CLT UPDATE
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Independence Day spoiled in Taxachusetts
Governor Deval Patrick said yesterday
that he will sign more than $1 billion in tax increases, ending a
months-long standoff with the Legislature and ensuring Massachusetts
residents will pay more for everything, from satellite dishes to
cheeseburgers.
Patrick’s announcement, coming after the House and Senate overwhelmingly
approved the tax increases last week, means that the state sales tax
will rise for the first time in a generation, and at a time when many
residents are losing homes and jobs.
The new sales tax rate, which will increase from 5 percent to 6.25
percent, will go into effect Aug. 1....
“It’s going to hurt small businesses, and it’s going to hurt
consumers,’’ said Jon B. Hurst, president of the Retailers Association
of Massachusetts....
“There’s no fiscal crisis of the last 50 years that hasn’t had both
major spending cuts and a broad-based tax increase,’’ said Michael J.
Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a
business-funded fiscal watchdog group. “In that context, the sales tax,
I think, was predictable because of the size of the revenue collapse.’’
The Boston Globe
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Patrick stresses upside of tax hikes
Bay State consumers, already hard-pressed by a slumping
economy, will be slapped with a 25 percent sales tax hike and nearly $1 billion
in total tax increases Aug. 1, Gov. Deval Patrick said yesterday after signing a
massive transportation reform bill.
The Boston Herald
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Deval Patrick signs off on tax hike bill
Governor Deval Patrick plans to announce a spending proposal
tomorrow that retains medical coverage for some 30,000 legal immigrants who are
at risk of losing it, and will also agree to ensure dental coverage for another
700,000 of the state’s poorest residents, administration officials said
yesterday.
State-subsidized coverage for the two groups has been endangered this year as
Patrick and lawmakers struggled to craft a budget amid an economic downturn that
has sharply curtailed tax revenues. The governor will propose the healthcare
spending for legal immigrants as an amendment to the state’s $27.4-billion
budget that he will sign tomorrow.
The Boston Globe
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Patrick set to keep healthcare for poor
Spending plan aids legal immigrants
In signing the $27 billion budget, Patrick issued $147
million in line-item vetoes.
At the same time, he submitted a separate $269 million supplemental budget to
fund other initiatives, including $70 million for health care for 30,000 legal
immigrants.
Associated Press
Monday, June 29, 2009
Gov. Patrick approves budget with sales tax hike
Governor Deval Patrick signed a budget yesterday that imposes
more than $1 billion in additional taxes on Massachusetts residents and
visitors, most of it through the first increase in the state sales tax in 33
years, even as he declined to rule out a future boost in the state gas tax.
Patrick, whose earlier proposal for a 19-cent-per-gallon increase in the
gasoline tax was largely ignored by the Legislature, continued to make the case
yesterday that the tax could be necessary to put the state’s transportation
network on sounder financial footing.
“We haven’t done that yet. We haven’t finished that work yet,’’ Patrick said,
when asked if he would keep pushing for a gas tax. “And whether that’s the gas
tax or something else, we’re going to have to face those issues, I think sooner
rather than later.’’
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Patrick hints at hike in gas tax
Signs budget, says levy on sales may not suffice;
Cites need to bolster transportation system
Gov. Deval Patrick greenlighted the renewal of a
controversial multimillion-dollar taxpayer-funded giveaway to Hollywood stars
yesterday, even as he signed a $27.05 billion budget that squeezes the Bay State
for another $860 million in new taxes.
The tax credit is meant as an incentive to draw filmmakers to Massachusetts.
Amid the ongoing fiscal crisis, legislators wanted to cap star salaries that
could count toward the credit at $2 million per actor, and the fiscal 2010
budget Patrick signed ratified that.
But yesterday, Patrick also signed a $51 million supplemental spending bill for
this year that prevents the cap from becoming law.
“This is money for nothing,” said Rep. Steven D’Amico, a Seekonk Democrat and
tax credit foe. “Mel Gibson doesn’t need our tax dollars.”
The Boston Herald
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Deval Patrick acts on stars’ behalf
Gov reinstates 25% credit for actors’ salaries
Nearly 30 Boston firefighters with pending disability claims
filed for retirement yesterday, just two days before a new state law ends a
controversial benefit that allows them to significantly enhance their pensions
if they claim career-ending injuries occurred while filling in for a superior at
a higher pay grade.
Of the 29 who filed yesterday, 25 said they were filling in for a superior at
the time of their injuries, according to city officials, which makes them
eligible for a pension benefit at the higher salary scale. That perk, which can
add hundreds of thousands of dollars over a retiree’s lifetime and cost
taxpayers millions, will not be available to anyone filing after today....
Boston Fire Commissioner Roderick J. Fraser Jr. said firefighters are clearly
taking advantage of the final days before the new clampdown on enhanced pensions
goes into effect.
“The old system provided a financial incentive for people to file for accidental
disability while they were filling in for supervisors,’’ he said. “This
illustrates that fact.’’
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Firefighters on disability race to retire
Pension-upgrade rule disappears tomorrow
After 18 months of threats, and three votes to raise tolls,
the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority rescinded a controversial $100 million toll
hike yesterday and will instead depend on money from a higher sales tax to cover
its deficit.
Officials are hoping the infusion of cash buys commuters two or three years
without a toll increase, but the law requires only that the state go without one
for 12 more months.
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Anticipating state revenue,
Pike board kills $100m toll increase
Beginning next month Bay State taxpayers will be forced to
cough up $1 billion a year in new taxes - on restaurant meals, hotel rooms,
beer, wine, satellite TV subscriptions and every manner of consumer good.
And yet before the ink had even dried on the “austere” $27 billion state budget
that delivered those very tax hikes to our doorstep, Gov. Deval Patrick was
entertaining the possibility of, yep, another tax hike....
Still Patrick and his transportation secretary, James Aloisi, haven’t let go of
their dream of paving the streets with gas tax gold. While Patrick was keeping
that flame alive on Monday, Aloisi was mulling the possibility of a future toll
hike. Funding from the sales tax hike should get the Pike through the next few
years, Aloisi said, but that isn’t a guarantee.
What is clear is that Patrick has failed utterly in gauging the mood of
taxpayers, who were already struggling to accept the idea of paying higher taxes
on everything but their gasoline.
A Boston Herald editorial
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Gov fuels tax talk
In most states, a governor who just signed a $1 billion tax
hike would be looking for political cover. A budget with a 25 percent sales tax
hike would be a legislative orphan elsewhere.
But in Massachusetts, taxpayers feel a palpable sense of relief. “We only got
nailed with a sales tax?” locals ask in pleased surprise.
Welcome to Massachusetts, where taxpayers lined up before the Beacon Hill firing
squad are just grateful they didn’t get shot twice....
Thanks to a combination of one-party government and a largely liberal media, the
Democratic autocracy that runs this state is free to rain on the taxpayers’
parade every day. Voters in other states might expect more but why should we?
For a few months, our taxes are going to be slightly less higher than expected.
And, I predict, one day this week we’ll see the sun break.
In both instances, my advice is the same: It’s Massachusetts. Enjoy it while you
can.
The Boston Herald
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Alas, it’s only drizzling on taxpayers’ parade
By Michael Graham
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
This relentlessly miserable early-spring weather
now into
July is supposed to at last break, at least for the holiday weekend
celebration of Independence Day. Too bad Beacon Hill
spoiled any real cause to celebrate. Instead, here in Taxachusetts
-- once the birthplace of revolution, ground zero of the demand for
independence from an oppressive government -- we have been further
oppressed with regal impunity.
Let us not forget that the upcoming holiday,
colloquially referred to as the Fourth of July weekend, celebrates
Independence Day, the actual date when the American colonies
declared separation from Great Britain. It's not just a mid-summer
respite from daily activities; it was supposed to have meaning and still
should.
On Independence Day, 1997
The second-largest tax increase in state history has
been signed into law by Gov. Deval Patrick -- and before the ink had
dried, he's already talking about a gas tax increase too.
Oh sure he says he's satisfied with all the reforms
he'd demanded before approving the 25 percent sales tax hike, but now
calls them "a start." And when, do you suppose, we'll see them
continued, completed, now that more of our hard-earned money is flowing
into the state's coffers? Not any time soon, I predict.
Already "pension reform" is working -- with public
employees such as Boston firefighters throwing themselves into early
retirement in droves before the limited reforms' effective date.
Wonderful, good legislation Beacon Hill -- smart planning.
We at CLT have been getting calls from all over
including the media: "What do you plan to do about these tax
increases?"
"Nothing," is our calculated and unified response.
For decades we've heard from the state Republican
party that ballot questions undermine their candidates -- that voters
choose to repeal taxes or vote for reforms, then reelect the same cast
of characters who've produced our troubles. We never bought into
that argument, but times have changed.
There are consequences to elections, to choices made
by the electorate, every voter. We are in a moment that we as
Americans have never before confronted. We are at a critical
juncture in our state's and our nation's direction, it's future
history.
November 2010. That's when change must
happen.
Not with single issues -- but with the future of each
of those who allegedly "represent" us.
We will not contribute to dilution of that message,
of that potential for change we don't have to "believe in" but will
become the next consequence.
Work and vote for a ballot question and we will be
ignored. We know this from experience. It's a waste of
time and resources.
Vote out incumbents -- "Drain The Sewer"
-- and we mere citizens might once again become respected and reign
supreme.
Anything less is squandering hope and opportunity.
 |
|
Chip Ford |
|
The Boston Globe
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Patrick stresses upside of tax hikes
By Matt Viser
Governor Deval Patrick said yesterday that he will sign more than $1
billion in tax increases, ending a months-long standoff with the
Legislature and ensuring Massachusetts residents will pay more for
everything, from satellite dishes to cheeseburgers.
Patrick’s announcement, coming after the House and Senate overwhelmingly
approved the tax increases last week, means that the state sales tax
will rise for the first time in a generation, and at a time when many
residents are losing homes and jobs.
The new sales tax rate, which will increase from 5 percent to 6.25
percent, will go into effect Aug. 1.
“I will approve the new revenues we need to bring our budget into
balance, offset the need for even more difficult cuts, and expand
opportunity throughout the Commonwealth,’’ Patrick said in a statement.
“Due to the economic challenges that all states are facing, this new
revenue is necessary to prevent us from losing ground on our long-term
goals in education and healthcare, and further straining safety net
services that are struggling to meet the increased demand.’’
About $275 million in projected new sales tax revenue will be directed
to the state’s transportation network, preventing planned toll increases
on the Massachusetts Turnpike, at least for now. The sales tax revenue
will also help shore up finances at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation
Authority, although it might not be enough to head off a fare increase.
The statewide meals tax will also increase, from 5 percent to 6.25
percent, and municipalities will have the option to raise it up to 7
percent and keep the extra revenue for themselves. In addition, taxes
will go up on satellite television users, and a sales-tax exemption on
alcohol sold in retail stores will be eliminated. Municipalities will
also be allowed to raise the local hotel tax by 2 percentage points.
“It’s going to hurt small businesses, and it’s going to hurt
consumers,’’ said Jon B. Hurst, president of the Retailers Association
of Massachusetts.
Patrick had earlier argued for targeted taxes on items such as candy and
soda, and a 19-cents-per-gallon increase in the gasoline tax. None of
those proposals were embraced by the Legislature, which instead turned
to the state sales tax to raise an additional $900 million a year.
“There’s no fiscal crisis of the last 50 years that hasn’t had both
major spending cuts and a broad-based tax increase,’’ said Michael J.
Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a
business-funded fiscal watchdog group. “In that context, the sales tax,
I think, was predictable because of the size of the revenue collapse.’’
Patrick had said he would agree to the lawmakers’ plan only after they
agreed to overhaul the state’s ethics, pension, and transportation laws
significantly. Over the past two weeks, House and Senate lawmakers
approved plans on each of those items, all but forcing the governor to
sign on to their tax proposal.
Patrick’s decision will provide fresh state revenues to offset deeper
budget cuts, but it could hurt him at the ballot box next year. The way
he made the announcement - in a quiet statement at 4:23 on a Friday
afternoon - said much about the political risk.
Still, Massachusetts has one of the lowest sales tax rates in the
country, and exempts several items from the tax, such as food, and
clothing that costs less than $175. The state passed a 3 percent sales
tax in 1966; it was increased a decade later to 5 percent, where it has
remained.
The tax proposals are included in the $27.4 billion state budget for the
next fiscal year, which begins Wednesday.
Patrick also signed legislation yesterday to overhaul the state’s ailing
transportation network, abolishing the Turnpike Authority and
consolidating a patchwork of agencies that govern roads, rail, and
bridges.
The bill, a key part of what Patrick is calling his “reform agenda,’’
creates a new state Department of Transportation that will oversee
highways, mass transit, aeronautics, and the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
The Boston Herald
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Deval Patrick signs off on tax hike bill
By Hillary Chabot
Bay State consumers, already hard-pressed by a slumping economy, will be
slapped with a 25 percent sales tax hike and nearly $1 billion in total
tax increases Aug. 1, Gov. Deval Patrick said yesterday after signing a
massive transportation reform bill.
Patrick had vowed to veto the sales tax boost if lawmakers didn’t enact
transportation, pension and ethics reforms - but all three measures
passed.
“I could not support a sales tax increase and ask people to pay for the
status quo,” Patrick said in a statement. “Because of (the reforms), I
will approve the new revenues we need to bring our budget into balance,
offset the need for even more difficult cuts and expand opportunity
throughout the commonwealth.”
The transportation measure also means an unpopular toll hike - scheduled
take effect July 1 - will likely be averted. The Massachusetts Turnpike
Authority board is meeting Monday.
Also yesterday, Patrick signed transportation reform legislation that
eliminates the ailing Turnpike and also seeks “millions of dollars” in
savings by forcing all MBTA employees onto state health insurance.
The law folds all transportation agencies into one behemoth called the
Massachusetts Department of Transportation. A five-member board of
directors will oversee the new agency. The members, appointed by the
governor, are supposed to be experts in transportation, finance and
engineering.
The new bill also would make Transportation Secretary James Aloisi - the
mega-agency’s likely new CEO - accountable to the board instead of
directly to Patrick. “I am excited by this opportunity to lead a
revitalized and reorganized transportation organization,” Aloisi said in
a statement.
On Monday, Patrick is slated to sign a $24.7 billion budget that cuts
local aid and state services.
The Boston Globe
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Patrick set to keep healthcare for poor
Spending plan aids legal immigrants
By Kay Lazar
Governor Deval Patrick plans to announce a spending proposal tomorrow
that retains medical coverage for some 30,000 legal immigrants who are
at risk of losing it, and will also agree to ensure dental coverage for
another 700,000 of the state’s poorest residents, administration
officials said yesterday.
State-subsidized coverage for the two groups has been endangered this
year as Patrick and lawmakers struggled to craft a budget amid an
economic downturn that has sharply curtailed tax revenues. The governor
will propose the healthcare spending for legal immigrants as an
amendment to the state’s $27.4-billion budget that he will sign
tomorrow.
Patrick’s proposal for the legal immigrants is a short-term fix that
will require more work with lawmakers, who have resisted the coverage
because it is especially expensive for the state. To maintain
state-subsidized care for immigrants beyond August, Patrick will call on
legislators, health advocates, and state regulators to patch together a
long-term solution.
“This plan continues our commitment to healthcare reform and will ensure
that health coverage for thousands of residents will not fall victim to
the recession and shrinking budgets,’’ said a senior administration
official who was briefed on the blueprint.
The 30,000 immigrants affected have “special status’’ in the immigration
system and have been in the country less than five years. Many are
seeking asylum from war-ravaged regions, such as Iraq, Somalia, and the
Sudan. Advocates say the group includes people who have survived torture
or were victims of human trafficking and have serious mental health and
post-traumatic problems that require treatment.
Healthcare and immigrant advocates, who pushed hard for the cuts to be
restored, last night said they were encouraged by the news.
“It indicates that the administration is seriously looking at the needs
of these 30,000 immigrants,’’ said Eva A. Millona, executive director of
the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Center, the state’s
largest immigrant group. “It also shows the governor’s commitment to
preserving the values of healthcare reform in Massachusetts.’’
Spokesmen for Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Robert
DeLeo said they had not seen the proposals so could not comment on them.
The officials said that among the amendments Patrick will submit
tomorrow when he signs the state’s $27.4 billion budget is a proposal to
spend $70 million, or about half of the annual cost to cover the group.
They declined to say where in the budget this money would come from.
Under Patrick’s proposal, in August, the immigrants would receive care
through two other state programs: MassHealth Limited, which would cover
emergencies, and the Health Safety Net for the rest of their care.
By September, the officials said, the aim is that state regulators and
administration officials will have devised an alternative method for
coverage by renegotiating and redesigning the contracts with the health
insurance companies that participate in the state program, or by
securing a change in federal policy to get more matching funds. They
declined to elaborate.
In an earlier interview with the Globe, Senator Steven Panagiotakos,
chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said lawmakers were not
targeting immigrants, but proposed the cuts because the 30,000 “special
status’’ immigrants at issue do not qualify for matching federal
subsidies and thus are more expensive for the state to insure.
“The governor is clearly trying to find a way to maintain coverage
despite the tremendous revenue shortfall,’’ said Brian Rosman, research
director for Health Care for All, a large consumer group.
He said Patrick’s plan to retain dental coverage indicates that the
governor understands the importance of such care to overall health.
“We’re hopeful that these 700,000 adults don’t have to worry again this
year that their dental benefits are in jeopardy,’’ Rosman said.
Health and dental coverage for huge swaths of low-income residents has
been in limbo for more than a month, as lawmakers and the governor
hatched dueling plans to close a multibillion-dollar gap in the state’s
fiscal budget, which begins July 1.
Patrick, a staunch supporter of legal immigrants, had included
healthcare coverage for them in Commonwealth Care, the subsidized
program that is the centerpiece of the state’s 2006 health insurance
overhaul. But the Senate Ways and Means Committee cut them out in its
proposed blueprint released last month.
Hoping to salvage care for the immigrants, Patrick then crafted a list
of other healthcare areas to cut, including the dental coverage for
700,000 adults in Commonwealth Care and in MassHealth, the state’s
Medicaid program. The governor’s revised budget proposal retained
coverage for the immigrants.
But the Legislature threw Patrick a curveball: Lawmakers included his
suggested cuts in their final budget released June 19, but applied the
savings toward other areas of the budget, and once again, cut out the
immigrants. However, they restored dental coverage for the 700,000.
When Patrick signs the budget tomorrow and submits his amendments and
vetoes, the ball will be back in the Legislature’s court. If lawmakers
choose once again to cut healthcare coverage for the legal immigrants,
they must override Patrick’s amendment by a two-thirds margin vote in
both the House and the Senate.
Associated Press
Monday, June 29, 2009
Gov. Patrick approves budget with sales tax hike
Gov. Deval Patrick has approved a new state budget that hikes the
Massachusetts sales tax by 25 percent, largely preserves education
spending, and makes deep cuts to other state services.
The increase in the sales tax allowed the Massachusetts Turnpike
Authority earlier today to vote to avoid a planned toll hike scheduled
to take effect July 1, relying instead on $100 million from the tax
increase.
In signing the $27 billion budget, Patrick issued $147 million in
line-item vetoes.
At the same time, he submitted a separate $269 million supplemental
budget to fund other initiatives, including $70 million for health care
for 30,000 legal immigrants.
The budget also maintains current eligibility for state-subsidized
health insurance programs and funds dental coverage for MassHealth and
Commonwealth Care.
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Patrick hints at hike in gas tax
Signs budget, says levy on sales may not suffice;
Cites need to bolster transportation system
By Matt Viser
Governor Deval Patrick signed a budget yesterday that imposes more than
$1 billion in additional taxes on Massachusetts residents and visitors,
most of it through the first increase in the state sales tax in 33
years, even as he declined to rule out a future boost in the state gas
tax.
Patrick, whose earlier proposal for a 19-cent-per-gallon increase in the
gasoline tax was largely ignored by the Legislature, continued to make
the case yesterday that the tax could be necessary to put the state’s
transportation network on sounder financial footing.
“We haven’t done that yet. We haven’t finished that work yet,’’ Patrick
said, when asked if he would keep pushing for a gas tax. “And whether
that’s the gas tax or something else, we’re going to have to face those
issues, I think sooner rather than later.’’
Patrick aides said afterward that the governor had no current plans to
push for a gas tax increase.
The governor made his comments as he signed a $27 billion budget that
includes increases in the state’s sales, alcohol, satellite television,
meals, and hotel taxes. Even while putting his signature on the budget,
Patrick continued to try to distance himself from a
first-in-a-generation increase in the state’s sales tax, which on Aug. 1
will rise from 5 percent to 6.25 percent.
“The sales tax is not my first choice, and not the preferred course,’’
he said. “It’s the course that the Legislature pursued. I preferred, and
still do, more targeted revenue measures that raise, from a particular
source, revenue for particular needs.’’
In signing the budget, which is $400 million less than the plan House
and Senate lawmakers approved earlier this month, Patrick vetoed nearly
$150 million worth of spending proposals. He also cut $217 million in
funding for county sheriffs, although that funding will probably be
restored through a bill that consolidates sheriffs departments
throughout the state.
The budget takes effect tomorrow, the first day of fiscal year 2010,
although the Legislature will probably attempt to override several of
Patrick’s vetoes.
The budget cuts funding for noneducation local aid, in some cases up to
15 percent, but provides a record-high $4 billion in education funding
for cities and towns, due in part to $167 million in federal stimulus
money. The budget relies heavily on one-time sources of revenue, using
$1.7 billion from federal stimulus funding and $215 million in state
reserves.
Spokesmen for House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo and Senate President Therese
Murray said they were still reviewing Patrick’s plan. Even while issuing
a series of vetoes, Patrick submitted a $269 million supplemental
budget, which includes $70 million to restore healthcare coverage for
30,000 legal immigrants that the Legislature had cut.
“This is without question an austere - and in some respects, painful -
budget,’’ Patrick said in a late-afternoon press conference held in his
office. “It contains many unavoidable spending cuts and they, many of
them, will have a painful impact.’’
In his vetoes, Patrick cut from a wide range of spending areas,
including $25 million for senior care, $7.6 million for trial courts,
and $250,000 for the State House park rangers.
He also sliced roughly 5 percent of the funding for children’s mental
health services that were ordered under a federal class action lawsuit
known as Rosie D. Those services were supposed to start rolling out
today.
“The families have been anxiously awaiting these services and it’s
incredibly disappointing that the governor is not maintaining his
commitment,’’ said Lisa Lambert, executive director of the Parent
Professional Advocacy League, which represents about 4,000 families.
Patrick’s budget also included $400,000 to restore funding for a
Washington, D.C., office that critics have said is a waste of funding
when Massachusetts has a 12-member Congressional delegation. The
Legislature had eliminated all funding for the Washington office.
“While raising taxes on families by a billion dollars and cutting
services to the needy, Governor Patrick is trying to waste money on a
Washington office when he has a Congressional delegation full of
Democrats,’’ said Tarah Donoghue, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts
Republican Party.
Patrick had said he would agree to the vast bulk of the lawmakers’
spending and budget plan only after they agreed to a significant
overhaul of the state’s ethics, pension, and transportation laws. Over
the past two weeks, House and Senate lawmakers approved plans on each of
those items, all but forcing the governor to sign onto their sales tax
proposal.
A portion of the new tax revenue from the $1 billion in tax increases
will prevent a previously planned toll increase on the Massachusetts
Turnpike, and could help alleviate fare hikes for MBTA riders.
But Patrick continued to say yesterday that that approach may not
provide enough money for a permanent fix to the state’s transportation
problems, which include agencies in massive debt and crumbling roads and
bridges. Patrick’s plan for a 19-cent-per-gallon increase would have
raised about $500 million for transit, compared with an estimated $275
million in new sales tax revenue slated for transportation.
Patrick aides stressed that there was no current plan to push for a gas
tax hike, but reiterated that the governor thinks there should be a
long-term financing plan for the state’s transportation network. They
would not specify what funding source that would be, or when they would
push for it.
“The governor has been clear: He backed a dedicated revenue stream to
support the state’s long-term transportation needs. We will have to
revisit this challenge at some point down the road,’’ said Joe Landolfi,
Patrick’s communications director. “He also said that it is a crummy
time to ask people to pay more. And he is not pushing for a gas tax
increase on top of today’s increase in the sales tax.’’
Kay Lazar of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
The Boston Herald
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Deval Patrick acts on stars’ behalf
Gov reinstates 25% credit for actors’ salaries
By Edward Mason
Gov. Deval Patrick greenlighted the renewal of a controversial
multimillion-dollar taxpayer-funded giveaway to Hollywood stars
yesterday, even as he signed a $27.05 billion budget that squeezes the
Bay State for another $860 million in new taxes.
The tax credit is meant as an incentive to draw filmmakers to
Massachusetts. Amid the ongoing fiscal crisis, legislators wanted to cap
star salaries that could count toward the credit at $2 million per
actor, and the fiscal 2010 budget Patrick signed ratified that.
But yesterday, Patrick also signed a $51 million supplemental spending
bill for this year that prevents the cap from becoming law.
“This is money for nothing,” said Rep. Steven D’Amico, a Seekonk
Democrat and tax credit foe. “Mel Gibson doesn’t need our tax dollars.”
A Patrick spokeswoman did not comment on the issue.
One State House source estimated the revenue lost by not imposing the
star cap at about $20 million a year.
Beacon Hill sources said Patrick was responding to complaints Hollywood
honchos lodged with the state film office that the proposed cap on star
salaries was a major rewrite of tax law.
Senate President Therese Murray, whose Plymouth district could be home
to a new studio, also supported maintaining the full tax credit for
movies.
The new state budget, which takes effect tomorrow, hikes the state sales
tax by 25 percent to 6.25 percent, and allows cities and towns to raise
meals and hotel taxes. That new revenue allows the Massachusetts
Turnpike Authority to hold off a planned $100 million toll hike.
Patrick vetoed $147 million from the budget the Legislature sent him,
including money for food assistance, senior health care, and
kindergarten expansion grants.
Patrick also deepsixed a budget proposal to keep information about who
receives state tax credits private. He had asked lawmakers to require
the state disclose who receives them.
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Firefighters on disability race to retire
Pension-upgrade rule disappears tomorrow
By Michael Levenson and Donovan Slack
Nearly 30 Boston firefighters with pending disability claims filed for
retirement yesterday, just two days before a new state law ends a
controversial benefit that allows them to significantly enhance their
pensions if they claim career-ending injuries occurred while filling in
for a superior at a higher pay grade.
Of the 29 who filed yesterday, 25 said they were filling in for a
superior at the time of their injuries, according to city officials,
which makes them eligible for a pension benefit at the higher salary
scale. That perk, which can add hundreds of thousands of dollars over a
retiree’s lifetime and cost taxpayers millions, will not be available to
anyone filing after today.
“This is highly unusual,’’ said Kathleen Kiely-Becchetti, executive
director of the Boston Retirement Board, of the number of firefighters
who filed for retirement yesterday while their disability claims were
still pending.
The race to file yesterday is the first obvious reaction to the sweeping
pension law that was passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor
Deval Patrick earlier this month. The claims filed by the firefighters
yesterday - and an expected rash of new claims today - could cost Boston
taxpayers millions in additional payouts at a time of major budget
constraints, fire officials said.
Boston Fire Commissioner Roderick J. Fraser Jr. said firefighters are
clearly taking advantage of the final days before the new clampdown on
enhanced pensions goes into effect.
“The old system provided a financial incentive for people to file for
accidental disability while they were filling in for supervisors,’’ he
said. “This illustrates that fact.’’
Suspected disability retirement abuses and pension excesses have been a
chronic problem at the Boston Fire Department, prompting an inquiry by
the FBI.
A Globe review of city retirement and payroll records last year found
that, over the prior six years, 102 Boston firefighters had
substantially enhanced their tax-free disability pensions by claiming
career-ending injuries while they were filling in for superiors at
higher pay grades. Some firefighters have sought the enhanced benefit
after filling in for a superior for just one day, leading critics to
call it the “king-for-a-day’’ provision.
Boston retirement officials said that there are 68 firefighters with
pending disability pension claims. Starting tomorrow, firefighters who
file for disability pensions would see their retirement checks based on
their average salary from the 12 months prior to their injury.
State fire union officials have been working hard to warn members about
the new law, blasting e-mails and holding meetings with them, to make
sure they understand that they will lose the opportunity to file for
enhanced pension benefits if they do not file for retirement by today.
“It’s caused a lot of consternation with members . . . it’s complicated
and they’re nervous,’’ said Robert B. McCarthy, president of the
Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts. “They don’t want to hurt
their families and their pensions.’’
Officials from Boston Firefighters Union Local 718, which represents the
city’s firefighters, did not return calls.
Boston officials yesterday noted a short-term cost savings to the
11th-hour flurry of retirement applications by firefighters.
The 29 firefighters who applied for retirement yesterday had been out on
injured leave, collecting 100 percent of their pay, tax-free, pending
the approval of their disability claims. Now that they have filed for
retirement, the firefighters will instead receive 80 percent of their
salary in pension benefits, saving the city money while their disability
claims are pending.
All firefighters who apply for disability benefits have to have their
application approved by a panel of doctors and by Boston retirement
officials.
Those whose disability claims are eventually approved will receive 72
percent of their salary tax-free for life. Those who were filling in for
a supervisor and got their retirement application in before the new law
takes effect tomorrow would receive a pension based on their
supervisor’s salary.
Even before the new law takes effect, union officials have been lobbying
leading lawmakers to roll back one of its key provisions.
McCarthy has already met with Senate President Therese Murray, Senate
Ways and Means chairman Steven C. Panagiotakos, and a top House lawmaker
to push for changes. McCarthy has proposed an amendment that would
change the way firefighters’ pensions are calculated, opening the door
for them to again receive benefits based on their superiors’ pay.
McCarthy argued that the new law unfairly punishes all injured
firefighters, not just those who claim injury while filling in for
superiors.
“I don’t think they intended to punish every firefighter who gets
injured in the line of duty, and that’s what it does,’’ McCarthy said of
the new law. “How am I going to tell my guys to fight a fire and risk
their lives if they’re not going to be protected?’’
Boston officials strongly oppose McCarthy’s amendment, which they say
would undermine the new law.
“People should not be fooled,’’ said Dot Joyce, a spokeswoman for Mayor
Thomas M. Menino. “What the Legislature did in closing this loophole is
not only appropriate, but in the best interests of the taxpayers.’’
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Anticipating state revenue,
Pike board kills $100m toll increase
By Noah Bierman
After 18 months of threats, and three votes to raise tolls, the
Massachusetts Turnpike Authority rescinded a controversial $100 million
toll hike yesterday and will instead depend on money from a higher sales
tax to cover its deficit.
Officials are hoping the infusion of cash buys commuters two or three
years without a toll increase, but the law requires only that the state
go without one for 12 more months.
“I think this will get us past the next several years, barring some
unexpected circumstances,’’ said James A. Aloisi Jr., Governor Deval
Patrick’s transportation secretary and chairman of the turnpike board.
The toll hike had been set to take effect tomorrow. It would have
doubled rates at the harbor tunnels and increased them substantially at
booths inside Greater Boston. The authority had begun printing new toll
tickets, given the uncertainty surrounding the legislative budget
process.
The sales tax increase - from 5 percent to 6.25 percent - dedicates $275
million to transportation. Of that, $160 million is reserved for the
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. While the money will reduce
the size of public transit fare hikes, it will not eliminate them.
Transportation officials have said they will release several options -
within the next two weeks - aimed at reducing service and raising fares
on the T by about 15 to 20 percent.
Aloisi said he wished there were as many strong voices protecting public
transit riders as there were opposing toll increases and a higher gas
tax.
Michael Kelleher, founder of StopThePikeHike.org, said his organization
would not rest after today’s victory on the turnpike, vowing to launch
an initiative to remove all tolls. A similar effort was struck down in
1998 by the state Supreme Judicial Court.
“We beat the toll increase today,’’ Kelleher said. “Within a year or
two, we are definitely going to have another one.’’
If tolls are raised again, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority will not
be making the decision. Under a law signed by Patrick last week that
made dramatic changes to the transportation system, the authority will
officially disappear in November. Its $2 billion debt and maintenance
responsibilities will be transferred to a new entity that will run
almost every major road in the state.
Before that transfer, the Turnpike Authority is facing a more immediate
financial problem. Because of a questionable investment made in 2001 and
international problems in the credit markets, the authority could be
forced to make a $268 million lump sum payment to Swiss financial giant
UBS. Patrick administration officials are negotiating with UBS in hopes
of avoiding the payment. Aloisi said the issue could wind up in court,
but that “I am confident that we’re going to be OK at the end of the
day.’’
In addition to eliminating the Turnpike Authority, the transportation
bill signed by Patrick last week stripped the Massachusetts Port
Authority of a lucrative asset - the Tobin Memorial Bridge. The toll
bridge netted $18 million last year.
The change in oversight had an immediate negative impact on Massport
yesterday, when Standard & Poor’s threatened to lower its credit rating.
Massport will remain largely independent under the new transportation
law and remain in control of Logan International Airport and the
seaport. Standard & Poor’s renewed the “AA-’’ rating on Massport’s $1.3
billion airport revenue bonds, but changed the future outlook on the
bonds to “negative,’’ due in large part to the loss of the bridge.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
A Boston Herald editorial
Gov fuels tax talk
Beginning next month Bay State taxpayers will be forced to cough up $1
billion a year in new taxes - on restaurant meals, hotel rooms, beer,
wine, satellite TV subscriptions and every manner of consumer good.
And yet before the ink had even dried on the “austere” $27 billion state
budget that delivered those very tax hikes to our doorstep, Gov. Deval
Patrick was entertaining the possibility of, yep, another tax hike.
Asked during his budget-signing press conference on Monday whether the
state would need to raise more taxes, specifically to address
transportation needs, Patrick could have pounded the podium and said “no
way.”
(It might have taken the sting out of those poll numbers that show him
trailing Christy Mihos, and barely ahead of Harvard Pilgrim CEO Charlie
Baker, in a possible 2010 matchup.)
Instead, the governor mewed that “that’s not where I want to be” and
said the work of resolving transportation funding issues isn’t yet
finished. Translation:
Definitely maybe.
And with that Patrick yanked his own grand bargain with the Legislature
off the table, in a revenue bait and switch that we should have seen
coming.
Because the gas tax, of course, was always Patrick’s first choice. He
first proposed raising it by 19 cents per gallon. But when the
Legislature wouldn’t play along, he agreed to the sales tax hike in
exchange for ethics, pension and transportation reforms.
Still Patrick and his transportation secretary, James Aloisi, haven’t
let go of their dream of paving the streets with gas tax gold. While
Patrick was keeping that flame alive on Monday, Aloisi was mulling the
possibility of a future toll hike. Funding from the sales tax hike
should get the Pike through the next few years, Aloisi said, but that
isn’t a guarantee.
What is clear is that Patrick has failed utterly in gauging the mood of
taxpayers, who were already struggling to accept the idea of paying
higher taxes on everything but their gasoline.
The Boston Herald
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Alas, it’s only drizzling on taxpayers’ parade
By Michael Graham
I write today in defense of the proposition that the glass is not
half-empty, it is half-full.
Of rainwater.
Over the weekend I attended a barbecue where, under normal
circumstances, the weather would have been considered abysmal. The day
was gray and overcast, darkened by the constant threat of rain. It was
English weather - that dreary kind that affects the minds of British
women, causing them to write Gothic novels or find Hugh Grant
attractive.
And yet, my companions were oddly sunny about the lack of sun. “At least
it’s not raining,” they chirped.
Like Sherlock Holmes’ dog that did not bark, this sunless summer has
made us grateful for the rain that doesn’t fall.
Or, in case of Massachusetts, the tax that didn’t hike.
In most states, a governor who just signed a $1 billion tax hike would
be looking for political cover. A budget with a 25 percent sales tax
hike would be a legislative orphan elsewhere.
But in Massachusetts, taxpayers feel a palpable sense of relief. “We
only got nailed with a sales tax?” locals ask in pleased surprise.
Welcome to Massachusetts, where taxpayers lined up before the Beacon
Hill firing squad are just grateful they didn’t get shot twice.
Not that we are naive. We read the headlines about the Turpike Authority
“rescinding” the planned $100 million toll hike thanks to the sales tax,
and we know it’s a temporary reprieve. As long as Beacon Hill keeps
spending - and they are - the clouds will gather and eventually we’re
going to get soaked.
But it didn’t happen today.
Not only are we a year or so away from a toll hike, but that sales tax
doesn’t go up until Aug. 1. That gives us a month to load up the liquor
cabinet.
Ah, these truly are the salad days . . .
Some editorial pages are grousing about how little Beacon Hill has
actually done. They point out, for example, that the so-called ethics
bill still allows key work to go on behind closed doors and leaves
enforcement largely to the Ethics Commission lapdogs.
Good government-types make the same complaints about transportation
reform (new MassDOT letterhead, same old hack payroll) and pension
reform (the toughest “reforms” are for employees they haven’t hired
yet).
Are these complaints legit? Of course! A fiscal crisis and
billion-dollar tax hike ought to buy some meaningful reforms. Or, to
quote the old Deval Patrick, some “fundamental change in the way Beacon
Hill does business.”
But this is Massachusetts, where taxpayers are regularly shoved down the
legislative staircase. Many of us were prepared to see the sales tax or
gas tax increased, or both, without even a token measure of reform.
Why it’s practically an Iranian-style revolution to see Beacon Hill
pandering to us at all.
Thanks to a combination of one-party government and a largely liberal
media, the Democratic autocracy that runs this state is free to rain on
the taxpayers’ parade every day. Voters in other states might expect
more but why should we?
For a few months, our taxes are going to be slightly less higher than
expected. And, I predict, one day this week we’ll see the sun break.
In both instances, my advice is the same: It’s Massachusetts. Enjoy it
while you can.
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