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CLT UPDATE
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Beacon Hill's Three-Ring-Circus
Insanity
|
On the eve of the annual Senate budget
debate, a group opposing tax increases is
urging senators to "just say no" to any new taxes and to
lock in the final step toward a 5 percent income tax rate.
According to Citizens for Limited
Taxation, state spending has more than tripled to more
than $40 billion since 1989 when an allegedly temporary
income tax hike was passed. Since then, CLT says, the sales
tax was increased 25 percent, the gas tax was raised twice
and other revenue-raising "gimmicks" were passed....
State House News Service
Monday, May 22, 2017
Senators urged to back tax relief proposals
ANNOUNCEMENT: Senate President Rosenberg
said, we are about to vote on the 'yes' bundle. If there is
no objection, several amendments will be considered as one.
BY A ROLL CALL VOTE OF 37-0, THE 'YES'
BUNDLE OF AMENDMENTS WAS ADOPTED. Time was 8:31 p.m. There
was no explanation of which amendments were included in the
bundle.
State House News Service
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Senate Debate on FY2018 Budget
The Massachusetts Senate, which often touts
its efforts to operate transparently, packed an unspecified
number of state budget amendments into a single amendment
and adopted it without debate Monday night.
The so-called yes bundle came on the first
day of deliberations on a $40.3 billion fiscal 2018 budget,
which itself rests on shaky revenue supports due to sluggish
tax collections. By Wednesday morning, 12 amendments had
been marked as part of the bundle on the clerk's office
website.
Senators were told Tuesday night that at
least one proposed bundle would be ready for review between
9:30 and 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, with the expectation that the
bundle would be voted upon later Wednesday.
State House News Service
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Like House, Senate budget features major backroom component
Senators from both parties are in agreement
that the $40.3 billion spending bill up for debate and
amendments this week rests on shaky revenue supports but
Senate budget chief Karen Spilka claimed at the outset of
deliberations Tuesday that "we are clear-eyed about our
current financial situation."
With two months left in fiscal 2017, tax
collections are running nearly $500 million below targets
that need to be hit to balance this year's budget. And with
a new fiscal year just six weeks away, revenue growth is
nowhere near the level it will need to reach to balance the
spending plan that senators are debating and amending this
week.
Spilka said there are still two months for
fiscal 2017 revenues to rebound but also acknowledged that
slow-growing revenues mean that a six-member conference
panel may need to scale back fiscal 2018 spending plans.
Spilka also gave voice to the major role that midyear
spending bills play, apart from the annual budget, saying a
supplemental budget may emerge in the next two weeks.
Senate Republicans have filed amendments to
generate savings in fiscal 2018, according to Senate
Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, who asked Spilka whether the
budget her Ways and Means Committee developed includes any
cost-saving measures.
State House News Service
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Senate forges ahead on budget despite weak revenue supports
Senate Republicans on Tuesday night alleged
that the proposed fiscal 2018 budget underfunds major
spending accounts and is not balanced, but attempts to add
funding to those accounts were rejected.
Holding a chart showing what he called the
"Balance Beam of Imbalance," Minority Leader Bruce Tarr
warned that while the Senate Ways and Means budget pursues
program expansion in some areas, it neglects to fund things
like public defenders, snow and ice costs, sheriff's
offices, and the Group Insurance Commission, compounding the
alleged imbalance.
"We're setting the stage for either the
requirement of supplemental budgets for which there may or
may not be funding in the future, or reductions in other
things that are in the budget either through supplemental
cuts or through the use by the governor of his 9C
authority," Tarr said....
Gov. Charlie Baker's office has also raised
concern that the Senate budget is imbalanced. A Baker
spokeswoman said when the Senate rolled its budget out that
"it is concerning that numerous accounts to pay for core
services, like indigent legal services, are underfunded in
this budget."
The House budget approved in late April and
the Senate budget being advanced this week both rely on
questionable revenue assumptions, and legislative leaders
have already given voice to the potential that a six-member
conference committee may need to reduce planned spending
during private deliberations.
State House News Service
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Tarr: Dem's budgeting maneuvers leave spending vulnerable to
cuts
In the midst of anxiety over potential
overspending, House Democrats on Wednesday morning
introduced a new spending bill which could emerge on the
House floor for consideration Wednesday afternoon.
Senate budget chief Karen Spilka on Tuesday
mentioned the possibility of a supplemental budget surfacing
in the next two weeks, and the House Ways and Means
Committee on Wednesday morning began polling its members on
a spending bill....
Supplemental budgets are regularly processed
by the Legislature, augmenting the annual budget. The impact
of the added spending on the state's total fiscal picture,
which has been marked by sluggish tax collections, is not
clear since the Baker administration has been relatively mum
about budget management.
State House News Service
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
House introduces new spending bill
The Massachusetts House is expected to take
it first legislative action in response to the Trump
administration Wednesday, the first fruit of Speaker Robert
DeLeo's Trump working group.
Bills filed by Rep. Antonio Cabral of New
Bedford and endorsed by the working group created to respond
to the Trump administration -- dubbed by Majority Leader Ron
Mariano "The Therapy Committee" -- are expected to come to a
vote after 1 p.m.
One bill (H 3034) would prevent inmates in
Massachusetts from being sent to labor on out-of-state
projects, including Bristol Sheriff Thomas Hodgson's
proposal to offer inmate labor to help build a wall on the
border with Mexico.
The second (H 3033) seeks to prevent the use
of state resources to carry out agreements that delegate
Immigration and Customs Enforcement authority to officers at
the state or local level....
Hodgson last week said that if the
Legislature passes the bills "it will show once again that
personal political agendas are more important than keeping
our citizens and legal residents safe."
State House News Service
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Immigration, inmate bill votes expected in House
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|
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
I'd better get out what we know so far now, as there's no
catching up with the Beacon Hill Three-Ring Circus.
Remember how pretty much the only thing this Legislature has
done since January was their obscene pay raise grab, then
silence ever since? This is how the game's played.
Now there's so much activity there's no keeping up with it,
a frenzied blur of motion that nobody can follow.Activity
in every direction with little if any thought. One
hand doesn't know what the other is doing, just a lot of
action. While the Senate is ramming though an
out-of-balance budget in one chamber, simultaneously the
House is throwing together a "supplemental budget" to cover
the overspending it passed in last year's budget,
after passing its own FY2018 budget that also spends more
than the state is expected to raise in revenues.
Below is just a brief (relatively) excerpt from
yesterday's Senate budget debate, "full of sound and fury
signifying nothing" but the approach of another fiscal
crisis.
State House News Service
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Senate Debate on FY2018 Budget
CONVENES: The Senate convened at 10:17 a.m. with
President Rosenberg presiding.
[SNIP]
TARR
AMENDMENT #12: Question came on an amendment restoring
the income tax to 5 percent.
Sen.
Tarr said, Well, well, well. We had a discussion earlier
about tax increases that are temporary or permanent. The
income tax in 1989 was a temporary 18-month increase. 16
years later it had not been reduced and the voters
decided to act in 2000. The voters said it was temporary
and it should be reduced. Low and behold, after 2003
there was a freeze and it has been a very slow thawing
period. This would reduce the tax to 5 percent in
January 2019. We are engaged in a budget with new
programs. It seems we tend to forget the people who pay
the bills. We offer this amendment to remind us all that
we should pay more attention to the will of the voters.
The tax rate is not what we mandated.
Sen.
Eldridge said, Point of information. I'd like to know
the reduction in revenues this would cost the
commonwealth?
President Rosenberg recognized Sen. Tarr
Sen.
Tarr said, We are calculating the precise amount. We'll
reflect on the spending increases in the budget. It is
less than that amount. We will develop that.
Sen.
Tarr asked that the amendment be held.
Sen.
Eldridge asked to make a statement.
Sen.
Eldridge said, I understand the minority leader withdrew
his amendment. Each time we reduce it, it's about $100
million. This amendment over two years would reduce
revenue by over $200 million when we're facing a
deficit.
Sen.
Fattman asked if the amendment was withdrawn.
President Rosenberg said it was held.
Sen. Tarr said, I did not withdraw the amendment. I
would suggest that if his information is correct, that
it is a $200 million reduction. If we are in fiscal
constraint, why does the budget increase by 3.3 percent?
[SNIP]
TARR
AMENDMENT #15: Question came on a 2017 sales tax holiday
amendment
Sen.
Tarr said, You were always ahead of the curve. This
requires a sales tax holiday in mid-August. This would
cost about $20 million. I hope it is adopted.
The
amendment was REJECTED
[SNIP]
ELDRIDGE AMENDMENT #16: Question came on an amendment
enhancing the Earned Income Tax Credit
Sen.
Fattman said I agree the EITC will help families but
when people agreed to reduce the income tax that also
would help families. And it was not merely just a
suggestion. It was a mandate. And we have waited 18
years. Their will should not just be heard by this body,
it should be heeded.
[SNIP]
ANNOUNCEMENT: Senate President Rosenberg said, we are
about to vote on the 'yes' bundle. If there is no
objection, several amendments will be considered as one.
BY A
ROLL CALL VOTE OF 37-0, THE 'YES' BUNDLE OF AMENDMENTS
WAS ADOPTED. Time was 8:31 p.m. There was no explanation
of which amendments were included in the bundle.
[SNIP]
RECESS: The Senate recessed at 10:19 p.m., intending to
return to order at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
Just an hour ago the Senate finally got around to killing
Sen. Tarr's amendments for an income tax rollback, a
rollback of the sales tax; and a certain sales tax holiday
was rejected yesterday.
Meanwhile, the House is not only voting to spend more
in a supplemental budget for this fiscal year, but
also whether to make Massachusetts a Sanctuary State!
It's bad enough that we have to watch this circus on live
streaming video, but Chip Faulkner just discovered that the
Senate wasn't showing the video of today's debate in real
time — that instead we were
being treated to yesterday's debate video that we
watched yesterday! He called the Senate Clerk's
office, was told they had "a glitch" in the system, were
"working on it." When live video of what was actually
going on in the Senate returned, the debate over Sen. Tarr's
amendment defeats was over.
Insanity and incompetency reigns on Beacon Hill.
There is no following it, no making sense of what is going
on. Not for us and not for rank-and-file legislators.
That's just the way they want it, as usual. Keep
the mushrooms in the dark and fertilized.
In the end, senators are voting on "bundled amendments"
and nobody knows what's in those bundles.
"We have to pass the bill to find out what's in it"!
Stay tuned
folks — more will definitely follow . . .
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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State House News Service
Monday, May 22, 2017
Senators urged to back tax relief proposals
By Michael P. Norton
On the eve of the annual Senate budget debate, a
group opposing tax increases is
urging senators to "just say no" to any new
taxes and to lock in the final step toward a
5 percent income tax rate.
According to Citizens for Limited Taxation,
state spending has more than tripled to more
than $40 billion since 1989 when an allegedly
temporary income tax hike was passed. Since
then, CLT says, the sales tax was increased 25
percent, the gas tax was raised twice and other
revenue-raising "gimmicks" were passed.
CLT is supporting Senate Minority Leader Bruce
Tarr's amendment (12) to reduce the income tax
rate from 5.1 percent to 5 percent by Jan. 1,
2019, the level voters sought when they approved
a ballot question in 2000, as well as amendments
gradually reducing the 6.25 percent sales tax to
5 percent by Aug. 1, 2019 (13) and authorizing a
sales tax holiday (15) on Aug. 12-13, 2017.
Gov. Charlie Baker and legislative leaders
continue to struggle with the problem of tax
collections falling short of expectations
they've used to draw up spending plans.
Democrats in the Legislature are advancing a
possible 2018 ballot question imposing a 4
percent surtax on household income above $1
million, a proposal that Baker has not taken a
position on. If approved, the measure could
generate $1.6 billion to $2.2 billion per year.
State House News Service
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Like House, Senate budget features major
backroom component
By Michael P. Norton
The Massachusetts Senate, which often touts its
efforts to operate transparently, packed an
unspecified number of state budget amendments
into a single amendment and adopted it without
debate Monday night.
The so-called yes bundle came on the first day
of deliberations on a $40.3 billion fiscal 2018
budget, which itself rests on shaky revenue
supports due to sluggish tax collections. By
Wednesday morning, 12 amendments had been marked
as part of the bundle on the clerk's office
website.
Senators were told Tuesday night that at least
one proposed bundle would be ready for review
between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, with the
expectation that the bundle would be voted upon
later Wednesday.
Senators can pull their amendments from a
proposed bundle in favor of floor debate if they
would like. The Legislature this session has
shown little interest in moving standalone
legislation and one ramification of that is
legislators are especially eager to tack their
pet district, spending and policy priorities
onto the state budget because they know it will
reach Gov. Charlie Baker's desk.
The Senate plans to resume consideration of
budget amendments at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
State House News Service
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Senate forges ahead on budget despite weak
revenue supports
By Andy Metzger and Michael Norton
Senators from both parties are in agreement that
the $40.3 billion spending bill up for debate
and amendments this week rests on shaky revenue
supports but Senate budget chief Karen Spilka
claimed at the outset of deliberations Tuesday
that "we are clear-eyed about our current
financial situation."
With two months left in fiscal 2017, tax
collections are running nearly $500 million
below targets that need to be hit to balance
this year's budget. And with a new fiscal year
just six weeks away, revenue growth is nowhere
near the level it will need to reach to balance
the spending plan that senators are debating and
amending this week.
Spilka said there are still two months for
fiscal 2017 revenues to rebound but also
acknowledged that slow-growing revenues mean
that a six-member conference panel may need to
scale back fiscal 2018 spending plans. Spilka
also gave voice to the major role that midyear
spending bills play, apart from the annual
budget, saying a supplemental budget may emerge
in the next two weeks.
Senate Republicans have filed amendments to
generate savings in fiscal 2018, according to
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, who asked
Spilka whether the budget her Ways and Means
Committee developed includes any cost-saving
measures.
Spilka responded by listing planned investments
in early education, training, and tax clinics
that she said would save money by giving
residents the opportunity to lead more
self-sufficient lives.
The Senate minority leader replied that cost
savings are in the "eye of the beholder."
Tarr also questioned Spilka about the budget's
inclusion of new initiatives, such as an
expansion of the housing courts, during a time
of fiscal constraint. Spilka said the state
"cannot afford" not to expand the housing
courts, which she said are able to efficiently
handle cases, providing housing stability for
residents.
Mindful of the revenue squeeze, the Senate
rejected an amendment suspending the 6.25
percent sales tax for a weekend in August, more
commonly known as the sales tax holiday. Tarr,
the amendment's sponsor, said $20 million in
taxes would have been foregone.
The Senate also rejected a proposal to increase
the earned income tax credit, billed by
proponents as an anti-poverty measure.
State House News Service
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Tarr: Dem's budgeting maneuvers leave
spending vulnerable to cuts
By Colin A. Young
Senate Republicans on Tuesday night alleged that
the proposed fiscal 2018 budget underfunds major
spending accounts and is not balanced, but
attempts to add funding to those accounts were
rejected.
Holding a chart showing what he called the
"Balance Beam of Imbalance," Minority Leader
Bruce Tarr warned that while the Senate Ways and
Means budget pursues program expansion in some
areas, it neglects to fund things like public
defenders, snow and ice costs, sheriff's
offices, and the Group Insurance Commission,
compounding the alleged imbalance.
"We're setting the stage for either the
requirement of supplemental budgets for which
there may or may not be funding in the future,
or reductions in other things that are in the
budget either through supplemental cuts or
through the use by the governor of his 9C
authority," Tarr said.
Tarr offered an amendment (#261) that would have
added $181 million to the annual budget to
"restore funding for all of the things that are
currently not fully funded in the budget, so
that it will have logical completeness and
integrity." Democrats swiftly defeated his
amendment without comment.
Later in Tuesday night's debate, Tarr attempted
to add $500,000 to the Ways and Means budget
plan to meet an obligation to pay the city of
Chelsea an impact fee related to the Mass.
Information Technology Center.
"This is a commitment that we've made, it's a
30-year commitment, it was funded in House 1, it
was funded in House final and, Mr. President, it
is mysteriously and conspicuously absent from
the Senate Ways and Means version of the
budget," Tarr said, warning that the center
could have to reduce its full-time staff of 10
to two and a half.
The Chelsea amendment was also rejected without
comment from Democrats.
Tarr said the Republican caucus would continue
to point out where the proposed Senate budget is
imbalanced but said the Chelsea impact fee issue
is "symbolic and emblematic of why we may have
difficulties down the road with the budget that
we're currently debating."
Though Tarr offered on the Senate floor to
provide his "Balance Beam of Imbalance" to
anyone who was interested and suggested it be
reprinted in the Senate journal, his office told
the News Service on Wednesday that it is not
available.
Gov. Charlie Baker's office has also raised
concern that the Senate budget is imbalanced. A
Baker spokeswoman said when the Senate rolled
its budget out that "it is concerning that
numerous accounts to pay for core services, like
indigent legal services, are underfunded in this
budget."
The House budget approved in late April and the
Senate budget being advanced this week both rely
on questionable revenue assumptions, and
legislative leaders have already given voice to
the potential that a six-member conference
committee may need to reduce planned spending
during private deliberations.
State House News Service
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
House introduces new spending bill
By Michael P. Norton
In the midst of anxiety over potential
overspending, House Democrats on Wednesday
morning introduced a new spending bill which
could emerge on the House floor for
consideration Wednesday afternoon.
Senate budget chief Karen Spilka on Tuesday
mentioned the possibility of a supplemental
budget surfacing in the next two weeks, and the
House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday
morning began polling its members on a spending
bill.
The legislation includes $14 million for the
Department of Transportation, $15 million for
the Department of Correction, $15 million for
the Executive Office of Administration and
Finance, and $1.5 million for the Department of
Conservation and Recreation. The bill, which
also addresses fund transfers and unexpended
funds throughout state government, does not
include any language outlining the purpose or
need for the spending.
Supplemental budgets are regularly processed by
the Legislature, augmenting the annual budget.
The impact of the added spending on the state's
total fiscal picture, which has been marked by
sluggish tax collections, is not clear since the
Baker administration has been relatively mum
about budget management.
The committee asked its members, which regularly
rubber-stamp bills recommended by chairman Brian
Dempsey, to vote on the bill by 10:45 a.m.
State House News Service
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Immigration, inmate bill votes expected in House
By Colin A. Young
The Massachusetts House is expected to take it
first legislative action in response to the
Trump administration Wednesday, the first fruit
of Speaker Robert DeLeo's Trump working group.
Bills filed by Rep. Antonio Cabral of New
Bedford and endorsed by the working group
created to respond to the Trump administration
-- dubbed by Majority Leader Ron Mariano "The
Therapy Committee" -- are expected to come to a
vote after 1 p.m.
One bill (H 3034) would prevent inmates in
Massachusetts from being sent to labor on
out-of-state projects, including Bristol Sheriff
Thomas Hodgson's proposal to offer inmate labor
to help build a wall on the border with Mexico.
The second (H 3033) seeks to prevent the use of
state resources to carry out agreements that
delegate Immigration and Customs Enforcement
authority to officers at the state or local
level.
The sheriffs of Bristol and Plymouth counties
and the state Department of Correction have
signed such agreements, though their officers
have not yet received the training necessary to
carry them out.
Hodgson last week said that if the Legislature
passes the bills "it will show once again that
personal political agendas are more important
than keeping our citizens and legal residents
safe."
Roll call votes are expected to begin at 1 p.m. |
| |
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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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