CLT UPDATE
Monday, March 9, 2009
So-Called Mass. Taxpayers Foundation,
Big-Business Fat-Cat Allies, Stripped Naked!
Bay State working families are bracing
for a wallet-crippling gas-tax increase, but five nonprofit executives
pushing for a 25-cents-a-gallon hike won’t personally feel the pinch as
they all earn six-figure salaries, with some enjoying company cars and
gas reimbursement.
Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation,
supports the drive to hike the gas tax even higher than Gov. Deval
Patrick’s 19-cents-a-gallon proposal. Widmer rakes in $375,000 a year in
salary, $19,000 in benefits and deferred compensation and was paid
$2,837 for expenses, according to 2007 IRS filings. Widmer said his
compensation includes a car allowance and reimbursement for fuel
expenses....
But Barbara Anderson, spokeswoman for Citizens for Limited
Taxation, accused the executives of pandering to big businesses.
“These same people have always opposed our tax cuts for ordinary working
people,” Anderson said. “We always knew we were dealing with fat cats. I
think they’re perfectly in touch - with the people who pay their high
salaries.”
The Boston Herald
Monday, March 9, 2009
Execs want gas tax hike but won’t feel pump pain
Massachusetts business groups yesterday endorsed a 25-cent
increase in the state gas tax, a more aggressive hike than Governor Deval
Patrick's 19-cent request, saying that the state needs to move even faster to
fix its ailing network of roads and bridges to encourage a strong business
climate....
"The political stakes are high, but the leadership here is necessary," said Paul
Guzzi, president and CEO of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.
Guzzi was joined at a media conference in downtown Boston by leaders from the
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, A
Better City, and NAIOP Massachusetts, a commercial real estate development
association....
"This coalition is profoundly out of touch with the struggles of working men and
women of our state," said Senator Steven A. Baddour, a Methuen Democrat who
cochairs the Legislature's transportation committee.
Senator Richard R. Tisei, the Republican leader from Wakefield, echoed Baddour's
earlier comments that many supporters of a gas tax increase were "elites," and
said higher gas taxes were a greater concern to smaller businesses....
A higher gas tax might also reduce the pressure on lawmakers to raise corporate
taxes - which some of the groups have sought to reduce or hold steady....
Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said he
worries that a compromise on a lower figure could leave lawmakers taking a tough
political vote without raising enough money to fix the Massachusetts Turnpike,
keep fares down on the MBTA, and improve regional transportation. By starting
with a higher number, advocacy organizations may be hoping to shift the debate
so that any compromise figure will be closer to Patrick's number.
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Businesses endorse 25-cent gas tax hike
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
At last! Boston
Herald reporter Dave Wedge has shattered the last vestiges of sanctimony
so long bestowed upon the so-called Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation
and its "nonpartisan" and "enlightened" advocacy.
I understand that Michael
Graham, talk show host on WTKK FM 96.9 took its president, the pompous
Michael J. Widmer, over the coals while I was hospitalized for surgery
-- that Widmer couldn't take Michael's insolence, actually hung up on
Graham! Now that's an event I truly regret missing. (Ah
hah! Hear it by clicking
HERE)
For years, CLT has been
raising the alarm that the so-called Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation
is nothing more than a powerful lobbying group for greater-Boston
Big-Business Fat-Cats doing nothing else but looking out for their own
interests and bottom lines, filling their private coffers at the expense of average taxpayers.
Our
"Trojan Horse" web page dates back to 1991, illustrating how much
MTF has been and is an enabler for higher taxes on average taxpayers and
more government spending to profit
its fat-cat
members. When the media finally dropped its
standard descriptor, "highly-respected," and adopted instead
"business-backed" we saw our first break-thru!
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Michael J. Widmer,
President of MTF
Boston Herald File Photo |
On Feb. 20, 2002, Boston
Herald business reporter Cosmo Macero Jr. wrote his column, "Tax group
turns left on hikes; Conservative watchdog group backing tax, fare
hikes." In our
Update of Feb. 22, 2002, I wrote, "To the best of my knowledge, this
is the first time anyone in the media has bothered to take an honest,
objective look inside the Trojan Horse."
We've had IRS filings
from
the non-profit MTF for years, but couldn't get anyone to look at
them, to calculate who was making how much for what from whom. Now
it's out there, thanks to Dave Wedge.
Michael Widmer's salary
alone is significantly more than CLT's entire annual
operating budget!
Remember MTF's
"nonpartisan" and "objective" opposition to Carla Howell's Question 1
last November, the ballot question to repeal the state income tax?
Remember who else signed on with MTF? I certainly do. If you
don't as well, let me remind you. There's that Greater Boston
Chamber of Commerce and that Massachusetts Business Roundtable again,
today calling for an obscene gas tax hike! Do I detect a pattern
here?
CLT put it all out there in
a news release on Oct. 8, 2008 --
MTF “Analysis” – Pure Political Propaganda. They got away with
the scam, helped defeat Question 1, and thought they could continue with
plundering average taxpayers with impunity.
They have finally overplayed their
hand, it appears.
Widmer and his big-business
fat-cat cohorts have been pushing for an expansion in the sales tax too
for as long as I can recall-- so watch for that coming to a theater near
you soon!
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Chip Ford |
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The Boston Herald
Monday, March 9, 2009
Execs want gas tax hike but won’t feel pump pain
By Dave Wedge
Bay State working families are bracing for a wallet-crippling gas-tax
increase, but five nonprofit executives pushing for a 25-cents-a-gallon
hike won’t personally feel the pinch as they all earn six-figure
salaries, with some enjoying company cars and gas reimbursement.
Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers
Foundation, supports the drive to hike the gas tax even higher than Gov. Deval Patrick’s 19-cents-a-gallon proposal. Widmer rakes in $375,000 a
year in salary, $19,000 in benefits and deferred compensation and was
paid $2,837 for expenses, according to 2007 IRS filings. Widmer said his
compensation includes a car allowance and reimbursement for fuel
expenses.
“I understand these are very difficult times for people and I respect
that,” Widmer said. “But the commonwealth has this huge problem where we
have two agencies heading to bankruptcy - the (Massachusetts Turnpike
Authoritiy) and the MBTA. We’ve been warning for years now that we’re
sacrificing the transportation network around this state because we’re
not investing enough in it.”
Joining Widmer’s call for the 25-cents gas-tax increase are:
Alan MacDonald, executive director of Massachusetts Business
Roundtable Inc., who earns $317,000 plus $76,000 in benefits and
expenses, which include a company car;
David Begelfer, chief executive officer of the National
Association for Industrial & Office Properties Inc., who earns $426,000
plus $50,000 in benefits and other compensation, including a company
car;
Paul Guzzi, president of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, who
earns a $331,000 salary plus expenses and other benefits, bringing his
total compensation to $429,600; and
Richard Dimino, president of A Better City Inc., who earns
$335,200.
Begelfer said he didn’t factor his personal compensation into his
decision to back doubling the gas tax.
“This is not just the top CEOs making this determination who could care
less,” Begelfer said. “We have a fiduciary responsibility to our members
and to the commonwealth. We need to do whatever we can right now to
encourage the economy to turn.”
Guzzi, who does not have a company vehicle, defended the proposed hike,
saying, “Our system is broken. To fix it, we need to step up to the
plate. We need major reforms - painful but necessary. We need new
revenue - painful but necessary.”
Dimino, who also does not have a company car, said people at the lowest
end of the economic spectrum will suffer if nothing is done.
“I know it’s hard for people to afford (an) increase,” he said. “But for
those who can’t afford a car or gas, if we don’t do something, we’re
going to see significant cuts in the MBTA. I’m in a better position to
chip in more but frankly we all need to chip in more so that those
people are not left without access.”
MacDonald said the five organizations are responding to years of neglect
and dire reports from transportation experts.
But Barbara Anderson, spokeswoman for Citizens for Limited
Taxation, accused the executives of pandering to big businesses.
“These same people have always opposed our tax cuts for ordinary working
people,” Anderson said. “We always knew we were dealing with fat cats. I
think they’re perfectly in touch - with the people who pay their high
salaries.”
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Businesses endorse 25-cent gas tax hike
By Noah Bierman
Massachusetts business groups yesterday endorsed a 25-cent increase in
the state gas tax, a more aggressive hike than Governor Deval Patrick's
19-cent request, saying that the state needs to move even faster to fix
its ailing network of roads and bridges to encourage a strong business
climate.
The business leaders compared the current push for a transportation
overhaul to the effort that led to the state's new comprehensive
healthcare law, saying that the costs to motorists and businesses are
worth it to fix chronic money shortages that have plagued the system for
more than a generation.
A 25-cent increase would generate about $650 million a year in new tax
revenues for the state.
"The political stakes are high, but the leadership here is necessary,"
said Paul Guzzi, president and CEO of the Greater Boston Chamber of
Commerce.
Guzzi was joined at a media conference in downtown Boston by leaders
from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, the Massachusetts Business
Roundtable, A Better City, and NAIOP Massachusetts, a commercial real
estate development association.
Patrick welcomed the move but some in the Legislature, where support for
such large increases in the per-gallon tax has been uncertain, said the
business groups were insufficiently focused on the pain it would afflict
on motorists. Either of the plans pushed by the governor or the business
groups would give Massachusetts the highest gas tax in the nation.
"This coalition is profoundly out of touch with the struggles of working
men and women of our state," said Senator Steven A. Baddour, a Methuen
Democrat who cochairs the Legislature's transportation committee.
Senator Richard R. Tisei, the Republican leader from Wakefield, echoed
Baddour's earlier comments that many supporters of a gas tax increase
were "elites," and said higher gas taxes were a greater concern to
smaller businesses.
The oft-fractured business community has rarely linked arms to support
higher taxes.
"I've been involved in politics in Massachusetts now for 25 years and I
am honestly not sure that I can remember another time where the business
community came out in such an organized way on behalf of a tax
increase," said Marc D. Draisen, a former Democratic legislator and
executive director of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, which
advocates a 29-cent increase.
A higher gas tax might also reduce the pressure on lawmakers to raise
corporate taxes - which some of the groups have sought to reduce or hold
steady.
The business groups argued yesterday that more money for roads will
retain and attract business, move workers, spur development, and put
people to work on fixing roads or expanding rail.
"It's certainly not about elitism. It's about getting people to work,"
said Richard Dimino, president and CEO of A Better City, a
transportation-oriented business group that had been a key business
supporter of the Big Dig.
The coalition emphasized that significant structural changes under
discussion in the Legislature, including reductions to MBTA fringe
benefits, need to play a larger role in the debate and go hand-in-hand
with higher taxes.
Patrick's plan has generated some skepticism in the Legislature. Michael
Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said he
worries that a compromise on a lower figure could leave lawmakers taking
a tough political vote without raising enough money to fix the
Massachusetts Turnpike, keep fares down on the MBTA, and improve
regional transportation. By starting with a higher number, advocacy
organizations may be hoping to shift the debate so that any compromise
figure will be closer to Patrick's number.
"It's just basic to our economy that transportation and general
infrastructure is really so necessary," said Alan G. Macdonald,
executive director of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable. Macdonald
was a member of a statewide transportation finance commission that had
suggested many of the structural changes being advocated by Patrick and
the Senate, as well as a more modest gas tax hike.
David Begelfer, CEO of NAIOP Massachusetts, cited the state risks of
losing companies that are hemmed in by bad transportation access. "We'll
never know the projects that were never built" because of a lack of road
access, he said.
One notable exception to the pro-gas tax business group: Associated
Industries of Massachusetts, the largest state business organization,
said it opted out of the 25-cent plan because, though higher gas taxes
will eventually be necessary, its members outside of Boston worry that
they will not benefit.
"Given the economy," said Brian Gilmore, Associated Industries'
executive vice president, "we really believe it would be prudent to do
the reforms first and then focus on funding."
Patrick and his transportation secretary, James A. Aloisi Jr., have been
traveling the state in hopes of persuading commuters, particularly those
outside Greater Boston, that they would benefit from better roads and
transit access if the gas tax is raised.
The Legislature's transportation committee will hold its first of four
official hearings on the issue Springfield Technical Community College
at 4 p.m. tomorrow
Globe reporter Matthew A. Viser contributed to this article.
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