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and the
Citizens Economic Research Foundation
Post Office Box 1147 ●
Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945 ●
(781) 990-1251
“Every Tax is a Pay Cut ... A Tax Cut is a Pay Raise”
44 years as “The Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers”
— and
their Institutional Memory — |
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CLT UPDATE
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Watch
closely ― very closely
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On the heels of a tax windfall in fiscal
2018 that left Massachusetts with a surplus [more than $2
billion above FY2017; $1.1 billion more than
"expectations"], fiscal year 2019 got off to a solid start
for state tax collections in July.
The Department of Revenue said tax
collections of $1.899 billion last month were up $102
million or 5.7 percent over July 2017 and came in $7 million
above the monthly benchmark.
State House News Service
Monday, August 6, 2018
July tax collections up 5.7 percent over last year
When the state's highest court on June 18
knocked off the 2018 ballot a proposed surtax on the wealthy
they also torpedoed a core element of the campaign platforms
of the two Democrats running for governor this year, Jay
Gonzalez and Robert Massie.
Now the candidates are floating alternative
ways to raise revenue. Gonzalez, who does not plan to
propose a specific tax plan until after he's elected, has
mentioned a graduated income tax under which people in
different income brackets pay different rates, or just
raising the 5.1 percent income tax, or wiping out
unspecified existing business tax breaks.
Massie told the News Service he favors
higher registration fees on heavy vehicles, property
transfer taxes, freeing up revenue by eliminating government
waste, and revenues he anticipates Massachusetts could
eventually secure by growing its renewable energy base and
then exporting power.
The tax-and-spend plans of the two Democrats
will contrast in the campaign with Gov. Charlie Baker's
claim that he opposes new or higher taxes. While the
governor has agreed to some taxes and assessments, he
opposes raising broad-based taxes such as the income, sales
or corporate taxes, and says he supports a reduction in the
sales tax, although he has not proposed such a reduction.
Baker, unlike his opponents, has also not outlined any
re-election promises.
Gonzalez and Massie eyed the so-called
millionaire's tax, and its projected $2 billion a year in
new revenues, to pay for their education and transportation
spending plans. The infusion of revenues could have also
freed up other state revenues to accommodate other
priorities and campaign spending promises....
Gonzalez . . . knocked Gov. Baker for
supporting reductions in the income tax called for under
existing laws.
State House News Service
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Dem guv candidates eye tax options after income surtax fails
Ten races for open Massachusetts House seats
are on track to be decided in the Sept. 4 primaries, when
voters in a total of 45 House and Senate districts will have
competitive contests on their ballots.
All 160 House and 40 Senate seats are up for
election this year, and most lawmakers -- 23 senators and 87
representatives -- will cruise into another term without a
challenger officially on the ballot. Twenty incumbents have
primary opponents.
Of those, only four -- one senator and three
representatives -- have challenges in both their party's
primaries and in the Nov. 6 general election....
Ten new Democrats will be poised to join the
House after the primary, with no Republicans on the ballot
for those open seats.
State House News Service
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Democrats set to seize ten open House seats
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
Two Billion Dollars more than
Fiscal Year 2017 poured into the state's coffers over
the last fiscal year, which just ended in June, but
still it's not enough. There was a $1.1
Billion surplus from it after additional spending, which was
also quickly
spent.
The past month's revenue take
― July is the first month of the
new (2019) fiscal year ― has jumped by $48
million, or 4.7 percent greater than last July's revenue
take, but still that's not enough.
Now both Democrat candidates for
governor want to raise taxes even more, more, always
more. They still haven't recovered from losing that
$2 Billion they expected and had already made plans to
spend from their "millionaire's tax" graduated income
tax scheme. The state
Supreme Judicial Court threw out that obnoxious
ballot question as unconstitutional, but the long-lusted
for spending plans remain dancing in their dreams.
Because More Is Never Enough (MINE) and
never will be until the Beacon Hill pols take every cent
we have from us.
It there somehow remains any question whatsoever
in any pocket of the commonwealth over whether Massachusetts has a
revenue problem or an insatiable spending addiction, the answer now
is indisputably the latter.
"The infusion of revenues could have
also freed up other state revenues to accommodate other
priorities and campaign spending promises," the State
House News Service reported. That was our argument
back then, that all revenue is fungible, easily moved
from one state spending account to another depending on
legislators' priorities, whims, and fancies. You
may recall the sponsors of the grad tax ballot question,
their "Fair Share" constitutional amendment, at the time
vehemently denied that would happen. They
promised it wouldn't.
But what are we to do when just about
every legislator who wants to be re-elected to the best
job they'll ever have is reseated pro forma in January,
without opposition, serious or otherwise?
What should we expect when the new
legislative session's new-old members are sworn in come
January? Remember, the first order of business the
last time a new legislature was sworn in, after the last
election (2016), the first thing they did was ram
through an $18 Million obscene pay grab for themselves
in record-setting time ―
first exposed and battled every step of the way by
Citizens for Limited Taxation!
Come January, I sure hope somebody is
watching them closely ―
very closely. And prepared to fight back.
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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State House News Service
Monday, August 6, 2018
July tax collections up 5.7 percent over last
year
By Colin A. Young
On the heels of a tax windfall in fiscal 2018
that left Massachusetts with a surplus [more
than $2 billion above FY2017; $1.1 billion more
than "expectations"], fiscal year 2019 got off
to a solid start for state tax collections in
July.
The Department of Revenue said tax collections
of $1.899 billion last month were up $102
million or 5.7 percent over July 2017 and came
in $7 million above the monthly benchmark.
Income tax collections in July were $48 million,
or 4.7 percent greater than last July but $3
million below the monthly benchmark. Sales and
use tax collections came in $26 million ahead of
last July and $1 million below benchmark.
Corporate and business taxes were $13 million
greater than July 2017 and $6 million above this
year's benchmark.
"July revenues were close to benchmark,"
Commissioner Christopher Harding said in a
statement. "As expected, there was solid growth
over July 2017 in withholding and sales tax
revenues. There are no major payments due in
non-withholding income or corporate categories
in July, so a modest dollar increase generated a
large percentage increase against both benchmark
and prior year actual. These should not be
considered predictive of total FY19
performance."
DOR said July is "one of the smaller tax
collection months" of the year and accounts for
6.7 percent of annual state tax revenue.
State House News Service
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Dem guv candidates eye tax options after income
surtax fails
By Michael P. Norton
When the state's highest court on June 18
knocked off the 2018 ballot a proposed surtax on
the wealthy they also torpedoed a core element
of the campaign platforms of the two Democrats
running for governor this year, Jay Gonzalez and
Robert Massie.
Now the candidates are floating alternative ways
to raise revenue. Gonzalez, who does not plan to
propose a specific tax plan until after he's
elected, has mentioned a graduated income tax
under which people in different income brackets
pay different rates, or just raising the 5.1
percent income tax, or wiping out unspecified
existing business tax breaks.
Massie told the News Service he favors higher
registration fees on heavy vehicles, property
transfer taxes, freeing up revenue by
eliminating government waste, and revenues he
anticipates Massachusetts could eventually
secure by growing its renewable energy base and
then exporting power.
The tax-and-spend plans of the two Democrats
will contrast in the campaign with Gov. Charlie
Baker's claim that he opposes new or higher
taxes. While the governor has agreed to some
taxes and assessments, he opposes raising
broad-based taxes such as the income, sales or
corporate taxes, and says he supports a
reduction in the sales tax, although he has not
proposed such a reduction. Baker, unlike his
opponents, has also not outlined any re-election
promises.
Gonzalez and Massie eyed the so-called
millionaire's tax, and its projected $2 billion
a year in new revenues, to pay for their
education and transportation spending plans. The
infusion of revenues could have also freed up
other state revenues to accommodate other
priorities and campaign spending promises.
Gonzalez reacted to the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC)
by saying he would propose "another progressive
way to generate meaningful revenue." Pressed
more recently about specific ways he would raise
revenue, Gonzalez responded by saying he would
propose his new way to generate revenue in his
first budget, but he did not offer specifics. If
elected, he added, he would immediately direct
the state Department of Revenue "to develop
recommendations to accomplish the goal of
generating new revenue from those in this state
who are doing very well and who today pay the
lowest percentage of their income in taxes."
"There will be a very clear choice for voters in
this election: a choice between someone who is
only there for the privileged and the powerful,
and someone who will fight for all the 'little
guys' out there; a choice between someone who is
dragging Massachusetts backwards, and someone
who will make Massachusetts a leader again,"
Gonzalez said in a statement, using some of the
same language he used in his response three
weeks earlier to the SJC ruling.
Gonzalez, who also supports a carbon pricing
reform that some equate to a new tax, did not
respond when asked to confirm there would be no
concrete revenue plan until after he's elected,
but it appears that will be the case.
During an appearance on WGBH last month,
Gonzalez said a graduated income tax, which
would require a constitutional amendment, would
be the "best way" to come up with new revenue.
He also mentioned increasing the income tax and
increasing deductions and exemptions "so that it
doesn't impact lower and middle income people,"
which would be similar to a tax plan put forward
in his second term by Gonzalez's former boss
Gov. Deval Patrick.
Gonzalez also said there are business tax breaks
that the state is "giving away," estimating
there are "billions of dollars that we're
foregoing that we should be looking at." He
knocked Gov. Baker for supporting reductions in
the income tax called for under existing laws.
"You can't have a detailed proposal for how to
do this where you understand what the
consequences are in terms of revenues and
impacts, in terms of which people are impacted,
without the Department of Revenue doing that
analysis," Gonzalez said during his interview
with Boston Public Radio.
Gonzalez has a robust list of spending plans. He
has vowed to give access to high quality,
affordable child care and pre-school by the end
of his first term to every child in the state
under six years old. He supports switching to a
single-payer health care system, citing "many
inefficiencies and unnecessary complexities" in
the existing system. He wants new revenue "to
fix our broken MBTA system," repair roads and
bridges, and invest in regional transit
authorities, and he says the state needs to
"seriously explore high-speed rail to
Springfield, the North-South Rail Link and the
Blue Line extension to Lynn."
In addition to expanding arts funding, Massie
backs plans to electrify the transit system,
provide free public higher education, ensure
high quality care for infants and toddlers from
birth to age three and provide free pre-school
to all kids beginning at age 3, expand the
MassHealth insurance program, and move
aggressively toward a single payer health care
system.
Massie, in addition to bashing "pro-business
judges" appointed to the SJC by Baker, said it
was now up to House Speaker Robert DeLeo and the
rest of the Legislature to draft and pass a
"progressive income tax amendment" for potential
consideration by voters statewide in 2022.
While Gonzalez will use a trust-me approach to
new taxes during the campaign, Massie is
offering voters a glimpse of proposals he'll
pursue, if elected.
Massie responded to a News Service inquiry about
alternative revenue-raising plans with a
1,448-word essay that included some concrete
revenue proposals.
In addition to restarting a four-year process to
potentially bring a redrafted surtax on wealthy
households to the 2022 ballot, Massie would also
adjust transportation fees "so that different
vehicles pay their fair share."
Massie says registration fees for higher gross
weight vehicles should be raised since heavy
weight trucks and bus owners "are essentially
putting huge train-like vehicles on asphalt and
they do huge damage to roads that require
expensive repairs." Massie said, "Adjusting
these fees would go a long way to closing the
overall transportation funding gap. At the same
time, we should lower registration fees for
people who buy fuel-efficient and electric cars
that both save money and our planet."
Property transfer taxes should be explored,
"which would impose a small cost when properties
owned by developers and owned by investors (not
home owners!) change hands," Massie said. He
referenced a proposal offered in his hometown of
Somerville.
Saying taxpayer dollars are "going into a
collection bucket with holes in it," Massie said
eliminating waste would free up money to be
spent on government services. He cited
fraudulent State Police overtime payments and a
"sham" Baker administration report outlining
anticipated costs of an underground rail link
between North Station and South Station in
Boston. The report, Massie alleged, "was
designed to prove that this important step would
cost too much."
Massie also supports a movement toward more
renewable energy that he says, at full buildout,
would allow Massachusetts to export electricity,
"thus generating as much as $6 billion a year in
new tax revenue." He said, "We need to rein in
our 'public' utilities who are costing us
billions of dollars by preserving a broken
business model that benefits their shareholders,
but not us."
Gonzalez and Massie face each other in the Sept.
4 Democratic primary, with the winner facing the
winner of the GOP primary between Baker and
Scott Lively.
Lively supports a "complete and permanent
elimination of property tax on homes" offset by
a "graduated income property tax favoring
reinvestment of earnings." According to his
campaign, his other fiscal policy priorities
include local control of tax collection, local
control of spending on most government services
and a "dramatic reduction" in state
bureaucracies. Lively also supports a 10 percent
budget reduction in every state agency, and an
annual sales tax refund that his campaign says
will return 50 percent of "downsizing savings"
to taxpayers with the remainder used to pay down
state debt.
State House News Service
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Democrats set to seize ten open House seats
By Katie Lannan
Ten races for open Massachusetts House seats are
on track to be decided in the Sept. 4 primaries,
when voters in a total of 45 House and Senate
districts will have competitive contests on
their ballots.
All 160 House and 40 Senate seats are up for
election this year, and most lawmakers -- 23
senators and 87 representatives -- will cruise
into another term without a challenger
officially on the ballot. Twenty incumbents have
primary opponents.
Of those, only four -- one senator and three
representatives -- have challenges in both their
party's primaries and in the Nov. 6 general
election.
Democrats Sen. Jason Lewis of Winchester, Rep.
James Hawkins of Attleboro and Rep. Colleen
Garry of Dracut, and Sandwich Republican Rep.
Randy Hunt each have opponents from both parties
looking to unseat them.
Hunt is the only Republican in either branch of
the Legislature with a primary challenger,
current Barnstable County Commissioner Ron Beaty.
Ten new Democrats will be poised to join the
House after the primary, with no Republicans on
the ballot for those open seats.
Contests for three now-vacant seats will be
decided on Sept. 4 -- those last held by Sens.
Nick Collins of South Boston and Brendan
Crighton of Lynn and the late Rep. Peter Kocot
of Northampton -- and voters will pick
successors for outgoing Reps. Stephen Kulik of
Worthington, Solomon Goldstein-Rose of Amherst,
Cory Atkins of Concord, Jay Kaufman of
Lexington, Frank Smizik of Brookline, Juana
Matias of Lawrence and Evandro Carvalho of
Boston.
Matias is one of 10 Democrats running for
Congress in the Third District, and Carvalho is
one of five running for Suffolk District
Attorney.
Two seats opened up after this year's filing
deadline, so the official ballots in those
districts don't reflect the way races ultimately
shaped up.
After the May 2 death of Rep. Chris Walsh of
Framingham, the Framingham Democratic Committee
opted against caucusing to nominate a candidate
for his seat, leaving no names on the ballot and
creating an opportunity for write-in campaigns.
In the Amherst-based Senate district last
represented by former Sen. Stanley Rosenberg,
several Democrats have launched write-in
efforts. The only candidate whose name will
appear on the ballot is Chelsea Kline of
Northampton, who entered the race before
Rosenberg resigned in May.
In four House districts with open seats, voters
on both sides of the aisle will have competitive
primaries. Those races are for the seats last
held by the late Rep. James Miceli of Wilmington
and former Rep. James Cantwell of Marshfield,
and the seats Reps. Geoff Diehl of Whitman and
Kevin Kuros of Uxbridge are giving up to run for
different posts.
Diehl is one of three Republicans vying to
unseat U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Kuros will face off against Rep. Kate Campanale
of Leicester in the Republican primary for
Worcester County register of deeds.
In addition to the four incumbent lawmakers with
both primary and general opponents, another 16
face just primary challenges.
The two senators in that group both hail from
the western part of the state -- Sen. Adam
Hinds, a first-term Democrat from Pittsfield,
and Sen. James Welch, a West Springfield
Democrat who co-chaired the conference committee
that failed to reach a deal on health care
legislation by the July 31 end of session.
On the House side, the list includes Assistant
Majority Leader Byron Rushing of Boston and four
of Speaker Robert DeLeo's committee chairs:
House Ways and Means Chair Jeffrey Sanchez of
Jamaica Plain; Public Health Committee Chair
Kate Hogan of Stow; Public Service Committee
Chair Jerald Parisella of Beverly, and Mental
Health, Substance Use and Recovery Committee
Chair Denise Garlick of Needham.
Other incumbent House Democrats in primary
fights are: Reps. Robert Koczera of New Bedford,
Jose Tosado of Springfield, Rady Mom of Lowell,
Sean Garballey of Arlington, Marjorie Decker of
Cambridge, Joseph McGonagle of Everett, Liz
Malia of Jamaica Plain, Dan Cullinane of
Dorchester and Angelo Scaccia of Readville.
Wednesday, Aug. 15 is the last day eligible
voters can register with their local elections
officials to be able to cast a ballot in the
primary. |
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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
▪ (781) 990-1251
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