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CLT UPDATE
Friday, May 30, 2014
Think you're getting your
money's worth?
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The Massachusetts Senate has rejected three
Republican-backed amendments that would have lowered taxes during
the first day of their state budget debate.
Republicans had proposed reducing the sales tax
from 6.25 percent to 5 percent and cutting the state income tax —
currently 5.2 percent — also to 5 percent.
The Democratic-led chamber voted down both
proposals.
A third GOP-sponsored amendment targeted the
state's gas tax and would have eliminated a law enacted last year
that links automatic increases in the gas tax to future increases in
the state's rate of inflation.
Senators also voted down that proposed amendment.
The question of whether to eliminate the
so-called indexing of future gas tax increases to inflation could go
before Massachusetts voters in November in the form of a ballot
question.
Associated Press
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Massachusetts Senate nixes tax-cutting amendments
The Senate this week powered through its annual
budget debate, almost unanimously passing a $36.4 billion spending
plan for the fiscal year that begins on July 1. The stats broke down
something like this: 26 hours of debate, 948 amendments considered,
291 adopted, $130 million in spending added, $60 million in new
revenues captured. Many of the amendments were considered, at least
publicly, for literally seconds....
The budget is now set to join six other major
pieces of legislation in conference with the House. And while one
could argue the budget is the most important of them all and the
most certain to get finished, it too is sure to test the fragile
bonds between the House and Senate....
Sen. Robert Hedlund, who cast the lone vote
against the Senate budget, said during debate that he hoped issues
like welfare reform were not falling victim to some type of
inter-branch hostility or being held hostage in order to extract
concessions at a later date.
Minority Leader Bruce Tarr couldn’t settle on
just one sport as he gently ribbed his colleagues by noting that
welfare reforms have been in conference for 189 days. Now it’s 190
days and counting. We’re entering the “red zone” or the “warning
track” or the “danger zone,” Tarr said.
“I hope this isn't some type of charade where we
pass bills in the House and Senate and lull the public to sleep
letting them thing we accomplished something because we haven't,”
said Hedlund, who cited this week’s election reform law as an
example of solid legislating and cooperation between the branches.
State House News Service
Friday, May 23, 2014
Senate passes $36.4 billion FY15 budget
The Senate late Thursday night wrapped up two
long days of debate by passing a $36.4 billion budget proposal for
the fiscal year that starts in July that would make significant new
investments in child welfare, early education and substance abuse
prevention. The budget bill (S4) was approved 39-1, with Sen. Robert
Hedlund casting the lone vote against the budget just before
midnight....
The budget will now move into conference so it
can be reconciled with the House’s budget proposal, which is similar
in size and scope, by a six-member conference committee featuring
three House and three Senate members.
State House News Service
Friday, May 23, 2014
Senate wraps debate on $36.4B budget after two days
The rise in both the fuel efficiency of new cars
and trucks and the popularity of hybrid vehicles threatens to
eventually undermine the effectiveness of the gas tax, some
transportation officials and lawmakers fear, forcing them to search
for novel ways to pay for the escalating cost of caring for the
state’s roads and bridges.
One Republican lawmaker has proposed an
additional registration fee for fully electric vehicles. Some
officials suggest looking at charging all motorists per mile
traveled; others say more tolls are the answer.
They all contend that with revenue from the gas
tax expected to taper off in coming decades, it’s time to end the
free ride for some motorists.
“That person who switches to an all-electronic
vehicle, they’re paying nothing for the benefit of the upkeep,
maintenance, and filling of potholes on the roads,” said
Representative Bradley H. Jones, who earlier this month
unsuccessfully pushed an amendment for the new registration fee.
“The issue is really one of equity.” ...
Some, like Jones, are already pushing for an
alternative tax; the amendment he introduced would have charged
drivers of all-electric cars at least $100 per year. Though the
amendment got little traction in the House, Jones warns that taxing
fully electric vehicles is an issue that lawmakers will have to
contend with, sooner or later.
“Eventually, you’ve got to have that discussion,”
Jones said. “If everybody ultimately switches over to electric cars,
what would you do?” ...
One way to make drivers of hyper-fuel-efficient
vehicles contribute to road upkeep is to collect more tolls.
Jeffrey Mullan, state secretary of transportation
from 2009 to 2011, said he anticipates that highway tolls will
become more widespread in many states, including Massachusetts, as
part of an attempt to tax people for roads they use, not just how
much gas their cars guzzle in the process....
Jones’s idea for an electric vehicle registration
fee intrigued Barbara Anderson, the executive director of
Marblehead-based Citizens for Limited Taxation, which is
among the groups working to repeal gas tax indexing. She’s not quite
a supporter, but said new fees could help bring about parity by
spreading the tax burden to those who own electric cars.
The Boston Globe
Monday, May 26, 2014
Fuel savings bring worry about gas tax revenue
State officials eye new funds for road upkeep
Michael Widmer, who has run the Massachusetts
Taxpayers Foundation for 22 years, is stepping down, he told
State House News Service in an article published today....
Despite its name, and opposition to the
recent and short-lived tax on some technology services, the
group isn't known for opposing taxes....
If the pay scale remains similar to what it
has been in recent years, generating interest in the job
shouldn't be tough. Widmer's total compensation was $426,000 in
the year that ended Dec. 31, 2012, according to a public IRS
filing. The group's revenue that year was $1.1 million.
Boston Business Journal
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation's Widmer to step down
Widmer is only the fourth president of the
82-year-old foundation, a business-backed non-profit that
provides research and analysis of tax, spending and economic
issues. He joined MTF in 1990 and has been its president since
1992....
Before joining MTF, Widmer worked for Cabot
Corporation between 1979 and 1990 as director of public affairs
and vice president for human resources. In the 1970s, Widmer was
a special assistant in Gov. Frank Sargent’s administration. A
former United Press International reporter, Widmer also worked
as director of communications and deputy chief secretary for
former Gov. Michael Dukakis during his first term.
State House News Service
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
MTF President Michael Widmer to retire
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
The state Senate easily passed its Fiscal Year
2015 budget last week, unanimously but for Sen. Bob Hedlund
(R-Weymouth). It proposes to spend $36.4 billion in the coming year.
In the
last CLT Update I wrote:
The state Senate Ways & Means
Committee this week released its $36.25 billion budget plan
for next year. This would increase state spending in the
coming fiscal year by almost $1.7 billion more than this
year, though some $30 million less than the House budget.
More Is Never Enough (MINE), and never will be. We'll see
what the Senate ultimately passes next week, then what comes
out of the House/Senate conference committee, but I'll bet
the House gets back that $30 million and perhaps even more
before they're done.
The Senate came out with a higher initial
spending proposal than the House's proposed FY'15 budget
— as I expected. Some of House and
Senate spending priorities vary, but both propose spending some $1.7
billion more than the current year's state budget. That's an
increase of 7% over last year. According to the
U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics on May 15, inflation over the past twelve
months was 2%:
The all items index increased 2.0
percent over the last 12 months; this compares to a 1.5
percent increase for the 12 months ending March, and is the
largest 12-month increase since July.
In inflation-adjusted dollars, this proposed
state budget will increase spending by 5 percent. More Is
Never Enough (MINE) and never will be.
"Be careful what you wish for."
The Global-Warming Greenies are and should be
government's next target. It'll be interesting to see how the
politically-correct react to the "paying their fair share" argument
that comes with a tax on conservation!
Apparently they've ignored Newton's third law,
that every action has a an equal and opposite reaction.
Government needs an endless flow of 'revenue', so
when it's removed from one source, another source must be found.
When interviewed for the Boston Globe report,
Barbara found Rep. Jones's proposal to increase registration fees
for electric cars "intriguing." I find it deliciously ironic.
Especially when anticipating the blowback from the politically
correct hypocrites!
Oh this is going to be so much fun to watch. As
we've been lectured by them for so long, there's no such thing as a
free ride.
Hey, it's only a slice of pizza for them a week,
a cup of coffee!
Michael Widmer, president of the so-called
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, announced his retirement this
week, after 22 years at MTF's helm.
I've personally dedicated myself to
outing that organization for more than a decade with some
success. When I started, every news report extolled MTF
as "the highly-respected non-partisan" organization. We won when the
media began calling MTF what it is: "business-backed," by the
largest crony-capitalists in Massachusetts. Granted, it's a
small victory for all the effort — but
every small victory is a win when we're the underdog.
Incredibly, according to the Boston Business
Journal: "Widmer's total compensation was $426,000 in the year
that ended Dec. 31, 2012." Must be nice.
CLT's entire annual operating budget is less
than half Widmer's compensation alone —
yet CLT has saved taxpayers billions of their dollars.
Think maybe I signed up with the wrong team back in the '90s?
Selfishly, financially; probably — but
on principle, absolutely not. Regardless of MTF's opposition,
we won Proposition 2½ on the ballot and
the income tax rollback. "Despite its name, and opposition
to the recent and short-lived tax on some technology services, the
group isn't known for opposing taxes." Opposing taxes and the
growth of government is what drew me to CLT.
By the way, CLT led that charge against the tech
tax, before MTF caught on to the ramifications
— or heard from its fat-cat members.
Never mind me; Barbara has been in the
trenches longer than Widmer, and has saved taxpayers those billions.
He
earns fourteen times more than Barbara.
As a CLT member and typical taxpayer, do you
think you're getting your money's worth?
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Chip Ford |
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Associated Press
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Massachusetts Senate nixes tax-cutting amendments
The Massachusetts Senate has rejected three Republican-backed
amendments that would have lowered taxes during the first day of
their state budget debate.
Republicans had proposed reducing the sales tax from 6.25 percent to
5 percent and cutting the state income tax — currently 5.2 percent —
also to 5 percent.
The Democratic-led chamber voted down both proposals.
A third GOP-sponsored amendment targeted the state's gas tax and
would have eliminated a law enacted last year that links automatic
increases in the gas tax to future increases in the state's rate of
inflation.
Senators also voted down that proposed amendment.
The question of whether to eliminate the so-called indexing of
future gas tax increases to inflation could go before Massachusetts
voters in November in the form of a ballot question.
State House News Service
Friday, May 23, 2014
Senate passes $36.4 billion FY15 budget
By Matt Murphy
Add it to the pile, a growing heap of legislative ambition
bottlenecked by competing priorities and a calendar ripe for sports
metaphors.
The Senate this week powered through its annual budget debate,
almost unanimously passing a $36.4 billion spending plan for the
fiscal year that begins on July 1. The stats broke down something
like this: 26 hours of debate, 948 amendments considered, 291
adopted, $130 million in spending added, $60 million in new revenues
captured. Many of the amendments were considered, at least publicly,
for literally seconds....
The budget is now set to join six other major pieces of legislation
in conference with the House. And while one could argue the budget
is the most important of them all and the most certain to get
finished, it too is sure to test the fragile bonds between the House
and Senate.
It is also the last budget for Senate President Therese Murray and
Ways and Means Chairman Stephen Brewer, who both expressed pride in
the Senate’s investment in substance abuse prevention.
On some issues the House and Senate are in agreement. For instance,
it’s time to allow direct shipments of wine to Massachusetts
oenophiles, give tax scofflaws a window to pay their taxes without
penalty, and let women (or men) buy pepper spray without a firearm
identification card.
The Senate put down its marker again on the bottle bill, voting for
an expansion to include water and sports drinks before voters have
the chance to decide in November. House Speaker Robert DeLeo has
often insisted it’s a tax he’s not willing to entertain. Whether
he’s ready to relax that position remains to be seen.
And then there’s the spending, on which differences abound even if
the general priorities are in the same ballpark.
Sen. Robert Hedlund, who cast the lone vote against the Senate
budget, said during debate that he hoped issues like welfare reform
were not falling victim to some type of inter-branch hostility or
being held hostage in order to extract concessions at a later date.
Minority Leader Bruce Tarr couldn’t settle on just one sport as he
gently ribbed his colleagues by noting that welfare reforms have
been in conference for 189 days. Now it’s 190 days and counting.
We’re entering the “red zone” or the “warning track” or the “danger
zone,” Tarr said.
“I hope this isn't some type of charade where we pass bills in the
House and Senate and lull the public to sleep letting them thing we
accomplished something because we haven't,” said Hedlund, who cited
this week’s election reform law as an example of solid legislating
and cooperation between the branches.
State House News Service
Friday, May 23, 2014
Senate wraps debate on $36.4B budget after two days
By Matt Murphy
The Senate late Thursday night wrapped up two long days of debate by
passing a $36.4 billion budget proposal for the fiscal year that
starts in July that would make significant new investments in child
welfare, early education and substance abuse prevention. The budget
bill (S4) was approved 39-1, with Sen. Robert Hedlund casting the
lone vote against the budget just before midnight.
For both Senate President Therese Murray and Senate Ways and Means
Chairman Stephen Brewer, this year’s Senate budget debate was their
last as they plan to retire from the Legislature when their terms
end. To congratulate Brewer, Minority Leader Bruce Tarr presented
the Barre Democrat and history buff with a black, tricorn hat and
rewrote an amendment to name Brewer the official reenactor laureate
of the Commonwealth. The amendment passed with the full support of
Senate except one – Brewer, who voted present.
The budget will now move into conference so it can be reconciled
with the House’s budget proposal, which is similar in size and
scope, by a six-member conference committee featuring three House
and three Senate members.
Senators added $130 million to the bottom line of the budget over
the two days of debate, but Brewer said that spending would be
offset by $60 million in new revenues, including $35 million from a
tax amnesty program to collect unpaid taxes, $25 million in new
federal reimbursements for increased Medicaid spending and $7
million in other new revenues tied to spending programs.
Among the additions to the budget presented last week, senators
approved an expansion of the bottle redemption law to include water
and sports drinks and passed amendment to prepare for a possible
Internet sales tax, to crackdown on synthetic drugs, to eliminate
the Firearms Identification card requirement to carry pepper spray,
and to dedicate $25 million in possible surplus revenues from fiscal
2014 to the Life Sciences Investment Fund and $10 million to the
Community Preservation Act.
The Senate rejected proposals to repeal the law indexing the gas tax
to inflation or to expand the earned income tax credit for low- to
moderate-income families, which has been a calling card of
Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker’s economic
platform.
The Senate also rejected Tarr’s proposal to establish a sale tax
holiday on the second weekend in August, but both Democrats and
Republicans said they expect the Legislature to reconsider the sales
tax holiday later in the summer.
The Senate also voted to add $34 million in funding for hospitals
serving disproportionate shares of Medicaid and Medicare patients,
$16 million for nursing home rates, and $23.8 million for childcare,
human service and elder service workers. Additional money was also
added for the Shannon anti-gang violence program, Head Start and the
state’s prescription monitoring program.
The Boston Globe
Monday, May 26, 2014
Fuel savings bring worry about gas tax revenue
State officials eye new funds for road upkeep
By Martine Powers
The rise in both the fuel efficiency of new cars and trucks and the
popularity of hybrid vehicles threatens to eventually undermine the
effectiveness of the gas tax, some transportation officials and
lawmakers fear, forcing them to search for novel ways to pay for the
escalating cost of caring for the state’s roads and bridges.
One Republican lawmaker has proposed an additional registration fee
for fully electric vehicles. Some officials suggest looking at
charging all motorists per mile traveled; others say more tolls are
the answer.
They all contend that with revenue from the gas tax expected to
taper off in coming decades, it’s time to end the free ride for some
motorists.
“That person who switches to an all-electronic vehicle, they’re
paying nothing for the benefit of the upkeep, maintenance, and
filling of potholes on the roads,” said Representative Bradley H.
Jones, who earlier this month unsuccessfully pushed an amendment for
the new registration fee. “The issue is really one of equity.”
Less than one year after the state increased the gas tax by three
cents, transportation advocates and antitax activists continue to
bicker over the future of gas tax indexes, an issue that will be on
the November ballot. Yet vehicles are becoming more fuel-efficient,
requiring drivers to purchase less gas, and more consumers are
turning to gas-electric hybrid vehicles, requiring even less gas
still.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, annual sales
of hybrid, all-electric, and fuel cell vehicles in New England are
expected to double between now and 2040.
Some, like Jones, are already pushing for an alternative tax; the
amendment he introduced would have charged drivers of all-electric
cars at least $100 per year. Though the amendment got little
traction in the House, Jones warns that taxing fully electric
vehicles is an issue that lawmakers will have to contend with,
sooner or later.
“Eventually, you’ve got to have that discussion,” Jones said. “If
everybody ultimately switches over to electric cars, what would you
do?”
Others agree that now is the time to begin considering the
alternatives.
“We are going to continue to rely on the gas tax for quite a while
to maintain the safety of our roads and bridges,” said Kristina
Egan, the director of Transportation for Massachusetts, a coalition
of organizations pushing for more investment in transit. “But it is
really important for us to start exploring sources to supplement the
gas tax as cars become more fuel-efficient.”
For now, the focus of transportation funding in Massachusetts
remains on the state’s gas tax, which was raised to 24 cents per
gallon last year — the first increase in 20 years. The law that
mandated that tax hike also stipulates that the tax rate increase
automatically to match inflation rates.
Some detractors have launched a campaign to repeal those automatic
increases, garnering more than 100,000 signatures to put the
question of repealing the gas tax index on the November ballot.
But data show that the gas tax may become a waning source of revenue
in coming years. From 2004 to 2012, the average fuel economy on new
cars and trucks sold in the United States increased 22 percent,
according to a December report from the Environmental Protection
Agency .
And fuel efficiency is no longer the domain of a small subset of
manufacturers seeking to appeal to niche buyers: This month, BMW
introduced its first fully electric vehicle to the US market, a car
that can run for 81 miles just on its battery charge. With gas in
the tank, it gets 124 miles per gallon.
One way to make drivers of hyper-fuel-efficient vehicles contribute
to road upkeep is to collect more tolls.
Jeffrey Mullan, state secretary of transportation from 2009 to 2011,
said he anticipates that highway tolls will become more widespread
in many states, including Massachusetts, as part of an attempt to
tax people for roads they use, not just how much gas their cars
guzzle in the process.
“We need to develop a new proxy, and for me, the easiest and most
useful option — and the one users are more familiar with — is
tolling,” Mullan said.
The prospect of new tolls on highways other than the Massachusetts
Turnpike may soon gain more momentum: Last month, President Obama’s
administration proposed getting rid of restrictions on the ability
of states to introduce new tolls on interstate systems.
Mullan said that adding tolls is a particularly attractive option
for states, which would no longer have to wait for the federal
government to dole out their share of highway funds.
“I predict we will see more tolling as a solution — partly because
people are familiar with it, but also because states are beginning
to take matters into their own hands,” he said. “They’re relying
less on federal resources to finance their own programs.”
The prospect of new tolls remains unattractive to many legislators,
especially those who fear it will be a burden on businesses that
depend on shipping goods by truck.
Other experts see possibilities in new fees.
Jones’s idea for an electric vehicle registration fee intrigued
Barbara Anderson, the executive director of Marblehead-based
Citizens for Limited Taxation, which is among the groups working to
repeal gas tax indexing. She’s not quite a supporter, but said new
fees could help bring about parity by spreading the tax burden to
those who own electric cars.
Egan, too, said she was curious about the idea. An electric-specific
tax could be controversial because it might discourage people from
buying environmentally friendly vehicles, she said.
“I think there’s a balance you have to strike,” Egan said. “We want
to have an incentive for people to buy cleaner cars. But we don’t
want that incentive to be so much that only people who are using gas
are paying for roads and bridges.”
There are other options, including a miles-traveled tax. In Oregon,
5,000 volunteers have signed up to pay a usage tax starting in 2015,
using a GPS device or odometer readings to track their miles
traveled over the course of the year. Participants must also track
their gas purchases, and at the end of the year they can apply for a
refund of the gas taxes they paid.
Mullan is skeptical that a similar tax could catch on in
Massachusetts. Residents may feel that a different tax system is an
extra tax burden, he said, even if the price is comparable to a
year’s worth of gas taxes.
“The reaction is often, ‘Why do I have to pay more? Don’t punish
me,’ ” Mullan said. “New things are difficult to implement,
especially when people are just not 100 percent certain of it.”
In Oregon, the tax was set at 1.5 cents per mile, to be comparable
to the 30 cents per gallon gas tax. Egan said that success stories
from other states, such as Oregon, could dissolve some of the
trepidation among Massachusetts drivers.
“A lot of fear would melt away,” Egan said.
Boston Business Journal
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation's Widmer to step down
By Eric Convey
Michael Widmer, who has run the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation
for 22 years, is stepping down, he told State House News Service in
an article published today.
A frequent presence at the State House, Widmer is a registered
lobbyist who for years has weighed in on pubic policy and budget
topics in Massachusetts. Despite its name, and opposition to the
recent and short-lived tax on some technology services, the group
isn't known for opposing taxes.
The departure of Widmer, 75, will leave the foundation searching for
only its fifth president in its 80-plus year history. His departure
comes at a time when the foundation is facing increased competition
for resources and attention from similarly organized public-policy
research groups, particularly the Pioneer Institute and
Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center.
The News Service says Widmer holds an undergraduate degree from
Princeton University and masters' and doctoral degrees from Harvard
University. Widmer told the News Service he will stick around to
help train his successor.
If the pay scale remains similar to what it has been in recent
years, generating interest in the job shouldn't be tough. Widmer's
total compensation was $426,000 in the year that ended Dec. 31,
2012, according to a public IRS filing. The group's revenue that
year was $1.1 million.
State House News Service
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
MTF President Michael Widmer to retire
By Michael Norton
Beacon Hill politicians for years have touted Michael Widmer’s stamp
of approval as proof that their fiscal or policy proposals are
meritorious.
Now Widmer is poised to exit a stage where he has loomed large since
the early 1990s.
“I’ve loved so many aspects of this job,” said Widmer, 75, who
announced Tuesday his plans to retire from his post as president of
the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. “Most of all I’ve loved the
intersection of policy and politics and trying to help move issues.”
Widmer is only the fourth president of the 82-year-old foundation, a
business-backed non-profit that provides research and analysis of
tax, spending and economic issues. He joined MTF in 1990 and has
been its president since 1992.
“We’ve tried to be the source of impeccable analysis on critical
issues so that people turn to us for the numbers and the
understanding of competing claims around complex issues,” said
Widmer, who blended public and private sector work during a long
career after graduating from Princeton University and earning
master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University.
In addition to holding governors and legislative leaders accountable
for budget-balancing tactics, the foundation last year was part of a
group that led opposition to a new technology tax, which was
repealed, and over the years has pushed for municipal health
insurance reforms, which were adopted in 2011, and larger
transportation investments.
Widmer plans to train his successor before departing and intends to
remain active.
“I have high energy,” Widmer, who lives in Belmont, told the News
Service. “I’m going to try to stitch together some things that keep
me active. I’m not going to go to Florida and disappear.”
In addition to the lure of playing a role in state policy decisions,
the foundation’s top post features another attractive feature -
Widmer’s base salary is $330,000.
Karen Green, a partner at Wilmer Hale and a member of the
foundation's executive committee, will chair a seven-member search
committee charged with selecting Widmer’s successor.
Before joining MTF, Widmer worked for Cabot Corporation between 1979
and 1990 as director of public affairs and vice president for human
resources. In the 1970s, Widmer was a special assistant in Gov.
Frank Sargent’s administration. A former United Press International
reporter, Widmer also worked as director of communications and
deputy chief secretary for former Gov. Michael Dukakis during his
first term.
“The state and local governments have benefitted enormously from
Mike Widmer’s bold and innovative leadership. With integrity and
persistence, he has blazed a path of reform and shined a spotlight
on issues critical to our state’s economic future,” foundation chair
Fay Donohue, CEO of Delta Dental of Massachusetts, said in a
statement.
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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
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes
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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