do that, I’m sure there will be a legislative
response,” Hedlund said. “We’ll find a way to put that out for debate
and overturn his action. That much I can assure you.”
The Boston Herald
Friday, January 11, 2008
Deval resurrects tuition plan
Wants to offer in-state tuition to illegals,
bypassing legislators
Gov. Deval Patrick said today he’s looking into whether he
can skirt the Legislature by unilaterally allowing illegal immigrants to pay
in-state tuition at state colleges.
Patrick’s revelation touched off strong reaction on Beacon Hill, where House
lawmakers two years ago defied Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and defeated a bill that
would let those students pay the same rate as their high school classmates.
"We have had some legal research done to see whether it’s possible to address
that question without legislation," the Democratic governor told an audience of
education and business leaders. "The answer to that is by no means clear." ...
"I’m amazed that he wants to be the sole person responsible for implementation
of the wrong policy for Massachusetts," said House Minority Leader Bradley
Jones, R-North Reading. "The public will be rightly incensed."
Associated Press
Friday, January 11, 2008
Patrick eyes new route to tuition break
for illegal immigrants
Governor Deval Patrick said yesterday he is studying whether
he can bypass the Legislature to clear the way for illegal immigrants to pay
in-state tuition at state colleges and universities, triggering criticism from
Beacon Hill Republicans on an explosive issue that has reverberated
nationally....
Paying in-state tuition would save illegal immigrant students thousands of
dollars. At the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, out-of-state tuition is
close to $10,000 a year, compared with about $1,700 a year for residents.
Out-of-state tuition runs as high as $8,430 a year at a community college
compared to about $700 a year for residents....
After the breakfast, Patrick emphasized that he supports in-state tuition for
illegal immigrant students but has not decided how to proceed....
"It's bad enough to encourage and reward illegal activity while sticking it to
legal immigrants and other taxpayers who obey the law, Robert Willington,
executive director of the state Republican Party, said in a statement.
State Representative Bradley H. Jones, Republican of North Reading, said he
would consider filing legislation to bar illegal immigrants from paying in-state
tuition if the governor decided to circumvent the Legislature.
"It's the wrong policy direction to go in," he said.
In 2005, the state Senate passed a measure that would have granted in-state
tuition to illegal immigrants who have lived here for at least three years,
earned a high school diploma or the equivalent, and intended to seek legal
permanent residency. But the measure failed in the House the next year and faced
a certain veto by then-Governor Mitt Romney, who has since made illegal
immigration a key issue in his presidential campaign.
But Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said
the state could benefit by educating immigrants and integrating them into the
workforce.
In 2006, his organization estimated that the state's public colleges would gain
$2.5 million a year in new revenues in tuition and fees by 2009 by allowing
illegal immigrant students to pay in-state rates. He estimated that illegal
immigrant enrollment would grow from nearly 100 students in 2006 to 600 students
in 2009, a small portion of the 160,000 public college students in the state.
"It's in the interest both economically and fiscally for the Commonwealth to
allow these students to attend public colleges at [in-state] rates," Widmer
said. "Economically we're losing many of these students. They are just the kind
that we want to educate and who will stay in Massachusetts."
The Boston Globe
Friday, January 11, 2008
Patrick mulls new tack on immigrant tuition
May try to bypass wary Legislature
Governor Patrick stood before state leaders and the press
yesterday and joked as he began outlining his education reorganization plan: "I
can see some of you trying your best not to roll your eyes," he said. Patrick
knows that moving boxes around on a flow chart won't improve education. The
reorganization plan, including the new Cabinet-level secretariat, is only useful
to the extent that it helps Patrick achieve his ambitious goals for the next
chapter of education reform. And that requires a difficult political trick:
making the taxpayers care about other people's children.
A Boston Globe editorial
Friday, January 11, 2008
Patrick's education overhaul
Gov. Deval Patrick can’t afford to waste a drop of political
capital, not when his reservoir is as shallow as it is.
It is a total mystery, then, why the governor would embark on a wildly unpopular
crusade to offer the discounted in-state tuition rate at public colleges and
universities to students who are not legal residents of Massachusetts.
A Boston Herald editorial
Friday, January 11, 2008
Tuition crusade a waste of effort
As discussion topics go, municipal finance doesn't light up
the room. But anyone who has called 911, driven on a town road, enrolled a child
in school, or paid a property tax bill can't afford to ignore the growing fiscal
crisis faced by local communities.
Mayors, selectmen, and other municipal officials speak of little else. Today,
they will have the ear of Governor Patrick at the opening of the annual meeting
of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. Despite distinctions of degree,
nearly every city and town in the Commonwealth is struggling to provide reliable
basic services to residents at a time when the costs of government outstrip the
ability to raise revenues....
Beacon Hill needs to listen. This isn't mere sniveling on the part of town
criers.
A Boston Globe editorial
Friday, January 11, 2008
A crisis in cities and towns
As the pace of economic growth gets more and more attention
in the news, members of the state Senate on Thursday said the coming state
budget season will be bruising and urged their colleagues to be open to the idea
of new revenues.
Sens. Mark Montigny and Stephen Brewer said the state needs to see tax revenue
growth of more than 5 percent just to maintain existing spending.
State House News Service
Thursday, January 10, 2008
State Capitol Briefs
Senators cite recession, budget challenge
Chip Ford's CLT Commentary
Arrogance, ignorance, and political naiveté can
easily describe Gov. Deval Patrick's announcement yesterday, that he
plans to end-run the state Legislature and a vast majority of
Massachusetts citizens with some sort of "executive order" if he can
figure out a way to pull it off.
Naturally, the so-called
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation is again backing this, even if it
means usurpation of government powers, the violation of federal and
state immigration law. MTF is a shameless shill for fat-cat Boston
big-business power-brokers looking for cheap labor. This, if
nothing else, identifies MTF, its interests, goals, and priorities like
nothing else has. Representing "taxpayers"? Nobody should
and can be fooled any more by what it honestly represents.
In 2006 -- less than two years ago -- the issue of
offspring of illegal immigrants in Massachusetts receiving discounted
(read: taxpayer-funded) tuition in state colleges came to a head; the
bill was defeated in the House by a vote of 96-57. So many
citizens mobilized against this costly and indefensible proposal
that legislators got the message, did the right thing at least in the
House. CLT
opposed the bill and celebrated its defeat.
This latest addition to Gov. Patrick's wish-list is
going nowhere, we expect at this time, like so many of his proposed
dream-on programs. Tom Finneran, former House Speaker and current
WRKO talk-show host, agreed: You don't try to end-run the state
Legislature and win.
Boston Globe business columnist, Steve Bailey, and
regular guest on Finneran's talk-show also agreed. There's no way
an illegal should be put on the top of the list, get a taxpayer-funded
subsidized education, when a Massachusetts income taxpaying resident of
New Hampshire -- or a legal actual citizen of any other state in the
United States of America -- cannot.
While legislators are discussing the potential need
for higher "revenues" (taxes) from us in the days ahead, and a Boston
Globe editorial also today is bemoaning lack of state aid to cities and
towns -- on the other side of its schizophrenic editorial face.
Gov. Patrick is trying to pile onto our burden, by legitimizing illegal
-- unlawful -- immigration and immigrants, and make taxpayers support
them.
As someone mentioned on the radio this morning, this
will certainly help define Barack Obama's rope-a-dope define-no-policy
campaign, which is tracking the Deval Patrick campaign for governor of
Massachusetts. "Yes We Can!" is its mindless mantra now too.
"Yes We Can!" what? Obama's campaign moon-bats are now chanting it
at rallies.
Gov. Patrick has endorsed Barack Obama for president
of the United States, is helping raise funds for him. We in
Massachusetts got political novice Deval Patrick for governor in the
last election and must live with him for the next three or so years.
Will the USA get another impractical and clueless dreamer in Patrick's
rope-a-dope mold as president of our nation?
CLT's
Position on Illegal Immigration
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Chip Ford |
The Boston Herald
Friday, January 11, 2008
Deval resurrects tuition plan
Wants to offer in-state tuition to illegals,
bypassing legislators
By Dave Wedge
Gov. Deval Patrick is seeking to do an end-run around Beacon Hill
lawmakers to offer in-state college tuition breaks to illegal
immigrants, setting up a potential clash with the Legislature, which
shot down a similar plan in 2006.
Patrick, who repeatedly said during his gubernatorial campaign that he
backed tuition discounts for illegals, put his money where his mouth is
yesterday, telling reporters he’s looking into ways to get it done, with
or without lawmakers’ support.
“We have had some legal research done to see whether it’s possible to
address that question without legislation,” Patrick said during remarks
at the Omni Parker House. “The answer to that is by no means clear.”
Patrick cited 10 other states that provide in-state tuition rates to
illegal immigrants.
“We don’t tell immigrant children . . . that they can’t go to public
colleges and universities,” Patrick told business and education leaders
during the Mass Inc. breakfast. “We say they can come, we just say they
have to pay a different rate than the kid who sat across the aisle from
them at the local high school. That to me doesn’t seem right.”
His words prompted a swift and harsh response from Republican lawmakers.
“To do this explicitly against what the Legislature has wanted to do
certainly smacks of an end run,” House Minority Leader Rep. Bradley H.
Jones said, accusing Patrick of running the state “like a kingdom or a
monarchy.”
“If he thinks he can do it legally, I have no doubt he will do it. But
it’s wrong for the commonwealth. It sends the wrong message,” Jones
(R-North Reading) said.
State Sen. Robert L. Hedlund (R-Weymouth) vowed to go to war with
Patrick should the governor pursue the tuition breaks without
legislative backing.
“Even if he finds a way to do that, I’m sure there will be a legislative
response,” Hedlund said. “We’ll find a way to put that out for debate
and overturn his action. That much I can assure you.”
Patrick spokesman Kyle Sullivan downplayed the flap, saying: “This is a
complicated legal question and we are looking at both legislative and
regulatory options.”
Under current law, illegal immigrants can attend state college but pay
the same rate as out-of-state residents, which can be as much as three
times higher. Estimates on the cost of the tuition cuts have varied with
some showing the state losing money but others predicting a budgetary
boost from fees paid by an expected increase in illegals attending state
schools.
Associated Press
Friday, January 11, 2008
Patrick eyes new route to tuition break
for illegal immigrants
By Ken Maguire
Gov. Deval Patrick said today he’s looking into whether he can skirt the
Legislature by unilaterally allowing illegal immigrants to pay in-state
tuition at state colleges.
Patrick’s revelation touched off strong reaction on Beacon Hill, where
House lawmakers two years ago defied Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and
defeated a bill that would let those students pay the same rate as their
high school classmates.
"We have had some legal research done to see whether it’s possible to
address that question without legislation," the Democratic governor told
an audience of education and business leaders. "The answer to that is by
no means clear."
Also Thursday, Patrick unveiled details of his bill to create a
cabinet-level education secretary who would oversee what he expects to
be widespread reform. But he warned those reforms — including
lengthening the school day and providing two years of free community
college education — "will take us a decade to implement."
Patrick wants Massachusetts to join 10 states — California, Illinois,
Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and
Washington — that offer some illegal immigrant students in-state tuition
rates.
"We don’t tell immigrant children, I think the term is undocumented
immigrant children, that they can’t go to public colleges and
universities," Patrick said. "We say they can come, we just say they
have to pay a different rate than the kid who sat across the aisle from
them at the local high school. That to me doesn’t seem right. But I
don’t have the answer yet on how to fix this. I want to fix this."
Bunker Hill Community College, for example, charges out-of-state
students $318 per credit, compared with $112 per credit for legal
Massachusetts residents.
Opposition to the tuition break is rooted in the larger ideological
issue of how to address illegal immigration. Opponents say the state
shouldn’t be making it easier for undocumented students, who could take
higher paying jobs from legal residents.
"I’m amazed that he wants to be the sole person responsible for
implementation of the wrong policy for Massachusetts," said House
Minority Leader Bradley Jones, R-North Reading. "The public will be
rightly incensed."
Jones said he hasn’t researched whether the governor can grant the
tuition breaks.
"We provide the free public education K-through-12 for these students,"
he said. "We’ve already done quite a bit for these students. By doing
this, we would add incentives for people to come here. Illegal
immigrants do pretty well finding out where the best places for them to
go are."
One estimate says it would cost Massachusetts about $15 million to
provide the tuition cut. But the governor’s office highlighted a
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation report from 2006 that said it would
generate $2.5 million in revenue because up to 600 new students might
enroll.
In January 2006, the House voted 57-96 to defeat a bill to allow the
tuition breaks, despite DiMasi’s support of the measure.
DiMasi spokesman Dave Guarino said the speaker was awaiting the results
of Patrick’s review, and wouldn’t comment further. Dave Falcone, a
spokesman for Senate President Therese Murray, who has supported the
tuition breaks in the past, said there "hasn’t been any discussion
between the three leaders about whether or not this is the way to go."
Ali Noorani, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and
Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said he has lobbied Patrick, DiMasi and
Murray to find a "permanent solution to this loophole."
"As long as kids are able to get a college education, how we get there
is how leadership takes us there," he said.
Meanwhile, Patrick said an education secretary with broad authority over
various policy-making boards would help him carry out reforms in coming
years. The bill was filed under "Article 87" of the constitution,
meaning it is unamendable. It becomes law unless lawmakers reject it
within 60 days.
The bill would expand the number of seats on the panels and remove some
members, allowing Patrick to gain greater control of the boards by
adding supporters to advance his agenda.
In a news release, DiMasi backed the plan, saying it was a cooperative
effort with legislative leaders. The Senate chairman of the education
committee, Leominster Democrat Robert Antonioni, called it a "bold
step."
Paul Reville, appointed by Patrick in August as chairman of the Board of
Education, endorsed the plan, despite having opposed prior efforts,
including by Romney, a Republican.
"There’s a better balance of power here between the executive branch,
the existing boards, the Legislature, in terms of crafting education
policy," he said. "It very much depends who you put in the position of
the secretary, and how that person looks to more forward."
Patrick’s top education adviser, Dana Mohler-Faria, deflected questions
whether that person would be him.
"It’s not a discussion that I’ve had with anybody," said Mohler-Faria,
who as president of Bridgewater State College has volunteered over the
past year to help Patrick shape his education goals.
The Boston Globe
Friday, January 11, 2008
Patrick mulls new tack on immigrant tuition
May try to bypass wary Legislature
By Matt Viser and Maria Sacchetti
Governor Deval Patrick said yesterday he is studying whether he can
bypass the Legislature to clear the way for illegal immigrants to pay
in-state tuition at state colleges and universities, triggering
criticism from Beacon Hill Republicans on an explosive issue that has
reverberated nationally.
Speaking before a group of business and civic leaders, Patrick said his
legal team is weighing whether the state could grant the lower rate by
passing a regulation, which would require approval by the 11-member
Board of Higher Education. Patrick's comments, in response to a question
from an audience member, came two years after an in-state tuition bill
failed in the Legislature, and amid a debate over illegal immigration in
the presidential race.
Paying in-state tuition would save illegal immigrant students thousands
of dollars. At the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, out-of-state
tuition is close to $10,000 a year, compared with about $1,700 a year
for residents. Out-of-state tuition runs as high as $8,430 a year at a
community college compared to about $700 a year for residents.
California, Texas, and New York are among several states that allow
illegal immigrant students to pay resident rates, but in Massachusetts a
similar push failed in 2006 after an emotional debate in the
Legislature.
After the breakfast, Patrick emphasized that he supports in-state
tuition for illegal immigrant students but has not decided how to
proceed.
"We have been asked by a number of people whether it is possible to
address that question without legislation," he told reporters after the
breakfast sponsored by the think tank MassINC at the Omni Parker House
in downtown Boston. "The answer to that is by no means clear."
The governor's comments revived the prickly debate in Massachusetts over
whether illegal immigrants should pay lower tuition. Advocates for
immigrants accuse the state of punishing students - including some
valedictorians - for their parents' choices and effectively shutting
them out of college. Opponents of granting the lower rates say illegal
immigrants should not enjoy the same benefits as residents.
The Massachusetts Republican Party issued a statement slamming Patrick
for rewarding "illegal activity."
"It's bad enough to encourage and reward illegal activity while sticking
it to legal immigrants and other taxpayers who obey the law, Robert
Willington, executive director of the state Republican Party, said in a
statement.
State Representative Bradley H. Jones, Republican of North Reading, said
he would consider filing legislation to bar illegal immigrants from
paying in-state tuition if the governor decided to circumvent the
Legislature.
"It's the wrong policy direction to go in," he said.
In 2005, the state Senate passed a measure that would have granted
in-state tuition to illegal immigrants who have lived here for at least
three years, earned a high school diploma or the equivalent, and
intended to seek legal permanent residency. But the measure failed in
the House the next year and faced a certain veto by then-Governor Mitt
Romney, who has since made illegal immigration a key issue in his
presidential campaign.
But Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation,
said the state could benefit by educating immigrants and integrating
them into the workforce.
In 2006, his organization estimated that the state's public colleges
would gain $2.5 million a year in new revenues in tuition and fees by
2009 by allowing illegal immigrant students to pay in-state rates. He
estimated that illegal immigrant enrollment would grow from nearly 100
students in 2006 to 600 students in 2009, a small portion of the 160,000
public college students in the state.
"It's in the interest both economically and fiscally for the
Commonwealth to allow these students to attend public colleges at
[in-state] rates," Widmer said. "Economically we're losing many of these
students. They are just the kind that we want to educate and who will
stay in Massachusetts."
Yesterday, the governor acknowledged that granting in-state tuition to
people here illegally is controversial, but he affirmed his support for
it.
"I think this is the right thing to do. It's a matter of fundamental
fairness," he said. "But I don't have the answer yet on how to fix this.
I want to fix this, but I don't have an answer for you."
The Boston Globe
Friday, January 11, 2008
A Boston Globe editorial
Patrick's education overhaul
Governor Patrick stood before state leaders and the press yesterday and
joked as he began outlining his education reorganization plan: "I can
see some of you trying your best not to roll your eyes," he said.
Patrick knows that moving boxes around on a flow chart won't improve
education. The reorganization plan, including the new Cabinet-level
secretariat, is only useful to the extent that it helps Patrick achieve
his ambitious goals for the next chapter of education reform. And that
requires a difficult political trick: making the taxpayers care about
other people's children.
Actually, "ambitious" may be an understatement. Although Patrick is
still waiting on a report from his Readiness Project for specifics
(expected in March or April), his 10-year vision includes universal
early education for 3- and 4-year-olds; all-day kindergarten; smaller
class sizes, especially in the younger grades; extended school days with
time for music, art, exercise, and community service; at least three
years of mandatory math and science in all high schools; better teacher
training; and the opportunity to earn an associate's degree or
apprenticeship in a trade - at the Commonwealth's expense. No wonder
people wanted to know about the price tag.
Patrick knows first-hand the value of a good education; his life was
transformed by a lucky opportunity to leave a poor school in Chicago for
leafy Milton Academy. He is adept at outlining the competition
Massachusetts faces from an educated workforce in other states, and
other countries. China - where Patrick just visited - plans to build a
university the size of UCLA every year for the next 10 years.
But the Readiness Project shouldn't produce a kitchen sink report, with
a little something for each of the constituencies represented on the
panel. If Patrick gets his reorganization plan and the seamless
authority to manage education from preschool through college - and we
think he should be given the chance - his new secretary's first task
should be to identify a few priorities that can be achieved fairly
quickly and find the money for them.
The public is tapped out when it comes to paying for so many needs,
including education, through the property tax. (See below.) Patrick
himself describes school systems where parents must pay out of pocket so
their kids can play sports or be in the band or the math team. Residents
are weary of the record number of property tax overrides. Every young
family that chooses private school or moves out of state to find lower
housing prices in communities with good schools is another education
constituent lost.
Patrick says he has over 1,000 volunteer "readiness reps" prepared to
build support for his education agenda. Let's hope they can help the
taxpayers understand the cost of not spending on education - from crime
to economic stagnation. Because the investment really is in everybody's
children.
The Boston Herald
Friday, January 11, 2008
A Boston Herald editorial
Tuition crusade a waste of effort
Gov. Deval Patrick can’t afford to waste a drop of political capital,
not when his reservoir is as shallow as it is.
It is a total mystery, then, why the governor would embark on a wildly
unpopular crusade to offer the discounted in-state tuition rate at
public colleges and universities to students who are not legal residents
of Massachusetts.
Remember, in 2006, the House crushed a bill that would have extended the
in-state tuition discount to students who have graduated from a Bay
State high school - regardless of their immigration status.
But yesterday, speaking at an education forum, Patrick said he is
exploring the possibility of bypassing the Legislature to make it
happen.
So what’s changed?
Well, to be fair, the prospect of a comprehensive solution to the
nation’s immigration problem has grown dimmer. Congress failed miserably
in efforts to address the status of those who are living in the United
States illegally, leaving us with de facto amnesty for 12 million people
whose work helps prop up our nation’s economy.
But what hasn’t changed is the fact that Massachusetts should not be
freelancing its own piecemeal, parochial solutions to a national
problem. Yes, we support a path to citizenship for those immigrants
already living in the U.S. But that’s a solution properly forged in
Washington. There is simply no justification for Massachusetts to go out
of its way to ignore existing law and reward illegal behavior.
True, the Massachusetts economy depends on an educated workforce. And
this has never been about “punishing” the children of illegal immigrants
who may encounter financial obstacles on their path to the American
dream.
In this case, it’s about the governor’s misguided priorities.
The Boston Globe
Friday, January 11, 2008
A Boston Globe editorial
A crisis in cities and towns
As discussion topics go, municipal finance doesn't light up the room.
But anyone who has called 911, driven on a town road, enrolled a child
in school, or paid a property tax bill can't afford to ignore the
growing fiscal crisis faced by local communities.
Mayors, selectmen, and other municipal officials speak of little else.
Today, they will have the ear of Governor Patrick at the opening of the
annual meeting of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. Despite
distinctions of degree, nearly every city and town in the Commonwealth
is struggling to provide reliable basic services to residents at a time
when the costs of government outstrip the ability to raise revenues.
The MMA's weekend workshops will be a respite for some officials who
must return home and face decisions about laying off teachers, closing
fire stations, reducing library hours or raising fees to play high
school sports. Many of these officials have fought losing battles to
override Proposition 2½, the state law that limits the amount of revenue
a city or town may raise from property taxes. Most can't plan properly
from fiscal year to fiscal year when dealing with so many uncertainties,
including state lottery receipts, a key source of local aid.
Even when they are running at their leanest, most cities and towns rely
too heavily on property taxes to meet rising costs of necessities
ranging from road salt to employee healthcare. So Geoffrey Beckwith,
director of MMA, is pushing hard for a revenue-sharing plan that would
earmark 40 percent of the state's main revenue sources - sales, income,
and corporate excise taxes - to cities and towns. This year, such a
formula would add roughly $790 million to the state's $6.4 billion
distribution of education and municipal aid. But a fixed formula isn't
likely to go over well with Beacon Hill leaders who value their own
budget flexibility.
If legislators can't guarantee a fixed percentage for local aid, they
should at least give cities and towns a fighting chance. For years, the
MMA and its members have been seeking state approval to raise their own
revenues, through local option taxes on meals and other sensible
proposals. But some governor or legislative leader always goes weak in
the knees. Last year, Patrick raised hopes with his plan to eliminate
property tax loopholes for telephone and telecommunication companies.
But he couldn't sell it to the Legislature. A bill did pass allowing
local workers to join the efficient group health plan offered to state
employees. But it requires union approval. That's an anemic solution.
Cities and towns need the same tools the state employs to control
healthcare costs without negotiating every co-pay increase at the
collective bargaining table.
Beacon Hill needs to listen. This isn't mere sniveling on the part of
town criers.
State House News Service
Thursday, January 10, 2008
State Capitol Briefs
Senators cite recession, budget challenge
As the pace of economic growth gets more and more attention in the news,
members of the state Senate on Thursday said the coming state budget
season will be bruising and urged their colleagues to be open to the
idea of new revenues.
Sens. Mark Montigny and Stephen Brewer said the state needs to see tax
revenue growth of more than 5 percent just to maintain existing
spending. Beacon Hill budget leaders earlier this week agreed revenues
will only grow 3.8 percent next fiscal year.
Montigny said state and local leaders need to plan spending and revenue
decisions based on a recession. "It is not a stretch to say we are
currently in a broad economic recession," Montigny said. "The bottom
line is we're in it. and if we're not, that's great."
Brewer said the current revenue forecast will generate $762 million in
new state tax revenues, while current needs, based on spending trends,
require between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion.
Weymouth Republican Sen. Robert Hedlund said he was troubled by the
focus of his colleagues "on the revenue side of this discussion" and
urged them to "get disciplined" about government spending. Hedlund also
raised questions about the impact of job creation bills previously
adopted by the Legislature.
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