The Boston Globe
Thursday, November 20, 2008
DiMasi backs gas tax hike over toll rise
Says he acted after outcry by commuters
By Frank Phillips and Matt Viser
The debate over how much to
tax Massachusetts motorists shifted into overdrive yesterday when House
Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi, speaking against the governor's approach of
targeting turnpike and tunnel drivers with higher tolls, said he will
push instead for a gas tax increase.
DiMasi did not say what
size hike he envisions to the 23.5-cent-per-gallon tax, which has not
been substantially increased since 1991.
But the speaker made it
clear that he was responding to an outcry from angry western and
northern suburban motorists, who would be hit by a doubling in some
Massachusetts Turnpike and tunnel tolls under a Turnpike Authority plan
that won preliminary approval last week.
"Given the excessive
proposal now on the table for doubling some tolls, one that will cost
drivers in certain areas hundreds of dollars more each year just to get
to work, I believe we must seriously consider alternatives like a gas
tax increase," DiMasi said.
DiMasi's advocacy for the
tax hike will put the highly controversial issue at the top of the
agenda as lawmakers arrive for their new session in seven weeks. And it
will reshape the battle over the large toll increases the Turnpike
Authority wants to have in place by March. Adding to the issue's
potential volatility, the timing of the speaker's proposal could
coincide with a potentially deep economic recession.
The move was a startling
about-face for the speaker. Just 10 days ago his spokesman said that
DiMasi was opposed to any broad-based tax increases to help solve the
state's financial problems, including how to pay for billions in unmet
highway and bridge costs, as well as huge Big Dig debts.
Pressure now falls squarely
on Governor Deval Patrick to take a clearer stance on a proposal that,
while not rejecting it outright, he has been loath to embrace. The
governor remained noncommittal yesterday. His spokesman sought to
highlight past administrations as being responsible for the state's
chronic transportation funding shortages.
"It is not something he is
hostile to, but he believes it is a tough time to be talking about any
broad-based tax increases," said Patrick's press secretary, Kyle
Sullivan. "The governor looks forward to talking with the speaker and
other legislators to discuss their proposals to deal with this
transportation funding challenge that we have inherited."
Patrick has received
widespread criticism for the plan to raise tolls by the authority, which
he controls. Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston added his voice to those
objecting yesterday. "Toll increases should not be implemented until
there is a comprehensive plan developed that takes into account impacts
on traffic, congestion, public safety, and public transit ridership,"
Menino wrote in a letter to the governor.
When they return in
January, lawmakers will have to work fast to, as DiMasi hopes, fend off
new toll hikes, which are scheduled for a final vote by Turnpike
Authority directors Jan. 15.
The Commonwealth's
23.5-cent gas tax puts it slightly below the national average of 26
cents. The state ranks 26th overall, far behind states like California
and New York, which have gas taxes that are twice as large.
Western suburban lawmakers
who have been pushing for a gas tax increase instead of a toll hike were
jubilant yesterday.
"I am thrilled," said state
Representative David P. Linsky, a Democrat from Natick and a leader in
the fight for a gas tax hike to ease or eliminate tolls. "He is stepping
out as a statewide leader, putting forth what is obviously in the
state's best interest, which is a fair and equitable financing plan for
the Big Dig, rather than one that unfairly hits commuters from the north
and west."
The Legislature has not
increased the gas tax since 1991, other than adding a special 2.5-cent
underground storage fee. Transportation and budget analysts and a
special task force convened to assess the state's future needs have
called for increases in the tax as the fairest way to pay.
But DiMasi's initiative is
certain to face strong objections from Republicans and antitax leaders.
The plan could also create rancor by pitting legislators from different
regions against one another.
Barbara Anderson,
executive director Citizens for Limited Taxation, called DiMasi's
sudden switch part of an elaborate Beacon Hill ruse to hoodwink
taxpayers, who just two weeks ago rejected a ballot question to
eliminate the income tax.
"That is the way the game
is played," Anderson said. "First you come in with huge toll increases,
and after everyone gets all upset, they do what they plan to do in the
first place, and that is to raise the gas tax. Then everyone says 'Thank
heaven, thanks Sal DiMasi, I am just a dumb Massachusetts voter who
falls for these sucker-traps every time.'"
A spokesman for Senate
President Therese Murray did not respond to requests for comment.
Lawmakers on both sides of
the aisle expect the governor to get behind a gas tax eventually.
"If you're not saying no,
what does it mean in Beacon Hill speak?" said Senator Robert L. Hedlund,
a Weymouth Republican who met last week with Transportation Secretary
Bernard Cohen and Turnpike Authority director Alan LeBovidge.
"They will be looking for a
gas tax, and it will be sold to the public as a way to save public
transportation in the Commonwealth," Hedlund said. "You bet your bottom
dollar it will be put forward."
Western Massachusetts
lawmakers pushing for toll freezes and gas tax increases are finding
allies among lawmakers from the North Shore, where the anger over the
prospect of toll hikes is palpable.
"I have been around long
enough to see a lot of administrations try to tackle the costs of our
transportation infrastructure," Senate majority leader Frederick E.
Berry, a Peabody Democrat, said in a statement.
"It is disappointing that
this administration, too, took the easy route out and chose to go after
the low-lying fruit, instead of stepping up to truly lead," he said.
The toll hikes that would
take effect as early as March are designed to raise $90 million to $100
million a year, enough to pay off debt and significant long-term
maintenance on roads, tunnels, and bridges, which have been neglected in
recent years.
The turnpike board member
who advocates for western suburban commuters and was the only member of
the authority to vote against last week's preliminary approval praised
DiMasi's proposal.
"The toll payers should be
thrilled," said the member, Mary Connaughton, a Framingham resident.
"The speaker teed up the ball. It's up to Patrick to take a swing at it
and do the right thing."
According to Connaughton,
an increase of 9 cents a gallon would allow for the elimination of all
tolls. She said it would cost the average driver, who drives 15,000
miles a year and gets 20 miles per gallon, only about $68 a year.
The success of DiMasi's
effort will depend on how quickly the Legislature is able to act,
whether the new tax money is targeted to pay off turnpike debt, and how
flexible the Turnpike Authority can be in paying off its share of Big
Dig-related debts.
Also in play is another
potentially complex move, Patrick's plan to eliminate the Turnpike
Authority and transfer its responsibilities to MassPort.
Noah Bierman and Andrea
Estes of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
The Boston Herald
Thursday, November 20, 2008
DiMasi says gas tax would be most fair option
By Hillary Chabot
House Speaker Salvatore
DiMasi yesterday added fuel to the growing ire on Beacon Hill against
Mass Pike toll hikes, saying an increase in the gas tax would be fairer
to Bay State commuters.
DiMasi - who stood fast
against higher taxes throughout the year - said he’s considering
boosting the gas tax because Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposed toll
increases would gouge east-west commuters unfairly.
“Given the excessive
proposal now on the table for doubling some tolls, one that will cost
drivers . . . hundreds of dollars more each year just to get to work, I
believe we must seriously consider alternatives like a gas tax
increase,” DiMasi said.
Patrick is still resisting
hiking the gas tax, which has remained at 23.5 cents a gallon since
1991.
“A gas tax is not his first
choice. It is not something he is hostile to, but he believes it is a
tough time to be talking about any broad-based tax increases,” Patrick
spokesman Kyle Sullivan said in a statement.
“The Governor looks forward
to talking with the Speaker and other legislators to discuss their
proposals to deal with this transportation funding challenge that we
have inherited,” the statement said.
Pike board members approved
the hikes last week to counter the mounting cost of the Big Dig,
increasing tolls inside Route 128 by $2 and doubling them in the tunnels
to $7.
DiMasi’s statement follows
a flurry of legislation filed recently to stave off the toll hike. Rep.
David Linsky (D-Natick) called DiMasi a “leader” who is “doing the
responsible thing.” Linksy plans to file a new bill boosting the gas tax
by 11 cents so officials can take down tolls on the Pike and in the
tunnels.
Rep. Steve Walsh (D-Lynn)
filed legislation to freeze the current rates until Patrick unveils his
comprehensive transportation plan. That plan, to be filed in January,
would dismantle tolls west of Route 128 and eliminate the Turnpike
authority.
But Sen. Robert Hedlund
(R-Weymouth) dug in his heels, saying any discussion of a higher gas tax
would be premature until Democratic leaders address state spending.
“No gas tax increase until
some reforms are implemented, period,” Hedlund said.
State House News Service
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
DiMasi wants fresh consideration for gas tax hike
By Jim O'Sullivan and Michael P. Norton
House Speaker Salvatore
DiMasi on Wednesday made the clearest statement yet by a top Beacon Hill
official that raising the state's 23.5-cents-per-gallon gas tax could be
a good idea, releasing a statement suggesting the levy as an alternative
to doubling tolls.
"Given the excessive
proposal now on the table for doubling some tolls, one that will cost
drivers in certain areas hundreds of dollars more each year just to get
to work, I believe we must seriously consider alternatives like a gas
tax increase.
"The fact is, the
Massachusetts gas tax is below the national average and, while we would
all prefer not to burden drivers with any new cost in difficult times, I
believe the gas tax is a fairer way to share our costs and it should be
fully considered before any tolls are increased," DiMasi said.
Paying for the Big Dig is
one of the key reasons driving toll hikes.
DiMasi's move provides
political cover for other Beacon Hill figures who have been loath to
discuss raising the gas tax, as the state grapples with a transportation
infrastructure funding gap pegged at up to $20 billion over 20 years.
Similar to the hefty toll increases preliminarily approved last week by
the Turnpike Authority board that Patrick controls, the gas tax proposal
emerges in the wake of the Nov. 4 elections.
House Minority Leader
Bradley Jones, who called the hike "a very bad idea," said, "It took
such short time after the election to start talking about tax increases,
didn't it? It's almost like record time."
The Legislature and Gov.
Deval Patrick raised corporate and cigarette taxes this session. A
federal transit official last week cautioned that states with solid
financial support for infrastructure maintenance and expansion are
better positioned to secure assistance as states compete for federal
highway and transit funds.
Patrick, who said during
his campaign that his administration would not raise the gas tax, told
reporters Wednesday, "I'm not hostile to a gas tax. It's not realistic
that anybody in this Legislature's going to act on a gas tax before we
have to deal with the Big Dig debt at the Turnpike. But we'll look at
it, but it's unlikely that there's going to be any action in the
Legislature before the end of this calendar year. And I imagine it'll
get re-filed next year and we'll take it up then."
Patrick confirmed he was
also likely to seek higher Registry fees, saying, "We will do that if
necessary to close the deal with Massport."
At a forum on
transportation issues last week, Sen. Steven Baddour (D-Methuen),
co-chairman of the Legislature's Transportation Committee, said public
faith in transportation agencies lagged and needed to be restored.
"I don't think the
Legislature today, tomorrow, beginning of next year will vote for any
increase in revenues until we take the hard lessons learned and really
begin to sort of drill down and reforming and changing the way we do
business here in Massachusetts," Baddour said.
Patrick has promised a
comprehensive transportation reform package, based on higher tolls, new
revenues from the Registry and elsewhere, reduced costs, restructuring
the Big Dig debt, and redistributing Turnpike Authority responsibilities
to other agencies. The administration has already pursued a number of
small-bore reforms.
The Pike board signed off
on toll hikes doubling Sumner and Ted Williams tunnel tolls to $7.
An outside commission
recommended an 11.5-cent gas tax increase last year.
On Wednesday, panel chair
Stephen Silveira, a Boston lobbyist, said the average driver would pay
an additional $69 per year under that hike. "I don't look at it as an
either/or proposition, but we'll take it," said Silveira said, of the
suggestion that elevating the gas tax would offset the need for toll
increases.
House Ways and Means chair
Rep. Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop) called DiMasi's statement "interesting."
"It's something which I
would consider, as I would consider a whole host of things," he said of
a higher levy. "I'm meeting with some members to see where they are with
it."
A spokesman for Senate
President Therese Murray did not respond to a phone call seeking
comment.
The 23.5-cents-per-gallon
gas tax was last increased in 1991, when it rose from 17 cents. It
includes a 2.5-cents-per-gallon charge to fund underground storage tank
removals and cleanups. In fiscal 2008, the gas tax generated $597
million.
The 2007 Transportation
Finance Commission report said the buying power of the gas tax is 14
cents because it's been so long since it was raised. The commission
called raising the gas tax "the most viable approach in the short term
to meeting our need for additional revenue."
The commission recommended
an 11.5-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase, which it said would restore
its 1991 value and produce $345 million per year.
Transportation Secretary
Bernard Cohen said last week that vehicle miles traveled (VMT) are down,
cutting into gas tax receipts as motorists have cut back due to higher
gas prices and turned to alternative fuel vehicles.
"We are looking to develop
a new generation of vehicles that are going to be more efficient,
consume less gas, maybe move to another source," Cohen said. "So I am
not saying that the gas tax is a terrible idea. I'm not supporting it
either. I am saying that the question can be raised about whether or not
that's the best way to raise revenue if you are looking to continue to
reduce VMT and to continue to deploy more fuel efficient cars."
Massachusetts will see a $2
billion reduction in gas tax revenues over 20 years if the average
vehicle is able to achieve a 15 percent increase in fuel efficiency by
2026, according to the commission. The average vehicle in Massachusetts
consumed 576 gallons of fuel in 2005, representing $135 per year in gas
tax payments to the state; an 11.5-cent hike would cost $66 per year per
vehicle, the commission said.
A bipartisan group of 36
lawmakers on Tuesday announced support for legislation that would block
the Turnpike board from hiking tolls until 2010 "or until a
comprehensive transportation plan is passed, whichever is sooner,"
according to a statement. While tollpayers on the Pike and Tobin Bridge
have championed the gas tax as a way to decrease the burden on
commuters, some lawmakers see the gas tax as unfairly broadening the
burden.
"I still believe that those
people who drive the Pike should pay the toll," said Rep. Paul Kujawski,
a Democrat who said he drives the road on "an almost daily basis" from
his Webster-based district. "I'm not in favor of paying the toll."
Kujawski went on, "I don't
think everybody in the state should be responsible for a lot of the
things that they do not use. And there was a mechanism in place that was
designed to be paid for by a fee, and I think it should continue. I
don't necessarily believe that the authority should remain in existence,
but I think the mechanisms that were put in place should remain the
same. User fees, if you use it, pay for it."
Patrick issued his campaign
promise not to raise the gas tax at a Columbus Day parade in Revere
during a contentious period in his campaign against Lt. Gov. Kerry
Healey. She and Patrick exchanged barbs over who had created the
commission, but agreed that a gas tax would not happen under their
respective, then-hypothetical administrations.
"As the Governor has said
in the past, a gas tax is not his first choice," Patrick spokesman Kyle
Sullivan said in an email after DiMasi's statement was released. "It is
not something he is hostile to, but he believes it is a tough time to be
talking about any broad-based tax increases. The Governor looks forward
to talking with the Speaker and other legislators to discuss their
proposals to deal with this transportation funding challenge that we
have inherited."
Federal Transit
Administration Regional Administrator Richard Doyle said at last week's
Our Transportation Future forum that Congress is struggling with
diminished gas tax revenues.
"There is a realization
that the existing financing mechanism that we've been using and Congress
has been talking about this, the gas tax, really isn't working anymore,"
Doyle said. "It is just not bringing in the revenues. In fact, about
eighty percent of the transit money comes from the gas tax. So it
clearly hasn't made much sense in the past to be encouraging people to
drive more so that we could get more money for transit."
The Boston Herald
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Pols would raise tolls, fuel taxes
State’s taking us for a ride
By Michael Graham
In the tolls vs. taxes
debate, I’m solidly on the taxes side. And not just because I spend more
money on the Pike each week than I do on hard liquor. (I expect my
drinking to pick up considerably, however, beginning Jan. 20, 2009.)
I’m for raising gas taxes
enough to offset toll revenues - and not one penny more - because tolls
are a lousy way for states to collect money. It’s not uncommon for even
competently managed toll roads to spend more than 50 cents to collect
each dollar. And by “competently managed” I mean “not run by the
government of Massachusetts.”
The Reason Foundation ranks
the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority as the single most inefficient toll
road in America, which it says “stands head and shoulders above the
others in its cost-take of 79 percent.”
Please, fellas, you’re
makin’ us blush.
Maybe you don’t agree.
Maybe you’re a user-fee kind of person and want all tolls and no gas
taxes. Maybe you think that giving legislators’ cousins no-show jobs at
the Pike provides a public service by keeping them out of the way of the
rest of us. Fine.
But whatever you do,
please, please don’t fall for the bait and switch that Patrick and Co.
are cooking up for us: higher taxes and tolls.
Any proposal to freeze
tolls while raising gas taxes - no matter the amount - is a non-starter.
The only way Massachusetts taxpayers can win if taxes go up is for every
tollbooth to come down.
Unfortunately all the folks
“bravely” stepping forward to call for higher gas taxes - like Speaker
Sal DiMasi, who endorsed the idea again yesterday - also want the
tollbooths to stay in business. DiMasi specifically says gas taxes
should go up “before tolls are increased” (emphasis added).
Patrick, DiMasi and the
gang are making the following deal: They get to raise our gas taxes by 5
to 10 cents a gallon today, and they promise they won’t raise our tolls
tomorrow.
Right. I would say “if you
believe these guys they have a bridge they’d like to sell you,” except
that they do. Several poorly maintained ones that were neglected after
years of pouring our tax dollars down the Big Dig drainpipe.
The only solution is to
dump the tolls and raise the gas tax. And the good news is that it’s a
fairly easy solution. The Turnpike Authority’s Mary Connaughton has been
talking about it for years. Raise gas taxes 9 cents a gallon and you’ve
got the $280 million or so you’re collecting now on the Pike. Shut down
Mass Pike operations, send all the tolltakers home and you’ve saved
about $100 million in operating costs.
Keep modest tolls at the
Big Dig tunnels themselves, and you’ve got plenty of money to pay the
bills, and users of the system still bear a higher burden than those who
rarely come to Boston.
Simple. Easy. Fair. Or as
they say on Beacon Hill: “Impossible.”
Connaughton told me that
until just before the recent vote, Mass Pike was considering a more
modest $70 million toll hike, one she could support. Then the price
suddenly jumped to $100 million, with its headline-grabbing $7 tolls.
Why? Cynics might suggest
that tax hike supporters wanted a toll proposal so eye-poppingly high
that drivers would rather take the tax. The state gets its $200 million
in gas taxes, tolls remain unchanged and relieved citizens shout hurrah.
And then next year, when
we’re in the next “crisis,” the tolls go up anyway.
Don’t fall for it. Demand
that any gas tax plan include a total dismantling of the Mass Pike. The
tolls you save may be your own.
Michael Graham hosts a
talk show on 96.9 WTKK.
The Eagle Tribune
Sunday, November 16, 2008
An Eagle Tribune editorial
The promise and the peril of
Gov. Patrick's transportation plan
Kudos to Gov. Deval Patrick
for stating the obvious: The Massachusetts transportation system is a
mess, plagued by, in his own words, "a hodgepodge of bureaucratic
oversight and a lack of sustainable financing."
The governor also deserves
credit for going even further, acknowledging that this mess is in large
measure due to multiple transportation agencies being havens for
patronage rather than merit — agencies that take money earmarked for
infrastructure maintenance and improvements, and spend it instead on
lavish and unaffordable salaries, benefits and early retirements.
Indeed, while everybody has
known about this for decades, Patrick is one of few elected officials to
acknowledge it publicly.
But it is one thing to
acknowledge the problem. It is another to solve it without demanding yet
more from taxpayers and toll payers who have funded these bloated
bureaucracies for decades.
And so far, the governor,
now touting his grand plan for a "safe, efficient and cost-effective
transportation system," is insisting that, "we cannot cut and save our
way to a better system."
Perhaps not. But cutting
and saving should be his first priority, not the last. So far, his
efforts in that area amount to nibbling at the edges. Patrick claims he
is already saving "millions" by reducing the number of toll collectors
and replacing police details with civilian flaggers. But the number of
exceptions written into the policy allowing civilian flaggers means the
savings will be about 10 percent of what they would be. If the governor
stood up to the thuggish behavior of the police unions.
Patrick's plan to
consolidate transportation agencies — Massport, the Turnpike Authority,
the Highway Department, the MBTA and various regional transit
authorities — sounds promising. There is, as the governor says, enormous
waste and duplication in all those separate systems. Patrick says he
wants to start by allowing Massport and the Highway Department to absorb
the Turnpike Authority.
But he may need a large
helping of luck and political capital to do that. The reason for all the
duplication and waste is that the Legislature wants it that way —
duplication provides so many more opportunities to give jobs to
political friends and family members. They are likely to resist any
effort by the governor to take away that gravy train.
And before any of that
happens, the governor says there is no way around toll increases, "in
the short run."
In the short run? Has the
governor not heard of the "temporary" income tax increase that is now
nearly two decades old? As more than one political sage has said, "there
is nothing so permanent as a temporary government program." The same
could be said of "short run" toll increases.
If Patrick wants to claim
the "efficient, cost effective" mantle, he should demand reform before
demanding more money.
But as long as he is
demanding money first, it would be much more equitable to raise the gas
tax than to raise tolls. The gas tax, while onerous, spreads the pain.
And it has stood at 23.5 cents per gallon since 1990.
The transportation system
benefits everybody, so the bulk of the burden for it should not fall on
a select group that uses certain tunnels and bridges.
The Boston Herald
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Toll hike in the bank, State could guzzle higher gas tax
Move would add fuel to taxpayers’ ire
By Howie Carr
The year was 2000. There
was a referendum question on the ballot - Free the Pike, it was called.
It would have abolished the
Mass Pike, and the tolls, and the auto-excise tax, and replaced the lost
revenues by raising the gasoline tax. It went nowhere, because the 80
percent of the population who weren’t living in MetroWest or on the near
North Shore had no interest in picking up the tab for that boondoggle’s
boondoggle known as the Big Dig.
So what if 20 percent of
the state’s motorists were being robbed of billions of dollars to pay
for an utterly worthless, leaky, dangerous road they never, ever used?
Not our problem, the
majority of you said.
Well, guess what? Now it’s
going to be your problem too.
Because for their next
trick, the tax-fattened hyenas who run this rotten kleptocracy of a
state are going to hike the gasoline tax. This time everybody will get
whacked. See, there just aren’t enough of us Pike commuters left to
steal from anymore, not to mention we’re broke, so . . . stick ‘em up,
Scituate. Bend over, Belmont and Belchertown. Pony up, Pepperell and
Provincetown.
The taxpayers didn’t hang
together, and now we are all going to hang separately. Talk about
highway robbery.
Get used to it, all you
South Shore swells from Deluxebury who’ve been laughing about the fact
that you’ve been riding on your new road on somebody else’s dime. The
chickens are coming home to roost. All you Beautiful People from Hingham
in your BMWs, repeat after me:
Thank you sir, may I have
another!
The toll-takers are the
only ones in this state who are going to be making out like bandits, and
I do mean bandits. From $1.25 to $2 at Allston and Weston. From $3.50 to
$7 at the tunnels. What’s not for the toll-takers to love? Now they’ll
have a lot money to steal every day.
There were so many times
this disaster could have been averted. You could have called your
legislators in 1997 and told them not to set up the “Metropolitan
Highway system” that required one group of citizens to pay to give a
different group of (more affluent) citizens a free highway. That’s why
the Pike is now bankrupt.
But you couldn’t be
bothered, could you? Because you didn’t believe those scare stories
about how someday it would cost $7 to go through the tunnel.
The tolls on the Pike were
supposed to come down around 1988. That was when the original bonds that
paid for I-90 back in the 1950s were paid off. At the time, it cost 25
cents to go through the Allston and Weston tolls. Now the tolls will be
eight times what it cost when the money was being used for what it was
intended for.
Aren’t you glad now you
voted no on Question 1 last week? Because it was such a risky, reckless
scheme. Unlike, say, doubling the tolls AND the gas tax.
The Boston Herald
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Taxachusetts lives unless we take action
By Michael Graham
Are these the tolls that
try men’s souls?
Two weeks after the obedient masses of Massachusetts did what they were
told and voted down the income tax repeal, we get our “thank you” note
from the Patrick administration and the MassPike: $7 tolls and reports
of potentially higher gas taxes.
You know, they told me that
if I voted yes on Question 1, I’d see massive tax and toll hikes. They
were right!
A $500 million corporate
tax hike earlier this year, two toll hikes that will more than double
what we paid last year, and it’s not even Christmas. Santa better watch
out for the new $5 chimney toll.
We are told that we
taxpayers must suffer because Massachusetts is in an economic crisis.
Well, it was in “The Crisis” that Thomas Paine wrote of those trying
times in which leaders must rise up and fight for justice and for their
rights.
But where are our leaders?
Where is the Adams or Jefferson or Washington of today who will fight on
behalf of the families who are about to see a 41 percent increase in the
cost of their commute?
We’re not in an economic
crisis. This is a leadership crisis. There isn’t one real leader in
state government.
Gov. Deval Patrick? When
he’s not endorsing crooks and creeps for re-election (he endorsed both
Jim Marzilli and Dianne Wilkerson before their recent legal run-ins),
he’s funneling millions of tax dollars to biotech.
House Speaker Sal DiMasi?
He’s refusing to comment on advice of counsel.
Senate President Therese
Murray? She can’t even get rid of Wilkerson.
After Marzilli resigned -
his paycheck and chairmanship intact - Murray declared that “Jim
Marzilli’s resignation will begin the process of restoring the
public’s trust in their government.” (emphasis added)
Process? What “process?”
Standing around with your thumb up your ethics isn’t “restoring the
public’s trust.” It’s waiting until the crooks leave on their own
accord, then locking the doors behind them and bragging about chasing
them away.
Patrick, DiMasi and Murray
may run the government, but they are not leading our state. And there’s
nobody on Beacon Hill - certainly no Republican - trying to elbow past
them, either.
So like the rebels who
fought government tyranny two centuries ago, we’re going to have to do
it ourselves. To paraphrase Barack Obama, we are the leaders we’ve been
waiting for.
It’s going to take regular
people like Michael Kelleher, a wine company rep in East Boston. He’s
started StopThePikeHike.org to organize his neighbors against the
tollbooth shafting. He knows he probably can’t stop it, but “I won’t be
able to sleep at night if I don’t do everything I can to try. I just
can’t take any more.”
I know exactly how he
feels. The GOP is dead, the Deval “magic” hasn’t materialized, and the
same crooks and cronies stick us with the expensive results of their
decisions. So how do we fight back?
We need new leaders in a
new party, or nothing will change. The only other choice is to lie down
and take it, again and again.
To that end, I’m prepared
to pledge $1,000 to help start a new party - a Reform Party - with the
goal of getting as many normal Bay Staters as possible to run against
any and all incumbents.
I’m with Michael Kelleher.
We may not win, but I’m not going down without a fight.
Michael Graham hosts a talk
show on 96.9 WTKK.
The Boston Globe
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Pension fund sags 13.3% in October
But Massachusetts' losses for year
are in line with other states'
By Ross Kerber
The Massachusetts public
pension fund lost 13.3 percent of its value as stock markets plunged in
October, officials said yesterday, crediting its diversification with
preventing deeper losses.
The state's Pension
Reserves Investment Trust was worth about $40 billion as of Oct. 31,
after one of the worst months for stocks in history.
The Standard & Poor's 500
stock index fell 17 percent in October.
For the first 10 months of
the year, the state fund is down 26.9 percent from its starting point of
about $53 billion.
"We are in unprecedented
economic times, and no investor is immune," said Michael Travaglini,
executive director of the pension agency.
The funds pay for the
retirement benefits of thousands of state and local government
employees.
As stinging as they are,
Massachusetts' losses are in line with others.
The average hit so far this
year to large public pension funds is 28 percent, according to figures
from the pension advisory firm Cliffwater LLC that the state provided.
In a recent report, Moody's
Investors Service estimated state and local systems have seen a 35
percent decline in their stock investments alone this year.
Travaglini said losses for
the Massachusetts system on US stocks are 37 percent for the year so
far, while international equities are down 42 percent.
Together, those two
categories make up about half of the system's total investments.
Offsetting those losses
were better performance from bond holdings, down only 5 percent for the
year, while private equity investments were off 2 percent and hedge
funds were down 15 percent.
The results come as the
state system approaches a regular three-year review of how it allocates
money among asset classes.
Travaglini said it is too
soon to estimate how the allocations might change.
The fund's total holdings
also affect how much money the state must contribute from taxpayers each
year to be sure it has enough money to pay for future retirement
benefits, which now cost about $1.5 billion a year.
Like the funds of other
states, the Massachusetts fund isn't fully funded; the roughly $53
billion it held at the start of the year represented about 79 percent of
its obligations.
The state will invest $1.47
billion into the fund during the fiscal year that ends on June 30.
Nationwide, defined-benefit
pension plans, including those offered by corporations, lost more than
$120 billion in October, dropping their funding ratio to 92.7 percent, a
12-point decline since the start of the year, according to a study by
the consulting firm Millman Inc., of Seattle.
State House News Service
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Pension fund losses pile higher,
down 27 percent this year
By Jim O'Sullivan
The state's pension fund
shed $5 billion last month, or 13.3 percent, and has fallen 26.9 percent
during 2009, for a year-to-date loss of over $13 billion, according to
new data.
The October drop came as
financial markets remain in turmoil, and was likely exacerbated by a
continued trend that drove the Standard & Poor's index to close
Wednesday at its lowest level since March 2003.
The fund outperformed
several other indices, including Standard & Poor's. Officials said
consultants to the Pension Reserve Investment Management board had
estimated the average large public pension fund has lost 28 percent in
2009.
"Clearly, all investors are
faced with unprecedented market conditions, so nobody's immune," said
Michael Travaglini, executive director of the fund, the Pension Reserves
Investment Trust. "But when you lost a quarter of your fund's assets,
right, whether you're an individual or a pension plan, that's not good."
The state recently pushed
back by two years the deadline by which it must fund its pension system
fully, from 2023 to 2025. The system was funded at 79 percent when the
fund level was $53.7 billion at the beginning of the year, but the drop
in value and the elongated schedule have eaten dramatically into that
performance.
The $5 billion October drop
represents a steep drop for the fund, which has in recent years
outperformed other similar systems.
"That's bad, but not
altogether unexpected," said Steve Poftak, research director of the
right-leaning Pioneer Institute.
"Some of these alternative
investments, I think, are going to smooth some of the ups and downs
you're seeing in the market," said Poftak, pointing to PRIT investments
in hedge funds.
Travaglini said that the
fund earned a cumulative 80 percent from 2003 to 2007, after a 2002 that
saw an 8.9 percent loss. He said PRIT officials were working to assure
local systems that fall under its aegis that the trend will buck up over
the long term.
"We're in very regular
communication with our clients, simply trying to keep them from
overreacting, for lack of a better phrase. We've been through periods of
economic crisis before," he said, adding that those periods were, "I
can't, say exactly like this one."
There seems to be
acceptance, is the way I would describe it," he said. "I think in part
because there's enough information through the press and otherwise ... I
think the gravity of the economic conditions are apparent to people."
