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CLT UPDATE
Saturday, June 17, 2017

Why the state never has enough money to squander more


University of Massachusetts students will be hit with at least a "slight" tuition and fee increase in the coming school year, UMass President Marty Meehan said Wednesday, but tuition and fees will not be set until July when officials hope to have a better handle on their budget picture.

The administration and finance committee of the UMass Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved tuition hikes for the UMass Medical School, and officials said rates for other campuses would be influenced by conference committee negotiations among six lawmakers on next year's budget. There were more than 74,000 students across the UMass system during the 2016-2017 academic year.

Meehan said university officials are "actively looking" at where tuition is likely to land, and each campus is monitoring its own financial situation.

"There will be a slight tuition increase," he told the committee. "We're going to try to keep it as low as we possibly can but there is no question that given the budget situation, there has to be a tuition increase."

Not raising tuition would "jeopardize the quality" of education the schools can provide, Meehan said.

Trustees last year approved a 5.8 percent increase, costing the average in-state undergraduate $756 more in student charges before financial aid. Like this year, the board waited to set rates until budget negotiations were complete....

The UMass system's original budget request for the 2018 fiscal year was $538 million, a $30 million increase over this year. The Senate came close to that number, allocating $534 million, while House budget funds UMass at $513 million....

[UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble] Subbaswamy said UMass Amherst has cut its budget for the past four years -- first at the administrative level only and later on the academic side as well -- either to balance the budget or come up with a positive margin.

"There's very limited places where we can cut on the expense side, and revenue, we're doing everything we can subject to the tuition increases that all of you vote on and so forth," he said.

State House News Service
Wednesday, June 13, 2017
UMass president sees at least "slight" increase in student charges


State lawmakers on Tuesday shared family stories about immigration and education to urge their peers to support a long-offered bill making undocumented students eligible to pay lower in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities in Massachusetts.

Six bills before the Higher Education Committee would extend in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants who graduated from Massachusetts high schools, attended high school in the state for at least three years and meet other requirements....

Supporters of extending the reach of in-state tuition said the cost of higher education leaves it out of reach for most undocumented students, who colleges treat like international students, which means they are not eligible for publicly funded financial aid and also must pay the higher tuition and fee rates charged to out-of-state students.

"These students are neither out-of-state nor non-residents," said Karen Price of the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts. "They are Massachusetts students, our students, and this is their home."

Price pointed to student charges at UMass Amherst, where this school year in-state students pay $15,345 in tuition and fees and out-of-state and international students pay $33,492.

The question of extending in-state tuition comes as a conference committee is negotiating next year's budget, including funding levels for public higher education that will influence University of Massachusetts system tuition rates....

Rep. James Lyons, an Andover Republican who filed one of the bills to restrict in-state tuition to citizens and permanent residents (H 2229), told the News Service lawmakers have a responsibility to make sure benefits are going to legal citizens at a time when state revenues are trailing projections.

"The Legislature claims they don't have enough revenue, yet they're spending money consistently on people who aren't in the commonwealth legally," Lyons said.

State House News Service
Thursday, June 15, 2017
Tuition bill push continues as immigrants cycle through schools


The so-called millionaires tax being added to next year’s November ballot is raising concerns that hiking rates on the Bay State’s most moneyed few might backfire on the budget as the rich seek shelter in Florida or New Hampshire.

Pioneer Institute Executive Director Greg Sullivan said his staff is looking at data from the state Department of Revenue to predict whether the proposed change would trigger such a migration.

“There have been dueling economic studies extending back decades about the subject of tax flight. Is it real?” Sullivan said. “This is a very substantial, legitimate question that should be forensically analyzed to the satisfaction of reasonable people and economists.”

The Boston Herald
Friday, June 16, 2017
Mass. millionaires could make run for tax-friendly climates


It’s been reported that for the tax year 2014, 15,422 Massachusetts residents reported gross incomes of more than $1 million.

That number is about to decline, more than somewhat.

It’s hard to predict demographic trends, but this one is a no-brainer, because it now appears that the kleptocracy that is Massachusetts state government is going to impose a “graduated” income tax on those 15,000-plus earners.

They’re going to get stuck paying an extra 4 percent on their bills, unless of course they flee or finagle their declared incomes under a million, which thousands will now most assuredly do.

The question of soaking the so-called rich will now go on the November 2018 statewide ballot after a vote by the Legislature.

The proposed tax increase is called the “Fair Share Amendment,” because it’s not fair, just like the Affordable Care Act was not affordable.

The graduated income tax has been voted down by the Massachusetts electorate five times, but they’re not making voters nearly as smart as they used to....

During the debate on Beacon Hill, Republican state Sen. Bruce Tarr pointed out that “the top 20 percent of the filers already contribute 73 percent of the revenue. I would ask the proponents if 73 percent is insufficient, then what do you hope to get to?”

I’ll tell you what the local “millionaires” are hoping to get to.

To New Hampshire, or Florida, or Tennessee, or Texas — anyplace there is no income tax, just like the people in all the other states that have tried this preposterous highway robbery.

The Boston Herald
Friday, June 16, 2017
Don’t expect the rich folks to stay and pay
By Howie Carr


The Service Employees International Union sure is flexing its muscle on Beacon Hill.

The SEIU’s Raise Up Massachusetts campaign vexed many business groups this week.

First, union leaders helped pack a State House hearing room for legislation that would require employers to offer paid family and medical leave. Then, the Legislature gave the green light to the SEIU-backed so-called “millionaires’ tax.”

And there’s a third measure percolating: legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Barring a successful court challenge, the tax proposal heads to voters in November 2018....

It’s possible the SEIU, with more than 100,000 Massachusetts members, could have three ballot campaigns at once....

The Raise Up campaign raised nearly $650,000 in the past two years, primarily from the SEIU and the Massachusetts Teachers Association. (The MTA also provided significant in-kind services.) Gruman says many other community and faith groups are involved, even if they don’t donate the same amount of money and staff time....

Those members also give the SEIU political clout. There’s strength in numbers, after all. How much? We’ll soon find out.

The Boston Globe
Saturday, June 17, 2017
SEIU is making itself heard on Beacon Hill


Chip Ford's CLT Commentary

It's not common to have two contradictions so blatantly exposed in as many days on Beacon Hill.  Usually they choose to spread out such contradictions and hope nobody is paying attention, connects the dots.  This one was too incredible to miss.

On Wednesday UMass President Marty Meehan (who supported term limits when he ran for Congress and was elected, until his "term" expired and he refused to step down) announced that the state college/university system needs more money to continue operating.  The system will need to raise tuition and student fees if the Legislature doesn't give him more money in the state budget now being negotiated.

But just the day before, on Tuesday six bills were supported by Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz of Jamaica Plain, Rep. Juana Matias of Lawrence, Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry of Dorchester, Karen Price of the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, and a horde of others.  They want to open the taxpayer-subsidized state college/university system to illegal aliens, add them to the underfunded state college/university system that's already running out of money without a taxpayer bailout!

The League of Women Voters of Massachusetts?  What does taxpayer-subsidized college education for illegals have to do with voting?  But then the league long ago lost its way, has often been the opposition to pro-taxpayer issues.  How far the league has fallen from its reason to exist.  Is it any wonder why they earned the derogatory nickname of "The Plague of Women Vultures"?

League of Women Voters

The League of Women Voters is an American civic organization that was formed to help women take a larger role in public affairs as they won the right to vote. It was founded in 1920 to support the new women suffrage rights and was a merger of National Council of Women Voters, founded by Emma Smith DeVoe, and National American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Carrie Chapman Catt, approximately six months before the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution gave women the right to vote. The League of Women Voters began as a "mighty political experiment" aimed to help newly enfranchised women exercise their responsibilities as voters. Originally, only women could join the league; but in 1973 the charter was modified to include men.

Adding the funding of college educations for illegals is like getting to the supermarket checkout counter and finding you don't have enough money to pay for what you put on the conveyor belt — so you reach for a bunch of candy bars and pile them on.

On Beacon Hill the left hand doesn't know even what the left hand is doing, never mind the right hand.

But be aware, this is one of the purposes of the proposed graduated income tax (aka., "The Millionaire's Tax," aka., "The Fair Share Amendment), as it states:

"To provide the resources for quality public education and affordable public colleges and universities . . ."

In my last Update Commentary I remarked:

Never mind who ultimately gets to decide the definitional vagaries of "quality" public education and "affordable" public colleges and universities (the courts will upon later challenge by the teachers unions, one of the proposal's deep-pockets sponsors) . . .

It appears that the plan is for millionaire's to fund college educations for illegal immigrants, while the rest of us pay for their others costs.


Of the organizers of this latest grad tax assault, The Boston Globe noted:

"The Raise Up campaign raised nearly $650,000 in the past two years, primarily from the SEIU and the Massachusetts Teachers Association. . . . Those members also give the SEIU political clout. There’s strength in numbers, after all. How much? We’ll soon find out."

Yes, we will soon find out.  The Takers have the very deep pockets of the teachers unions to fund their efforts, and their "strength in numbers." 

The more important question is do we taxpayers?

We'll find that out soon too.  I still have my fingers crossed.

Chip Ford
Executive Director


 
State House News Service
Wednesday, June 13, 2017

UMass president sees at least "slight" increase in student charges
By Katie Lannan


University of Massachusetts students will be hit with at least a "slight" tuition and fee increase in the coming school year, UMass President Marty Meehan said Wednesday, but tuition and fees will not be set until July when officials hope to have a better handle on their budget picture.

The administration and finance committee of the UMass Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved tuition hikes for the UMass Medical School, and officials said rates for other campuses would be influenced by conference committee negotiations among six lawmakers on next year's budget. There were more than 74,000 students across the UMass system during the 2016-2017 academic year.

Meehan said university officials are "actively looking" at where tuition is likely to land, and each campus is monitoring its own financial situation.

"There will be a slight tuition increase," he told the committee. "We're going to try to keep it as low as we possibly can but there is no question that given the budget situation, there has to be a tuition increase."

Not raising tuition would "jeopardize the quality" of education the schools can provide, Meehan said.

Trustees last year approved a 5.8 percent increase, costing the average in-state undergraduate $756 more in student charges before financial aid. Like this year, the board waited to set rates until budget negotiations were complete.

The fiscal 2018 spending plans approved by the House and Senate differ by $21 million in their appropriations for UMass. That gap combined with sluggish state revenue growth in fiscal 2017 creates a "significant amount of uncertainty" for the five-campus system, Meehan said.

The UMass system's original budget request for the 2018 fiscal year was $538 million, a $30 million increase over this year. The Senate came close to that number, allocating $534 million, while House budget funds UMass at $513 million.

The proposed Senate appropriation fully funds the state's share of collective bargaining agreements, said Meehan, who told the committee he is meeting regularly with lawmakers to advocate for funding.

The UMass system is projected to end the 2017 fiscal year with a $20.5 million operating budget surplus, though the Boston campus is now on track to run nearly $10 million above its budget, senior vice president for administration and finance Lisa Calise told the committee. UMass Boston's deficit previously had been pegged at around $7 million but increased because enrollment in its Summer 1 session fell below budgeted benchmarks, according to Calise's report.

Meehan said the system has to maintain an overall surplus to avoid negatively affecting its bond rating. He said "sometimes what gets lost" in discussing the system as a whole are the budget cuts at individual campuses, and asked UMass Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy to speak to that issue.

Subbaswamy said UMass Amherst has cut its budget for the past four years -- first at the administrative level only and later on the academic side as well -- either to balance the budget or come up with a positive margin.

"There's very limited places where we can cut on the expense side, and revenue, we're doing everything we can subject to the tuition increases that all of you vote on and so forth," he said.

Robert Epstein, the committee's vice chair, urged the university to "be a little more proactive" on setting its tuition and budget, saying he did not believe they needed to wait for the state budget and that he did not know how much more campuses could cut without impacts to quality.

Trustee David Fubini said cuts like those instituted in the past "probably can't be counted on in future years," and that staff reductions can make it harder to generate new revenue.

"We can't play this game forever," he said.

Dr. Michael Collins, the chancellor of UMass Medical School, said one of the ways his campus has been looking to increase revenue is by admitting out-of-state students, which it began doing for the first time last year. The school plans to admit 37 out-state-students this year, he said.

Student charges at the medical school differ based on program and class year. For medical students in the class of 2019 and forward, the committee approved tuition and mandatory fees of $36,678 for Massachusetts residents and $61,478 for out-of-state students. For the same student population, tuition for the academic 2016-2017 academic year was $33,600 for in-state students and $59,400 for out-of-state students.

Collins said tuition for the medical school was set earlier than the other campuses because classes for second, third and fourth year medical students begin in May.

The full Board of Trustees is scheduled to meet next Tuesday afternoon at the UMass Club in Boston, followed by a July 17 meeting at the medical school in Worcester.
 

State House News Service
Thursday, June 15, 2017

Tuition bill push continues as immigrants cycle through schools
By Katie Lannan


State lawmakers on Tuesday shared family stories about immigration and education to urge their peers to support a long-offered bill making undocumented students eligible to pay lower in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities in Massachusetts.

Six bills before the Higher Education Committee would extend in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants who graduated from Massachusetts high schools, attended high school in the state for at least three years and meet other requirements.

Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz of Jamaica Plain told the committee her father was able to become the first naturalized citizen astronaut in American history and contribute to scientific advancements because he had access to public higher education.

Rep. Juana Matias of Lawrence said she couldn't speak English when she came to the United States at 5 years old and is in the Legislature today because she had the opportunity to attend UMass Boston and go on to law school.

Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry of Dorchester paused twice to wipe away a tear as she spoke, telling the committee her Haitian immigrant parents encouraged her to get good grades and work hard and asking that lawmakers make sure all students raised in Massachusetts have the opportunity to become the next generation of lawmakers, scientists and researchers.

"We're not asking for them to get in for free. They got in on their own merit because they're smart, and they're talented and they're brilliant," Forry said. "We're just saying we don't want them to pay $35,000 as if they never lived in Massachusetts. We want them to pay the in-state rate. That's what we're asking."

The in-state bills have been filed for years but have never prevailed in the Democrat-controlled Legislature, and the measures are not cited by legislative leaders as a priority for this session.

In 2006, after an emotional debate, the House on a 57-97 vote defeated legislation that would have granted in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants.

Supporters of extending the reach of in-state tuition said the cost of higher education leaves it out of reach for most undocumented students, who colleges treat like international students, which means they are not eligible for publicly funded financial aid and also must pay the higher tuition and fee rates charged to out-of-state students.

"These students are neither out-of-state nor non-residents," said Karen Price of the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts. "They are Massachusetts students, our students, and this is their home."

Price pointed to student charges at UMass Amherst, where this school year in-state students pay $15,345 in tuition and fees and out-of-state and international students pay $33,492.

The question of extending in-state tuition comes as a conference committee is negotiating next year's budget, including funding levels for public higher education that will influence University of Massachusetts system tuition rates.

No one at the hearing testified against the in-state tuition bills, or in favor of bills that would prevent individuals who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents from being eligible for in-state tuition.

Rep. James Lyons, an Andover Republican who filed one of the bills to restrict in-state tuition to citizens and permanent residents (H 2229), told the News Service lawmakers have a responsibility to make sure benefits are going to legal citizens at a time when state revenues are trailing projections.

"The Legislature claims they don't have enough revenue, yet they're spending money consistently on people who aren't in the commonwealth legally," Lyons said.

Though activists and some lawmakers have continued to press the issue, leadership in either branch of the Legislature has avoided bringing it to the floor for a vote. Immigrant student activists hosted multiple demonstrations in support of the bill last session, at times wearing mortarboards as they held sit-ins in the State House.

The Higher Education Committee last year killed the in-state tuition bills by including them in an order for further study. Former Rep. Tom Sannicandro, then the House chair, said at the time that while he supported expanding in-state tuition eligibility there was "not the support within the body as a whole."

Thursday's hearing lasted less than 90 minutes, with 16 people testifying, including lawmakers. Price said the crowd was much smaller than "standing room only" hearings she'd attended in the past on the issue and questioned whether undocumented students who pushed for the bill last session were afraid to appear or had "given up on the legislative process."

Rep. John Scibak, the committee's House chair, said not to assume a small number of people speaking meant the issue was "somehow less important" and speculated "the situation of people talking about deportation and a series of other issues" under the Trump administration "may have led to fear on the part of students."

Five of the 15 Higher Education Committee members -- Scibak and Reps. Denise Provost, Natalie Higgins, Aaron Vega and Solomon Goldstein-Rose -- are signed on as co-sponsors to at least one of the six in-state tuition bills.


The Boston Herald
Friday, June 16, 2017

Mass. millionaires could make run for tax-friendly climates
By Brian Dowling

The so-called millionaires tax being added to next year’s November ballot is raising concerns that hiking rates on the Bay State’s most moneyed few might backfire on the budget as the rich seek shelter in Florida or New Hampshire.

Pioneer Institute Executive Director Greg Sullivan said his staff is looking at data from the state Department of Revenue to predict whether the proposed change would trigger such a migration.

“There have been dueling economic studies extending back decades about the subject of tax flight. Is it real?” Sullivan said. “This is a very substantial, legitimate question that should be forensically analyzed to the satisfaction of reasonable people and economists.”

The Bay State ballot question proposes a 4 percent higher tax on income above $1 million.

Two billionaires in Connecticut fled last year for Florida after the Nutmeg State raised its highest tax bracket to 6.99 percent, up from 6.7 percent.

New Jersey’s most wealthy resident left for the Sunshine State in 2015, throwing the state’s budget in disarray.

A Stanford University study last year concluded there’s evidence some rich people do tend to move from high-tax states, but it’s only at the margins.


The Boston Herald
Friday, June 16, 2017

Don’t expect the rich folks to stay and pay
By Howie Carr


It’s been reported that for the tax year 2014, 15,422 Massachusetts residents reported gross incomes of more than $1 million.

That number is about to decline, more than somewhat.

It’s hard to predict demographic trends, but this one is a no-brainer, because it now appears that the kleptocracy that is Massachusetts state government is going to impose a “graduated” income tax on those 15,000-plus earners.

They’re going to get stuck paying an extra 4 percent on their bills, unless of course they flee or finagle their declared incomes under a million, which thousands will now most assuredly do.

The question of soaking the so-called rich will now go on the November 2018 statewide ballot after a vote by the Legislature.

The proposed tax increase is called the “Fair Share Amendment,” because it’s not fair, just like the Affordable Care Act was not affordable.

The graduated income tax has been voted down by the Massachusetts electorate five times, but they’re not making voters nearly as smart as they used to.

The case for the non-working-class’s latest assault on the Massachusetts economy was laid out by state Rep. Jay Kaufman of Lexington, formerly home of the Minutemen, now home of leftist pukes like Kaufman and “Dr.” Jonathan Gruber.

The pitch, of course, is that the new tax will fall on only one-half of 1 percent of the population — “99.5 percent of us,” Kaufman smarmily said, “will not be impacted save for the better services from the revenue that comes.”

He said this with a straight face. Then he said it’s only “$40,000 on $1 million income … I wish I could pay that.”

So are we then to assume that Rep. Kaufman checks the box to voluntarily pay a higher state income tax rate already, given that he’s so eager to pay his “fair share” and then some?

“And it will be dedicated to education and transportation.” Yeah, right. Because these State House leeches keep their words — just ask the stoners. The potheads thought they were going to pay a 12 percent tax on their weed brownies. Now it’s up to, what, 28 percent?

“I think we will hear,” Kaufman continued, “there is compelling evidence, reason that millionaires will migrate — that is specious. There’s no evidence of that from other states.”

Oh, really? Let’s look at the record, starting with Connecticut. Here’s a headline from last year: “Wealthiest Look to Leave State as Tax Rates Climb.”

The nuts in the Nutmeg State raised the highest income tax rates. Millionaires fled (see GE), and revenues collapsed, so they raised the rates again, and collections fell further — now even Gov. Dannel Malloy, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, has gotten the message.

Two of the state’s billionaires decamped for the same town in Florida — Palm Beach. That’s where Joe Kennedy fled 70-plus years ago. Florida has no income taxes. This is not a phenomenon that started yesterday, you know.

Let’s continue our trip down I-95. Welcome to the Garden State, which likewise decided to soak the rich. Here’s a headline from CNBC: “Are the wealthy leaving NJ? Study says yes.”

Welcome to Maryland. This is another headline from CNBC: “In Maryland, Higher Taxes Chase Out Rich.”

During the debate on Beacon Hill, Republican state Sen. Bruce Tarr pointed out that “the top 20 percent of the filers already contribute 73 percent of the revenue. I would ask the proponents if 73 percent is insufficient, then what do you hope to get to?”

I’ll tell you what the local “millionaires” are hoping to get to.

To New Hampshire, or Florida, or Tennessee, or Texas — anyplace there is no income tax, just like the people in all the other states that have tried this preposterous highway robbery.

Buy Howie’s new book, “Kennedy Babylon: A Century of Scandal and Depravity,” at howiecarrshow.com.


The Boston Globe
Saturday, June 17, 2017

SEIU is making itself heard on Beacon Hill
By Jon Chesto


The Service Employees International Union sure is flexing its muscle on Beacon Hill.

The SEIU’s Raise Up Massachusetts campaign vexed many business groups this week.

First, union leaders helped pack a State House hearing room for legislation that would require employers to offer paid family and medical leave. Then, the Legislature gave the green light to the SEIU-backed so-called “millionaires’ tax.”

And there’s a third measure percolating: legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Barring a successful court challenge, the tax proposal heads to voters in November 2018.

Harris Gruman, executive director of the SEIU’s state council, says he expects Raise Up campaign organizers will probably gather signatures in case they need to put the other two measures in front of voters next year, too. It’s an effective insurance policy if lawmakers don’t act in time.

It’s possible the SEIU, with more than 100,000 Massachusetts members, could have three ballot campaigns at once. Gruman says this points to the growing income disparity in this state — an issue many SEIU members understand on a personal level.

The Raise Up campaign raised nearly $650,000 in the past two years, primarily from the SEIU and the Massachusetts Teachers Association. (The MTA also provided significant in-kind services.) Gruman says many other community and faith groups are involved, even if they don’t donate the same amount of money and staff time. He says he considers it the ultimate grass-roots effort: Union members decide which policy fights to pick and help pay for the campaign from their dues.

Those members also give the SEIU political clout. There’s strength in numbers, after all. How much? We’ll soon find out.

 

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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