The Boston Globe
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Tea Party activists gather in Boston with
diverse views
By Dan Adams
Hundreds of Tea Party activists waving signs and
Colonial-era flags gathered on the Boston Common
on Saturday afternoon to hear antitax crusader
Grover Norquist and other speakers at a rally
protesting government spending and taxation.
“The Tea Party is America awakened,” Norquist
said to the cheering crowd. “What’s the Tea
Party done? Changed the direction of the country
for the good, and I think on a permanent basis.”
Norquist, best known for the antitax pledge he
asks members of Congress to sign, was the
keynote speaker at the “Tax Day” event, which
also included gun rights leaders, Panera Bread
cochief executive Ron Shaich, author Dr. Keith
Ablow, newspaper publisher Tom Duggan, and
conservative commentator Jeff Katz.
Turnout for the annual event, which in past
years has drawn household-name speakers like
Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty, was moderate,
though the mostly white and middle-aged crowd
swelled slightly as the weather warmed up
throughout the early afternoon.
Issue-driven factions of the Tea Party set up
tents around the Common’s Parkman Bandstand
promoting gun rights and the repeal of the
federal health care overhaul, which activists
represented with a towering stack of paper tied
with red tape.
One group had an unusually specific niche: The
“Tea Party in Space” tent showed attendees a
slickly produced video arguing for a large,
privately funded space program that would
“strengthen America as the vanguard of freedom
and opportunity as we spread throughout the
solar system.”
The ideology of rally participants was diverse,
as single-issue diehards mingled and debated
with moderates like 66-year-old Virginia
Barberie of Dracut, who said she came to hear
new ideas.
“I’m just here to listen and see what they’re
going to say,” Barberie said. “I’m not opposed
to taxes. . . . My concern is waste, fraud, and
abuse.”
Barberie said she didn’t expect to agree with
the Tea Party on every issue, but hoped the
group will be taken seriously. “I hope people
listen to each other more,” she said. “We can
disagree, but let’s be respectful.”
Speakers at the event acknowledged the crowd’s
range of views, urging attendees to focus on
issues they agree on.
“There’s a lot of people here for a lot of
different reasons,” Norquist said. “But what we
want, each one of us . . . [is for] the
government to leave us alone.”
Clark Patterson, 49, of Fitchburg, was glad to
see the movement coalescing around a core value.
“The government’s too big, and it’s causing more
problems than it’s solving,” Patterson said,
echoing the concerns of many in attendance.
Despite last year’s election, the results of
which caused some commentators to say the Tea
Party was losing influence and momentum,
Patterson sees cause for Massachusetts
conservatives to be hopeful.
“Most people, if you really sit them down and
make them think, they’re not as liberal as they
thought,” he said. “All it takes is for 20
percent of people to get together and move on
some common ground. Others will put their finger
in the wind, and all of a sudden, you have a
majority.”
Massachusetts’ reputation as a liberal bastion
was a hot topic, with Duggan joking that the
gathering was a “beacon in the wilderness,” and
Katz saying Boston is “solidly behind enemy
lines.”
But Norquist said Massachusetts voters “have a
certain common sense,” as demonstrated by the
1980 passage of Proposition 2½, which limits
local property tax increases.
Katz drew cheers for a line referencing the
“optimism” of conservative former British Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher, who died last week.
He also blasted the Legislature, which met today
to debate a proposal that would raise taxes to
fund transportation programs and infrastructure
improvements.
“It’s one of the most bizarre situations I’ve
ever seen,” Katz told the gathering. “The
governor is a looking at a half-billion-dollar
tax increase and saying, ‘it’s not enough.’ ”
After the rally, dozens of protesters entered
the gallery of the State Senate chambers, where
legislators were debating a transportation
finance bill that would raise taxes. When one
senator criticized the tax hike proposals, the
protesters erupted into applause and chanted “No
more taxes!” before they were escorted out by
State House police.
In an interview, Norquist said raising taxes
could drive voters away from Democrats.
“The tax increases they’re talking about are
like the little darts they throw into bulls to
make them irritated before a bullfight,” he
said. “This tax bill will just tick people off
and be a wonderful organizing tool for the
Massachusetts Tea Party and Republican Party.”
Martine Powers of the Globe staff contributed
to this story.
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That combustible
environment became evident when dozens
of antitax protesters, fired up from a
rally on Boston Common, filed into the
State House and burst into applause and
hoots when Senate minority leader Bruce
E. Tarr lambasted his fellow legislators
for supporting tax increases.
“But the question is, Madam President,
what is enough, and when will it ever be
enough?” Tarr yelled.
The protesters erupted into chants of
“No more taxes!” and were escorted out
of the gallery by State House police.
The Boston Globe
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Mass. Senate OKs $800 million transportation
bill
By Martine Powers
The Senate voted overwhelmingly Saturday to
approve a transportation finance bill that would
funnel more than $800 million into the state’s
transit agencies by fiscal 2018 in what seemed a
compromise between packages proposed by House
legislators and Governor Deval Patrick in recent
weeks.
Democrat legislators who voted for the bill
sought to offer a more amped-up version of the
$500 million House bill, passed Monday, by
finding revenue sources that would not require
further tax increases.
In addition to redirecting money from a
little-known gas tax fund for underground
storage tanks and requiring contracts between
the state Transportation Department and utility
companies, the Senate also voted Saturday to
require that transportation and MBTA officials
issue a request for proposals on licensing the
naming rights to subway, bus, and commuter rail
stations.
After the 30-5 vote, Patrick expressed mixed
feelings on the bill.
“Today’s Senate bill is a significant step in
that direction and I commend them for their
work,” he said in a statement. But, he
continued, “it is concerning that some of the
resources in this bill are diverted from current
spending on other needs.”
But Senator Thomas M. McGee, cochairman of the
Joint Transportation Committee, said he
considered the bill a success.
“I feel good about what we’ve done today,” McGee
said, “but it’s an ongoing issue that we need to
focus on every year.”
The transportation finance package is far from
settled. The bill will move on to a joint
conference committee before it makes its way to
the governor’s desk. But it’s a coup for
Patrick, who was angered when the House proposed
a package he deemed too small, threatening a
veto and urging legislators to tack other
sources of revenue onto the bill.
Patrick suggested earlier this week that he
would not veto a transportation finance package
close to the halfway point between his and the
House’s proposals.
The Senate bill, which was debated in a rare
Saturday session because many legislators will
be on vacation next week, called for the same
revenue sources in the House version: a 3-cent
gas tax, a $1 tax on cigarettes, and $244
million in utility and business-related computer
fees.
But the Senate version also rerouted a
little-known 2.5-cent gas tax originally
dedicated to underground storage tank cleanups.
And the bill established a consistent process
for the Transportation Department and the MBTA
to enter into leases with telecommunications and
utility companies that use their property.
Those additional funds could be used for capital
projects such as the South Coast Rail, a South
Station expansion, the extension of the Green
Line, and new cars to replace the MBTA’s aging
fleet — though the extra cash would not be
nearly enough to fund all of them.
According to a study by Northeastern
University’s Dukakis Center for Urban and
Regional Policy, the Senate version provides
about $265 million in fiscal 2014 — just $5
million less than Patrick’s proposal prescribed
— but ramps up less steeply than the governor’s
plan, reaching $805 million per year in 2018,
rather than the governor’s $1.1 billion.
Over the next five years, the Senate’s plan
would allocate $600 million per year on average
in new revenue to transportation, short of the
average $800 million Patrick’s plan would have
provided, according to the Dukakis Center.
Some transportation advocates worry that
legislators’ estimates on the measures included
in the Senate plan could prove to be less
lucrative than suggested on the Senate floor.
“The difference between the Senate and the House
bill is really not that huge,” said Rafael
Mares, staff attorney at the Conservation Law
Foundation, a transportation and environmental
advocacy organization. “It’s a little bit like a
blanket that’s too small, and you’re not sure
what part of the body is going to be covered.”
Senator Stephen M. Brewer, a Democrat of Barre
and chairman of the Senate Ways and Means
Committee, praised members of the Senate for
their work on trying to find a compromise in a
politically tense environment.
“There’s been a lot of emotion and a serious
case of hard-ball politics during the last
couple of weeks,” Brewer said.
That combustible environment became evident
when dozens of antitax protesters, fired up from
a rally on Boston Common, filed into the State
House and burst into applause and hoots when
Senate minority leader Bruce E. Tarr lambasted
his fellow legislators for supporting tax
increases.
“But the question is, Madam President, what is
enough, and when will it ever be enough?” Tarr
yelled.
The protesters erupted into chants of “No more
taxes!” and were escorted out of the gallery by
State House police.
The Senate’s bill closes operating budget gaps
for the MBTA next year, and requires that the
Department of Transportation transfer personnel
costs from its capital budget to its operating
budget in the next three years.
The bill would allow the state’s 15 regional
transit authorities — bus systems that serve
communities outside of the MBTA’s reach — to pay
their yearly budgets in advance, rather than
borrowing their operating costs each year. The
regional transit authorities would also receive
an additional $12 million per year in funding —
an 18 percent increase over what they currently
receive.
Senators also voted to pass an amendment that
would reinstate tolls on the western portion of
the Massachusetts Turnpike, which had been
eliminated in the 1990s. The revenue would be
directed exclusively to transportation projects
in that part of the state.
Many of the amendments focused on pushing for
accountability within the state’s transportation
agencies.
The legislation mandates that the MBTA conduct a
review of fare collection policies; the
Transportation Department publish job titles and
salaries of employees moved onto the operating
budget; regional transit authorities publish
annual ridership data; and officials interview
the 23 companies that expressed interest in
bidding on the state’s gargantuan commuter rail
contract, but did not ultimately submit.
The Senate rejected a proposal to establish a
special legislative task force to hunt for
cost-saving measures within the MBTA.
One of the most heated debates came on a further
increase to the gas tax, as well as MBTA naming
rights, with legislators arguing that they were
fearful the amendment would result in “Dunkin’
Donuts Copley Station.”
“What is the price tag that we can appropriately
put on our history, on our identity as a state,
and on our identity as a public sector?” asked
Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz, a Democrat of Boston.
Others, such as Senator Michael F. Rush, a West
Roxbury Democrat, maintained that considering
the dire financial situation of the state
Transportation Department and the T, every
possible revenue source that did not tax
residents had to be pursued — even the painful
options.
Rush said naming rights contracts would be
pursued at the less-historic stations and stops
within the T and commuter rail system.
“We do not have the luxury of turning our back
on easy money,” Rush said.
The Senate voted down two amendments, one to
increase and one to decrease the growth rate of
the 3-cent gas tax, and rebuffed a proposal that
would legalize fireworks in Massachusetts.
During a speech in opposition to the gas
tax trigger, applause erupted from the
gallery, and Murray directed court
officers to clear the crowd, during
which time “Don’t tread on me” flags
were displayed and criticism rained down
on the senators as some chanted “No new
taxes.”
On her way out, a woman wagged her
finger at the chamber below and said,
“Think about your children and your
grandchildren when you take these votes,
you idiots.”
“You might not have seen what was going
on, but we were getting Nazi salutes
from the people in the corner and some
really vulgar language before they
disrupted,” Murray told reporters
afterwards.
State House News Service
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Senate adopts $500 mil tax plan, steers more $$$
to transportation
By Michael Norton and Andy Metzger
Legislation raising gas, tobacco and business
taxes in Massachusetts by $500 million and
eventually dedicating up to $800 million a year
in new revenues for transportation cleared the
Senate 30 to 5 during a rare Saturday session.
With the absence of the contingent of media and
lobbyists that would normally be attracted to a
debate on a tax bill, Senate President Therese
Murray led the charge to pass the tax bill,
presiding as the Senate roared through more than
100 amendments to the legislation before
approving it with all but two Democratic votes.
Senators said differences over amendments had
been talked through during a long private
caucus.
Gov. Deval Patrick, who chastised the House for
a similar tax bill that he vowed to veto, had
more congratulatory words for the Senate
following the final vote a few minutes before 8
p.m.
“Experts agree that we need approximately $1
billion more a year -- in addition to further
operating efficiencies -- to give our citizens a
safe, functional, modern transportation system
to keep pace with a growing economy,” Patrick
said in a statement. “Today's Senate bill is a
significant step in that direction and I commend
them for their work.”
Supporters of the bill said it would prevent a
second major MBTA fare hike in as many years,
deliver funds to address regional transportation
needs and expedite construction projects, and
over three years end the longstanding practice
of paying about 1,900 state transportation
employees with borrowed funds.
Critics of the bill said the Patrick
administration was failing to meet cost saving
benchmarks under a 2009 transportation reform
law and argued the legislation would further
burden taxpayers by pulling more of their money
into a transportation system that they said is
rife with problems and inefficiencies. Without
reforms, they said, the new revenues will not be
enough to keep up with MBTA spending patterns.
The push to pass the bill, which cleared the
House just before midnight Monday on a 97-55
vote, underscored the pressure that Murray and
House Speaker Robert DeLeo are under since the
House has already proposed a budget spending
revenues from the still unapproved tax hikes and
the Senate plans to do the same in May.
Differences in the House and Senate tax bill
remain to be ironed out by the branches.
The House bill fell just short of the vote
required to override a potential veto. The
resounding vote in the Senate well cleared the
two-thirds threshold required.
After Patrick threatened to veto the original
bill offered by DeLeo and Murray, saying it
didn’t provide enough new revenues to meet
transportation system needs, the Senate pulled
money from other areas of state government into
the bill to bolster planned new revenues closer
to the $1 billion sought by Patrick, who spoke
favorably about the Senate plan late this week.
On the tax front, the House and Senate bills
raise new revenue from a $1 per pack increase in
the cigarette tax and increases on cigar and
smokeless tobacco products, new sales taxes on
computer design services and software
modifications, the removal of a tax exemption
for utilities, and a three-cent increase in the
gas tax, which would also be indexed to
inflation under the legislation (S 1766).
A contingent of liberal senators attempted to
include a trigger that would raise the gas tax
an additional three cents if projected revenue
falls short in 2015, but that vote garnered the
support of only 10 members.
“The rest of the body was very careful in how
much they wanted to raise, and how much they
wanted to tax,” Murray told reporters after the
final vote. Asked how it would match up with the
House version, Murray said, “It’s the same
framework as the House, for taxes, and we just
did other revenues that we moved over from other
accounts, so I’m hoping that the House will look
on this favorably. Hey, the House did the heavy
lifting first, and they are our partners, and
hopefully the governor will be our partner in
this also.”
During a speech in
opposition to the gas tax trigger, applause
erupted from the gallery, and Murray directed
court officers to clear the crowd, during which
time “Don’t tread on me” flags were displayed
and criticism rained down on the senators as
some chanted “No new taxes.”
On her way out, a woman wagged her finger at the
chamber below and said, “Think about your
children and your grandchildren when you take
these votes, you idiots.”
“You might not have seen what was going on, but
we were getting Nazi salutes from the people in
the corner and some really vulgar language
before they disrupted,” Murray told reporters
afterwards.
Another amendment, sponsored
by Sen. Karen Spilka (D-Ashland) enabling state
officials to start discussing with the federal
government the idea of establishing tolls on the
state’s borders, won approval by a 19 to 15
margin, with some senators who represent border
areas saying tolls would hurt their
constituents.
Spilka had said that removing increases in
current tolls from the formula the Legislature
is using to move the transportation department
toward more fiscal self-sufficiency was an
essential condition to win her vote on the bill.
That amendment passed on a voice vote after the
Senate voted down on a voice vote a Sen. Sonia
Chang-Diaz (D-Jamaica Plain) further amendment
that would have also exempted fares for MBTA
riders.
“So we can have perpetual gas tax increases, but
we can’t look at tolls,” said Sen. Robert
Hedlund (R-Weymouth).
Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sen.
Stephen Brewer (D-Barre) said the bill also
makes $160 million in new tax revenues available
to spend in the fiscal 2014 budget he plans to
roll out next month. The House budget plan
unveiled on Wednesday steers some of those new
revenues to education and local aid.
Hedlund said reforms included in a 2009 law were
intended to produce $6.5 billion in savings over
20 years, but so far had delivered only $500
million. Of that, Hedlund said, $320 million was
attributable to ending interest rate swap
practices that were not a focus of the 2009 law.
“Obviously we have discarded the concept of
reform before revenue,” said Hedlund.
Rafael Mares, staff attorney at the Conservation
Law Foundation, said that the final Senate
version devoted more money to transportation
than what Senate Ways and Means had proposed by
indexing a 2.5-cent-per-gallon underground
storage tank gas tax to inflation, and devoting
those revenues to transportation.
On Friday night, before some changes were made
to the bill in session, Mares calculated that
the average amount of money over five years
designated for transportation in the Senate bill
was $602 million, compared to $504 million in
the House plan and $858 million in the
governor’s plan.
Kristina Egan, executive director of
Transportation for Massachusetts, said the
roughly $800 million in transportation revenues
the Senate projected to raise by 2018 is
“optimistic,” and hoped the bill would be
modified to include more gas-tax hikes before
reaching the governor.
Six of the more liberal members of the Senate,
who all supported the final bill, praised the
process and signaled that if substantially
changed it would lose their support.
“Through both the work of the Senate Ways and
Means Committee and the amendment process, the
transportation finance bill passed by the Senate
today reaches a level of revenue that allows for
meaningful investments in a fiscally-sound, 21st
century transportation system. It is for this
reason that we vote yes on this bill today,” the
six senators wrote in a joint-statement. “We
look forward to the bill continuing to the joint
House-Senate conference committee. Should the
bill be reported out of the conference committee
having lost the revenue gains we made, it will
also lose our support.”
“There’s definitely more money in this bill,”
Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone told the News
Service. “I appreciate the work the House did. A
week before the House bill, we were at zero. We
went from zero to a half a billion. While I
appreciate that work it wasn’t enough… This is a
huge step forward in that direction.”
Curtatone said he was hopeful that the revenue
would be enough to enable matching federal funds
for the Green Line Extension to his city, and
said it would provide a needed investment for
transportation through the whole state.
Among amendments adopted by the Senate were
proposals to enable transportation agencies to
collect more property taxes from private parties
using public land, to require better reporting
by the MBTA on its capital projects, and
requiring the MBTA to gather information from 23
companies that opted against bidding on the
commuter rail operations contract after
submitting statements of interest.
Among the amendments rejected by the Senate were
calls for a larger gas tax hike, for
universities to play a greater role in funding
transportation through student pass programs,
and to eliminate the indexing of the gas tax to
inflation. While Hedlund argued against locking
the state into incremental gas tax hikes, Senate
Transportation Committee Chairman Thomas McGee
said the gas tax would be 9 cents higher per
gallon if an indexing measure had been adopted
in 1991, with each penny of tax worth $32
million.
Sen. Michael Rush (D-West Roxbury), in a floor
speech highly critical of the MBTA and calling
for a long menu of reforms, came up short in his
bid to prevent the gas tax hike from taking
effect until a task force recommended reforms
and the Legislature adopted them. His amendment
failed 7-24.
During debate, Murray said a proposal calling on
the MBTA to contract with taxi companies to
deliver RIDE services at lower costs would be
dealt with by the Senate in separate
legislation. An amendment pushing that reform
was offered by Sen. Patricia Jehlen
(D-Somerville) but was withdrawn.
A Republican alternative, which Senate Minority
Leader Bruce Tarr said would include potential
new revenues from an overhaul of how taxi
medallions are administered, fell along party
lines with Hedlund, Tarr and the only other
Republican in the chamber, Sen. Richard Ross
(R-Wrentham) supporting it.
The six senators who said they would not support
a final bill with less revenue were Chang-Diaz,
Jehlen, Katherine Clark (D-Melrose), Ken
Donnelly (D-Arlington), Jamie Eldridge
(D-Acton), Mark Montigny (D-New Bedford) and Dan
Wolf (D-Barnstable). |
