 |
and the
Citizens Economic Research Foundation
Post Office Box 1147 ●
Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945 ●
(508)
915-3665
“Every Tax is a Pay Cut ... A Tax Cut is a Pay Raise”
43 years as “The Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers”
— and
their Institutional Memory — |
|
CLT UPDATE
Thursday, December 28, 2017
New surprises in a new year?
|
The law
firm tapped to lead the state Senate’s probe into
self-demoted President Stanley C. Rosenberg was once dubbed
“one of the most politically connected” in Boston — with
clients that included Rosenberg’s predecessor, Therese
Murray — raising questions about whether retaliation-wary
victims and witnesses will come forward. The three
Boston-based attorneys from Hogan Lovells serving as the
Senate’s “primary” investigators all hail from Collora LLP,
the longtime Boston firm that merged with Hogan Lovells —
co-headquartered in London and Washington, D.C. — in
September to give the global company its first office in the
Hub.
Hogan Lovells has never had an official foothold in
Boston, but Collora, whose High Street offices now serve as
Hogan Lovells’ Boston home, had been a longtime player in
the city.
Jody Newman, one of three Boston office partners hired by
the Senate, was praised by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly as
one of the most influential attorneys in its 2009 “Power
List.” The publication called her firm — then known as Dwyer
& Collora — “one of the most politically connected firms in
town,” and it's no stranger to the state Senate.
Former Senate President Therese Murray paid the firm
nearly $25,000 between 2011 and 2015 for what campaign
finance records called “professional” or “legal fees.”
Murray reportedly hired the firm to represent her amid the
U.S. attorney’s office investigation into the state
probation scandal. She never faced charges, but she and
other lawmakers racked up legal costs amid the scrutiny it
brought on the Legislature....
Some senators, concerned about potential ties muddying
the investigation, had publicly pushed the committee to look
outside Massachusetts for a firm to lead the probe into
whether Rosenberg broke any chamber rules....
The Senate committee has also refused to disclose what
it’s paying Hogan Lovells. All six members either didn’t
return requests or deferred comment yesterday to chairman
Michael Rodrigues, who didn’t respond to several emails,
calls and messages left at his office by the Herald.
Hours later, his office released a statement saying the
probe’s “confidential resources” will be covered by existing
Senate funds, and added that the public can track them
“through the Comptroller’s public website.”
The state Comptroller’s website, however, doesn’t display
any costs until after a payment is made. The Senate has not
provided a timeline for the probe.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Firm probing Senate scandal is political power player
A team of lawyers, including a former federal prosecutor
who helped put one-time House Speaker Sal DiMasi in prison
for public corruption, has been retained by the Senate
Ethics Committee to investigate whether Sen. Stanley
Rosenberg violated Senate rules in connection with
allegations of sexual assault against his husband.
The committee said Monday evening that it had chosen the
global law firm of Hogan Lovells to conduct the
investigation, with primary responsibility falling to
attorneys Anthony E. Fuller, Jody L. Newman and Natashia
Tidwell. The three attorneys are based in the firm's Boston
office.
The legal team will now begin a review into allegations
published in the Boston Globe that Rosenberg's husband Bryon
Hefner made unwanted sexual advances on at least four men
who do business on Beacon Hill, and claimed to wield
influence over policy decisions in the Senate....
"The Committee is confident that these well-qualified
lawyers – who have extensive experience investigating
alleged misconduct in both the public and private sectors –
will fully and fairly conduct the investigation ordered by
the Senate," the Ethics Committee, chaired by Sen. Michael
Rodrigues of Westport, said in a statement.
Prior to the announcement, one state senator not on the
committee had suggested that it would look to bring in
someone from out-of-state with no ties to Beacon Hill.
State House News Service
Monday, December 18, 2017
Ethics Committee chooses Boston-based attorney for Rosenberg
probe
Half empty, half full, or just half? That's
the state's revenue-generating cup the ever-conservative
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation always measures halfway
through the fiscal year.
And this time, unlike recent fiscal years,
that curmudgeonly group has to admit that we're in pretty
good fiscal shape -- with a few caveats of course.
The state's meeting its tax-receipt
projections, thanks in part to more than $200 million in
unexpected revenue, which means that for the first time
since 2014, there's no need to make a downward revenue
adjustment.
Up to this point, the Baker administration
hasn't made any spending cuts, despite the
Democrat-controlled Legislature's several overrides of his
budget vetoes, and its refusal to go along with the
governor's MassHealth reassignments, a potential $85 million
savings....
Not so fast, warn the MTF's Belichickian
bean counters. There's uncertainty on the horizon -- just in
time for the next election cycle.
Historically, tax collections have faltered
in the second half of fiscal years; that period begins in
January.
The MTF review warns it would be "dangerous"
and a "mistake" to assume the trend over the first five
months of the fiscal year will hold through the remainder,
with the state's three largest collection months coming up
-- January, April and June.
And any extra cash should be used to cover
expenses in existing underfunded accounts -- including
indigent legal defense costs, expected snow removal bills,
and costs tied to family homelessness.
And whatever one-time corporate revenue bump
that might come from Congress' recently passed federal
tax-reform package could be offset if the ballot measure to
trim the state's sales tax from 6.25 to 5 percent passes.
Also, a legal challenge puts that so-called "millionaires"
tax surcharge referendum in jeopardy. Proponents expected
that 4 percent additional tax on all income over $1 million
to generate $2 billion annually....
So while spend-happy lawmakers might call
the MTF's report pessimistic, we'd call it realistic. It
states the obvious; the only thing you can predict with
certainty is the potential volatility of the state's
finances through the remainder of the fiscal year.
That calls for a steady, fiscally
responsible hand at the helm, which is what our Republican
governor provides.
A Lowell Sun editorial
Saturday, December 23, 2017
State's fiscal health bears a prudent diet
|
|
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
"The
Senate Ethics Committee has promised to bring in an
investigator from outside Massachusetts without
local connections or loyalties, but has not yet
committed to releasing the investigator's findings
to the public. Watch for a classic Bay State
'nationwide search.'"
I wrote that on December 13 in my commentary
for the CLT Update "The
many moving parts."
No matter how cynical I get it's never
cynical enough. Clearly one does not need to be a
Nostradamus to read Beacon Hill tea leaves.
The denizens of Beacon Hill are just so
darned predictable — the same
lame responses, same routines over and over. There is
not one whit of creativity, thought, or concern for
constituents' reaction among those who make the laws under
which we must live.
What a difference a year makes. On
January 4 of this year the State House News Service
reported:
Senate President Stanley Rosenberg on Wednesday
embarked on his second term as the top Democrat in
the upper chamber, outlining an ambitious, if
challenging, agenda for the coming two years that
could bump up against the priorities of a more
moderate and business-friendly House and a governor
focused on controlling growth in government....
In remarks to members as the new legislative session
got underway, the 67-year-old laid out a series of
goals, many of which would require significant new
spending at a time when officials on Beacon Hill
have been trying to match soft revenue growth with
persistent spending demands. Gov. Charlie Baker
recently slashed $98 million from the budget that
Democrats have threatened to restore, and Rosenberg
said "cutting is not our best strategy."...
"I believe we need to invest our way to success,"
Rosenberg said.
Our legislators started this past year with
a constitutionally-mandated automatic pay raise of four
percent. On January 10 The Salem News
reported:
Lawmakers returning to Beacon Hill will see bigger
paychecks, with a pay raise that gives them the
sixth-highest salary among full-time state
legislators....
The pay hikes keep Bay State lawmakers among the
country's highest paid. California pays its
legislators $100,000 a year, Pennsylvania pays
$85,339 a year, and New York pays $79,500, according
to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In New Hampshire, part-time legislators get stipends
of $200 a year. Connecticut pays part-time
legislators $28,000 a year, Rhode Island $15,414 and
Maine up to $14,074.
Massachusetts has one of the 10 full-time
legislatures in the country, according to the
group....
Tax watchdogs say the voter-approved constitutional
amendment that requires legislative pay adjustments
in fact allows lawmakers to duck a politically
sensitive vote to give themselves a raise.
“We’re the only state in the country where lawmakers
get a constitutionally mandated pay raise,” said Chip
Ford, executive director of the
Marblehead-based Citizens for Limited Taxation.
“If you want a raise, you should at least be
required to vote publicly for it."
More was not enough for the trough-feeders.
Just a week later CLT discovered and exposed the
Legislature's stealth scheme to fatten themselves even
more at taxpayer expense —
concocted in secret over their last long holiday vacation by
Rosenberg and House Speaker Robert DeLeo. Our CLT News
Release of January 18 blew their secret plan wide open:
"Legislators
back for more pay raises despite state Constitution."
The next day news media all over the state who'd received
our news release were all over the disgusting conspiracy ("Committee
hears unconstitutional pay raise proposal").
Publically exposed, it took only a week for
the state House of Reprehensibles to slam through a vote
passing their obscene pay grab and race it over to the state
Senate for its rubber-stamp with blinding speed.
The rest of this shameless raid on the state
treasure is history —
which we've documented in great detail so it is
easily available, will be remembered, and hopefully will
lead to consequences when these gluttonous legislators,
alleged "public servants," stand for re-election in
November.
At least with Rosenberg forced from the
senate presidency during this long holiday vacation, now in
the midst of scandal, distracted by this chaos maybe the
Beacon Hill cabal has been too preoccupied to devise another
scam to spring on us in the next week or two. Maybe
the coming new year will be less of a threat for us
taxpayers.
Maybe — but
somehow I doubt it.
A new year, 2018, begins in only days
— new challenges undoubtedly
will confront us taxpayers. They always do.
Hopefully none will be sprung on us so abruptly, but
whatever, whenever the next assault on taxpayers, we hope to
be just as prepared to respond as we did last January and
have all during 2017.
|
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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The Boston Herald
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Firm probing Senate scandal is political power
player
By Matt Stout
The law firm tapped to lead the state Senate’s
probe into self-demoted President Stanley C.
Rosenberg was once dubbed “one of the most
politically connected” in Boston — with clients
that included Rosenberg’s predecessor, Therese
Murray — raising questions about whether
retaliation-wary victims and witnesses will come
forward.
The three Boston-based attorneys from Hogan
Lovells serving as the Senate’s “primary”
investigators all hail from Collora LLP, the
longtime Boston firm that merged with Hogan
Lovells — co-headquartered in London and
Washington, D.C. — in September to give the
global company its first office in the Hub.
Hogan Lovells has never had an official foothold
in Boston, but Collora, whose High Street
offices now serve as Hogan Lovells’ Boston home,
had been a longtime player in the city.
Jody Newman, one of three Boston office partners
hired by the Senate, was praised by
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly as one of the most
influential attorneys in its 2009 “Power List.”
The publication called her firm — then known as
Dwyer & Collora — “one of the most politically
connected firms in town,” and it's no stranger
to the state Senate.
Former Senate President Therese Murray paid the
firm nearly $25,000 between 2011 and 2015 for
what campaign finance records called
“professional” or “legal fees.” Murray
reportedly hired the firm to represent her amid
the U.S. attorney’s office investigation into
the state probation scandal. She never faced
charges, but she and other lawmakers racked up
legal costs amid the scrutiny it brought on the
Legislature.
Neither Newman, nor attorneys William Fuller or
Natashia Tidwell, returned multiple calls
yesterday.
The firm said in a statement it has set up both
an email (MASenateInvestigation@hoganlovells.com)
and a phone number (855-281-7775) for people to
confidentially provide information.
Some senators, concerned about potential ties
muddying the investigation, had publicly pushed
the committee to look outside Massachusetts for
a firm to lead the probe into whether Rosenberg
broke any chamber rules.
Both Fuller and Tidwell are former prosecutors,
with Fuller serving on the U.S. Attorney’s
office’s team that scored a bribery conviction
of ex-Speaker of the House Salvatore DiMasi in
2011.
“Hogan Lovells is committed to conducting a
full, fair and independent investigation,”
Fuller said in the statement, “and we encourage
any witnesses and potential victims to contact
us as soon as possible.”
Rosenberg stepped down from his post earlier
this month amid allegations his husband sexually
assaulted or harassed four men while bragging
about the sway he held over Senate business.
The Senate committee has also refused to
disclose what it’s paying Hogan Lovells. All six
members either didn’t return requests or
deferred comment yesterday to chairman Michael
Rodrigues, who didn’t respond to several emails,
calls and messages left at his office by the
Herald.
Hours later, his office released a statement
saying the probe’s “confidential resources” will
be covered by existing Senate funds, and added
that the public can track them “through the
Comptroller’s public website.”
The state Comptroller’s website, however,
doesn’t display any costs until after a payment
is made. The Senate has not provided a timeline
for the probe.
State House News Service
Monday, December 18, 2017
Ethics Committee chooses Boston-based attorney
for Rosenberg probe
By Matt Murphy
A team of lawyers, including a former federal
prosecutor who helped put one-time House Speaker
Sal DiMasi in prison for public corruption, has
been retained by the Senate Ethics Committee to
investigate whether Sen. Stanley Rosenberg
violated Senate rules in connection with
allegations of sexual assault against his
husband.
The committee said Monday evening that it had
chosen the global law firm of Hogan Lovells to
conduct the investigation, with primary
responsibility falling to attorneys Anthony E.
Fuller, Jody L. Newman and Natashia Tidwell. The
three attorneys are based in the firm's Boston
office.
The legal team will now begin a review into
allegations published in the Boston Globe that
Rosenberg's husband Bryon Hefner made unwanted
sexual advances on at least four men who do
business on Beacon Hill, and claimed to wield
influence over policy decisions in the Senate.
Fuller was part of the federal prosecution team
that convicted DiMasi of accepting kickbacks in
exchange for steering state software contracts
to a client of his associates.
As an assistant U.S. attorney on the organized
crime strike force unit in 2009, Tidwell was
part of a pair that prosecuted the case against
alleged La Cosa Nostra underboss Carmen DiNunzio,
who was sentenced to six years in federal prison
after pleading guilty to conspiring to bribe a
state official to obtain a contract to provide
loam to the Massachusetts Highway Department for
the Big Dig.
Newman, according to her biography on the Hogan
Lovells website, is "skilled at investigating
high-risk claims in the workplace and on college
campuses" and has "developed and conducted
individualized employment law and
professionalism trainings for businesses large
and small."
"The Committee is confident that these
well-qualified lawyers – who have extensive
experience investigating alleged misconduct in
both the public and private sectors – will fully
and fairly conduct the investigation ordered by
the Senate," the Ethics Committee, chaired by
Sen. Michael Rodrigues of Westport, said in a
statement.
Prior to the announcement, one state senator not
on the committee had suggested that it would
look to bring in someone from out-of-state with
no ties to Beacon Hill.
The Senate Ethics Committee launched its inquiry
on Dec. 5, and put a two-week timeline on the
hiring of an investigator – a self-imposed
deadline that it met with the hiring Monday
night. Though there is no timeline for the
attorneys to conduct the inquiry, the Ethics
Committee said it has asked that it be done "as
soon as practicable, without sacrificing
thoroughness or attention to detail."
At its initial meeting, the six-member ethics
panel put a heavy emphasis on making sure
victims felt comfortable speaking with
investigators and confident that they would not
pay a professional price for coming forward.
"I am deeply disturbed by these allegations
which jeopardize the integrity of the Senate.
Sexual harassment and assault have no place in
the Massachusetts state Senate or any workplace.
I am committed to a fair and thorough review of
the facts as well as a process that ensures
confidentiality for any person who has any
information to report on sexual harassment or
sexual assaults," Rodrigues said.
The investigative team in in the process of
setting up a toll-free phone number and email
address for people to provide relevant
information.
The other members of the committee are Democrats
William Brownsberger, Cynthia Creem and Cindy
Friedman and Republican Sens. Bruce Tarr and
Richard Ross.
The committee is now expected to largely step
back and let the investigator take over.
"Our role as committee members is not to conduct
the investigation, but rather set in pace the
mechanisms for discovering the truth and
allowing this investigator to proceed without
delay or any impediments by this committee,"
Rodrigues said at the initial meeting.
The committee said Monday that it does not
anticipate making any other public statements
until the independent investigators have
completed their work and submitted a report to
the committee for review.
The investigator, according to an order adopted
by the Senate initiating the probe, is to have
"full access" to Rosenberg's office and his
staff, and the Ethics Committee was authorized
to compel witness testimony and the production
of "books and papers and such other records" by
summons.
Once the investigator completes his or her work,
it will up to the Ethics Committee to review the
findings and make a recommendation to the full
Senate. The options for the committee would be
to take no action at all, to reprimand
Rosenberg, or to recommend expulsion.
The Lowell Sun
Saturday, December 23, 2017
A Lowell Sun editorial
State's fiscal health bears a prudent diet
Half empty, half full, or just half? That's the
state's revenue-generating cup the
ever-conservative Massachusetts Taxpayers
Foundation always measures halfway through the
fiscal year.
And this time, unlike recent fiscal years, that
curmudgeonly group has to admit that we're in
pretty good fiscal shape -- with a few caveats
of course.
The state's meeting its tax-receipt projections,
thanks in part to more than $200 million in
unexpected revenue, which means that for the
first time since 2014, there's no need to make a
downward revenue adjustment.
Up to this point, the Baker administration
hasn't made any spending cuts, despite the
Democrat-controlled Legislature's several
overrides of his budget vetoes, and its refusal
to go along with the governor's MassHealth
reassignments, a potential $85 million savings.
That's the good news. We all know that even in
the most trying times, lawmakers have no problem
finding ways to spend the taxpayers' money -- a
spendthrift attitude that continually clashes
with the Corner Office's fiscal prudence. The
governor's declaration in October that he's
putting earmarked spending on hold indefinitely
already has caused tension with the Legislature.
So we can only assume legislators are already
salivating over the prospect of a revenue
surplus.
Not so fast, warn the MTF's Belichickian bean
counters. There's uncertainty on the horizon --
just in time for the next election cycle.
Historically, tax collections have faltered in
the second half of fiscal years; that period
begins in January.
The MTF review warns it would be "dangerous" and
a "mistake" to assume the trend over the first
five months of the fiscal year will hold through
the remainder, with the state's three largest
collection months coming up -- January, April
and June.
And any extra cash should be used to cover
expenses in existing underfunded accounts --
including indigent legal defense costs, expected
snow removal bills, and costs tied to family
homelessness.
And whatever one-time corporate revenue bump
that might come from Congress' recently passed
federal tax-reform package could be offset if
the ballot measure to trim the state's sales tax
from 6.25 to 5 percent passes. Also, a legal
challenge puts that so-called "millionaires" tax
surcharge referendum in jeopardy. Proponents
expected that 4 percent additional tax on all
income over $1 million to generate $2 billion
annually.
And this doesn't factor in any decrease in
federal support that helps subsidize the cost of
health insurance bought through the Affordable
Care Act's exchanges. Massachusetts has already
committed to keeping its health-insurance system
-- known previously as RommeyCare -- fully
funded.
So while spend-happy lawmakers might call the
MTF's report pessimistic, we'd call it
realistic. It states the obvious; the only thing
you can predict with certainty is the potential
volatility of the state's finances through the
remainder of the fiscal year.
That calls for a steady, fiscally responsible
hand at the helm, which is what our Republican
governor provides. |
| |
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