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CLT UPDATE
Monday, July 29, 2013
Another tax hike just because they could
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Beacon Hill legislators have once again picked
the pockets of taxpayers. And this time, they’ve made the pilfering
permanent....
Hard-pressed taxpayers need look no further than
the Democratic Party to find the source of their added misery. In
the House, where the override passed 123-33, just three Democrats
joined all 30 Republicans in voting to sustain the veto. In the
Senate, the vote was 35-5 with just two Democrats voting in
opposition....
The gas tax hike is particularly egregious. The
tax on gasoline in Massachusetts will increase from 21 cents per
gallon to 24 cents per gallon at a time when gas prices already are
on the rise. Legislators have long complained that increasing fuel
efficiency has cut into gas-tax revenues. Indexing future increases
to inflation therefore accomplishes two goals: It punishes drivers
for daring to try to save money by driving tiny, fuel-sipping
econoboxes and it frees cowardly legislators from having to stand up
and be counted to raise the gas tax again....
House Minority Leader Jones argued that the tax
hike was not necessary as state tax collections for the last fiscal
year exceeded estimates by more than $600 million. His argument fell
on deaf ears.
Legislators could have had their transportation
funds and lived within the state’s means, just as individual
families must do. Instead, they chose to conduct another raid on the
wallets of the state’s unfortunate residents.
Perhaps some day, voters will understand the need
to maintain a balance among the two parties on Beacon Hill. Until
then, they can expect the Democratic-dominated Legislature to pick
their pockets with impunity.
An Eagle-Tribune editorial
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Legislature picks taxpayers’ pockets again
More than a dozen conservative House Democrats
voted on Wednesday to override Gov. Deval Patrick’s veto of a $500
million tax bill, helping to usher in one of the largest tax
increases since 2009.
While Republicans stood solid against the
transportation funding bill - even though it meant siding with
Patrick, who wanted a larger tax bill - nearly all of the Democrats
who had voted against the tax bill throughout the turbulent process
this spring and summer switched their votes at the end, worried the
alternative could be worse....
Among Democrats, only Reps. James Miceli
(D-Wilmington), Dennis Rosa (D-Leominster) and Thomas Stanley
(D-Waltham) voted consistently against the tax bill.
The Massachusetts Republican Party on Thursday
singled out Democrats who changed their votes Wednesday, suggesting
they could be acutely vulnerable next year when running for
re-election for misleading constituents.
Imploring the House to sustain the veto and seek
an alternative path for transportation funding, House Minority
Leader Brad Jones during Wednesday’s debate put the consequences in
plain terms: "Your vote today on taxes is the one that matters most,
not the one you took in April. So if you voted against it in April,
don't think that covers you,” Jones said.
Rep. George Peterson, the assistant minority
leader from Grafton, lamented that if the Republicans had 54 members
in the House instead of 30 they could block the tax increase from
happening. “We’re not there yet,” he said....
“I think this bill opens the state up for real
challenges. We’re going to be aggressively challenging not only
these seats. This gives people a reason to run. We don’t have to ask
them. This infuriates them,” said MassGOP Chairwoman Kirsten Hughes.
While votes in favor of higher taxes have often
not come back to haunt Democrats in Massachusetts, the last major
tax hike in 2009, raising the sales tax by 25 percent, preceded an
election in which House Republicans were able to double their
numbers....
[Rep. Jonathan Zlotnik, D-Gardner], a freshman
Democrat from the traditionally moderate north central region of the
state, did not return a call seeking comment, but in 2012 ran ads
promising not to support “any tax increase.”
His opponent in that race, former Rep. Richard
Bastien, said he was “disappointed” that it only took eight months
for Zlotnik to vote in favor of a major tax bill.
State House News Service
Thursday, July 25, 2013
House Dems who switched tax votes seen as vulnerable by GOP
A mere five days from now drivers will pay at
least 3 cents more for a gallon of gas. Smokers will pay an
extra buck for their fix. And businesses will pay sales taxes to
modernize their computer systems.
Read that again. Taxes are going up....
But to hear House Minority Leader Brad Jones
describe it, Democratic leaders have become so good at this tax
exercise that House Speaker Robert DeLeo could be mistaken in
the halls for David Copperfield.
“Keep your eye on this shiny object,” Jones
warned before the 123-33 House vote that brought the long,
tortured, yet predictable debate over transportation financing
to a merciful end this week in time for lawmakers to take their
expected August vacations....
The votes brought to a halt DeLeo’s strong
resistance to new or higher taxes, a stance he adopted in the
years since the last major tax hike, the 2009 sales tax increase
orchestrated by House leaders. But DeLeo was still billing
himself as a guardian of the taxpayers’ wallets.
"Hopefully they'll say Speaker DeLeo and
Senate President Murray didn't make it as bad as it could have
been," DeLeo told reporters curious about his view toward
drivers who will have to pay the price of this week’s actions.
State House News Service
Friday, July 26, 2013
Weekly Roundup – A Taxing Summer
You owe it to yourself to fill up the car
this weekend — or at least before Thursday.
That’s when the state gas tax goes up another
three cents a gallon — thank you very much, Beacon Hill. May we
have another?
Yes, you may. They also raised the tax on a
pack of smokes by another dollar.
Come to think of it, you probably owe
yourself a trip to New Hampshire, too.
This all happened last week. In the torrent
of other news, this huge state tax increase — in all, $500
million to $800 million a year — barely registered....
By the way, they called it a “transportation”
bill, even though it was about taxes, and even though only
one-third of the money heisted from the working classes is going
to transportation, so-called. Look at it this way — the same day
you start paying more at the pumps, the layabouts and the
illegals get their EBT cards reloaded. Coincidence? ...
But the very worst part of the bill is that
this was the last time the solons will ever have to vote for a
gas tax increase. From now on it goes up automatically, based on
the rate of inflation. And get this — the automatic increases
don’t begin until Jan. 1, 2015, so the Republicans can’t remind
voters next year of how they got hosed twice at the T pumps in
four months.
“This violates the principles of democracy,”
said Rep. Dan Winslow (R-Norfolk). “There will be no one to
answer to the voters.”
Which is exactly the point. Taxation without
representation.
The Boston Herald
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Taxation without representation lives
By Howie Carr
Prices are up 26 cents a gallon over the past
month and are scheduled to rise 3 cents on Wednesday as part of
the transportation financing law approved last week. Lawmakers
also tied the gas tax to inflation, assuring automatic increases
in the tax as prices on other goods rise.
The average price of gas in Massachusetts is
currently 8 cents a gallon higher than the national average.
State House News Service
Monday, July 29, 2013
AAA: No changes in gas prices
EBT reform crusading state Rep. Shaunna
O’Connell is calling on authorities to broaden today’s food
stamp fraud probe to include whether Bay State welfare
recipients are shipping groceries bought with their tax-paid
benefits to relatives overseas — a practice in New York that a
news report said is supplying third-world black markets.
“I am unaware of any investigation into this
matter,” O’Connell said of the overseas shipments, which have
been the target of two New York Post cover stories over the past
two weeks.
“The Department (of Transitional Assistance)
isn’t very proactive when it comes to combating fraud.”
It’s unclear if the practice is rampant here,
but some Boston supermarkets sell the same large blue plastic
barrels
the New York Post reported are used to ship food bought with
welfare benefits, mainly to Caribbean countries.
Yesterday, the Post reported that it found
street merchants in the Dominican Republic selling Frosted
Flakes, baby formula, and other groceries that the newspaper
quoted people as saying had been purchased with welfare money in
America and shipped. The report quoted sellers saying they mark
down the goods to undercut local prices.
“It’s unfortunately just one more example of
the scams that go on when people are given benefits that don’t
deserve them,” O’Connell said of the shipments and black
markets.
The Boston Herald
Monday, July 29, 2013
Shaunna O’Connell urges EBT review include overseas food
shipping
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
Fill up your gas tank before Thursday, folks
— it's you're last chance to avoid the
3-cents-per-gallon tax increase. If you smoke, the old saying
was "smoke'm if you got'em." Today the advice is "buy'em if you
smoke'm" — or pay $10 per carton more
after that. (The tax on a single pack of cigarettes will increase to
$3.51 and become the second highest cigarette tax in the nation
after only New York. Our state Legislature invariably will be back
to challenge the Empire State's Number One position.)
There was no need whatsoever for this or any tax
hike — except that the Bacon Hill
tax-borrow-and-spenders wanted more, more, more
— and feel assured that they can just
take what they want from us with impunity.
In the CLT Update of Dec. 7, 2012 ("Abuses
of power and scandalous results") I itemized some of the
hundreds of millions of recently-exposed wasted taxpayer money. I
noted in closing: "It won't be long before we taxpayers will be
expected to pay even more for the costs of Bacon Hill's misfeasance,
malfeasance, and unmitigated corruption." Eliminating that waste
alone would have made unnecessary the $500 million tax hike the
Legislature just imposed upon us.
On top of that, on July 17 in its monthly report
for June (and the close of Fiscal Year 2013), the state Department
of Revenue noted: "The fiscal year ended with $22.123 billion in
revenue collections, $1.009 billion or 4.8 percent more than a year
ago and $627 million over the FY13 benchmark."
The Commonwealth took in over $1 Billion more
revenue in FY2013 than it did the year before. It took in $627
Million more than was expected.
Still this was not enough. The
Democrats in the Legislature demanded another $500-$800
Million more, more, more from us.
"$500-$800 Million" is the vague number now being
circulated, because nobody really knows how much to expect
— another case of "We have to pass the
bill to find out what's in it"!
Regardless, as we know only too well: "More
Is Never Enough, (MINE)" and never will be. Not with Bacon Hill's
continued misfeasance, malfeasance, and unmitigated corruption.
Already a new EBT Card scandal is breaking
the surface, coming to light: Welfare takers using
taxpayer-funded benefits to provide their own foreign aid at a
profit . . .
The Eagle-Tribune succinctly summed up the
taxpayers' predicament:
"Perhaps some day, voters will understand
the need to maintain a balance among the two parties on
Beacon Hill. Until then, they can expect the
Democratic-dominated Legislature to pick their pockets with
impunity."
I would add, "with impunity," and regularity.
We will remember —
and we will remind voters come the next elections.
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Chip Ford |
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The Eagle-Tribune
Thursday, July 25, 2013
An Eagle-Tribune editorial
Legislature picks taxpayers’ pockets again
Beacon Hill legislators have once again picked the pockets of
taxpayers. And this time, they’ve made the pilfering permanent.
Led by the Democrats, state representatives and senators yesterday
voted to override Gov. Deval Patrick’s veto of a $500 million tax
hike aimed at funding improvements to the state’s roads and highways
and propping up the woefully mismanaged Massachusetts Bay
Transportation Authority.
The bill calls for a 3 cents per gallon hike in the state’s gasoline
tax and makes future increases a certainty by indexing the tax to
inflation. It increases the cigarette tax by $1 per pack and applies
the state’s 6.25 percent sales tax to computer and software
services.
Hard-pressed taxpayers need look no further than the Democratic
Party to find the source of their added misery. In the House, where
the override passed 123-33, just three Democrats joined all 30
Republicans in voting to sustain the veto. In the Senate, the vote
was 35-5 with just two Democrats voting in opposition.
Local Democrats voting in favor of the tax hike included:
Representatives Linda Dean Campbell, D-Methuen; Brian Dempsey,
D-Haverhill; Marcos Devers, D-Lawrence; Diana DiZoglio, D-Methuen;
Frank Moran, D-Lawrence; and Senators Kathleen O’Connor Ives,
D-Newburyport, and Barry Finegold, D-Andover.
Supporting the veto were Representatives Bradley Jones, R-North
Reading; Brad Hill, R-Ipswich; James Lyons, R-Andover; Leonard Mirra,
R-West Newbury; and Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester.
And please, hold any applause for Gov. Patrick. He had only vetoed
the measure because he wanted a larger increase in the gas tax.
The gas tax hike is particularly egregious. The tax on gasoline in
Massachusetts will increase from 21 cents per gallon to 24 cents per
gallon at a time when gas prices already are on the rise.
Legislators have long complained that increasing fuel efficiency has
cut into gas-tax revenues. Indexing future increases to inflation
therefore accomplishes two goals: It punishes drivers for daring to
try to save money by driving tiny, fuel-sipping econoboxes and it
frees cowardly legislators from having to stand up and be counted to
raise the gas tax again.
Drivers who enjoy a cigarette on their way to and from work must
feel doubly put upon. Smokers are the ripest target available to
tax-happy legislators as few will rise to defend them. The hike
raises the cigarette tax to $3.51 per pack of 20, the second highest
rate in the nation after New York’s $4.35 per pack.
Legislators also showed little concern for the state’s anemic job
market. The application of the sales tax to computer and software
services will cost the state’s employers an additional $500 million
per year, according to estimates from the Massachusetts Taxpayers
Foundation. Massachusetts is a leader in computer services; taxing a
growth industry undermines the state’s competitive advantages. The
tax will cut into profits in virtually every industry in the state
as those businesses are the primary customers for computer and
software services. It is inevitable that jobs will be lost.
While propping up the moribund MBTA amounts to throwing good money
after bad, it is clear to anyone who drives that the state’s roads
and highways are in terrible condition and in need of repair. But
rather than prudently planning for and managing these repairs
responsibly, legislators simply fell back on an old habit — another
money grab from the taxpayers.
House Minority Leader Jones argued that the tax hike was not
necessary as state tax collections for the last fiscal year exceeded
estimates by more than $600 million. His argument fell on deaf ears.
Legislators could have had their transportation funds and lived
within the state’s means, just as individual families must do.
Instead, they chose to conduct another raid on the wallets of the
state’s unfortunate residents.
Perhaps some day, voters will understand the need to maintain a
balance among the two parties on Beacon Hill. Until then, they can
expect the Democratic-dominated Legislature to pick their pockets
with impunity.
State House News Service
Thursday, July 25, 2013
House Dems who switched tax votes seen as vulnerable by GOP
By Matt Murphy
More than a dozen conservative House Democrats voted on Wednesday to
override Gov. Deval Patrick’s veto of a $500 million tax bill,
helping to usher in one of the largest tax increases since 2009.
While Republicans stood solid against the transportation funding
bill - even though it meant siding with Patrick, who wanted a larger
tax bill - nearly all of the Democrats who had voted against the tax
bill throughout the turbulent process this spring and summer
switched their votes at the end, worried the alternative could be
worse.
“In my opinion, that vote I took yesterday was against the
governor’s package because he sent back what he did to get wiggle
room and more money and my vote was a message to the governor,” said
Rep. Danielle Gregoire, a Marlborough Democrat. Gregoire lost her
House seat in 2010 to a Republican before winning it back in 2012.
The House voted 123-33 and the Senate 35-5 on Wednesday to override
Patrick’s veto of a bill that will raise the gas tax within a week
by 3 cents a gallon, tack $1 onto the per-pack cigarette tax and
apply the sales tax to certain software and computer design
services. Patrick said he vetoed the bill because it did not raise
enough revenue.
Among Democrats, only Reps. James Miceli (D-Wilmington), Dennis Rosa
(D-Leominster) and Thomas Stanley (D-Waltham) voted consistently
against the tax bill.
The Massachusetts Republican Party on Thursday singled out Democrats
who changed their votes Wednesday, suggesting they could be acutely
vulnerable next year when running for re-election for misleading
constituents.
Imploring the House to sustain the veto and seek an alternative path
for transportation funding, House Minority Leader Brad Jones during
Wednesday’s debate put the consequences in plain terms: "Your vote
today on taxes is the one that matters most, not the one you took in
April. So if you voted against it in April, don't think that covers
you,” Jones said.
Rep. George Peterson, the assistant minority leader from Grafton,
lamented that if the Republicans had 54 members in the House instead
of 30 they could block the tax increase from happening. “We’re not
there yet,” he said.
The Democrats on the list who voted against the tax when it emerged
from conference committee, but in favor of overriding Patrick’s veto
to enshrine the tax hikes into law, include: Reps. James Arciero
(D-Westford), Brian Ashe (D-Longmeadow), Sean Curran
(D-Springfield), Josh Cutler (D-Duxbury), Stephen DiNatale
(D-Fitchburg), Diana DiZoglio (D-Methuen), James Dwyer (D-Woburn),
Colleen Garry (D-Dracut), Paul Heroux (D-Attleboro), Gregoire,
Thomas Petrolati (D-Ludlow), Jonathan Zlotnik (D-Gardner) and Walter
Timilty (D-Milton).
The News Service called all 13 on Thursday requesting comment on
their vote, but heard back from only two.
“I think this bill opens the state up for real challenges. We’re
going to be aggressively challenging not only these seats. This
gives people a reason to run. We don’t have to ask them. This
infuriates them,” said MassGOP Chairwoman Kirsten Hughes.
While votes in favor of higher taxes have often not come back to
haunt Democrats in Massachusetts, the last major tax hike in 2009,
raising the sales tax by 25 percent, preceded an election in which
House Republicans were able to double their numbers. Gov. Patrick
survived a re-election challenge in 2010.
Rep. DiNatale echoed his colleague’s concern that sustaining
Patrick’s veto and going back to the drawing board opened up the
possibility that the package of tax increases could increase to
appease the governor.
“I had two bites at that apple and voted in opposition to it, but
you get to a point where you have to move on,” DiNatale said.
The Fitchburg Democrat said he hadn’t given much thought to whether
his vote would leave him vulnerable to a challenge from the right
next year.
“If they want to take my body of work and look at how I voted, I’m
probably one of the most conservative Democrats in the House. If
you’re talking to leadership, maybe too much so. So if they want to
come after me with a candidate who’s even more moderate, that’s for
the Republican Party to determine and I welcome any opposition. Take
your best shot, folks. Good luck to you,” DiNatale said.
Hughes dismissed the argument that killing the tax bill now could
hypothetically lead to a higher tax increase in the future. “That’s
ridiculous. That’s a false choice and it’s not leadership.
Republicans offered a tax-free alternative and their reasoning is
absolutely flawed. I don’t know if they got bullied by the speaker
or truly want to raise taxes on their constituents,” she said.
Gregoire said House Speaker Robert DeLeo made her no offers or
promises in exchange for her vote to override the governor’s veto.
She speculated that many of colleagues might have been enticed to
approve the transportation bill in order to restore local aid cuts
slashed from the fiscal 2014 budget by the governor.
“To have things with the budget up in the air is irresponsible,”
Gregoire said. “I think I can explain it perfectly well. My vote
yesterday was a vote against the governor’s package.”
Zlotnik, a freshman Democrat from the traditionally moderate north
central region of the state, did not return a call seeking comment,
but in 2012 ran ads promising not to support “any tax increase.”
His opponent in that race, former Rep. Richard Bastien, said he was
“disappointed” that it only took eight months for Zlotnik to vote in
favor of a major tax bill.
“Trying to phrase yesterday’s vote as somehow a heroic vote against
the possibility of higher taxation is completely disingenuous,”
Bastien told the News Service.
Bastien, a Gardner Republican who spent one term on Beacon Hill
before losing his seat, said since the vote he has already been
encouraged to run again in 2014, but suggested it was “too soon to
say” whether he would challenge Zlotnik.
“For them to say that restarting the process would result in higher
taxes, I don’t know anybody at the State House who’s that
clairvoyant,” he said.
State House News Service
Friday, July 26, 2013
Weekly Roundup – A Taxing Summer
By Matt Murphy
A mere five days from now drivers will pay at least 3 cents more for
a gallon of gas. Smokers will pay an extra buck for their fix. And
businesses will pay sales taxes to modernize their computer systems.
Read that again. Taxes are going up.
The Legislature this week voted overwhelmingly to override Gov.
Deval Patrick’s veto and enact a $500 million tax bill intended to
finance the state’s transportation system. The tax-raising reality -
perhaps because it’s been nearly a foregone conclusion since April -
has been somewhat blurred in the debate over whether the money would
be enough to forestall fare hikes on the T and build projects like
South Coast rail. That’s still an open question.
But to hear House Minority Leader Brad Jones describe it, Democratic
leaders have become so good at this tax exercise that House Speaker
Robert DeLeo could be mistaken in the halls for David Copperfield.
“Keep your eye on this shiny object,” Jones warned before the 123-33
House vote that brought the long, tortured, yet predictable debate
over transportation financing to a merciful end this week in time
for lawmakers to take their expected August vacations.
The substance of the bill took a backseat over the past month to the
occasionally terse back-and-forth between Gov. Deval Patrick and
Legislature over whether the bill contained enough guaranteed new
revenue, and whether an increasingly sidelined governor had the
muscle to bend House and Senate leaders any more than he already
had.
No shortage of headline grabbing stories – from the Aaron Hernandez
murder investigation to the Whitey Bulger trial – diverted attention
from Beacon Hill. And then came news of the horrifying South Boston
abduction and murder of Amy Lord, on Wednesday no less, as votes
were being cast.
Democratic leaders head into what’s expected to be the final week of
formal work on Beacon Hill until September feeling pretty good about
themselves. DeLeo basked in the overwhelming support of House
Democrats in his non-personal tiff with the governor, the 123-33
vote a signal nonetheless to Patrick: don’t mess with Winthrop.
Senate President Therese Murray, likewise, had little to worry
about. Her branch voted 35-5 to override, clearing the way for
another series of votes restoring over $422 million in spending to
the annual budget, including the sacrosanct local aid account
slashed by the governor.
Press releases were sent out touting the Legislature’s commitment to
local aid, and trumpeting a planned vote next week for a sales tax
holiday in August, now a near annual traditional for which pols like
to build suspense anyway.
The votes brought to a halt DeLeo’s strong resistance to new or
higher taxes, a stance he adopted in the years since the last major
tax hike, the 2009 sales tax increase orchestrated by House leaders.
But DeLeo was still billing himself as a guardian of the taxpayers’
wallets.
"Hopefully they'll say Speaker DeLeo and Senate President Murray
didn't make it as bad as it could have been," DeLeo told reporters
curious about his view toward drivers who will have to pay the price
of this week’s actions.
The carefree response was that of a man informed not long before
that he would not be a target of the U.S. Attorney’s ongoing
investigation into Probation Department patronage. Three hundred
thousand dollars in legal fees well spent.
Republicans weren’t sure whether they should cry, or pop the
champagne corks.
On the one hand, the small GOP minority was helpless to stop a $500
million tax hike they warned would hurt the middle class and make
Massachusetts less competitive in the tech marketplace. But it also
gave the party a ready-made strategy to challenge Democrats in next
year’s elections.
“This gives people a reason to run. We don't have to ask them. This
infuriates them," said MassGOP Chairwoman Kirsten Hughes.
Patrick had basically given up this week on trying persuade
lawmakers to come to his side, spending the day before the override
vote in Chicago volunteering with Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn “gleaning”
pears at a local food bank as payment for losing a Stanley Cup bet.
It didn’t matter much that he was out of state. He couldn’t convince
the progressive Democrats that it was worth prolonging the fight and
even lost most of the conservative Democrats who opposed the tax
hikes in the bill, but were afraid that starting from scratch might
lead to a bigger revenue package.
Rep. Stephen DiNatale, a Fitchburg Democrat, was one of the
Democrats who had voted against the Legislature’s financing bill,
but voted to override the governor’s veto. And he wasn’t exactly
concerned about 2014 blowback.
“If they want to come after me with a candidate who's even more
moderate, that's for the Republican Party to determine and I welcome
any opposition. Take your best shot, folks. Good luck to you,"
DiNatale said.
Voters will have the final say whether they disapprove of lawmakers’
decision to ask them to pay more for roads, bridges and buses.
The Boston Herald
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Taxation without representation lives
By Howie Carr
You owe it to yourself to fill up the car this weekend — or at least
before Thursday.
That’s when the state gas tax goes up another three cents a gallon —
thank you very much, Beacon Hill. May we have another?
Yes, you may. They also raised the tax on a pack of smokes by
another dollar.
Come to think of it, you probably owe yourself a trip to New
Hampshire, too.
This all happened last week. In the torrent of other news, this huge
state tax increase — in all, $500 million to $800 million a year —
barely registered.
The gas tax hike was “reasonable,” according to House Speaker Robert
DeLeo. This is the same solon who just paid his lawyer in the state
probation department scandal $300,000. Reasonable doubt at a
semi-reasonable price, I guess.
Maybe this tax hike got a good leaving alone because the back story
was so convoluted. Gov. Deval Patrick originally demanded $2 billion
— that’s right,
$2 billion. The legislative leadership took time
out from fending off Probation Department indictments to cut the tax
package down to DeLeo’s “reasonable” level.
By the way, they called it a “transportation” bill, even though it
was about taxes, and even though only one-third of the money heisted
from the working classes is going to transportation, so-called. Look
at it this way — the same day you start paying more at the pumps,
the layabouts and the illegals get their EBT cards reloaded.
Coincidence?
Anyway, Gov. Deval Patrick vetoed the tax hike, claiming it wasn’t
nearly enough, and the Legislature overrode his veto. The moonbats,
who never saw a tax they didn’t swoon over, voted against the higher
taxes to a man. Wouldn’t want to lose those water coolers in their
offices.
When it came time to override the tax increase, only one Democrat
even spoke. That was Rep. Carl Sciortino (D-Somerville), who
bemoaned the fact that his colleagues were booting a “generational
investment” — in other words, an opportunity to tax the electorate
back to the Stone Age.
Then he toed the leadership line, along with 127 of his 130 Democrat
colleagues. It was 123-33, pretty much a straight party-line vote.
The Republicans backed the veto, because if it had been sustained,
there would have been no tax increases, period.
See what I mean about the story being too complicated to get much
play on TV?
But the very worst part of the bill is that this was the last time
the solons will ever have to vote for a gas tax increase. From now
on it goes up automatically, based on the rate of inflation. And get
this — the automatic increases don’t begin until Jan. 1, 2015, so
the Republicans can’t remind voters next year of how they got hosed
twice at the T pumps in four months.
“This violates the principles of democracy,” said Rep. Dan Winslow
(R-Norfolk). “There will be no one to answer to the voters.”
Which is exactly the point. Taxation without representation.
By the way, have you noticed that even before this new assault on
your wallet kicks in, the price of gas is already creeping close to
$4 again. And yet, the mainstream media avert their eyes from the
bad news — no liveshots at the gas pumps, or denunciations of Big
Oil by big frauds in Congress.
The problem is, they might have to point the finger at Barack Obama,
and they’ll never, ever do that. If they mention the skyrocketing
gas prices, someone might ask what the average price was when George
Bush left office in 2009.
It was $1.89 a gallon.
Nothing to see here folks, move along.
State House News Service
Monday, July 29, 2013
AAA: No changes in gas prices
By Michael Norton
After a steep rise, gas prices in Massachusetts leveled off over the
past week. AAA of Southern New England reported Monday that a gallon
over regular unleaded averaged $3.71, the same as last week.
Prices are up 26 cents a gallon over the past month and are
scheduled to rise 3 cents on Wednesday as part of the transportation
financing law approved last week. Lawmakers also tied the gas tax to
inflation, assuring automatic increases in the tax as prices on
other goods rise.
The average price of gas in Massachusetts is currently 8 cents a
gallon higher than the national average.
The Boston Herald
Monday, July 29, 2013
Shaunna O’Connell urges EBT review include overseas food shipping
By Jack Encarnacao
EBT reform crusading state Rep. Shaunna O’Connell is calling on
authorities to broaden today’s food stamp fraud probe to include
whether Bay State welfare recipients are shipping groceries bought
with their tax-paid benefits to relatives overseas — a practice in
New York that a news report said is supplying third-world black
markets.
“I am unaware of any investigation into this matter,” O’Connell said
of the overseas shipments, which have been the target of two New
York Post cover stories over the past two weeks.
“The Department (of Transitional Assistance) isn’t very proactive
when it comes to combating fraud.”
It’s unclear if the practice is rampant here, but some Boston
supermarkets sell the same large blue plastic barrels
the New York Post reported are used to ship food bought with
welfare benefits, mainly to Caribbean countries.
Yesterday, the Post reported that it found street merchants in the
Dominican Republic selling Frosted Flakes, baby formula, and other
groceries that the newspaper quoted people as saying had been
purchased with welfare money in America and shipped. The report
quoted sellers saying they mark down the goods to undercut local
prices.
“It’s unfortunately just one more example of the scams that go on
when people are given benefits that don’t deserve them,” O’Connell
said of the shipments and black markets.
“It emphasizes the need to be vigilant, and the urgency with which
we should act to ensure that only people in need are getting
benefits. Every time we hear about a scam, that means that somebody
who is truly in need is going without.”
Welfare benefits are reserved for use by qualifying local
households, and states should intervene if people are caught
shipping tax-subsidized products abroad, a U.S. Department of
Agriculture spokeswoman told the Post.
Starting today, DTA has said it will join forces with the federal
government and local law enforcement in sweeping undercover probes
of retailers who accept food stamps for payment.
The USDA will provide local law enforcement with decoy EBT cards to
catch retailers who fraudulently trade cash for benefits. DTA
officials did not respond to requests for comment yesterday about
whether overseas shipping of EBT-bought food will be part of the
investigation.
DTA has come under fire after the Herald reported a series of
scandals, including people buying booze and cigarettes with EBT
cards or selling them for cash; audits that found DTA handed out
food stamps to hundreds of dead people and for paying benefits into
the accounts of thousands of people it could not locate.
The Herald also reported this month nearly 1,800 welfare recipients
had EBT balances in excess of $1,500 — with one account topping
$12,000.
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NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this
material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
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only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪
PO Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
▪ 508-915-3665
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