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CLT UPDATE
Tuesday, April 9, 2013

House Passes $500 Million Tax Hike


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


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.

Chip Ford


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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