CLT UPDATE
Thursday, June 24, 2010
More of our money, no reform
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Beacon Hill lawmakers rejected the bulk of a
Senate crackdown on taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens,
part of a compromise budget spending more than $27 billion they hope
to pass today and send to Gov. Deval Patrick.
House and Senate dealmakers nixed a 24-hour hotline to report
illegal aliens and refused to force the attorney general to agree in
writing to enforce federal immigration law. And they would not put
into law language barring state schools from offering in-state
tuition rates to illegal aliens.
The Boston Herald
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Pols nix immigrant measures from budget
State lawmakers last night completed a $27.6
billion budget plan for next fiscal year that would cut local aid
for cities and towns, require all government offices to remain open
on Bunker Hill Day and Evacuation Day, and impose a softer crackdown
on illegal immigrants than the measure approved by senators last
month.
A group of six House and Senate negotiators had been hammering out
the final budget, which includes a broad range of policy and
spending plans, behind closed doors since June 7, trying to
reconcile differences between plans passed earlier this year by the
two legislative bodies.
But the lawmakers were thrown off course in recent days as they were
forced to plug an additional $687 million gap to account for federal
stimulus money that had been expected to keep some state programs
afloat, but is now far from certain to arrive....
The budget features cuts in social services, the court system,
higher education, and nearly every other aspect of state government.
That includes complete elimination of a $56 million program that
gives health care to low-income immigrants who are considered legal,
but not permanent, residents, plus another $68 million from other
health programs for low-income residents covered under MassHealth,
the state Medicaid program....
Both the House and Senate are expected to vote today on the budget.
The fiscal year begins July 1.
Lawmakers decided not to impose some of the stricter immigration
measures that passed the Senate with great fanfare last month,
including the establishment of a 24-hour hot line to report
companies that hire illegal immigrants and a requirement that the
attorney general begin discussions with federal officials to offer
help in enforcing immigration laws. Instead, lawmakers said, they
decided to make official current practices that bar illegal
immigrants from receiving state services.
A group of opponents to the Senate measure, called the Student
Immigration Movement, has been holding around-the-clock vigils
outside the State House for 17 days in protest. But polls have
generally shown that much of the public favors stricter immigration
enforcement.
The Boston Globe
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Budget would cut services, local aid
Lawmakers’ plan eases crackdown on illegal immigrants
Senate and House negotiators reached a budget
compromise Wednesday that patches a $687 million gap created by
absent federal aid with deeper cuts than their original drafts and a
raid on savings, curtails the Senate's crackdown on illegal
immigration, and shelves a union-opposed proposal to grant local
officials authority over public employees' health care plans....
"Plan design," a proposal backed by local officials but opposed by
unions because it would pare collective bargaining rights in health
care negotiations, was held in conference....
The relatively swift conference was jarred weeks ago by Washington's
refusal to authorize a $24 billion national fund from which both
Gov. Deval Patrick and the House expect to derive $608 million,
while the Senate is banking on $687 billion. Mixed signals from
Congress have led to doubts over when or if the money will arrive.
State House News Service
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Immigration crackdown softened in budget deal
The North Shore Chamber of Commerce has joined
several other business groups, including its Cape Ann counterpart
and Associated Industries of Massachusetts, in urging the
Legislature to give municipal officials "plan design" authority over
the health plans offered their employees.
In a statement released this week they note, "Since 2000, municipal
health insurance costs have increased at double-digit rates — more
than five times the rate of inflation — growing from just 6 percent
of municipal budgets in 2001 to a projected 20 percent by 2020." ...
"Exploding health care and pension costs are forcing cities and
towns to curtail services," the coalition rightly notes, adding that
unless these issues are addressed, "cuts and layoffs will intensify
over the next several years."
A Salem News editorial
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Business groups throw weight behind 'plan design'
With only six weeks left in the legislative
session and fears of a $700 million crater opening up in next year’s
budget, lawmakers can no longer ignore “the single most important
step that can be taken to help cities and towns cope with their
serious fiscal problems.” ...
Naturally public employee unions rage about the dire consequences of
plan design, both financial and medical, when what they really care
about is losing leverage. We’d note that the system works just fine
for every unionized state worker....
If lawmakers squander this opportunity, they do
not deserve re-election.
A Boston Herald editorial
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Time for leaders to lead
Teachers union President Donna Gogas is calling
for increasing property taxes and implementing "school user fees" to
fund teachers' raises, according to an e-mail received by fellow
teachers....
"She is advocating for paying teachers' salaries by raising taxes
and implementing user fees. This is something that is abhorrent to
the people in the town," said School Committee member Robert Vogler....
Unions worry about teachers who are preparing to retire, and they
fear that concessions will reduce the amount those people can
collect in their pensions.
The Eagle-Tribune
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Teacher union head calls for tax hike to cover raises
Voters in November will get the chance to
slash the state sales tax from 6.25 percent to 3 percent,
according to advocates who say they submitted more than enough
petition signatures yesterday to force the item onto the ballot.
Carla Howell — chairwoman of the Alliance to Roll Back Taxes,
based in Wayland — said her group submitted about 19,000
signatures to town and city clerks by yesterday’s deadline, a
comfortable margin over the required 11,099 signatures....
“It would mean drastic cuts in aid to cities and towns, public
higher education, health care, human services, and public
safety,’’ said Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts
Taxpayers Foundation. “It would come after several rounds of
cuts and would have a dramatic impact on state and local
programs that the public has rightly come to expect.’’ ...
Widmer pointed out that the state continues to collect less in
sales tax than do most of the 45 states that have a sales tax.
Only three other states that collect sales taxes have lower tax
burdens, because Massachusetts has a narrow sales tax base that
excludes groceries, services, and clothing up to $175, he said.
The Boston Globe
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Backers say sales tax cut to be on ballot
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
The state Legislature's House and Senate budget
negotiators, "dealmakers" as the Boston Herald described them, last
night agreed to a $27.6 billion budget plan that apparently will be
voted on today by the full House and Senate.
It has removed much if not most of the Senate
language which would have eliminated taxpayer support of illegal
aliens, instead compromising on the language; "putting those
practices into law will ensure they remain enforced" -- whatever
that means. "Remain enforced"? I wonder if it'll affect
President Obama's aunt, illegal alien Zeituni Onyango, long a
resident of taxpayer-funded Boston public housing? When it comes to
taxpayer-funded in-state tuition for illegal aliens,the compromise
language "would not put that practice into law." I wonder why not?
The proposed budget again does not address
"plan design," finally providing municipal officials with some input
into the health insurance plans granted to our local "public
servants."
As the Boston Herald editorial states: "If
lawmakers squander this opportunity, they do not deserve
re-election."
None of this slows down public employee union
demands for more by even a beat -- especially the teachers unions.
In Methuen, its president is demanding higher property taxes and
user fees to fund her union members' pay raises, despite the
recession and everyone else's financial hardship.
We all know why the public employee unions need
more money. They need it to fight off citizens' attempts to cut
taxes. The next threat to their elitist entitlements was announced
yesterday. The petition drive campaign to roll back the sales tax to
3% announced it had more than enough signatures from its second
round of collection to put the question on November's ballot.
Already the usual tax, borrow, and spend cabal is
swarming to oppose it, led as usual by the so-called
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation and its president, Michael
Widmer.
Widmer is the fool who's been calling for "plan
design" and as usual has ended up with not a whit to show for his
dog-and-pony show. Widmer will never learn that the only way to
achieve any meaningful reform is to turn off the money faucet. As a
creature of Fat-Cat Big Business, government reform is not high on
his agenda or that of the organization which employs him, and never
has been. If it doesn't benefit his clients, then by all means tax
it more to keep the gravy train running.
You might recall that Carla Howell's income tax
repeal lost by 70-30 percent on the 2008 ballot -- primarily due to
the
$7 million opponents raised and spent to defeat it. Do you
recall that five million dollars of that total came from
the teachers unions alone, both in and out of state?
Contributions to raise that kind of money aren't
voluntary, like yours or mine. That kind of money comes
directly from members' mandatory dues.
Higher salaries and more members mean greater
amounts to defeat taxpayers -- their alleged employers.
So they want to raise our property taxes even
more, so they can use their pay increases from us to help grind us
even further into the ground.
Revolution 2010 -- only 130 days away and
counting down . . .
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Chip Ford |
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The Boston Herald
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Pols nix immigrant measures from budget
By Edward Mason
Beacon Hill lawmakers rejected the bulk of a Senate crackdown on
taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens, part of a compromise
budget spending more than $27 billion they hope to pass today and
send to Gov. Deval Patrick.
House and Senate dealmakers nixed a 24-hour hotline to report
illegal aliens and refused to force the attorney general to agree in
writing to enforce federal immigration law. And they would not put
into law language barring state schools from offering in-state
tuition rates to illegal aliens.
Lawmakers also repealed the lifetime appointment for the state
probation commissioner but decided to study who should run the
scandal-plagued department.
Hack holidays - Bunker Hill Day and Evacuation Day - would remain,
but all government offices would stay open and fully staffed,
lawmakers said - except where collective bargaining agreements with
public employee unions say otherwise.
Budget negotiators filed plans to spend $27.9 billion or $27.6
billion, depending on whether the feds send the state some $687
million in federal Medicaid dough that’s up in the air.
Gov. Deval Patrick has 10 days to sign the budget, reduce items or
veto what he doesn’t like.
The Boston Globe
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Budget would cut services, local aid
Lawmakers’ plan eases crackdown on illegal immigrants
By Noah Bierman
State lawmakers last night completed a $27.6 billion budget plan for
next fiscal year that would cut local aid for cities and towns,
require all government offices to remain open on Bunker Hill Day and
Evacuation Day, and impose a softer crackdown on illegal immigrants
than the measure approved by senators last month.
A group of six House and Senate negotiators had been hammering out
the final budget, which includes a broad range of policy and
spending plans, behind closed doors since June 7, trying to
reconcile differences between plans passed earlier this year by the
two legislative bodies.
But the lawmakers were thrown off course in recent days as they were
forced to plug an additional $687 million gap to account for federal
stimulus money that had been expected to keep some state programs
afloat, but is now far from certain to arrive.
“We are, I would suggest, under no illusion that this . . . money is
coming,’’ said Representative Charles A. Murphy, a Burlington
Democrat who leads the House Ways and Means Committee.
The budget features cuts in social services, the court system,
higher education, and nearly every other aspect of state government.
That includes complete elimination of a $56 million program that
gives health care to low-income immigrants who are considered legal,
but not permanent, residents, plus another $68 million from other
health programs for low-income residents covered under MassHealth,
the state Medicaid program.
Some programs could be restored, or partially restored, if the
additional federal stimulus money is approved in Congress. To avoid
deeper cuts, lawmakers also called for withdrawing $100 million from
the state’s rainy day fund, a move they had earlier pledged not to
make because the fund has been tapped with regularity in recent
years.
Both the House and Senate are expected to vote today on the budget.
The fiscal year begins July 1.
Lawmakers decided not to impose some of the stricter immigration
measures that passed the Senate with great fanfare last month,
including the establishment of a 24-hour hot line to report
companies that hire illegal immigrants and a requirement that the
attorney general begin discussions with federal officials to offer
help in enforcing immigration laws. Instead, lawmakers said, they
decided to make official current practices that bar illegal
immigrants from receiving state services.
A group of opponents to the Senate measure, called the Student
Immigration Movement, has been holding around-the-clock vigils
outside the State House for 17 days in protest. But polls have
generally shown that much of the public favors stricter immigration
enforcement.
Senator Steven C. Panagiotakos, who chairs the Senate Ways and Means
Committee, said many residents are unaware that current state
practices already keep immigrants from receiving state services and
that putting those practices into law will ensure they remain
enforced, while also bringing attention to them. Though illegal
immigrants are currently barred from receiving in-state college
tuition, the compromise language would not put that practice into
law.
Governor Deval Patrick, who is running for reelection against two
opponents who favor stricter immigration enforcement, must sign off
on the budget before any of the immigration measures agreed to last
night become law. He has said he favors putting current practices
into law, but would not like to go further than that.
The budget compromise submitted last night also includes a measure
that would give the state’s top administrative judge some power over
the Probation Department’s budget, an issue that emerged last month
after the Globe Spotlight Team chronicled widespread patronage
hiring and lax spending controls at the agency. The measure would
eliminate the lifetime appointment for any future, but not the
current, commissioner of the department and initiate a study on who
should ultimately oversee it.
The budget compromise left out language passed in the Senate that
would have given cities and towns more power to curb the fast-rising
costs of employee health plans, by giving them the authority to
amend employee health plans without union approval. Municipal
leaders have been demanding the changes, saying health costs are
busting their budgets, but unions have fought the changes; many
lawmakers have also been resistant, saying they do not want to
weaken collective bargaining.
The provision requiring government offices to remain open on
Evacuation Day and Bunker Hill Day would not affect collective
bargaining agreements; union members with those days off under their
contracts would still get them.
The City of Boston also stands to lose at least $2.4 million more in
library funding if, as planned, it closes four branches during the
next budget year. The Legislature’s compromise plan includes
language taking that money away to prevent closings, even though the
city says it is forced to close the branches largely because state
funding has been declining in recent years.
Andrew Ryan of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
State House News Service
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Immigration crackdown softened in budget deal
By Jim O'Sullivan
Senate and House negotiators reached a budget compromise Wednesday
that patches a $687 million gap created by absent federal aid with
deeper cuts than their original drafts and a raid on savings,
curtails the Senate's crackdown on illegal immigration, and shelves
a union-opposed proposal to grant local officials authority over
public employees' health care plans.
Relying on $100 million in state reserves to help offset the federal
Medicaid funds that have hit roadblocks in Washington, a
House-Senate conference committee slashed spending for legal
immigrants' health care.
The budget factors the loss in federal aid into its spending plan by
making "targeted cuts," House budget chair Charles Murphy said,
allowing for a long-promised 4 percent cut to local aid and
level-funding other accounts providing dollars to cities and towns,
including a special education circuit-breaker account and regional
school transportation program.
The budget deal scaled back the Senate immigration plan by removing
a 24-hour hotline for residents to report illegal immigrant hiring,
a provision authorizing the attorney general to enter into a
memorandum of understanding with the Department of Justice to
enforce federal immigration laws, and an explicit prohibition
against in-state public higher education tuition rates for illegal
immigrants. The compromise puts in statute existing practice barring
state services and benefits for illegal immigrants.
"Basically, we codified existing regulations and practices and
policies of the Commonwealth," said Senate budget chief Steven
Panagiotakos. "Anything that was extraneous to that, we did not
codify."
Following last year's small-bore pension system reform, the budget
includes more sweeping provisions, including anti-spiking language
and a cap on individual pensions at $156,000 annually, a figure that
will rise in accordance with a federal formula.
The compromise creates a "budget relief fund" in case the $687
million does arrive. Negotiators pulled $160 million from the bottom
line by picking the lower line item allocations between the two
budgets. They relied on updated additional revenue collections that
have arrived since the chambers passed their own proposals, sliced
another estimated $200 million from spending, and canceled a $95
million deposit to the so-called Rainy Day Fund.
Panagiotakos said higher education was slated to receive between $30
million and $40 million less next fiscal year than the current one.
He said "thousands" of jobs could be lost if the added federal aid
does not arrive.
"Plan design," a proposal backed by local officials but opposed by
unions because it would pare collective bargaining rights in health
care negotiations, was held in conference. Murphy said the issue was
not dead, but delayed.
The lawmakers said they were pessimistic the federal medical
assistance percentage (FMAP) funds would arrive. If it arrives in
full, the bottom line would swell to $27.935 billion.
"We are under, I would suggest, no illusion that this FMAP money is
coming," Murphy said.
"I think we're going to get some. I just think it's not going to be
the full amount," Panagiotakos said.
Hewing toward the Senate's elimination of Bunker Hill Day and
Evacuation Day as Suffolk County holidays, the compromise preserves
their holiday status in statute, but instructs government agencies
to remain open and fully staffed, ending the Revolutionary War
commemorations' priorities as public employee vacation days.
"They remain holidays but the offices remain open," said Murphy.
Many offices currently remain open on the holiday, with skeleton
crews on hand and workers who do work on the holiday eligible to
take another day off.
Cuts include $56 million from a health care program for "aliens with
special status." That program is eliminated in the budget.
MassHealth, an account that often need large midyear infusions, took
another $43.5 million in reductions, which leads to a $68 million
gross reduction due to a takedown in federal matching funds.
Murphy said lawmakers were optimistic the federal government would
deliver roughly $160 million in Social Security reimbursements. He
said the funding does not require congressional authorization.
"We don't have a date certain, but we are optimistic we are going to
get it this fiscal year," he said.
The deal eliminates the lifetime appointment for the state's
probation commissioner, allows 5 percent line item transferability
for the state's chief justice of administration and management, and
calls for a study of probation practices.
Boston Public Library branches would have to remain open under the
compromise.
The budget will likely receive votes in both branches Thursday,
reaching Gov. Deval Patrick's desk a week before the start of the
new fiscal year. Patrick has 10 days to sign, veto or amend the
budget.
Panagiotakos and Murphy, budget chairs for their respective
chambers, filed the compromise in shirtsleeves at 7:56 p.m.
Wednesday night, four minutes before a deadline that could have
choked off chances of a debate tomorrow. Panagiotakos, in his last
budget cycle before retiring from the Legislature at the end of this
year, sported a cigar in his breast pocket.
The relatively swift conference was jarred weeks ago by Washington's
refusal to authorize a $24 billion national fund from which both
Gov. Deval Patrick and the House expect to derive $608 million,
while the Senate is banking on $687 billion. Mixed signals from
Congress have led to doubts over when or if the money will arrive.
The Salem News
Thursday, June 17, 2010
A Salem News editorial
Business groups throw weight behind 'plan design'
The North Shore Chamber of Commerce has joined several other
business groups, including its Cape Ann counterpart and Associated
Industries of Massachusetts, in urging the Legislature to give
municipal officials "plan design" authority over the health plans
offered their employees.
In a statement released this week they note, "Since 2000, municipal
health insurance costs have increased at double-digit rates — more
than five times the rate of inflation — growing from just 6 percent
of municipal budgets in 2001 to a projected 20 percent by 2020."
The coalition, which includes the Massachusetts Taxpayers
Foundation, is urging legislators to allow municipal officials to
modify health plans without negotiating with each and every union.
Employees' share of health insurance premiums would still be subject
to collective bargaining.
The move is favored by Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie
Baker. Unfortunately, Gov. Patrick and members of the Democratic
leadership in the House and Senate remain fearful of the unions and
would prefer to do nothing or modify plan design so as to render it
meaningless.
By giving mayors, town managers and selectmen full authority over
the design of municipal health insurance plans and passing another
bill requiring all retirees to make Medicare their primary source of
health coverage, the coalition notes, cities and towns would
collectively save an estimated $100 million in the first year alone,
and reduce their annual expenditures by $2 billion by 2020.
"Exploding health care and pension costs are forcing cities and
towns to curtail services," the coalition rightly notes, adding that
unless these issues are addressed, "cuts and layoffs will intensify
over the next several years."
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
A Boston Herald editorial
Time for leaders to lead
With only six weeks left in the legislative session and fears of a
$700 million crater opening up in next year’s budget, lawmakers can
no longer ignore “the single most important step that can be taken
to help cities and towns cope with their serious fiscal problems.”
That is how Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation President Michael
Widmer describes the reform known as plan design, which would give
local officials the same authority that the state has to control the
design of employee health plans, outside of collective bargaining.
Naturally public employee unions rage about the dire consequences of
plan design, both financial and medical, when what they really care
about is losing leverage. We’d note that the system works just fine
for every unionized state worker.
The Senate did pass a provision in its version of the budget that
attempts to split the baby - but Widmer rightly calls it “deeply
flawed.”
And now the time for compromise is over. It is time for true fiscal
leadership.
Fine, so it’s an election year and nervous incumbents are worried
about offending the politically powerful.
But next year’s budget was going to bring another round of local aid
cuts even before fears of losing that $700 million in federal
Medicaid assistance. Plan design and other municipal health reforms
(including a requirement that eligible municipal retirees enroll in
Medicare), which Widmer and a slew of business groups are pushing,
are projected to save local taxpayers up to $100 million.
Again - “the single most important step that can be taken to help
cities and towns cope with their serious fiscal problems.”
If lawmakers squander this opportunity, they do not deserve
re-election.
The Eagle-Tribune
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Teacher union head calls for tax hike to cover raises
By J.J. Huggins
METHUEN — Teachers union President Donna Gogas is calling for
increasing property taxes and implementing "school user fees" to
fund teachers' raises, according to an e-mail received by fellow
teachers.
The e-mail, transmitted Tuesday morning and spread around town, was
read by City Councilor Jim Hajjar during last night's City Council
meeting.
"The responsibility of the city's services and other expenses belong
with the city's taxpayers, not the employees," according to the text
of the e-mail. "Admittedly, there is a financial crisis in that
communities do not have the resources that we once had in past
years. However, we feel that not all avenues have been taken, such
as a full tax levy and the institution of school user fees,"
according to the e-mail read by Hajjar.
Gogas has not publicly spoken about the e-mail since it was sent
Tuesday, and an attempt by The Eagle-Tribune to reach her for
comment last night was unsuccessful.
Superintendent Jeanne Whitten has repeatedly called on teachers
union leaders to make pay concessions to prevent more than 20
teacher layoffs as the schools work to close a $1.8 million budget
deficit.
City Councilors and School Committee members ripped Gogas about the
e-mail.
"She is advocating for paying teachers' salaries by raising taxes
and implementing user fees. This is something that is abhorrent to
the people in the town," said School Committee member Robert Vogler.
"She's not even a taxpayer of Methuen. She lives in Haverhill," said
School Committee member Evan Chaisson.
"Shame on the person who wrote that letter," said Councilor Joyce
Campagnone. "And I'm sure she is not a Methuen resident and (she's)
collecting big bucks and taking it elsewhere."
User fees typically mean students pay for things such as sports and
bus rides. Methuen does not charge user fees.
Hajjar said he was offended that Gogas expects that if the city
raised taxes, "it's her money or the teachers' money."
"I'm sorry, we're all in this together," Hajjar said. "It's not her
money. It's the people's money."
The School Department is using $500,000 from next year's budget for
the renovation and addition to Methuen High School. Gogas said
"asking employees to give up thousands of dollars of their salaries
as donations for a new high school or to balance the school budget
is not appropriate."
The School Committee approved a three-year contract with the
teachers union in October 2008, giving teachers 3 percent raises
each year. For many teachers, the raises are combined with yearly
step increases that will result in dozens of teachers receiving
percentage increases in the double digits.
School Business Administrator Glenn Fratto said "most, if not all"
layoffs can be prevented if teachers cap their raises at 5 percent.
Unions worry about teachers who are preparing to retire, and they
fear that concessions will reduce the amount those people can
collect in their pensions. But capping raises at 5 percent wouldn't
impact older teachers because the teachers who are receiving the big
raises are at the bottom of the pay scale and earning master's
degrees, according to Fratto.
Capping raises wouldn't even effect Gogas, who is slated to see her
pay rise from $78,861 to $82,227, or by 4.3 percent, according to
School Department documents.
The School Department sent out 12 more layoff notices Tuesday,
bringing the total number of pink slips to 39, Whitten said.
However, the actual number of layoffs will end up being in the 20s.
The superintendent said she needed to send out extra layoff notices
because some teachers who are initially being laid off will be
recalled if they do a job that nobody else is qualified to do, such
as teaching children with intensive special needs. And every time a
teacher is recalled, another teacher has to be laid off, according
to Whitten.
The Boston Globe
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Backers say sales tax cut to be on ballot
By David Abel
Voters in November will get the chance to slash the state sales tax
from 6.25 percent to 3 percent, according to advocates who say they
submitted more than enough petition signatures yesterday to force
the item onto the ballot.
Carla Howell — chairwoman of the Alliance to Roll Back Taxes, based
in Wayland — said her group submitted about 19,000 signatures to
town and city clerks by yesterday’s deadline, a comfortable margin
over the required 11,099 signatures.
Her group put similar measures on the ballot in 2002 and 2008, but
neither passed.
She called the latest campaign a “modest start to bringing the state
government in line with the level of spending that’s appropriate.’’
The proposal, Howell said, would force state officials to cut
spending by more than $2 billion.
“There’s only one way to create jobs, and that’s to cut government
spending and cut taxes substantially,’’ she said. “And that’s what
we’re doing.’’
But critics said passage of the proposed tax cuts would mean a
financial crisis, as the state struggles to recover from the
recession and overcome a $2.5 billion budget shortfall.
“It would mean drastic cuts in aid to cities and towns, public
higher education, health care, human services, and public safety,’’
said Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers
Foundation. “It would come after several rounds of cuts and would
have a dramatic impact on state and local programs that the public
has rightly come to expect.’’
Last year, lawmakers increased the sales tax from 5 percent to 6.25
percent, which they said generated more than $600 million as the
state sought to balance its budget while cutting a raft of programs
and benefits. The additional taxes cost residents an estimated $140
per person or $370 per household, according to Widmer’s group.
But Widmer pointed out that the state continues to collect less in
sales tax than do most of the 45 states that have a sales tax. Only
three other states that collect sales taxes have lower tax burdens,
because Massachusetts has a narrow sales tax base that excludes
groceries, services, and clothing up to $175, he said.
In testimony this spring before the Legislature’s Joint Committee on
Revenue, Jay Gonzalez, secretary of the Executive Office for
Administration and Finance, estimated that cutting the sales tax to
3 percent would cost the state $958 million in fiscal 2011 and about
$2.5 billion in fiscal 2012.
He said that cutting state spending on education, from preschool to
state universities, would amount to only $1.5 billion. The state
spends a similar amount on public safety, which includes the State
Police and the Department of Correction.
“The governor has said that he would like to see a rollback of the
sales tax when the state is on firmer fiscal footing,’’ said Cyndi
Roy, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office for Administration and
Finance, pointing out that the state has lost $4 billion in tax
revenue since the beginning of the fiscal crisis and has made deep
cuts. “Under the current proposal, however, the services that
citizens depend on every day — education, health care, and public
safety — would be devastated if this provision became law.’’
Officials from the staffs of state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, who
is running for governor as an independent, and Republican
gubernatorial hopeful Charles D. Baker said they want to see the
sales tax rolled back to 5 percent. But they said they would
implement the cut to 3 percent, if voters support the measure.
“Treasurer Cahill was an early opponent of the hike in the sales
tax,’’ Amy Birmingham, the Cahill campaign’s chief of staff, said in
a statement. “That being said, if the voters make the choice to roll
it back to 3 percent, he would respect and honor that decision. A
rollback to 3 percent would be difficult, and the need for deep,
broad-based cuts elsewhere would be certain.’’
Rick Gorka, a spokesman for the Baker campaign, said his candidate
also supports another proposed ballot question that would repeal
last year’s application of the sales tax to alcohol sales. The
administration estimates that the tax will generate $93 million in
state revenue this fiscal year and $110 million in fiscal 2011.
“The voters have a choice, and Charlie will respect the will of the
voters,’’ Gorka said.
City and town clerks have until July 2 to certify the signatures for
the proposed ballot questions. Howell’s group has until July 7 to
submit the signatures to the Elections Division of the secretary of
the Commonwealth.
Howell nearly succeeded in repealing the state income tax in 2002,
receiving 45 percent of the vote. In 2008, when opponents outspent
her more than 10 to 1, she lost by a much wider margin, 70 percent
to 30 percent.
Howell said she hopes this year’s effort to cut the sales tax
pressures state officials to reduce pensions and benefits of state
workers and cut subsidies to private businesses.
“There’s a lot of waste,’’ she said. “If I could, I would say to
each department that they should disclose all their spending. If
they didn’t, their budgets wouldn’t be funded. It would expose
billions and billions of dollars of waste.’’
But Barry Bluestone, an economist who serves as dean of the School
of Public Policy at Northeastern University, said there is little
left to cut in the state budget.
“The rollback to 3 percent would be disastrous,’’ he said. “If the
rollback succeeds, you would have large layoffs, lots of unmet
needs, and it would create a serious fiscal crisis just as the state
is recovering from the recession.’’
Geoffrey Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal
Association, said the state’s towns and cities would suffer, too.
“This would be devastating to the economy and threaten basic
services,’’ he said.
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Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪
PO Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
▪ 508-915-3665
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