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CLT UPDATE
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
House Passes $500 Million Tax Hike
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The House’s budget chief on Friday appeared to
dash any hopes liberal Democrats and transportation activists might
have of forcing legislative leaders back to the negotiating table
with Gov. Deval Patrick over tax hikes, indicating $500 million was
as high as House leaders are willing to go.
Making a late afternoon impromptu visit to the
State House press gallery, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep.
Brian Dempsey said failure to pass the House and Senate leadership
proposal dedicating $500 million in new revenue toward
transportation would risk higher near-term MBTA fares and service
cuts, jeopardize a $100 million increase in local road funding, and
kill any discussion of expansion projects....
In a letter to supporters emailed through his
political action committee on Friday, Patrick urged the public to
call their legislators and weigh in whether they support his plan or
theirs....
The House Ways and Means Committee plans to
release its full fiscal 2014 budget plan on Wednesday.
State House News Service
Friday, April 5, 2013
Dempsey: "Highly unlikely" that House will go above $500 mil on new
taxes
There have been rifts over the gas tax and
collective bargaining rights, skirmishes over sentencing reforms and
more serious disagreements about casinos —
not once but twice.
But not since the great staring contest of 2010
between Speaker Robert DeLeo and Gov. Deval Patrick over slot
parlors have hostilities between the executive and legislative
branches been so open and raw.
Patrick this week didn’t just threaten to veto
the Democratic leadership’s proposal to raise $500 million for
transportation with tax hikes on gas, tobacco and businesses. He
eviscerated it, challenging not just the policy points, but the
sincerity of the leaders who crafted it....
For three leaders of the same party who profess
to have great respect and personal admiration for one another,
Patrick, DeLeo and Murray seem to be having considerable difficulty
playing nice....
Democrats have reason to be concerned about a tax
vote given recent history. In 2010, after DeLeo pushed through a
nearly $1 billion sales tax increase for transportation, local aid
and other spending in the face of daunting, recession-forced budget
cuts, the speaker watched 12 incumbent Democrats fall that November,
and another four open seats went to Republicans.
State House News Service
Friday, April 5, 2013
Weekly Roundup – Games people play
After three months of relative inactivity on
Beacon Hill, the Democratic leaders of state government finally
opened up debate this week on the 800-pound gorilla that is
transportation financing and voters learned that the starting
position of legislative leaders versus Gov. Deval Patrick is one of
massive and acrimonious disagreement.
The vastly different visions laid out first in
January by Patrick and this week by Senate President Therese Murray
and House Speaker Robert DeLeo are a sign either of Machiavellian
collusion among Democrats who control state government and are
carrying out a months-long drama with a pre-determined conclusion or
of good old-fashioned difference of opinion about what the state’s
top elected officials think Massachusetts residents want in their
transportation system and how much they are willing and able to pay
for it....
The headline event Wednesday is the release of a
fiscal 2014 budget proposal by Rep. Brian Dempsey (D-Haverhill),
chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. The House plans to
debate the budget bill later in April. Given that the House appears
unwilling to go along with most of the new taxes proposed by Gov.
Deval Patrick in his fiscal 2014 budget, which was released in
January, the House plan is likely to feature a smaller bottom line
than the governor’s $34.8 billion. Much of the difference will be in
education where the governor has proposed major investments from
early through higher education
State House News Service
Friday, April 5, 2013
Advances – Week of April 7, 2013
Governor Deval Patrick and Democratic legislative
leaders slid into deeper gridlock over transportation financing
Friday, with some lawmakers acknowledging that they probably could
not muster the votes to override a threatened veto and House leaders
taking a hard line against compromise.
A day after Patrick stirred dissension on Beacon
Hill by accusing lawmakers of clinging to the financing policies
that led to exploding Big Dig costs, House officials raised the ante
by signaling their intention not to budge from their $500 million
tax package, far shy of Patrick’s $1.9 billion proposal.
With such a chasm between the two plans and
tensions rising between legislative leaders and Patrick, veteran
lawmakers and senior administration officials said they were unsure
whether a compromise could emerge in time to avert a spike in MBTA
fares....
Escalating the showdown with Patrick, House Ways
and Means chairman Brian Dempsey told reporters on Friday afternoon
that it was “highly unlikely” the House would return to the
transportation funding mechanism if the leadership plan meets
defeat.
Under that scenario, he said, T riders would
probably be facing increased fares and reduced services. The
Haverhill Democrat said leadership had also found insufficient
support for ratcheting up the $500 million bottom line, which
Patrick has called inadequate. “Getting to a higher number does not
appear at all likely,” he said....
In response, Patrick spokeswoman Jesse Mermell
wrote in an e-mail: “The Governor respects the Legislature’s
process, but has made clear that he cannot and will not support a
bill that doesn’t meet the Commonwealth’s basic transportation and
education needs, let alone make critical investments the future. He
remains open to working with the Legislature to find a long-term
solution.” ...
Now, with fare hikes looming and the state facing
an aging transportation infrastructure, Democratic leaders are
focusing their fire on Patrick.
“The governor really misread this politically,”
said House majority leader Ronald Mariano, a Quincy Democrat.
“He doesn’t understand the fact that we need to
get 81 votes to support a plan and we know there is not support for
a tax increase of that magnitude, and I think he has misjudged the
level of support in the building for his plan,” Mariano said.
Lawmakers complain that Patrick stirred up
activists to put them in an awkward position, wiring his vaunted
grass-roots network to apply pressure and pitting traditional allies
against one another....
Patrick aides respond that the pressure came
about because legislators said they were hearing only antitax
arguments and needed political cover from advocates. They point out
that Patrick, by design, stumped publicly in districts represented
by both Democratic and Republican leaders.
Legislative officials, Patrick aides say, had
counseled the administration to peddle his tax package the way
then-speaker Thomas M. Finneran did in 2002, touring the state to
cobble support for a major tax hike. The administration posted an
online map, broken into House and Senate districts, detailing how
localities would benefit from transportation projects.
The Boston Globe
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Gridlock deepens on Mass. transportation bill
Gov. Deval L. Patrick said Friday that a
legislative bill to increase the gas tax asks people in Western
Massachusetts to pay more at the pumps without giving them much of
anything in return.
"It's just too small," Patrick said ahead of a
vote on Monday to raise the gas tax by three cents. "It's not
meaningful change."
Patrick, the state's two term Democratic
governor, on Thursday vowed to veto the Legislature's $500 million
revenue bill if it comes to his desk in its current form....
The House of Representatives is set to vote on
two bills on Monday, one that includes raising the gas tax and
another that would increase grants for road improvements in
municipalities by 50 percent to $300 million.
In the interview, Patrick also issued a warning
on the $300 million bill for so-called Chapter 90 grants to cities
and towns.
"I can sign that bill all day long, but not
release the funds unless we get the revenue to support it," Patrick
said.
The Chapter 90 grants are in a bond bill. Under a
bond bill, legislators authorize a certain amount of funds, but it
is up to the governor to release and actually spend bond funds.
Patrick said he would need more than a $500
million revenue bill in order to fund Chapter 90 at $300 million....
The Citizens for Limited Taxation issued a
statement on Friday, saying it opposed both bills by Patrick and
legislative leaders. The organization, which led approval of
Proposition 2½ in 1980, said it supports a Republican plan that
calls for certain reforms and no taxes.
The Springfield Republican
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Gov. Deval Patrick says Western Massachusetts gets little from
Legislature's gas tax bill
To sell Speaker Robert DeLeo’s $500 million tax
package, there is a whole lot of political theater being staged to
fool low information voters into being grateful it’s not Gov. Deval
Patrick’s $1.9 billion plan.
When initially announced last week, Patrick
pounced by stating that no Democrats lost their seats because they
voted for his sales tax increase in 2009. There are Deval’s
statements and then there are the facts. In 2010, the GOP doubled
their numbers in the House.
Next, our governor threatened to veto the House
package. No, he wasn’t rescuing taxpayers. Deval demanded additional
taxes in a ploy to make the $500 million plan look more palatable.
That’s like being grateful to a mugger for leaving behind your
wallet.
The Boston Herald
Monday, April 8, 2013
Don’t obscure truth of transportation bill
By Holly Robichaud
As the House on Monday delayed the opening of
debate on a controversial $500 million tax package to finance
transportation, Gov. Deval Patrick met with 18 to 20 House lawmakers
in his office Monday morning, including many who are sympathetic to
his position, to remind them he is still willing to negotiate with
House Speaker Robert DeLeo on a middle path on taxes.
Patrick on Thursday threatened to veto the
Democratic leadership-backed plan to raise $500 million in new taxes
for transportation, a proposal Patrick has dubbed insufficient to
meet the state’s needs.
Patrick and members of his administration also
dialed over 100 lawmakers over the weekend to press his case in
phone calls described to the News Service by a person familiar with
the calls as “temperature taking” conversations. According to one
official, the governor and his team were reminding lawmakers that
the legislative leadership plan would be insufficient to fund all
transportation and infrastructure projects programmed for their
local districts. Though lawmakers can earmark capital funding for
local projects, the administration ultimately controls when and
where the money gets spent.
State House News Service
Monday, April 8, 2013
State Capitol Briefs - Lunch Edition
Patrick staying active in transpo tax battle
The Democrat-controlled Legislature’s plan to
raise $500 million in new taxes for transportation investments won
praise Monday from a second major business group. After the Greater
Boston Chamber of Commerce came out Friday in favor of the plan,
Associated Industries of Massachusetts, the state’s largest employer
trade group, said it too favors the proposal that increases taxes on
gasoline, tobacco products and businesses....
State House News Service
Monday, April 8, 2013
State Capitol Briefs - Lunch Edition
AIM urges House to back $500 mil tax plan
Taking the first major step toward a significant
tax hike this year, the House on Monday night approved $500 million
in new revenue from increases in the state’s gas, cigarette and
business taxes in an attempt to solidify the finances of the state’s
transportation system and invest in local road repair projects.
The House voted 97-55 just before midnight to
approve the tax package that would raise the state’s gas tax by
3-cents, increase the per-pack cigarette tax by $1 and impose new
taxes on utility companies, software services and out-of-state
corporations doing business in Massachusetts.
The margin of support for House Speaker Robert
DeLeo’s plan, however, fell eight votes short of the two-thirds
needed to override a threatened veto from Gov. Deval Patrick.
Opposition to the bill came from both sides of
the debate, including liberal Democrats who support more revenue and
fiscally conservative Democrats and Republicans that don’t want to
support new taxes. Advocates speculated throughout the day about
where the vote would land and how DeLeo might try to swing votes to
his side should it come to that....
The focus of the tax debate now shifts to the
Senate where the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday is
expected to release a revised version of the House-backed
transportation financing proposal, hewing closely to the parameters
of the $500 million target agreed to by House and Senate leaders
last week.
The Senate bill, according to advocates and
sources within the Senate, however, is expected to contain reforms
and other changes that may require the two branches to reconcile the
bills, a step that would delay the proposal from reaching the
governor’s desk....
Republicans offered amendments striking the sales
tax on software services, the utilities exemption, the gas tax and
indexing the gas tax to inflation, proposals that were all
rejected....
[House minority leader Bradley H. Jones, R-North
Reading] said eliminating the utilities tax exemption, which would
impact NStar and National Grid by charging them a corporate tax rate
of 8 percent instead of 6.5 percent, would be passed on to
consumers. The amendment to retain the exemption was rejected
44-102.
“It will be convenient because you’ll say blame
NStar, blame National Grid. But blame yourself. You’re doing it to
your constituents and ratepayers,” Jones said....
Rep. Marc Lombardo (R-Billerica) proposed to
scrap the tobacco tax increases because he said they would amount to
a “stimulus” for New Hampshire where a pack of cigarettes would be
that much cheaper. His amendment won the support of 19 Democrats.
“We’re counting on them not to quit to the tune
of $150 million,” said Assistant Minority Leader George Peterson
(R-Grafton), disputing the notion that the tax is intended to
encourage smokers to quit.
Another Republican-led amendment to scrap the
proposed tax on computer design service was backed by 26 Democrats.
The House also voted 46-103 against striking the
gas tax increase. Peterson argued that increasing the gas tax by
three cents may seem like a small tax, but will increase the cost of
delivering goods hurting truck drivers or the small business that
will pay increased delivery fees for products.
Also falling short with 53 votes in favor to 95
opposed was Rep. Paul Frost’s effort to block the indexing of the
gas tax to inflation, which the Auburn Republican and others
suggested was a shirking of legislator’s duties to allow the gas tax
to increase on its own without future Legislative approval.
State House News Service
Monday, April 8, 2013
Tax clears House 97-55 shifting debate over transpo revenue to
Senate
House lawmakers passed a $500 million
transportation bill Monday night, but failed to get the margin
needed to protect it from Governor Deval Patrick’s threatened veto,
intensifying a confrontation over how best to to address the state’s
pressing transportation needs.
Patrick, who favors a more ambitious $1.9 billion
plan for transportation and education, spent the weekend lobbying
legislators to vote against the more modest House bill. The efforts
were successful enough to split House Democrats’ votes on the
measure, a rare moment in a legislative body in which the Democratic
majority is usually united.
Without unity, the 107 votes needed for a
veto-proof margin proved elusive. The final vote was 97 to 55....
If Patrick successfully vetoes the bill, Straus
said, there is no guarantee that any funding measure will pass, and
Massachusetts commuters will be left in the lurch.
“I myself don’t want to play some sort of
roulette game or game of chance with the people we represent,”
Strauss said, in trying to persuade dissenters to vote in favor of
the bill....
Minority leader Bradley H. Jones, a Republican
from North Reading, said he was stunned to hear Patrick call $500
million in new tax revenue “too conservative.”
“It is all too much to ask the people of the
Commonwealth,” Jones said....
Minutes before debate began on the bill, about
100 protesters gathered outside the State House, calling on
legislators to provide greater funding to the MBTA to make it
possible to reduce fares for The Ride, the T’s door-to-door car
service for senior citizens and people with disabilities. Fares for
the The Ride were increased from $2 to $4 last year.
“For over a year now we’ve been fighting to make
sure they raise revenue, that they do that in a way that holds down
increases for low- and middle-income folks,” said Carolyn Villers,
executive director of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council....
After chanting at the State House gates, seven of
the protesters lined a crosswalk on Beacon Street, blocking traffic.
Police arrested four of the protesters, including Villers.
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
House approves measure to fund transit system
But margin not veto-proof
If you had the misfortune to be driving near
Beacon Street yesterday around lunchtime you had a front-row
seat for the chaos that embodies our state’s transportation
system — and what may be to come if something isn’t done to fix
it.
A half-dozen folks who rely on The Ride — the
subsidized transportation service for the elderly and disabled —
blocked the downtown street for about 20 minutes in protest of
last year’s fare hike and their concerns that the MBTA’s busted
balance sheet will mean more to come.
Gov. Deval Patrick’s team is, of course,
fueling those fears — insisting the only way to avoid increasing
the financial burden on folks who rely on public transportation
and the state highway system is to dramatically increase the
financial burden on folks who draw a paycheck. As if there is no
overlap.
A Boston Herald editorial
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Driven to extremes
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
Late last night the House passed its $500 million
transportation tax hike, with no Republicans voting for it. 27 of
the most liberal Democrats voted against it because it wasn't large
enough; they're holding out for Gov. Patrick's $1.9 billion hike, or
a "compromise" for more when and if the governor vetoes this
version.
The battle among Bacon Hill Democrats is getting
downright nasty. Gov. Patrick and his more, more, more minions are
making direct assaults on the legislative leaders and their
rank-and-file flock who want only more, more. The sniping between the two
factions is becoming bitter. As Howie Carr wrote in
his column on
Friday:
"As they used to say about the Iran-Iraq war, Isn’t there some way
they can both lose?"
This latest
tax hike — just for transportation
— now moves to the state Senate where a
vote is expected to be taken on Thursday, where it will likely also
pass. The Best Legislature Money Can Buy can sure move fast when it
wants to. That will set up a big drama when it reaches the
governor's desk, especially if he follows through on his vow to veto
it.
If he
exercises his veto, and the House and Senate decide not to
compromise, hike taxes even higher for the governor, as it sounds
like they're insisting — there won't
be a transportation tax hike and taxpayers will be the winners!
Meanwhile,
the House is now moving on to its annual budget for FY 2014
— deciding where to spend however much
on state government starting in July.
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Chip Ford |
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How did your state
representative vote?
Roll Call Vote for Tax Hikes
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State House News Service
Friday, April 5, 2013
Dempsey: "Highly unlikely" that House will go above $500 mil on new
taxes
By Matt Murphy and Michael Norton
The House’s budget chief on Friday appeared to dash any hopes
liberal Democrats and transportation activists might have of forcing
legislative leaders back to the negotiating table with Gov. Deval
Patrick over tax hikes, indicating $500 million was as high as House
leaders are willing to go.
Making a late afternoon impromptu visit to the State House press
gallery, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Brian Dempsey said
failure to pass the House and Senate leadership proposal dedicating
$500 million in new revenue toward transportation would risk higher
near-term MBTA fares and service cuts, jeopardize a $100 million
increase in local road funding, and kill any discussion of expansion
projects.
“We have looked at this and worked it and getting to a higher number
does not appear at all likely and I think putting the $500 (million)
at risk means it would be hard for us to go back at this this year,
certainly in time for the MBTA to have additional revenues to avoid
fare increases and service reductions,” Dempsey told reporters
during a short discussion.
Addressing what he described as “speculation” about the level of
support for the leadership plan in the House and Senate, Dempsey
said lawmakers are eager to move on from the transportation
financing debate and leadership is “unlikely” to reengage in
negotiations with members or the governor over a bigger revenue
package.
The comments seemed directed at Democrats supportive of components
of Patrick’s $1.9 billion new revenue plan for education and
transportation that might be considering voting against the smaller
package, or mustering the votes to sustain a veto, in an effort to
pass a larger tax bill than the one favored by legislative leaders.
“We are optimistic and hopeful that the support is there to pass the
bill as proposed. We only point out that it’s going to be very, very
challenging to do anything to get to a higher number so if folks are
thinking about perhaps not supporting $500 (million) with the idea
that that will put everyone back at the table, highly unlikely that
that’s going to happen,” Dempsey said.
The legislative leadership’s plan includes nearly a quarter billion
dollars of new taxes on businesses with the remainder raised by
taxes on tobacco and gas. Patrick wants to raise the income tax,
lower the sales tax and enact a long menu of other tax code changes
that he says will result in wealthier individuals paying the bulk of
new taxes.
Patrick on Thursday vowed to veto the plan put forward by House
Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray, calling it
too small to address the state’s needs, saying it hits middle class
taxpayers, and labeling it a “pretend fix” to a problem of
underfunded infrastructure that has been neglected for years.
In a letter to supporters emailed through his political action
committee on Friday, Patrick urged the public to call their
legislators and weigh in whether they support his plan or theirs.
“I don’t see how it’s either good policy or good politics to raise
taxes on everybody without being able to show that you’re delivering
something at home. By proposing a pretend solution rather than a
real one, the Legislature is kicking the can down the road again.
That is a slow-growth or a no-growth choice. It does not bear our
generational responsibility. And I will not support it,” he wrote in
the email.
Dempsey said the Democratic leadership plan was “sensitive to the
economic climate, sensitive to the middle class and one that is well
balanced and provides for significant funding for transportation.”
He added that it would be “very, very challenging” to get support
for additional revenue increases above $500 million. Asked if the
challenge was a political one, Dempsey said, “Absolutely. People are
very sensitive to the economic climate.”
Patrick on Thursday and again on Friday said he remained open to
resuming negotiations with House and Senate leaders, and supported
the idea first pushed last week by Republicans of public hearings on
the tax plan. House members rejected the call for a public hearing
on the bill this week as they teed up the tax plan for debate
Monday.
Dempsey said the bill before the House is a “reasonable” plan that
will provide for some expansion in transit services once employees
are moved off the capital budget. “If that is not achieved next
week, we have other matters to move on to, which is the budget,” he
said.
The House Ways and Means Committee plans to release its full fiscal
2014 budget plan on Wednesday.
A Patrick spokeswoman said in a statement that Patrick remains open
to working with lawmakers on transportation.
“The Governor respects the Speaker’s prerogative to pass this bill
in whatever way he feels necessary, but has made clear that he
cannot and will not support a bill that doesn’t meet the
Commonwealth’s basic transportation and education needs, let alone
makes critical investments the future,” said Patrick spokeswoman
Heather Johnson. “He remains open to working with the Legislature to
find a long-term solution.”
After Patrick’s criticism Thursday of the plan offered by
legislative leaders, which Patrick called “not serious,” Dempsey and
Senate budget chief Stephen Brewer wrote a letter to lawmakers
Friday defending their plan and DeLeo’s office disseminated a “fact
versus fiction” memo disputing claims that their plan locks the
state into transportation system underfunding, will not fund road
and maintenance projects, and will lead to fare hikes.
In the letter, Dempsey and Brewer pushed back against criticism that
their plan will leave infrastructure neglected and will jeopardize
the $1.3 billion Green Line extension.
“Our plan funds MassDOT’s and the MBTA’s existing long-term capital
plans,” Dempsey and Brewer wrote. “These plans include the Green
Line extension and new Red and Orange line subway cars. House 1
would implement a major expansion of the transportation system
without first addressing current unsound fiscal practices.”
Dempsey and Brewer concluded, “The Governor’s plan asks the taxpayer
to carry the risk of his vision. Our proposal addresses critical
infrastructure needs without over burdening taxpayers, who are still
struggling to meet their financial needs as we slowly exit the
recession.”
Taking sides in the dispute Friday, the Greater Boston Chamber of
Commerce came out in favor of the plan offered by legislative
leaders. “The bill proposed by legislative leaders this week
represents a serious and comprehensive approach to our
transportation problems," Chamber President Paul Guzzi said in a
statement. “It addresses public transit needs across the state, puts
the transportation system on a sound financial footing, and sets the
stage for important reforms that should accompany new funding and
for future capital investment projects.”
State House News Service
Friday, April 5, 2013
Weekly Roundup – Games people play
Recap and analysis of the week in state government
By Matt Murphy
There have been rifts over the gas tax and collective bargaining
rights, skirmishes over sentencing reforms and more serious
disagreements about casinos - not once but twice.
But not since the great staring contest of 2010 between Speaker
Robert DeLeo and Gov. Deval Patrick over slot parlors have
hostilities between the executive and legislative branches been so
open and raw.
Patrick this week didn’t just threaten to veto the Democratic
leadership’s proposal to raise $500 million for transportation with
tax hikes on gas, tobacco and businesses. He eviscerated it,
challenging not just the policy points, but the sincerity of the
leaders who crafted it.
“To come up with this plan is just not serious and to say it's a
plan, to say it's a solution is just not serious and I'm not going
to play that game. I'm still here. I'm still engaged. I'm still
willing to talk about compromise," Patrick said, calling it “too
small” and too short-sighted after years of neglected infrastructure
investments.
DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray finally fully responded
this week to Patrick’s proposal to generate $1.9 billion in new
revenue through tax reform for long-term transportation and
education investments with a more immediate, and scaled down
proposal focused on a 3-cent gas tax hike, a $1 per-pack cigarette
tax increase and business taxes on software and out-of-state
corporations.
"We're trying to protect the middle class. That is I think one of
the major differences of the two plans," DeLeo said Thursday after
Patrick’s veto threat. DeLeo called the leadership plan one that is
“more responsive to the needs of the middle class,” a clever way of
packaging a $500 million tax increase. Murray said the plan would
not “bankrupt” the current generation. “Doable,” she called it.
For three leaders of the same party who profess to have great
respect and personal admiration for one another, Patrick, DeLeo and
Murray seem to be having considerable difficulty playing nice. The
governor did not see a summary of the legislative leadership’s plan
until minutes before they rolled it out for the press, and they had
not spoken about it before Patrick stood before the cameras to call
it “a pretend fix.”
Hatched largely in private among a select few lawmakers, even
members of DeLeo’s leadership team were uncertain early Tuesday
morning where the speaker had landed on a plan that’s already up for
a vote on Monday.
Two major differences between this battle over taxes and the
gambling impasse in 2010 are the calendar and the 2014 election.
Patrick does not have the luxury of using the expiring legislative
clock as leverage to get what he wants, and his own December 2014
expiration date gives lawmakers little reason to feel compelled to
bend.
Asked about his pate status and whether DeLeo and Murray were
exploiting it, Patrick said, “No, no. That would be a mistake.” But
is it?
The governor all but conceded a fact learned over six years in the
building: legislative leadership gets what it wants. The only
question now is whether the plan will be modified in the coming days
to make it more palatable to Patrick, or whether liberal Democrats
in the House or Senate are willing to stand up to DeLeo and Murray
and vote to sustain a veto – a possibility under the right
circumstances.
House Minority Leader Brad Jones is focused for now on pushing a
tax-free Republican alternative to address transportation funding,
but when asked whether his caucus would vote to sustain a
gubernatorial veto, he said through an aide, “Of course.” That could
be 30 of the 55 votes Patrick needs to force leaders back to the
negotiating table.
There were also rumblings after a lengthy closed-door caucus in
Murray’s office about the progressive ranks of the Senate coalescing
behind a Patrick veto.
House Ways and Means Chairman Brian Dempsey responded, in a
round-about way on Friday afternoon, to those machinations with an
impromptu visit to the Fourth Estate offices making it clear that
$500 million is the ceiling for the Legislature, and if the plan
fails there is “unlikely” to be resumed talk around taxes.
As the tax plan was being released and discussed at the State House
on Tuesday, voters were electing Everett Democrat Wayne “Roadhouse”
Matewsky and Republican Leah Cole to the House, filling the seats
left by Stephen Smith and the late Joyce Spiliotis.
Republicans were quick to claim Cole’s victory in Peabody as
referendum on higher taxes, particularly Gov. Deval Patrick’s $1.9
billion revenue plan that the 24-year-old nurse campaigned against.
That reading of the electorate, however, may have underplayed the
three-way nature of Cole’s race against essentially two Democrats
and which Cole won by less than 100 votes.
Still, Patrick is probably both right and wrong when he says the
“politics don’t make sense” for House and Senate Democrats to wrap
their arms around a $500 million tax increase that addresses only
the immediate budgetary pressures on the MBTA and MassDOT, but funds
none of the “growth” projects desired like South Coast Rail and the
Green Line extension.
Democrats have reason to be concerned about a tax vote given recent
history. In 2010, after DeLeo pushed through a nearly $1 billion
sales tax increase for transportation, local aid and other spending
in the face of daunting, recession-forced budget cuts, the speaker
watched 12 incumbent Democrats fall that November, and another four
open seats went to Republicans.
On the other hand, Patrick believes in going big – if you’re going
to vote for taxes, go home to your district with more to show for it
than a T that runs the same as it does today and accounting books
that show the state is no longer borrowing to pay its highway
employees. Not exactly campaign ad material.
Better to have shiny new trains and buses, new commuting options to
jobs in the city, and new pre-school classrooms to point to, he
says.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Veto threat from Patrick hangs over House as
preferred legislative leadership tax plan takes shape.
State House News Service
Friday, April 5, 2013
Advances – Week of April 7, 2013
After three months of relative inactivity on Beacon Hill, the
Democratic leaders of state government finally opened up debate this
week on the 800-pound gorilla that is transportation financing and
voters learned that the starting position of legislative leaders
versus Gov. Deval Patrick is one of massive and acrimonious
disagreement.
The vastly different visions laid out first in January by Patrick
and this week by Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker
Robert DeLeo are a sign either of Machiavellian collusion among
Democrats who control state government and are carrying out a
months-long drama with a pre-determined conclusion or of good
old-fashioned difference of opinion about what the state’s top
elected officials think Massachusetts residents want in their
transportation system and how much they are willing and able to pay
for it.
The easy math says taxpayers in Massachusetts will be hit with a tax
increase this summer somewhere between $500 million, as DeLeo and
Murray have proposed, and $1 billion, the price Patrick puts on
essential transportation system maintenance and expansion. On that
much, there appears agreement among Democrats who have the numbers
to pass a tax bill.
House Republicans don’t have the numbers to force their will during
Monday’s tax debate and House liberals who favor a larger tax
package than the one sought by DeLeo are a group to watch next week
since they will be urged to support the leadership’s bill that DeLeo
is putting up for a vote just two days before his leadership team
unveils its fiscal 2014 budget bill.
The Senate plans a formal session Thursday.
It’s clear that legislative leaders are trying to hustle the tax
bill, but an aide to Senate President Murray couldn’t say Friday if
the tax bill was on the agenda, writing in an email that the Senate
expected on Thursday to “take up matters passed by the House.”
DeLeo on Thursday said he anticipated a Senate vote before week’s
end. “Hopefully next week the Senate will take it up and we’ll get
it on the governor’s desk,” DeLeo said.
House budget chief Rep. Brian Dempsey stopped by the press gallery
late Friday to suggest $500 million is as high as lawmakers are
willing to go on new taxes, to warn that a stalemate would lead to
higher T fares and jeopardized local road funding, and to suggest
lawmakers want to move past transportation financing to other
matters.
— On Tuesday, a day before the release
of the House Ways and Means Committee’s fiscal 2014 budget proposal,
more than 500 human services workers plan to visit the State House
to call for “fair funding” of government services and a salary
increase for low-paid direct care workers.
— The headline event
Wednesday is the release of a fiscal 2014 budget proposal by Rep.
Brian Dempsey (D-Haverhill), chair of the House Ways and Means
Committee. The House plans to debate the budget bill later in April.
Given that the House appears unwilling to go along with most of the
new taxes proposed by Gov. Deval Patrick in his fiscal 2014 budget,
which was released in January, the House plan is likely to feature a
smaller bottom line than the governor’s $34.8 billion. Much of the
difference will be in education where the governor has proposed
major investments from early through higher education
The Boston Globe
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Gridlock deepens on Mass. transportation bill
By Jim O’Sullivan
Governor Deval Patrick and Democratic legislative leaders slid into
deeper gridlock over transportation financing Friday, with some
lawmakers acknowledging that they probably could not muster the
votes to override a threatened veto and House leaders taking a hard
line against compromise.
A day after Patrick stirred dissension on Beacon Hill by accusing
lawmakers of clinging to the financing policies that led to
exploding Big Dig costs, House officials raised the ante by
signaling their intention not to budge from their $500 million tax
package, far shy of Patrick’s $1.9 billion proposal.
With such a chasm between the two plans and tensions rising between
legislative leaders and Patrick, veteran lawmakers and senior
administration officials said they were unsure whether a compromise
could emerge in time to avert a spike in MBTA fares.
Escalating the showdown with Patrick, House Ways and Means chairman
Brian Dempsey told reporters on Friday afternoon that it was “highly
unlikely” the House would return to the transportation funding
mechanism if the leadership plan meets defeat.
Under that scenario, he said, T riders would probably be facing
increased fares and reduced services. The Haverhill Democrat said
leadership had also found insufficient support for ratcheting up the
$500 million bottom line, which Patrick has called inadequate.
“Getting to a higher number does not appear at all likely,” he said.
In talking points circulated to members on Friday, both Dempsey and
Senate Ways and Means chairman Stephen Brewer said their financing
package would provide sufficient funds to obviate fare boosts and to
pay for infrastructure upkeep, as well as for existing long-term
capital plans.
In response, Patrick spokeswoman Jesse Mermell wrote in an e-mail:
“The Governor respects the Legislature’s process, but has made clear
that he cannot and will not support a bill that doesn’t meet the
Commonwealth’s basic transportation and education needs, let alone
make critical investments the future. He remains open to working
with the Legislature to find a long-term solution.”
While Patrick’s plan would make significant investments in education
and transportation, the leadership bill is confined to a narrowed
list of transportation projects, a choice the governor dismissed
Thursday as a “pretend fix.” Patrick’s version leans on higher
income taxes, reserve funds, and revenue anticipation notes. The
legislators would fund their smaller outlay with higher taxes on
gas, tobacco, and businesses.
The conflict over transportation financing, which has bedeviled the
state for generations, has imbued the generally cordial relations
between Patrick and his fellow Democratic leaders with a hostility
not seen since the 2010 debate over how to expand the state’s
gambling industry. Senate President Therese Murray, who did not
react to Patrick’s Thursday rebuke as publicly as House Speaker
Robert A. DeLeo, is also angry with the governor, according to
senators.
On Thursday, Patrick blamed lawmakers for adhering to the principles
that sent the Big Dig’s cost soaring, while DeLeo argued that
legislators were “trying to protect the middle class” from Patrick’s
tax-hiking wont.
DeLeo was working Friday to line up votes to pass the leadership
version of the bill next week and Murray is taking her members’
temperature to do the same, with doubts in both chambers over
whether the numbers exist to override. Republicans leery of the tax
increases and Democrats who believe the package is insufficiently
ambitious could band together in an unlikely coalition to thwart the
leadership, members said.
Dempsey said he was optimistic that leaders could secure the
requisite votes.
The nose count was less clear in the Senate, where Patrick had
scored some support by including long-awaited transportation
projects in his plan. Already, the debate has confounded one
member’s plans, as Senator Ben Downing, a Pittsfield Democrat,
rescheduled his honeymoon flight to be on hand for the Senate vote,
scheduled for Thursday.
“Not only do I not think that we have the votes to override, I don’t
know whether we have the votes to pass it,” said one Democrat. “I
don’t know what the House is going to do, but I think the debate on
our side is far from a foregone conclusion.”
In each chamber, there are concerns about what the other can
accomplish, straining the House-Senate alliance, which is unusual at
this juncture in the legislative process.
That tension, though, does not approach that between the executive
and legislative branches, which has escalated to a level not seen
since the very public 2010 blow-up between DeLeo and Patrick over
gambling. That dispute climaxed with DeLeo, in a dramatic speech at
the foot of the Capitol’s Grand Staircase, challenging Patrick to
agree to licensing racetrack slot machines or make the state’s
residents “suffer.”
After tempers cooled and the casino bill was signed — closer to
Patrick’s vision than DeLeo’s — a generally congenial working
relationship rebooted, allowing Democrat-run Beacon Hill to pass
laws on health care cost control, pension policies, and criminal
sentencing.
Now, with fare hikes looming and the state facing an aging
transportation infrastructure, Democratic leaders are focusing their
fire on Patrick.
“The governor really misread this politically,” said House majority
leader Ronald Mariano, a Quincy Democrat.
“He doesn’t understand the fact that we need to get 81 votes to
support a plan and we know there is not support for a tax increase
of that magnitude, and I think he has misjudged the level of support
in the building for his plan,” Mariano said.
Lawmakers complain that Patrick stirred up activists to put them in
an awkward position, wiring his vaunted grass-roots network to apply
pressure and pitting traditional allies against one another.
Patrick aides respond that the pressure came about because
legislators said they were hearing only antitax arguments and needed
political cover from advocates. They point out that Patrick, by
design, stumped publicly in districts represented by both Democratic
and Republican leaders.
Legislative officials, Patrick aides say, had counseled the
administration to peddle his tax package the way then-speaker Thomas
M. Finneran did in 2002, touring the state to cobble support for a
major tax hike. The administration posted an online map, broken into
House and Senate districts, detailing how localities would benefit
from transportation projects.
“Our original goal was that this not be dead on arrival,” said one
administration official.
The conflict over transportation comes as Patrick heads into the
back stretch of his governorship, with open questions about what
happens to the considerable political operation he has built.
Patrick, who has said he will not run for a third term, on Thursday
said he will provide electoral assistance to lawmakers who backed
him on transportation, raising the specter of a lame-duck governor
with an uncertain political future involving himself in
Massachusetts House-level races at a time when some expect him to be
making stops in Iowa and New Hampshire.
The Springfield Republican
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Gov. Deval Patrick says Western Massachusetts gets little from
Legislature's gas tax bill
By Dan Ring
Gov. Deval L. Patrick said Friday that a legislative bill to
increase the gas tax asks people in Western Massachusetts to pay
more at the pumps without giving them much of anything in return.
"It's just too small," Patrick said ahead of a vote on Monday to
raise the gas tax by three cents. "It's not meaningful change."
Patrick, the state's two term Democratic governor, on Thursday vowed
to veto the Legislature's $500 million revenue bill if it comes to
his desk in its current form.
Patrick has filed a competing $1.9 billion bill to raise taxes and
other revenues, saying that level is needed to assure financing for
road projects such as replacement of the crumbling Interstate 91
viaduct in Springfield, as well as education improvements.
The state House of Representatives on Monday is scheduled to vote on
a bill to increase the state's 23.5 cent a gallon gas tax by three
cents, indexed to inflation, and to raise the tax on cigarettes by
$1 to $3.51 pack. Combined with proposed new taxes on software
companies, utilities and large corporations, the plan by legislative
leaders would raise about $500 million a year.
But Rep. Brian S. Dempsey, a top lieutenant to House Speaker Robert
A. DeLeo, said Friday that legislators are going as far as they can
in raising revenues. If the bill passes and Patrick vetoes it, it
would require a two thirds vote in each legislative branch to
override a veto.
"We have put together a plan that is sensitive to the economic
climate, sensitive to the middle class and one that is well
balanced," said Dempsey, a Haverhill Democrat who is the budget
leader in the House.
Dempsey said the bill helps regions such as Western Massachusetts
with a measure to boost the budgets of regional transit authorities
such as the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority in Springfield.
Patrick and Richard A. Davey, secretary and CEO of the Massachusetts
Department of Transportation, gave an exclusive phone interview to
The Republican on Friday. Patrick suggested that he is attempting to
reach House members and people in Western Massachusetts before
Monday's vote.
"I don’t see how it’s either good policy or good politics to raise
taxes on everybody without being able to show that you’re delivering
something at home," Patrick said in a separate e-mail to supporters
on Friday.
Davey said the legislative bill requires the transportation
department to meet certain revenue targets. In order to hit those
targets, Davey said tolls would be increased by 15 percent in each
of 2015 and 2016 on the Massachusetts Turnpike including west of the
intersection with Route 128.
Patrick said the legislative bill would basically only raise enough
revenues to close an operating deficit at the Massachusetts Bay
Transportation Authority, preventing fare increases in Greater
Boston
The House of Representatives is set to vote on two bills on Monday,
one that includes raising the gas tax and another that would
increase grants for road improvements in municipalities by 50
percent to $300 million.
In the interview, Patrick also issued a warning on the $300 million
bill for so-called Chapter 90 grants to cities and towns.
"I can sign that bill all day long, but not release the funds unless
we get the revenue to support it," Patrick said.
The Chapter 90 grants are in a bond bill. Under a bond bill,
legislators authorize a certain amount of funds, but it is up to the
governor to release and actually spend bond funds.
Patrick said he would need more than a $500 million revenue bill in
order to fund Chapter 90 at $300 million.
Patrick said he might be required to release bonds to replace the
aging Interstate viaduct between State Street and Interstate 291 in
Springfield, but not fund the Chapter 90 program for a period of
time. Patrick said the viaduct is in such poor condition that chunks
fell from it on Wednesday.
Patrick filed a bill in January to eventually raise $1.9 billion a
year, including $1 billion annually for transportation improvements
and $900 million for expansions in education.
Patrick's bill would raise the income tax from 5.25 percent to 6.25
percent, but he said he is open to compromise on the ways to
generate enough revenues to help areas outside Boston.
The Citizens for Limited Taxation issued a
statement on Friday, saying it opposed both bills by Patrick and
legislative leaders. The organization, which led approval of
Proposition 2½ in 1980, said it supports a Republican plan that
calls for certain reforms and no taxes.
Rep. Donald F. Humason Jr., a Westfield Republican, said he
absolutely will not vote in support of an increase in the gas tax.
Humason said the gas tax disproportionately affects people in
Western Massachusetts because the region generally lacks public
transportation. Humason said people in the region are more dependent
on motor vehicles than people in and around Boston, which benefits
from the buses and rail of the massive MBTA.
House members are facing a long debate on Monday. Before Friday's
deadline, members filed 101 proposed amendments to the gas tax bill
and 16 proposed amendments to the Chapter 90 bill.
The Boston Herald
Monday, April 8, 2013
Don’t obscure truth of transportation bill
By Holly Robichaud
You know the old saying — the two things you can count on are death
and taxes. Here in Taxachusetts they have taken it to a whole new
level. Bacon Hill Democrats are going to increase the gas tax for
the rest of your life and you’re supposed to be grateful.
Today, the Massachusetts House is debating the transportation
finance bill, which includes multiple tax increases. As it stands
now the bill clobbers the middle class and working poor with a gas
tax increase tied to inflation, higher taxes on utility bills, a $1
increase on tobacco and an inexplicable new service sales tax on
computer design work.
To sell Speaker Robert DeLeo’s $500 million tax package, there is a
whole lot of political theater being staged to fool low information
voters into being grateful it’s not Gov. Deval Patrick’s $1.9
billion plan.
When initially announced last week, Patrick pounced by stating that
no Democrats lost their seats because they voted for his sales tax
increase in 2009. There are Deval’s statements and then there are
the facts. In 2010, the GOP doubled their numbers in the House.
Next, our governor threatened to veto the House package. No, he
wasn’t rescuing taxpayers. Deval demanded additional taxes in a ploy
to make the $500 million plan look more palatable. That’s like being
grateful to a mugger for leaving behind your wallet.
Pursuing the governor’s agenda, Rep. Tim Toomey (D-Cambridge) filed
an amendment to “ensure adequate investment in the commonwealth’s
infrastructure.” When this income tax increase fails today, other
Democrats are supposed to appear reasonable in just wanting
automatic gas tax hikes for infinity. The same is true for Rep.
Martin J. Walsh’s (D-Dorchester) amendment to implement open road
tolling.
Also, adding to the pressure for new taxes has been Democratic Party
Chairman John Walsh. He publicly warned legislative Democrats that
if they don’t support higher taxes, there will be primaries. Make my
day, John. That’s the same party boss who cleared the field against
Lizzy Warren and isn’t pleased with U.S. Rep. Steve Lynch’s bid for
Senate.
The working poor and middle class should be grateful to Republicans.
Rep. Marc Lombardo (R-Billerica) has filed amendments to strike the
tax hikes, and Rep. Geoff Diehl (R-Whitman) wants to create a tax
amnesty plan that will generate $540 million from the $3.6 billion
now owed the commonwealth.
Unless you’ve spare income to send to Bacon Hill, be part of the
solution. Call the State House at 617-722-2000 and vote Republican.
State House News Service
Monday, April 8, 2013
State Capitol Briefs - Lunch Edition
Patrick staying active in transpo tax battle
By Matt Murphy
As the House on Monday delayed the opening of debate on a
controversial $500 million tax package to finance transportation,
Gov. Deval Patrick met with 18 to 20 House lawmakers in his office
Monday morning, including many who are sympathetic to his position,
to remind them he is still willing to negotiate with House Speaker
Robert DeLeo on a middle path on taxes.
Patrick on Thursday threatened to veto the Democratic
leadership-backed plan to raise $500 million in new taxes for
transportation, a proposal Patrick has dubbed insufficient to meet
the state’s needs.
Patrick and members of his administration also dialed over 100
lawmakers over the weekend to press his case in phone calls
described to the News Service by a person familiar with the calls as
“temperature taking” conversations. According to one official, the
governor and his team were reminding lawmakers that the legislative
leadership plan would be insufficient to fund all transportation and
infrastructure projects programmed for their local districts. Though
lawmakers can earmark capital funding for local projects, the
administration ultimately controls when and where the money gets
spent.
House Ways and Means Chairman Brian Dempsey paid a rare visit to the
State House press gallery late Friday afternoon to say that House
leaders do not intend to budge from the $500 million total in new
taxes, and warn potential opponents in the Legislature that the
Democratic leaders intend to move on to other business should the
plan fail. Dempsey called it “highly unlikely” that negotiations on
tax package would resume if the House or Senate rejects the proposal
or if it lacks sufficient support to override a veto. Dempsey
described the prospects of winning support in the House for a tax
hike of more than $500 million as "very, very challenging" and said
that it "does not appear at all likely."
State House News Service
Monday, April 8, 2013
State Capitol Briefs - Lunch Edition
AIM urges House to back $500 mil tax plan
By Michael Norton
The Democrat-controlled Legislature’s plan to raise $500 million in
new taxes for transportation investments won praise Monday from a
second major business group. After the Greater Boston Chamber of
Commerce came out Friday in favor of the plan, Associated Industries
of Massachusetts, the state’s largest employer trade group, said it
too favors the proposal that increases taxes on gasoline, tobacco
products and businesses.
In a post on its blog, AIM called the plan offered by legislative
leadership “more focused” than Gov. Deval Patrick’s plan to invest
$1.9 billion in transportation and education, in part by raising the
income tax and reducing the sales tax and raising corporate taxes by
$500 million a year.
AIM Executive Vice President of Government Affairs John Regan said
the group was encouraged that the legislative proposal requires the
MBTA and Massachusetts Department of Transportation to “meet
reasonable benchmarks for revenues, savings, and reforms.”
In a post that included analyses of business taxes from Ernst &
Young and PriceWaterhouse Coopers, AIM concluded, “Although AIM
would have liked to see more reliance on transportation-related
revenues and less on increased business taxes, we believe this plan
represents a reasonable approach in the midst of a less than robust
economic recovery and we encourage the members of the House to
support it.”
Mass. High Technology Council President Chris Anderson, in a memo to
lawmakers Monday, called the legislative leadership’s plan “a clear
improvement over the plan advanced by the Governor,” praising
lawmakers for dropping Patrick’s call to raise the income tax and
eliminate 44 personal income tax deductions.
State House News Service
Monday, April 8, 2013
Tax clears House 97-55 shifting debate over transpo revenue to
Senate
By Matt Murphy and Andy Metzger
Taking the first major step toward a significant tax hike this year,
the House on Monday night approved $500 million in new revenue from
increases in the state’s gas, cigarette and business taxes in an
attempt to solidify the finances of the state’s transportation
system and invest in local road repair projects.
The House voted 97-55 just before midnight to approve the tax
package that would raise the state’s gas tax by 3-cents, increase
the per-pack cigarette tax by $1 and impose new taxes on utility
companies, software services and out-of-state corporations doing
business in Massachusetts.
The margin of support for House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s plan,
however, fell eight votes short of the two-thirds needed to override
a threatened veto from Gov. Deval Patrick.
Opposition to the bill came from both sides of the debate, including
liberal Democrats who support more revenue and fiscally conservative
Democrats and Republicans that don’t want to support new taxes.
Advocates speculated throughout the day about where the vote would
land and how DeLeo might try to swing votes to his side should it
come to that.
“I am proud of today’s House vote for a carefully calibrated revenue
package that allows us to fund our transportation system without
placing excessive burden on taxpayers. With this vote, we address
the needs of business and commuters who rely upon our transportation
system in a way that encourages economic growth while minimizing the
pain on families and employers,” DeLeo said in a statement after the
vote.
The focus of the tax debate now shifts to the Senate where the
Senate Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday is expected to release a
revised version of the House-backed transportation financing
proposal, hewing closely to the parameters of the $500 million
target agreed to by House and Senate leaders last week.
The Senate bill, according to advocates and sources within the
Senate, however, is expected to contain reforms and other changes
that may require the two branches to reconcile the bills, a step
that would delay the proposal from reaching the governor’s desk.
The Senate intends to takes up its bill on Thursday, and advocates
for increased funding say there could be solid bloc of Democrats
ready to vote against the proposal.
Gov. Patrick has promised to veto the bill if it arrives in its
current form, calling it a “pretend fix” to years of underinvestment
in transportation. Patrick has expressed his hope to negotiate a
compromise with the Legislature somewhere in the middle of his $1.9
billion transportation and education plan, and the $500 million plan
passed by the House.
“Tonight's vote is the first step in the legislative process.
Governor Patrick said today that this does not have to be simply a
choice between the House plan and his original proposal. While he
does not support the bill as currently drafted, the Governor remains
committed to finding common ground on a plan that creates growth and
opportunity across the Commonwealth,” said Jesse Mermell,
communications director for the governor.
Second Assistant Majority Leader Kathi-Anne Reinstein (D-Revere)
after the bill passed called it a “responsible package” that avoided
toll and fare hikes. She said the bill had “overwhelming support.”
“We had a good vote and it shows our members supporting helping our
transportation system and helping our ratepayers and taxpayers by
not overburdening them with taxes they can’t afford,” she said.
Rep. Carl Sciortino, a Medford Democrat who has pushed for more
revenue, said he worries lawmakers are missing an opportunity to
make lasting long-term investments in transportation.
“I hope the sizeable block of no votes would encourage our leaders
to take a deep breath and go back to the table,” Sciortino said.
Republicans offered amendments striking the sales tax on software
services, the utilities exemption, the gas tax and indexing the gas
tax to inflation, proposals that were all rejected.
After the vote, [House minority leader Bradley H. Jones, R-North
Reading] said the Republicans had managed to work in a few “lesser
amendments,” but said the caucus had been unable to change any of
the major facets of the bill.
During the debate, Jones warned the majority, “You’re going to look
foolish” for voting in favor of an amendment to study the idea of
exempting municipalities from the gas tax – an idea that has been
raised for nearly two decades, he said – while earlier voting
against a proposal to study the entire $500 million tax package.
“That is a microcosm of what is wrong,” Jones said after the final
vote, referring to the study amendments.
Jones said eliminating the utilities tax exemption, which would
impact NStar and National Grid by charging them a corporate tax rate
of 8 percent instead of 6.5 percent, would be passed on to
consumers. The amendment to retain the exemption was rejected
44-102.
“It will be convenient because you’ll say blame NStar, blame
National Grid. But blame yourself. You’re doing it to your
constituents and ratepayers,” Jones said.
Kulik, in defense of the provision that will generate $48 million in
new taxes, called the utility exemption an “antiquated and outdated”
tax break intended to encourage utilities to bring electricity to
rural parts of the state that were not served years ago.
Several amendments that found new ways to raise or cut taxes were
ruled out of order during the course of the debate, but other
proposals to eliminate specific tax increases found bipartisan
support while still falling short.
Rep. Marc Lombardo (R-Billerica) proposed to scrap the tobacco tax
increases because he said they would amount to a “stimulus” for New
Hampshire where a pack of cigarettes would be that much cheaper. His
amendment won the support of 19 Democrats.
“We’re counting on them not to quit to the tune of $150 million,”
said Assistant Minority Leader George Peterson (R-Grafton),
disputing the notion that the tax is intended to encourage smokers
to quit.
Another Republican-led amendment to scrap the proposed tax on
computer design service was backed by 26 Democrats.
The House also voted 46-103 against striking the gas tax increase.
Peterson argued that increasing the gas tax by three cents may seem
like a small tax, but will increase the cost of delivering goods
hurting truck drivers or the small business that will pay increased
delivery fees for products.
Also falling short with 53 votes in favor to 95 opposed was Rep.
Paul Frost’s effort to block the indexing of the gas tax to
inflation, which the Auburn Republican and others suggested was a
shirking of legislator’s duties to allow the gas tax to increase on
its own without future Legislative approval.
Straus said the plan was intended to preserve the purchasing power
of the gas tax, which has not been increased since 1991, by tying it
to economic indicators instead of political forces.
When the debate on the bill opened, about 11 hours earlier, Straus
said he was unsure of the prospects of the plan that is too costly
for many lawmakers and not bountiful enough for others.
"Will the center hold, so to speak? I don't know. I don't know,"
Straus said.
The fluid nature of the debate in both branches, including alliances
forming between Republicans and liberal Democrats who both might
like to see this bill fail for different reasons, has made
handicapping the outcome difficult for even veterans of Beacon Hill
political fights.
"There are no reliable sources now, because nobody knows," a
legislator said Monday afternoon about the prospects for the bill as
it advances. The legislator said the idea that House leadership
would be unable to pass a tax bill larger than "$500 million" if it
wanted is ludicrous.
"Speakers have tremendous powers of persuasion," the legislator
said.
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
House approves measure to fund transit system
But margin not veto-proof
By Martine Powers
House lawmakers passed a $500 million transportation bill Monday
night, but failed to get the margin needed to protect it from
Governor Deval Patrick’s threatened veto, intensifying a
confrontation over how best to to address the state’s pressing
transportation needs.
Patrick, who favors a more ambitious $1.9 billion plan for
transportation and education, spent the weekend lobbying legislators
to vote against the more modest House bill. The efforts were
successful enough to split House Democrats’ votes on the measure, a
rare moment in a legislative body in which the Democratic majority
is usually united.
Without unity, the 107 votes needed for a veto-proof margin proved
elusive. The final vote was 97 to 55.
Voting against the House bill were Democrats who want to hold out
for a more expansive transportation bill, joined by Republicans
critical of new taxes on gas, tobacco, and business-related computer
services laid out by the bill.
“The bill before us today did not go far enough,” said
Representative Carl Sciortino, the Medford Democrat who led much of
the left-leaning opposition to the bill. As the legislation moves to
the Senate, he said, “I’m hopeful our leaders can take a deep breath
and have communication.”
The $500 million would provide the Massachusetts Bay Transportation
Authority with enough funding to prevent fare hikes in the coming
year. The measure also provides funding for the state’s regional
transit authorities.
In a statement after the vote, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo
expressed satisfaction with the results, but did not mention the
bill’s failure to garner the support that would override a veto.
“I am proud of today’s House vote for a carefully calibrated revenue
package,” said DeLeo. “With this vote, we address the needs of
business and commuters who rely upon our transportation system in a
way that encourages economic growth while minimizing the pain on
families and employers.”
Many transportation advocates said they were disappointed with the
bill, supported by both House and Senate leadership, because it
falls short of Patrick’s funding plan, which would raise money for
long-term infrastructure projects such as the expansion of South
Station, a rail line to Fall River and New Bedford, and the Green
Line extension project.
Debate over the bill on the House floor prompted impassioned
discussions. Representative William M. Straus, chairman of the Joint
Committee on Transportation, appeared at the podium several times,
pleading with Democrats who said they would not support the
lawmakers’ bill.
Straus maintained that legislators were committed to the same goals
as those outlined in Patrick’s proposal, but wished to pay for the
effort with different tax measures.
Patrick’s plan calls for $1.9 billion annually in transportation and
education funding, generated by raising the income tax by 1 percent
while cutting the sales tax by 1.75 percent. The lawmakers’ plan
relies on new taxes on gas, tobacco, and business-related computer
services.
“Is there a perfect bill? I have to ask that, because I hope it
causes you to rethink your position,” Straus said.
If Patrick successfully vetoes the bill, Straus said, there is no
guarantee that any funding measure will pass, and Massachusetts
commuters will be left in the lurch.
“I myself don’t want to play some sort of roulette game or game of
chance with the people we represent,” Strauss said, in trying to
persuade dissenters to vote in favor of the bill.
Represemtatove Brian S. Dempsey, a Democrat, repeated arguments that
the bill is a more measured and fiscally prudent than Patrick’s more
sweeping proposal and said he was committed to preserving the
state’s bond rating. “Moody’s is throwing up the caution flag to
us,” he said.
Democrats who said they would vote against the bill worried about
the narrower scope of the House plan, echoing Patrick’s criticism of
it.
Sciortino, who expressed support last month for Patrick’s $1.9
billion revenue plan, said the House bill is not ambitious enough to
achieve long-term change.
Legislators also spent much of the day discussing amendments that
would remove major elements of the tax measures, all of which
failed.
Minority leader Bradley H. Jones, a Republican from North Reading,
said he was stunned to hear Patrick call $500 million in new tax
revenue “too conservative.”
“It is all too much to ask the people of the Commonwealth,” Jones
said.
Representative George N. Peterson Jr. said the gas tax, which would
amount to $12 to $30 per year for an average resident, would have an
outsized impact on local businesses struggling to survive.
“I know three cents a gallon isn’t a lot of money; people say it’s
like a cup of coffee,” said Peterson. “But it has a negative impact
on our economy.
Sciortino disputed Republican claims that improvements could be made
on the MBTA and elsewhere without raising taxes. “The idea that
there’s money floating around that we can transfer to transportation
. . . it’s just not real,” he said.
Minutes before debate began on the bill, about 100 protesters
gathered outside the State House, calling on legislators to provide
greater funding to the MBTA to make it possible to reduce fares for
The Ride, the T’s door-to-door car service for senior citizens and
people with disabilities. Fares for the The Ride were increased from
$2 to $4 last year.
“For over a year now we’ve been fighting to make sure they raise
revenue, that they do that in a way that holds down increases for
low- and middle-income folks,” said Carolyn Villers, executive
director of the Massachusetts Senior Action Council.
“Instead, they come up with a few dollars that’s going to come on
our backs, and they refuse to roll back The Ride fare which has left
thousands unable to access doctors and their communities.”
After chanting at the State House gates, seven of the protesters
lined a crosswalk on Beacon Street, blocking traffic. Police
arrested four of the protesters, including Villers.
Jim O’Sullivan of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
The Boston Herald
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
A Boston Herald editorial
Driven to extremes
If you had the misfortune to be driving near Beacon Street yesterday
around lunchtime you had a front-row seat for the chaos that
embodies our state’s transportation system — and what may be to come
if something isn’t done to fix it.
A half-dozen folks who rely on The Ride — the subsidized
transportation service for the elderly and disabled — blocked the
downtown street for about 20 minutes in protest of last year’s fare
hike and their concerns that the MBTA’s busted balance sheet will
mean more to come.
Gov. Deval Patrick’s team is, of course, fueling those fears —
insisting the only way to avoid increasing the financial burden on
folks who rely on public transportation and the state highway system
is to dramatically increase the financial burden on folks who draw a
paycheck. As if there is no overlap.
And speaking of chaos, the promise of a robust competition for the
$1 billion commuter rail service contract is failing to materialize.
Is anyone really surprised?
Hopes were high that the expiring commuter rail contract would draw
many eager bidders, and deliver efficiencies and savings. But at the
moment there are only two bidders in the mix — the current,
politically-wired operator, and a firm that had grown so tired of
waiting for all of the financial data it was seeking that it had
threatened to withdraw from the bidding (as of yesterday, the MBTA
says, the company had not followed through on its threat).
Now, when we say “something” must be done to fix this unholy mess we
don’t mean the spending free-for-all being pushed by Gov. Deval
Patrick.
In fact, as those demonstrators blocked traffic yesterday House
members were inside debating a scaled-down, $500 million proposal
that House and Senate leaders say will balance the MBTA’s budget,
avoiding the need for fare hikes and freeing up funds to finance
major capital projects.
Yes, it raises taxes but it doesn’t burden working folks in the same
way Patrick’s $1 billion a year plan (half his total proposed hike)
does. The Legislature’s plan won’t unscrew the screwed-up system
entirely — but it’s better than the alternative.
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Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪
PO Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
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