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CLT UPDATE

Monday, November 19, 2012

Scandalchusetts is born from Taxachusetts


“Largely due to this utterly incapable administration, circumstances are only worsening, fast. While the state budget has continued to increase by over a billion of our dollars annually, the money extracted from us is alarmingly squandered still.”

CLT Update
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Promised income tax rollback "snuffed out" again
Commentary by Chip Ford


The latest wave of budget woes serve as a reminder of the importance of savings and efficiency efforts within government.

State House News Service
Advances – Week of November 18, 2012


Nearly six years after a bipartisan commission sounded the alarm about a transportation system in a crisis so severe that it carried a shortfall of nearly $1 billion a year, Governor Deval Patrick will ask lawmakers to solve the problem with a plan that includes higher taxes.

By Jan. 7, the administration will deliver a proposal calling for robust taxes and more precisely detailing the gap between what is currently spent and what is needed to bring the state’s roads, bridges, and transit systems into good condition and keep them there. Lawmakers called for the plan last June in the emergency legislation that balanced the T’s budget for the year.

The shortfall could be reduced by raising the long-frozen gas tax, tolls, or other taxes and fees.

“At this point, everything remains on the table,” said state Transportation Secretary Richard A. Davey, in an interview after a recent stop on a statewide tour meant partly to prepare the public for what is to come....

While the administration refines that plan, a new poll of 1,500 residents from the Berkshires to the Cape shows 62 percent are willing to spend $50 or more in additional taxes to bolster transportation. The poll also found that residents far beyond Boston value transit as well as road investment.

But the MassINC poll revealed that 71 percent believe the transportation red ink is a result of “waste and mismanagement,” not insufficient funding — a belief at odds with conclusions of an array of analysts, activists, and policy makers.

The Boston Globe
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Mass. tax hike on the table for roads and transit


There are those who look at a recent report on drug overdoses in Massachusetts and feel grief for the families of the addicted, and an urge to come up with effective solutions to help drug abusers break the habit.

And there are those who look at that same report and pine for a new tax on every six-pack of beer sold in the commonwealth — because, of course, that would have made everything better.

Oh, they’ll wrap their affection for higher taxes on the need for additional “resources” to put toward treatment and rehabilitation for drug addicts. The excise tax on alcohol that was repealed by voters in 2010 would have raised $100 million to be earmarked for those uses, supporters point out....

Of course, the tax was repealed within a matter of months of being enacted, so “more challenging” is really a relative term....

But the answer to every societal ill isn’t slapping yet another tax on the law-abiding citizenry.

A Boston Herald editorial
Monday, November 19, 2012
Dose of tax reality


While we’re on the subject of taxes (see above), news broke last week on Beacon Hill that taxpayers won’t be getting the expected break on their income taxes next year, to which we say:

No! Really? ...

Last year was the first time revenues reached the point of triggering a cut, from 5.3 percent to 5.25 percent. It wasn’t enough to buy a new car for most of us but hey, every little bit helps. And it was an act of good faith with the voters who had demanded that rollback at the ballot box.

As recently as last month it appeared the taxpayers were in for another .5 percentage point decrease in the tax rate this year, to 5.2 percent. But as the State House News Service reported on Thursday, the Department of Revenue said recent collections have fallen short of the necessary mark.

That isn’t just bad news for the taxpayers, who won’t get a break.

It’s terrible news for the economy overall ...

Meanwhile rumor has it the Patrick administration is working behind closed doors to craft what everyone expects will be a broad-based tax increase, in part to fund the state’s ongoing transportation needs. No wonder that tax on beer and wine looks so appealing to them.

A Boston Herald editorial
Monday, November 19, 2012
Tax cut? What tax cut?


FOX Undercover was inside a Massachusetts courtroom as a frustrated judge lashed out at some court employees.

Judge Jeffrey Locke is now being hailed a hero for helping identify what some are calling another example of government waste.

Interpreters work in courtrooms all over the state tens of thousands of times a year, translating dozens of languages into English to "ensure access to justice."

But some interpreters are refusing to work alone, insisting they need two interpreters on hand....

"Alright, well the best practice means that 14 people are now going to sit up there until both of you are then available," a frustrated Locke responded. "You're needed in another courtroom for a very brief matter. I don't know that it will take two of you, but if your so called best practice requires you to travel as a couple. Go on. We're in recess."

Retired Superior Court Judge Robert Barton was on the bench for more than 20 years and says he never once saw a team of interpreters working in a courtroom.

"Sure he's frustrated. He was a good lawyer. He's a good judge," said Barton. But times have changed since Barton retired....

Budget crunch or not, the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators calls team interpreting "the industry standard" with one interpreter providing relief for the other every 30 minutes.

FOX Undercover witnessed the interpreters switching off more frequently than that.

And court insiders tell FOX Undercover only Spanish speaking interpreters are demanding to use the team approach.

"You don't have two for any other languages. What kind of discrimination is this? What about the Croatians?" asked Barbara Anderson of Citizens for Limited Taxation.

Anderson calls Judge Locke a hero for speaking up in his courtroom.

"I think seeing a judge stand up to this, even in a moment of frustration sort of renews my faith in the judicial system. And I'd like to see more judges doing this," said Anderson....

That from the same court spokesperson, Erika Gully-Santiago, who earlier told FOX Undercover's Mike Beaudet he was irresponsible to move forward with this story.

"Do you think it's irresponsible of us to do this story?" Beaudet asked Anderson.

"No. I think you stumbled on something that is probably like with almost all the stories you do, the tip of the iceberg," replied Anderson.

FoxNews Boston TV-25
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Frustrated judge exposes government waste
Watch Video Report


Her driving record includes seven accidents, four speeding violations, two failures to stop for a police officer, one failure to stay in her lane, one driving without registration or license in possession, and one driving without wearing a seat belt.

When she was nabbed for speeding in New Hampshire in 1999, she failed to show up at her hearing, records show. Until Nov. 1, her license was on nonrenewal status for failure to pay local excise taxes. There are 34 entries on her driving record, dating back to 1982.

Yet Sheila Burgess is director of the Massachusetts Highway Safety Division. Her mission is to reduce accidents by promoting good driving practices. She oversees public campaigns on the dangers of speeding, texting while driving, driving while impaired, and failing to wear a seat belt, among other hazards.

Burgess’s most recent crash occurred on Aug. 24, as she was driving a state vehicle during work hours. At 1:16 on a sunny summer afternoon, her car veered off the road in the Blue Hills Reservation in Milton and slammed into a rock outcropping, a State Police report says.

Burgess was appointed to her $87,000-a-year position in July 2007, without any background in public safety, transportation, or government administration. Her experience was in Democratic Party politics. For almost two decades as a paid consultant and congressional aide, she had raised money and advised candidates for public office, including — according to her resumé — Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray, who had taken office six months earlier as part of the new Patrick administration....

A spokesman for Governor Deval Patrick and Murray said late Friday that Burgess was hired, in part, based on the recommendation of US Representative James McGovern, for whom Burgess once worked as a consultant. Brendan Ryan, the spokesman, said he could not address why Burgess was hired into the administration as head of traffic safety despite her record of driving violations....

At the time of the crash, Burgess’s license was active but had been flagged for nonrenewal because of failure to pay local excise taxes. After the Globe began making inquiries, the taxes were paid and her license status was cleared.

As highway safety director, Burgess is the Patrick administration’s chief safety officer for drivers....

Last year, another state employee in a sensitive public safety position was forced to resign after the Globe reported his long record of driving violations. In that case, it was Murray who in 2008 recommended the hiring of the employee, Matthew McLaughlin, as a $60,000-a-year appointee to the Board of Appeals, which hears appeals from drunken drivers who have lost their licenses. McLaughlin’s driving record includes a license suspension for refusing to take a breathalyzer test and six speeding tickets.

Matthew McLaughlin is the son of Michael McLaughlin, the former Chelsea Housing Authority executive director now under federal investigation for apparently using government money intended for fixing-up public housing apartments to jack up his own salary to $360,000 a year. Investigators are also scrutinizing Michael McLaughlin’s involvement in fund-raisers for Murray.

The Boston Globe
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Safety chief has long list of driving violations
Democratic operative given state job in 2007


Governor Deval Patrick will direct state colleges and universities Monday to allow young illegal immigrants to pay the lower resident rate for tuition and fees as soon as they obtain work permits through a new federal program, a senior administration official said Sunday.

Patrick’s declaration ends five months of anxiety for immigrants who cheered President Obama’s decision in June to temporarily halt the deportations of immigrants age 30 and under, only to plunge them into limbo in Massachusetts as officials said they were reviewing whether the immigrants were eligible for the lower rates. But the governor’s announcement also raised criticism that he is neglecting American citizens struggling to afford college.

The Patrick administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the governor is sending a letter to the Board of Higher Education Monday, said the change takes effect immediately. State officials said students paying nonresident tuition now at one of the 29 state colleges or universities may apply for a refund for this semester, but not for prior semesters....

Patrick’s announcement dramatically slashes the cost of a college education for immigrants who until now had to pay out-of-state rates....

Patrick’s decision comes less than two weeks after a contentious election season, and it is likely to rankle critics in a state where immigration has been a hot political issue. In 2004, the state Legislature passed a bill allowing illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition, but then-Governor Mitt Romney, this year’s Republican presidential nominee who just lost to Obama, vetoed the measure, and subsequent efforts failed.

After Romney’s 2004 veto, the Senate passed a measure allowing illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates in 2005, but it failed in the House in early 2006.

The economy soured soon after that, and support for the measure evaporated. Since then, the measure has largely seemed dead....

Steve Kropper, cochairman of Massachusetts Citizens for Immigration Reform, which favors tougher limits on immigration, said on Sunday that the governor and the president should focus on US citizens and legal residents who also cannot afford college. He said the governor’s action sidestepped the state Legislature.

“I think it’s a bad decision. It’s bad for the country,” Kropper said. “The Democratic Party’s position is not thoughtful about our own poor.” ...

More than 80 percent of the deferred-action applicants were from Latin America. Latino voters, both US-born and naturalized citizens, helped catapult Obama to a second term.

The Boston Globe
Monday, November 19, 2012
Mass. to widen tuition breaks at state colleges
Illegal immigrants can pay resident rates


Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray and others on Monday put the issue of offering in-state tuition rates to undocumented immigrants into economic terms, while the House’s Republican leadership called for implementation of the new policy on tuition to “be stopped immediately.” ...

House Minority Brad Jones said that while making higher education affordable to Massachusetts residents is important, the state must be “judicious and fair in how we award such benefits.”

“Governor Patrick’s most recent attempt to usurp the power of the Legislature is cause for concern. Instead of engaging elected officials from both political parties in constructive conversation and debate, he has put his interests, both politically and personally, above those of Massachusetts’ residents,” Jones said in a statement....

Jones did not identify any means by which he might seek to stop the administration from implementing the tuition policy, and Patrick said he continues to support comprehensive immigration reform efforts at the national level and legislation locally to grant in-state tuition to all undocumented immigrants who attended high school in Massachusetts....

Republicans weren’t the only ones in the Legislature concerned that Patrick might be circumventing their authority with his interpretation of the new federal programs.

Sen. Richard Moore (D-Uxbridge) wasn’t excited with Patrick’s decision. “I think it’s something the Legislature should discuss, not be done by executive order. But the president has done the same thing pretty much,” Moore said Monday outside the annual MIRA Thanksgiving lunch in Great Hall.

Moore wouldn’t say whether the policy could or should be reversed by the Legislature, only that “it should have been discussed more fully” with the branches. “Given the limitations on access by taxpayers, it’s a concern whether it’s the right policy at this point in time,” Moore said....

Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry (D-Dorchester) said she plans to file legislation reinforcing Patrick’s order when formal sessions resume next year. “I’m planning on filing in-state tuition come January just to really make sure we can institutionalize it here in the state of Massachusetts but this is really a first step - this is quite exciting,” Forry said.

State House News Service
Monday, November 19, 2012
Mixed reaction on Hill to Patrick's directive on immigration tuition


Chip Ford's CLT Commentary

Trying to keep up with the tsunami of ridiculous government waste, corruption, and giveaways is becoming a full-time job of itself and then some.

There's barely enough time in a day to simply collect and collate it, never mind making any sense of it. (I've been working on this since midday yesterday, but more keeps pouring in.)

Trying to gather it into one place like this, for others like you to begin to comprehend without it becoming overwhelming is well, it's becoming almost impossible.

I thought on Saturday evening with publishing the last CLT Update ("Promised income tax rollback 'snuffed out' again") that we were pretty well caught up with the latest Beacon Hill abuses. But the denizens atop the hill never weary of ways to impose their tyranny and uncaring gross incompetence. While we taxpayers sleep they relentlessly dream ever more and more what they can next inflict.

Sunday morning we awoke to the next incredible exposé, from The Boston Globe's excellent investigative reporter, Sean P. Murphy. By noon I was gasping at the Patrick administration's shocking incompetence. Next came last night's FoxNews exposé of dual-interpreters including Barbara's interview; then this morning we awoke to the governor's illegal alien in-state tuition power-grab. The hits just keep on coming. I keep running faster and falling behind.

All this misfeasance, malfeasance, and unmitigated corruption added to the numerous exposés and ensuing scandals over the past months but still the usual cohort of tax-borrow-and-spenders demand more, more, always more from us. The solution to anything and everything wrong, according to them, is just more of our money. Give them more and we're promised Nirvana for sure this time.  "Trust us just once more, we promise this time."

"The 2009 legislative mantra in rejecting the gas tax was 'reform before revenue,' though lawmakers approved a sales tax increase, part of which went to transportation. But new revenue cannot be avoided forever, [state Transportation Secretary Richard A. Davey] said."

"[MassINC president Greg Torres] said the percentage blaming 'waste' means 'we still have a little work to do, and that should be part of the conversation we have over the next year.'”

Revenues are down, unemployment is climbing; no money for the promised miniscule and long-overdue income tax cut; more oppressive tax hikes advocated, in a bad economy; imperious giveaways to illegal aliens unilaterally decreed by the governor; rampant patronage, corruption, mismanagement or none whatsoever; total abdication or denial of any and all responsibility. Just give them more of our money and we'll enter the Paradise of Perfection.

Massachusetts, aka "Taxachusetts" has become Scandalchusetts.

Obviously this and this only is what taking ever more of our money has delivered and ever will.

I'll end this and let you digest what was done to you merely since Saturday night, just over this past weekend.

Chip Ford

 

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State House News Service
Advances – Week of November 18, 2012


While the schedules of most public officials are filling up with charitable endeavors in the days before Thanksgiving, Gov. Deval Patrick and legislative leaders are seeing red ink wash over this year’s $32.5 billion state budget and the Executive Branch may soon need to take steps that could upset services for those dependent on state government.

Tax collections have missed budget benchmarks by more than $250 million over the first four months of the fiscal year and a decrease in over-the-year collections in October this week tripped up a slight reduction in the income tax.

Federal tax hikes and spending cuts are looming unless Congress and President Barack Obama can cut a blockbuster deal or agree again to a stopgap measure. With the state’s unemployment rate on the rise in recent months, there’s growing concern about the strength of the economic recovery. Much of the anxiety is centered around how federal policymakers will address the taxation and spending issues and how their choices will affect individual states, industries and taxpayers.

The latest wave of budget woes serve as a reminder of the importance of savings and efficiency efforts within government.


The Boston Globe
Saturday, November 17, 2012

Mass. tax hike on the table for roads and transit
By Eric Moskowitz


Nearly six years after a bipartisan commission sounded the alarm about a transportation system in a crisis so severe that it carried a shortfall of nearly $1 billion a year, Governor Deval Patrick will ask lawmakers to solve the problem with a plan that includes higher taxes.

By Jan. 7, the administration will deliver a proposal calling for robust taxes and more precisely detailing the gap between what is currently spent and what is needed to bring the state’s roads, bridges, and transit systems into good condition and keep them there. Lawmakers called for the plan last June in the emergency legislation that balanced the T’s budget for the year.

The shortfall could be reduced by raising the long-frozen gas tax, tolls, or other taxes and fees.

“At this point, everything remains on the table,” said state Transportation Secretary Richard A. Davey, in an interview after a recent stop on a statewide tour meant partly to prepare the public for what is to come.

He avoided citing specific taxes or putting a dollar value on the gap, except to call the 2007 report of the independent Transportation Finance Commission , which estimated it at $15 billion to $19 billion over 20 years, an accurate starting point.

An unsustainable reliance on borrowing helped mask highway problems and allowed the T to go five years between fare increases, but bridges, rails, signals, stations, and other infrastructure continue to age faster than the state can repair or replace them.

The gas tax has remained 21 cents a gallon since 1991, except for a 2.5 cent increase imposed to clean up underground contaminants. That means it has lost buying power against inflation and as cars have become more efficient, even as costs such as fuel, asphalt, and employee health insurance have soared. The state sales tax, the T’s largest funding source, has fallen short of projections through multiple recessions and as consumers sidestepped taxes online.

The Patrick administration, which tried unsuccessfully to raise the gas tax in 2009, signaled earlier this year that it may revisit that tax. Other options include taxing miles driven, tapping future casino revenue, and transferring MBTA debt to the state’s books.

While the administration refines that plan, a new poll of 1,500 residents from the Berkshires to the Cape shows 62 percent are willing to spend $50 or more in additional taxes to bolster transportation. The poll also found that residents far beyond Boston value transit as well as road investment.

But the MassINC poll revealed that 71 percent believe the transportation red ink is a result of “waste and mismanagement,” not insufficient funding — a belief at odds with conclusions of an array of analysts, activists, and policy makers.

“There’s clearly a major misperception out there,” said Stephanie Pollack, associate director of Northeastern University’s Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy.

“There’s no question that we could take the money we have and spend it better . . . [but] no amount of better performance could come close to filling the gap between what we should be spending and what we are spending.”

Lawmakers partially addressed the issue three years ago, adopting some recommendations of the Transportation Finance Commission in merging several agencies into a streamlined Department of Transportation, asking employees to shoulder more health insurance costs, and tightening MBTA pension rules.

The T now wrings more money out of advertising and real estate and provides more service with fewer employees than a decade ago.

The 2009 legislative mantra in rejecting the gas tax was “reform before revenue,” though lawmakers approved a sales tax increase, part of which went to transportation. But new revenue cannot be avoided forever, Davey said.

“We will do anything . . . legal and reasonable to save money and improve our cost structure and the customer experience, and I don’t think that has always been the case,” he said.

Before a crowd of 70 in Mattapan Thursday, Davey spent two hours listening to residents describe the importance of transportation in their lives and how it falls short locally: a rail link to downtown, the Fairmount Line, with a byzantine fare structure and no weekend service; an absence of bike paths; sluggish bus service.

Davey sought support for the looming proposal to benefit the economy and quality of life.

“We’re at a crossroads in transportation for either a renaissance or a rollback,” he said. “Once we give a plan to our partners in the Legislature about how we finance what we heard tonight, that’s when we really need you to rise up.”

The MassINC poll grew from the same impulse that led the think tank to organize a 2010 conference for leaders of the nation’s largest transit agencies, which illustrated that the T’s shortfalls were not unique.

“We as a country have struggled with how to strike the right balance between financing roads and financing transit. We’ve struggled with tax revenue generally in a 30-year period of tax revolts, and we need to get people to work every day, and we need to keep our roads maintained,” said Greg Torres, MassINC president.

He said the percentage blaming “waste” means “we still have a little work to do, and that should be part of the conversation we have over the next year.” Lawmakers have promised to hold that conversation, starting with Patrick’s plan.

“If we want to keep Massachusetts as a competitive state economically, so that it’s a state that people want to move to and businesses want to locate in, we have an obligation to deal with this, and we don’t have a lot of time,” said Representative William M. Straus , House chairman of the Joint Transportation Committee.


The Boston Herald
Monday, November 19, 2012

A Boston Herald editorial
Dose of tax reality


There are those who look at a recent report on drug overdoses in Massachusetts and feel grief for the families of the addicted, and an urge to come up with effective solutions to help drug abusers break the habit.

And there are those who look at that same report and pine for a new tax on every six-pack of beer sold in the commonwealth — because, of course, that would have made everything better.

Oh, they’ll wrap their affection for higher taxes on the need for additional “resources” to put toward treatment and rehabilitation for drug addicts. The excise tax on alcohol that was repealed by voters in 2010 would have raised $100 million to be earmarked for those uses, supporters point out.

But they’ll also come dangerously close to blaming the repeal of that additional 6.25 percent tax on alcohol — which is already taxed at the wholesale level, a cost that is baked into the shelf price — for the troubling statistics found in last week’s report. And that is truly misleading.

“Losing some of that funding on alcohol has challenged our ability to do as much as we would like to and tailor programs,” Lt. Gov. Tim Murray told the State House News Service last week. “Resources do make a difference in terms of getting people sober, dried out, and then on a path to recovery. It has been more challenging.”

Of course, the tax was repealed within a matter of months of being enacted, so “more challenging” is really a relative term.

And even without the revenue from the alcohol tax the state managed to increase funding for substance abuse programs in the current budget by $2.4 million, the News Service reported, and restored funding for some drug treatment programs that had gone unfunded the previous year. All told the taxpayers will put up $77.2 million this year to prevent and treat drug abuse.

The report found that overdose rates and deaths attributed to substance abuse are higher in eastern Massachusetts than in any other major metropolitan area, and that more drug users seeking treatment cite heroin as their drug of choice. These are indeed troubling findings.

But the answer to every societal ill isn’t slapping yet another tax on the law-abiding citizenry.


The Boston Herald
Monday, November 19, 2012

A Boston Herald editorial
Tax cut? What tax cut?


While we’re on the subject of taxes (see above), news broke last week on Beacon Hill that taxpayers won’t be getting the expected break on their income taxes next year, to which we say:

No! Really?

When the Legislature decided back in 2002 to stomp on a voter-approved rollback in the state income tax to 5 percent, they agreed to a series of revenue triggers that would lead to an incremental reduction in the tax rate.

Last year was the first time revenues reached the point of triggering a cut, from 5.3 percent to 5.25 percent. It wasn’t enough to buy a new car for most of us but hey, every little bit helps. And it was an act of good faith with the voters who had demanded that rollback at the ballot box.

As recently as last month it appeared the taxpayers were in for another .5 percentage point decrease in the tax rate this year, to 5.2 percent. But as the State House News Service reported on Thursday, the Department of Revenue said recent collections have fallen short of the necessary mark.

That isn’t just bad news for the taxpayers, who won’t get a break.

It’s terrible news for the economy overall, reflecting the infinitesimal economic growth that is both starving the state treasury and thwarting new job creation. The unemployment rate is now on the rise — it was at 6.6 percent last month. And if the fiscal cliff problem isn’t solved, taxpayers could be in for a huge tax increase at the federal level.

Meanwhile rumor has it the Patrick administration is working behind closed doors to craft what everyone expects will be a broad-based tax increase, in part to fund the state’s ongoing transportation needs. No wonder that tax on beer and wine looks so appealing to them.


FoxNews Boston TV-25
Sunday, November 18, 2012

Frustrated judge exposes government waste
By Mike Beaudet, Reporter, and Kevin Rothstein, Producer


FOX UNDERCOVER – FOX Undercover was inside a Massachusetts courtroom as a frustrated judge lashed out at some court employees.

Judge Jeffrey Locke is now being hailed a hero for helping identify what some are calling another example of government waste.

Interpreters work in courtrooms all over the state tens of thousands of times a year, translating dozens of languages into English to "ensure access to justice."

But some interpreters are refusing to work alone, insisting they need two interpreters on hand.

FOX Undercover saw the team interpreting approach in action during the trial of reputed mobster Mark Rossetti in June.

It became an issue during that trial, when an interpreter was needed in another courtroom.

Both interpreters wanted to leave together for the other matter.

And so the trial grinded to a halt, much to the annoyance of Judge Locke.

"You are both certified are you not?" asked Judge Locke.

"Yes," replied one of the interpreters.

"One is not the intern of the other?" asked Locke.

"No," said the interpreter.

"One is not being trained by the other?" asked Locke.

"No your honor," replied the interpreter. "These are the best practices and we are waiting for..."

"Alright, well the best practice means that 14 people are now going to sit up there until both of you are then available," a frustrated Locke responded. "You're needed in another courtroom for a very brief matter. I don't know that it will take two of you, but if your so called best practice requires you to travel as a couple. Go on. We're in recess."

Retired Superior Court Judge Robert Barton was on the bench for more than 20 years and says he never once saw a team of interpreters working in a courtroom.

"Sure he's frustrated. He was a good lawyer. He's a good judge," said Barton. But times have changed since Barton retired.

According to the 2009 standards and procedures of the Office of Court Interpreter Services, "court interpreters should recommend and encourage the use of team interpreting whenever necessary, and when resources allow."

"There's no need for a backup. That's a waste of time, effort, money. That's ridiculous," said Barton.

Money is certainly tight at the trial court.

Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Roderick Ireland recently talked to the legal community about "the multi-year hiring freeze" and "critical staffing needs."

Budget crunch or not, the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators calls team interpreting "the industry standard" with one interpreter providing relief for the other every 30 minutes.

FOX Undercover witnessed the interpreters switching off more frequently than that.

And court insiders tell FOX Undercover only Spanish speaking interpreters are demanding to use the team approach.

"You don't have two for any other languages. What kind of discrimination is this? What about the Croatians?" asked Barbara Anderson of Citizens for Limited Taxation.

Anderson calls Judge Locke a hero for speaking up in his courtroom.

"I think seeing a judge stand up to this, even in a moment of frustration sort of renews my faith in the judicial system. And I'd like to see more judges doing this," said Anderson.

The trial court would not let us talk to anyone from the Office of Court Interpreter Services.

In a statement the court spokesperson tells us, "For cases that are complex and lengthy in duration or that involve more than one party with limited or no English proficiency, a team interpreter approach may be used when resources allow -- currently, less than 1% of all cases that require interpreter services."

That from the same court spokesperson, Erika Gully-Santiago, who earlier told FOX Undercover's Mike Beaudet he was irresponsible to move forward with this story.

"Do you think it's irresponsible of us to do this story?" Beaudet asked Anderson.

"No. I think you stumbled on something that is probably like with almost all the stories you do, the tip of the iceberg," replied Anderson.

The trial court sent over a statement from Judge Locke. He did not comment on his scolding of the interpreters, but says court interpreters are among the hardest working of court staff and that they play an essential, invaluable role in the court system.


The Boston Globe
Sunday, November 18, 2012

Safety chief has long list of driving violations
Democratic operative given state job in 2007
By Sean P. Murphy


Her driving record includes seven accidents, four speeding violations, two failures to stop for a police officer, one failure to stay in her lane, one driving without registration or license in possession, and one driving without wearing a seat belt.

When she was nabbed for speeding in New Hampshire in 1999, she failed to show up at her hearing, records show. Until Nov. 1, her license was on nonrenewal status for failure to pay local excise taxes. There are 34 entries on her driving record, dating back to 1982.

Yet Sheila Burgess is director of the Massachusetts Highway Safety Division. Her mission is to reduce accidents by promoting good driving practices. She oversees public campaigns on the dangers of speeding, texting while driving, driving while impaired, and failing to wear a seat belt, among other hazards.

Burgess’s most recent crash occurred on Aug. 24, as she was driving a state vehicle during work hours. At 1:16 on a sunny summer afternoon, her car veered off the road in the Blue Hills Reservation in Milton and slammed into a rock outcropping, a State Police report says.

Burgess was appointed to her $87,000-a-year position in July 2007, without any background in public safety, transportation, or government administration. Her experience was in Democratic Party politics. For almost two decades as a paid consultant and congressional aide, she had raised money and advised candidates for public office, including — according to her resumé — Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray, who had taken office six months earlier as part of the new Patrick administration.

Burgess, 48, of Randolph, suffered a head injury in the crash and has not returned to work, and while officials say she is on “approved leave,” they have declined to say whether she is getting paid. She told police after the crash that she swerved into the woods to avoid an oncoming vehicle, the State Police report says. She was not cited for any driving violations.

In a short interview on Wednesday, Burgess said, “I was in an accident and have a head injury.” She referred detailed questions about the crash and her job to the state public safety agency, which oversees traffic safety.

A spokesman for Governor Deval Patrick and Murray said late Friday that Burgess was hired, in part, based on the recommendation of US Representative James McGovern, for whom Burgess once worked as a consultant. Brendan Ryan, the spokesman, said he could not address why Burgess was hired into the administration as head of traffic safety despite her record of driving violations.

McGovern did recommend Burgess, said a spokesman for the representative, but not for a specific position.

“He just said, ‘Here’s a good person for the Patrick administration to hire,’” said Michael Mershon, the spokesman. Mershon said he had no information on whether her driving record was known to McGovern at the time of his recommendation, or who specifically in the Patrick administration he made the recommendation to.

After arriving at the scene of Burgess’s crash, State Police apparently took no investigative steps. Burgess by then was out of the car and being treated by an ambulance crew and State Police did not ask questions about whether she had been using her state-provided cellphone while driving or was distracted in any other way, a State Police spokesman said.

State Police did not ask whether she was wearing a seat belt. The spokesman said the accident was handled the same way “as any other crash with similar circumstances.”

“The operator observed an unknown vehicle traveling towards her in her travel lane,” the report says. “Operator swerved to the right to avoid a collision, causing her vehicle [to] run off the roadway on the right side, striking a boulder on the side of the road.”

Officials at the state Office of Public Safety and Security, where Burgess has worked since 2007, said the Ford Taurus she was driving is being repaired. In addition to the highway safety division, state public safety secretary Mary Elizabeth Heffernan also oversees the State Police.

When asked whether Heffernan was comfortable with Burgess’s long driving record, spokesman Terrel Harris said that she “was comfortable knowing Burgess has had no driving issues between the date of her hiring and the time of her [Aug. 24] accident.”

Burgess was not talking on her state-provided phone at the time of the crash, but she used it numerous times that day for phone calls, phone records show. State officials declined to release a record showing the number of times, if any, she sent text messages during the monthly billing period that included the Aug. 24 crash date. Cellphone records do not include a list of when text messages were sent, but simply report how many were sent in the course of a month.

At the time of the crash, Burgess’s license was active but had been flagged for nonrenewal because of failure to pay local excise taxes. After the Globe began making inquiries, the taxes were paid and her license status was cleared.

As highway safety director, Burgess is the Patrick administration’s chief safety officer for drivers. In a recent newsletter mailed to hundreds of police departments statewide, she articulated a clear message on safe driving. “Remember: drive safely, soberly, and distraction-free. And always buckle — every trip, every time,” she wrote last spring.

Burgess manages a staff of about six, and helps parcel out more than $2 million a year in grants to state and local police departments for public awareness programs on safe driving, including money to underwrite overtime for police.

Her resumé, which she distributed to staff members, lists her as a former executive director and aide for five years to former Representative J. Joseph Moakley. It says she was Moakley’s campaign manager in 2000.

Her resumé cites, among other duties, that she “facilitated all fund-raising and events for the congressman as well as other candidates as required.” Moakley died in May 2001.

As a paid fund-raising consultant, Burgess worked for, in addition to Murray and McGovern, Senator John Kerry, gubernatorial candidate Chris Gabrieli, former Quincy mayor James Sheets, former state treasurer and gubernatorial candidate Shannon O’Brien, and state Senator Thomas McGee of Lynn, according to her resume.

She lists among her affiliations the “Kerry for President Finance Committee” and the “Shannon O’Brien Finance Committee.”

McGovern was a close confidante and aide to Moakley before being elected to Congress in 1996. McGovern and Murray, both Worcester residents, are close political allies, as are McGovern and Patrick. All are Democrats.

Burgess lists herself as principal of SHB Consulting/Mass Strategy Group. Campaign ­finance records show Mass Strategy Group was paid $11,414 for fund-raising consulting during Murray’s 2003 campaign for Worcester mayor. (He was first elected mayor in 2001.) The firm was paid $6,000 by Murray’s mayoral campaign committee in 2004. Murray was reelected as mayor in 2005 and ran successfully for lieutenant governor in 2006.

A spokesman for Murray’s campaign said that while Murray has no recollection of Sheila Burgess working as a consultant, he does remember her sister, Coleen, as doing so. Mass Strategy Group lists Coleen Burgess as president of the firm and Sheila Burgess as registered agent, state corporation records show.

Last year, another state employee in a sensitive public safety position was forced to resign after the Globe reported his long record of driving violations. In that case, it was Murray who in 2008 recommended the hiring of the employee, Matthew McLaughlin, as a $60,000-a-year appointee to the Board of Appeals, which hears appeals from drunken drivers who have lost their licenses. McLaughlin’s driving record includes a license suspension for refusing to take a breathalyzer test and six speeding tickets.

Matthew McLaughlin is the son of Michael McLaughlin, the former Chelsea Housing Authority executive director now under federal investigation for apparently using government money intended for fixing-up public housing apartments to jack up his own salary to $360,000 a year. Investigators are also scrutinizing Michael McLaughlin’s involvement in fund-raisers for Murray.


The Boston Globe
Monday, November 19, 2012

Mass. to widen tuition breaks at state colleges
Illegal immigrants can pay resident rates
By Maria Sacchetti


Governor Deval Patrick will direct state colleges and universities Monday to allow young illegal immigrants to pay the lower resident rate for tuition and fees as soon as they obtain work permits through a new federal program, a senior administration official said Sunday.

Patrick’s declaration ends five months of anxiety for immigrants who cheered President Obama’s decision in June to temporarily halt the deportations of immigrants age 30 and under, only to plunge them into limbo in Massachusetts as officials said they were reviewing whether the immigrants were eligible for the lower rates. But the governor’s announcement also raised criticism that he is neglecting American citizens struggling to afford college.

The Patrick administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the governor is sending a letter to the Board of Higher Education Monday, said the change takes effect immediately. State officials said students paying nonresident tuition now at one of the 29 state colleges or universities may apply for a refund for this semester, but not for prior semesters.

“That’s amazing,” said an elated Cairo Mendes of Marlborough, a 19-year-old native of Brazil here since he was 9 who could afford only two classes at Massachusetts Bay Community College this semester because the cost is double the resident rate. “My life is about to get a lot better, just the fact that I can go to college in peace.”

Patrick’s announcement dramatically slashes the cost of a college education for immigrants who until now had to pay out-of-state rates.

For example, the flagship University of Massachusetts Amherst costs $26,645 this year for nonresidents, compared with $13,230 for residents, while Bunker Hill Community College costs $5,640 this year for residents, compared with $13,880 for nonresidents. And Framingham State costs $8,080 for residents this year, compared with $14,160 for nonresidents.

Patrick’s decision comes less than two weeks after a contentious election season, and it is likely to rankle critics in a state where immigration has been a hot political issue. In 2004, the state Legislature passed a bill allowing illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition, but then-Governor Mitt Romney, this year’s Republican presidential nominee who just lost to Obama, vetoed the measure, and subsequent efforts failed.

After Romney’s 2004 veto, the Senate passed a measure allowing illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates in 2005, but it failed in the House in early 2006.

The economy soured soon after that, and support for the measure evaporated. Since then, the measure has largely seemed dead.

In an attempt to revive it last year, Patrick showed up unannounced at a State House hearing to urge lawmakers to approve the measure, but it was not passed into law.

On Sunday, the senior administration official said Patrick’s letter to the Board of Higher Education reflects his administration’s interpretation of the effect of Obama’s program on immigrants who had been here illegally.

Education Secretary Paul Reville said Sunday that Obama’s program changed illegal immigrants’ circumstances enough to clear the way for them to pay resident tuition. Though they are not eligible for green cards, they will be allowed to stay for at least two years and, most importantly, obtain work permits.

He said immigrants with federal work permits have been allowed to pay resident tuition since 2008.

Steve Kropper, cochairman of Massachusetts Citizens for Immigration Reform, which favors tougher limits on immigration, said on Sunday that the governor and the president should focus on US citizens and legal residents who also cannot afford college. He said the governor’s action sidestepped the state Legislature.

“I think it’s a bad decision. It’s bad for the country,” Kropper said. “The Democratic Party’s position is not thoughtful about our own poor.”

Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray is expected to speak about immigration on Monday at the annual Thanksgiving luncheon hosted by the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition at the State House, officials said.

President Obama thrilled unauthorized immigrants in June by launching the program, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, granting immigrants aged 30 and younger two-year reprieves from deportation if they arrived before age 16, had a clean record, and met other requirements. They also must pay a $465 fee.

But Obama left it up to individual states to decide whether immigrants should get benefits such as resident tuition.

Most states did not allow immigrants to pay resident tuition before the president’s decision. However, US education officials have said that students with deferred deportations are not eligible for federal financial aid.

To pay resident tuition in Massachusetts, state officials said, immigrants must meet the same standards as any other student, including fulfilling academic requirements and the minimum length of state residency for that school.

It is unclear how many Massachusetts students will be affected by Patrick’s announcement. From 10,000 to 20,000 immigrants in Massachusetts could apply for Obama’s deferred action program, according to estimates from the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute, but those numbers have not materialized.

Federal statistics for Massachusetts were unavailable, but as of last week the state had not cracked the top 10 states in the number of applicants, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Homeland Security agency administering the program. Fewer students from Massachusetts had applied than in Virginia, which ranked 10th with less than 6,000 applications.

Nationwide, more than 300,000 immigrants have applied for the program, much lower than initial government estimates of 800,000 or more. Of these, the government has approved more than 53,000 applications and rejected more than 10,000. Officials said the rest are under review.

More than 80 percent of the deferred-action applicants were from Latin America. Latino voters, both US-born and naturalized citizens, helped catapult Obama to a second term.

Other significant groups applying for deferred action include South Koreans and natives of the Philippines.


State House News Service
Monday, November 19, 2012

Mixed reaction on Hill to Patrick's directive on immigration tuition
By Matt Murphy


Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray and others on Monday put the issue of offering in-state tuition rates to undocumented immigrants into economic terms, while the House’s Republican leadership called for implementation of the new policy on tuition to “be stopped immediately.”

Both Democrats and Republicans on Monday also used the step taken by Patrick to look ahead to the legislative session that begins in January when in-state tuition for a broader class of undocumented immigrants could resurface in a more significant way than in recent years.

Gov. Deval Patrick wrote a letter on Monday to Higher Education Commissioner Richard Freeland informing him that young immigrants granted “deferred status” under President Barack Obama new deportation policy should be offered in-state tuition at public colleges and universities in Massachusetts.

The administration said it based the decision on the availability of federal work permits to the new class of immigrants, which is one of the 16 ways a student can prove lawful immigrant status in Massachusetts to qualify for the tuition break.

House Minority Brad Jones said that while making higher education affordable to Massachusetts residents is important, the state must be “judicious and fair in how we award such benefits.”

“Governor Patrick’s most recent attempt to usurp the power of the Legislature is cause for concern. Instead of engaging elected officials from both political parties in constructive conversation and debate, he has put his interests, both politically and personally, above those of Massachusetts’ residents,” Jones said in a statement.

Patrick based his decision on the new federal policy started by Obama over the summer with an executive order giving immigrants under 31 who came to the United States before their 16th birthday the opportunity to apply for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals status. Those approved would be protected from deportation for two years, and allowed to apply for work permits.

“While this change in federal enforcement policy applies only to a small segment of our immigrant population and is no substitute for comprehensive immigration reform, it is certainly a step in the right direction,” Patrick wrote to Freeland.

Jones did not identify any means by which he might seek to stop the administration from implementing the tuition policy, and Patrick said he continues to support comprehensive immigration reform efforts at the national level and legislation locally to grant in-state tuition to all undocumented immigrants who attended high school in Massachusetts.

“We are exploring all possibilities,” said Peter Lorenz, a spokesman for the minority leader. “Should we decide to file a bill, it would most likely be at the beginning of the next legislative session, and would be in conjunction with legislation aimed at providing tuition and fee waivers for active duty servicepersons who are permanent and legal residents of Massachusetts. The bill will also include veterans of the Commonwealth who attend any state college, community college, or state university.”

Patrick has long supported in-state tuition for undocumented students who have grown up in Massachusetts, attended schools here, and are pursuing a path to citizenship.

Asked whether he might file or push for a Massachusetts-based in-state tuition bill during the coming session, Patrick said, “I hope so, but I hope also that we’re going to get comprehensive immigration reform from the Congress and that will answer a lot of the questions that we in this state have and other states have.”

Murray, before speaking at a State House luncheon hosted by the Massachusetts Immigrant & Refugees Advocacy Coalition, said he supported the application of the new federal program in Massachusetts to include tuition breaks.

“I think these are young people who have played by the rules, demonstrated academic capacity and have the right to be able to apply and if they’re admitted we should try to make sure these young people are reaching their full potential,” Murray said.

Noting that taxpayers in Worcester already pay $10,500 per student annually for public education for these same immigrants, Murray said, “The people of the Commonwealth are already investing in these young people.”

Republicans weren’t the only ones in the Legislature concerned that Patrick might be circumventing their authority with his interpretation of the new federal programs.

Sen. Richard Moore (D-Uxbridge) wasn’t excited with Patrick’s decision. “I think it’s something the Legislature should discuss, not be done by executive order. But the president has done the same thing pretty much,” Moore said Monday outside the annual MIRA Thanksgiving lunch in Great Hall.

Moore wouldn’t say whether the policy could or should be reversed by the Legislature, only that “it should have been discussed more fully” with the branches. “Given the limitations on access by taxpayers, it’s a concern whether it’s the right policy at this point in time,” Moore said.

Treasurer Steven Grossman said it was “not true” that undocumented immigrants would be taking admission slots away from legal residents. “No place at one of our public colleges or universities will be denied to any other child or student by virtue of these children being offered in-state tuition,” Grossman said.

Grossman also suggested that training these immigrant students would be beneficial to the future of the state’s economy. “We have over 119,000 jobs that are posted that we can’t fill. I mean we need everyone one of those young people getting a great education, going to a public college or university, whether it’s a community college or four-year university or the UMass system and then taking their place in this workforce. Eighty percent of the people who come out of public colleges or universities stay right here,” Grossman said.

Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry (D-Dorchester) said she plans to file legislation reinforcing Patrick’s order when formal sessions resume next year. “I’m planning on filing in-state tuition come January just to really make sure we can institutionalize it here in the state of Massachusetts but this is really a first step - this is quite exciting,” Forry said.

In recent years, in-state tuition bills for undocumented immigrants have failed to gain much traction. The Legislature last approved such a law in 2004, only to have then-Gov. Mitt Romney veto the legislation. The last vote on the topic came in January 2006 when the House rejected a bill 57-97 that would have allowed undocumented immigrant students who spent at least three years and graduated from a state high school to pay the reduced rate.

U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, addressing the MIRA audience, said for the first time he’s been in Congress he sees a “real opportunity to do comprehensive immigration reform.”

“You can do for the next group of people what you wish had been done for your ancestors,” Capuano said, discussing his own Irish and Italian heritage.

Murray called Thanksgiving the “ultimate acknowledgement of an immigrant experience” and said Massachusetts is “stronger when we embrace the talent, ideas and work ethic of our immigrants.”

The lieutenant governor also took umbrage at the tone of discourse that sometimes follows immigration policy issues, specifically recalling how he felt when he heard a WTKK radio personality, who he did not name, “talking in a very disparaging, racist and prejudiced way about female Mexicans.”

“He could have been talking about my daughters and their future and their background. Words matter. So as this debate continues in Washington hold those people accountable who don’t want to make this debate civil,” Murray said. Murray and his wife have two adopted daughters from Guatemala.

 

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