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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
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Lifetime
legislators' perpetual sessions, year-round pay, is rare
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CLT is cheering two last-minute wins
on Beacon Hill — the defeat of bills that would have allowed
congestion tolling on certain state highways and an
additional tax surcharge on property owners living in
so-called “Community Benefits Districts.”
In a memo to members, CLT executive director
Chip Ford, noted, however, that the much-celebrated
economic development bill could cost taxpayers much more
than first anticipated.
The House version called for $666 million in
new spending, while the Senate’s was for a more modest $601
million.
The “compromise” worked out between the two
chambers when all was said and done? A healthy $1.15
billion. Classic “Bacon Hill,” Ford noted.
The Salem News
Friday, August 10, 2018
Weekly Column
By Nelson Benton, Editor Emeritus
Massachusetts is one of only a handful of
states in which the Legislature effectively never adjourns.
That handful just happens to include some of the
worst-governed, highest-taxed, biggest-spending, and/or most
heavily-regulated states in the nation — among them,
California, New Jersey, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. The
Legislature’s year-round sessions also come with extravagant
salaries. Massachusetts lawmakers are paid more than their
counterparts in 44 states — their base salary is $62,548,
but they also receive tens of thousands of additional
dollars in the form of expense allotments and “leadership”
bonuses. For a bunch of characters who don’t actually
construct, produce, improve, grow, or manage anything, it’s
an awfully sweet deal.
Lawmakers waited until the last minute to
pass legislation and let bills that appeared to have wide
support die right at the finish line.
In most of America, this would never be
tolerated. Legislators in normal states convene for just a
few weeks or months each year, hammer out a budget, pass
whatever legislation is needful, and go home. In some truly
enlightened states, the legislature is in session for only a
few weeks every other year. I remember a note I received in
November 1995 from the late Barbara Anderson, who for
years was the Bay State’s most tenacious taxpayer advocate.
She wrote from Nevada, marveling at something she had seen
during a visit to the state Capitol in Carson City. In the
empty House chamber, a notice was posted at the Speaker’s
rostrum: “Next session, January 1997.”
Yet Massachusetts persists in the delusion
that legislating is a full-time job, requiring
“professional” lawmakers with staffs, offices, and full-time
salaries. That superstition is continually being
contradicted by the Legislature’s subpar performance.
Last month, for example, the Senate and
House approved a $42 billion budget for fiscal year 2019.
The most expensive spending plan in the state’s history was
rubber-stamped by lawmakers less than seven hours after it
was released from committee, which says a lot about the
(lack of) diligence with which the Bay State’s well-paid
professional legislators perform their job. It says even
more that the budget was almost three weeks overdue — fiscal
year 2018 ended on June 30. Every other state had its 2019
budget finalized before Massachusetts did; many finished the
job months ago.
The Boston Globe
Sunday, August 12, 2018
Short live the Legislature!
By Jeff Jacoby
"The Kentucky legislature [General Assembly]
convenes in regular session on the first Tuesday after the
first Monday in January for 60 days in even-numbered years
and for 30 days in odd-numbered years. It convenes in
special sessions at the call of the governor. The Kentucky
Constitution mandates that a regular session be completed no
later than April 15 in even-numbered years and March 30 in
odd-numbered years."
Kentucky
Legislature
When the [Kentucky] General Assembly is not
in session, some state legislators do much of their work at
out-of-state conventions and meetings.
Because taxpayers pay for the salary and
expenses for most of those trips, the Courier Journal
decided to take a closer look at who was traveling the most
and how much they were being paid....
State law requires legislators to get
written approval from the House speaker (for
representatives) or Senate president (for senators) for any
work-related trip – whether or not the legislator asks for
salary and expenses to be paid by the state.
During the roughly eight months each year
when the General Assembly is not in session, lawmakers are
paid for attending interim legislative committee meetings in
Frankfort. Pay is $188.22 per day. (The House speaker and
Senate president get more: $235.57 a day.)
Beyond that, they can ask the speaker or
president for pay and expenses for days they attend meetings
or conferences – in or out of state.
“It’s a delicate balance. I think there’s
great value in these conferences. They are really good for
exchanging ideas and finding out what’s going on in other
states,” said House Speaker Pro Tem David Osborne,
R-Prospect. “... But I also think there’s a time where it
can be overdone. … You can only hear the same presentation
so many times in different forums before it kind of becomes
white noise.”
The [Louisville, Kentucky] Courier Journal
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Which Kentucky lawmakers are traveling the most on your
dime?
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
I spent much of last week closing on my
new home in Kentucky and getting it more ready to occupy
in the near future. Before leaving, I worked for
some time with Jeff Jacoby, providing him with what
information I could on our fulltime, year-round
legislature that is now home while "in recess" until the
next Legislature is sworn in come January.
Remember what "recess" meant when we were elementary
school kids? It still means pretty much the same
for legislators, except they alone are very well paid
for months of skipping school.
I couldn't help but reflect on my native
birth state and contrast it to my new adopted state,
recognize how very much different they are. This is
one of the primary reasons for why I decided to escape
the insanity known as Massachusetts. Living here
most if not all of our lives, most of us have little if
any
perspective of what life is like elsewhere. We
know there's something very wrong with politics and
government here ― we just
don't truly recognize or appreciate just how bad
it is. Or how "normal" and accepted the political
perversion here has become.
I want to thank all those who've
responded to CLT's final appeal for funds. Their
generous response was heartening and will carry the
organization for a bit longer, but overall it bolsters
our decision to shut down. Still too many who
received it again ignored our request. Still there is
not sufficient support to make going on into another
year workable. Even making it to November as hoped
remains questionable.
The notes of appreciation that some
included with their contributions were especially
gratifying ― it's nice to
know that some appreciate all that CLT has done for
taxpayers over the decades, and that CLT will be missed.
It will take the millions of other taxpayers, who've benefitted
from but never supported CLT, longer to appreciate and
miss CLT ― but they too
eventually will.
Some staunch members have suggested and
encouraged a Citizens for Limited Taxation "operating in
exile" from beyond the state's border. It's been
pointed out by a number of them that what CLT does from
here can be done from anywhere in today's
high-tech, interconnected world.
I truly feel badly leaving so many loyal
members behind and suddenly vulnerable, as if I'm
deserting, abandoning a sinking ship. But it's not
desertion; it's being forced out by financial pressure
and the lack of support. If adopted, the suggestions
could maintain and perpetuate CLT's decades-long
institutional memory, advocacy, and influence.
Even from afar CLT can keep its members just as informed
and its activists just as trigger-ready to respond, as
recently demonstrated with our stunning defeat of the
"Community Benefit Districts" scam.
It's something I may consider,
once I've accomplished my exodus, substantially reduced
my cost of living, and am settled in behind my desk in
my relocated new home office. When I'm back on
what someone once called my office, "the CLT flight deck
of the Starship Enterprise," orbiting over Kentucky,
I'll perhaps give it some further thought.
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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The Boston Globe
Sunday, August 12, 2018
Short live the Legislature!
By Jeff Jacoby
When Roger Wolcott, the 39th governor of
Massachusetts, delivered his inaugural address
in 1897, he urged state legislators to stop
spending so much time on Beacon Hill, trying to
justify longer and longer sessions by
introducing more and more bills.
“The volume of legislation is a poor criterion
of its necessity and wisdom,” he told the
senators and representatives assembled before
him. “It is difficult to believe that five
months of legislative session and 700 printed
pages of acts and resolves are annually
necessary. A shorter session and [fewer bills]
would not be unwelcome to our people.”
The governor’s words had no effect. The
Massachusetts Legislature stayed in session that
year for 158 days; lawmakers, who had convened
on January 6, didn’t adjourn until June 12. In
1900, Wolcott’s last year in office, the
Legislature hung around until July 17. The new
century brought more session creep. By the
1950s, it was routine for the Senate and House
to stay in session until September or October.
Eventually Massachusetts ended up with the
General Court it has today — the one that, like
a horror-movie mummy, refuses to die. The
Legislature is in formal session for 18 months
out of every 24, but remains in “informal”
session even after it has supposedly called it
quits.
You thought a five-month Legislature was an
“unwelcome” nuisance in 1897, Governor Wolcott?
You should see what Massachusetts is cursed with
now.
Massachusetts is one of only a handful of states
in which the Legislature effectively never
adjourns. That handful just happens to include
some of the worst-governed, highest-taxed,
biggest-spending, and/or most heavily-regulated
states in the nation — among them, California,
New Jersey, Illinois, and Pennsylvania. The
Legislature’s year-round sessions also come with
extravagant salaries. Massachusetts lawmakers
are paid more than their counterparts in 44
states — their base salary is $62,548, but they
also receive tens of thousands of additional
dollars in the form of expense allotments and
“leadership” bonuses. For a bunch of characters
who don’t actually construct, produce, improve,
grow, or manage anything, it’s an awfully sweet
deal.
Lawmakers waited until the last minute to pass
legislation and let bills that appeared to have
wide support die right at the finish line.
In most of America, this would never be
tolerated. Legislators in normal states convene
for just a few weeks or months each year, hammer
out a budget, pass whatever legislation is
needful, and go home. In some truly enlightened
states, the legislature is in session for only a
few weeks every other year. I remember a note I
received in November 1995 from the late
Barbara Anderson, who for years was the Bay
State’s most tenacious taxpayer advocate. She
wrote from Nevada, marveling at something she
had seen during a visit to the state Capitol in
Carson City. In the empty House chamber, a
notice was posted at the Speaker’s rostrum:
“Next session, January 1997.”
Yet Massachusetts persists in the delusion that
legislating is a full-time job, requiring
“professional” lawmakers with staffs, offices,
and full-time salaries. That superstition is
continually being contradicted by the
Legislature’s subpar performance.
Last month, for example, the Senate and House
approved a $42 billion budget for fiscal year
2019. The most expensive spending plan in the
state’s history was rubber-stamped by lawmakers
less than seven hours after it was released from
committee, which says a lot about the (lack of)
diligence with which the Bay State’s well-paid
professional legislators perform their job. It
says even more that the budget was almost three
weeks overdue — fiscal year 2018 ended on June
30. Every other state had its 2019 budget
finalized before Massachusetts did; many
finished the job months ago.
In the real world, people who blow off crucial
deadlines pay a price. (If you doubt it, try
sending in your taxes or making your mortgage
payment three weeks late.) But in the
Massachusetts General Court, the legislative
show that never closes, what’s another missed
deadline? Senators and representatives don’t
have to worry about their pay being docked if
they do a lousy job. Most of them don’t even
have to worry about being challenged for
reelection.
There are better options.
New Hampshire has always rejected the idea that
legislating must be left to professionals. It
pays its lawmakers just $100 per year — that’s
not a typo — and its 400-member House of
Representatives — that’s not a typo either —
encourages participation in government by a
remarkably diverse array of citizens, few of
whom regard politics as a career. Unlike
Massachusetts, where many legislative candidates
are attracted by the prospect of status,
influence, money, and a steppingstone to higher
office, New Hampshire’s statehouse tends to
attracts true citizen-lawmakers — independent,
civic-minded volunteers who choose to serve with
no ulterior motive but good governance.
New Hampshire is a tiny state, but Massachusetts
can learn from big states, too.
“Texas’s part-time legislature . . . has been a
key factor in its economic success,” concluded
reporter Jon Cassidy in a 2016 essay for the
Manhattan Institute’s City Journal. Research
shows that states without year-round
legislatures are more resistant to government
spending, and the Texas experience bears that
out. With a political culture notorious for
cronyism, Texas has never been a model of
saintliness. Yet the government’s ability to do
damage is checked by a system that deliberately
keeps lawmakers from having too much power in
the first place, and thereby leaves more room
for civil society to flourish. The Texas
constitution limits legislators’ pay to just
$7,200 a year (plus expenses) and limits their
sessions to just 140 days per biennium. Can a
state succeed with so trammeled a legislature?
If the booming Texas economy and the steady
surge of newcomers are any indication, the
answer is an unqualified yes.
Massachusetts has many blessings, but its
full-time Senate and House of Representatives
are decidedly not among them. A year-round
Legislature filled with underperforming
careerists has done Massachusetts no good.
Beacon Hill would be far healthier if it took
less inspiration from New Jersey and more from
New Hampshire. It might even get its budget done
on time.
The [Louisville, Kentucky]
Courier Journal
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Which Kentucky lawmakers are traveling the most
on your dime?
By Tom Loftus
FRANKFORT, Ky. – When the General Assembly is
not in session, some state legislators do much
of their work at out-of-state conventions and
meetings.
Because taxpayers pay for the salary and
expenses for most of those trips, the Courier
Journal decided to take a closer look at who was
traveling the most and how much they were being
paid.
The Courier Journal examined compensation and
travel records for a roughly one-year period
stretching from late November 2016 through Nov.
30, 2017. It found that, in that period, state
legislators attended 255 out-of-state meetings
or conventions that were related to their jobs,
costing Kentucky taxpayers $349,731 in salary
and travel expenses.
And the Courier Journal found that Sen. Mike
Wilson, a Bowling Green Republican, and Rep.
Joni Jenkins, a Shively Democrat, were the most
frequent travelers.
Wilson attended 11 out-of-state gatherings in
locations such as Toronto, Canada, and St. Pete
Beach, Florida, between late 2016 and late 2017
claiming 34 legislative pay days during the
trips totaling $6,399 in salary.
Jenkins traveled to New York and Boston and
other locales during the 11 meetings or
conventions she attended outside the state over
the same period, earning $5,646 for 30 work
days.
A large share of the trips taken by lawmakers
were to annual conventions of three large
organizations of state legislators last summer:
45 Kentucky lawmakers attended the convention of
the National Conference of State Legislators in
Boston; 41 went to the Southern Legislative
Conference’s gathering in Biloxi, Mississippi;
and 14 attended the convention of the
conservative American Legislative Exchange
Council in Denver.
About 80 of the trips cost taxpayers nothing in
expenses because they were paid for by the
organization sponsoring the meeting.
Most of the lawmakers who took many trips have
some sort of special role, either in the General
Assembly, or with an organization sponsoring the
trips.
More: Bevin meets with China's ambassador, says
trade tensions will ease over time
Wilson was chairman of the Senate Education
Committee during the period examined, and at
least five of Wilson’s out-of-state trips were
to attend education meetings — including three
meetings of the Southern Regional Education
Board.
But Wilson also was just one of three lawmakers
(all senators) who attended all three of the
large general legislator conventions last summer
(National Conference of State Legislators,
Southern Legislative Conference, and American
Legislative Exchange Council).
"I serve on the Southern Legislative
Conference's education committee and was asked
to speak on education policy at another of these
meetings," Wilson said. "All of these
organizations are very valuable — talking to
other state legislators to find out what
policies are working in other states."
Jenkins is the Kentucky co-chair of the National
Conference of State Legislators' health and
human services committee. As such, she said she
had an important role to play at five of the
group's meetings during the period. She also is
on the steering committee of a national health
care reform group called Reforming States Group,
and attended two or that organizations meetings.
“I always bring back information from these
meetings that we use. I think it’s great to
network with other states — legislators across
the country — and find out innovative things
that they do,” Jenkins said.
She also stressed that for all but one of her
trips, the sponsoring organization paid her
expenses — what is known as a “scholarship.”
Likewise, Wilson had his expenses covered by the
sponsoring organization for many of his trips.
“So it doesn’t cost the state that much,”
Jenkins said. “... I’m flattered that these
organizations think I have something to add to
be there at the table. But when they’re paying
your way, you’re working eight, to 10, to 12
hours a day. It’s not a vacation at all.”
But Richard Beliles, chairman of Common Cause of
Kentucky, said, “You can learn something at a
convention, but I don’t see where more than one
a year is necessary. Some appear to absolutely
be taking too many trips.”
State law requires legislators to get written
approval from the House speaker (for
representatives) or Senate president (for
senators) for any work-related trip — whether or
not the legislator asks for salary and expenses
to be paid by the state.
During the roughly eight months each year when
the General Assembly is not in session,
lawmakers are paid for attending interim
legislative committee meetings in Frankfort. Pay
is $188.22 per day. (The House speaker and
Senate president get more: $235.57 a day.)
Beyond that, they can ask the speaker or
president for pay and expenses for days they
attend meetings or conferences – in or out of
state.
“It’s a delicate balance. I think there’s great
value in these conferences. They are really good
for exchanging ideas and finding out what’s
going on in other states,” said House Speaker
Pro Tem David Osborne, R-Prospect. “... But I
also think there’s a time where it can be
overdone. … You can only hear the same
presentation so many times in different forums
before it kind of becomes white noise.”
Osborne became the House’s presiding officer
last November. He noted — for the period
examined by the Courier Journal in this article
— that former House Speaker Greg Stumbo,
D-Prestonsburg, approved trips of late 2016, and
former Speaker Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown,
approved trips of 2017.
Osborne said the House reduced travel costs last
year and, for the most part, limited members to
attending one out-of-state convention. But he
said other trips are often approved for members
who hold leadership roles in national
organizations or lead key legislative
committees.
He also said he normally approves trips if the
sponsoring organization is paying expenses —
airfare, hotel and meals.
In response to a request for an interview,
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester,
released a statement that said state law and
legislative policies assure “all public funds
are expended appropriately.”
Stivers said, “Travel to legislative conferences
allows senators to attend in-depth policy
briefings and speak directly with legislators
from other states. This allows senators to bring
new and dynamic policies back to the
Commonwealth.”
Rep. Steve Riggs, D-Louisville, had nine
approved out-of-state trips over the period
examined. He said that was because he served
last year as president of the National Council
of Insurance Legislators.
“It’s all related to being president" of the
council, Riggs said. “It’s an organization that
makes model laws for all states. And it’s very
important for Kentucky to be a leader in an
organization like this. If Kentucky taxpayers
are not sending people with expertise to these
meetings, we’ll suffer from poor
decision-making.”
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mayor, show us your Derby guest list!
The lawmaker who claimed the most in expenses
reimbursement for the period was Sen. Gerald
Neal, D-Louisville. Neal received no
scholarships for the six out-of-state meetings
and conventions he attended and his state-paid
expenses totaled $8,898.
Neal serves on the national board of the
National Black Caucus of State Legislators, and
four of his trips were to attend meetings of
that board.
“I wouldn’t take the trip unless I thought it
was important for me to go," he said.
"Participating in the National Black Caucus of
State Legislators gives me a national
perspective and involvement."
Beliles said he is just as concerned about trips
where an ideological organization offers a
scholarship to pay all expenses for a lawmaker
to attend its meetings where no taxpayer dollars
are spent.
He cited a recent Courier Journal story about
Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer,
R-Georgetown, attending at least five meetings
over a 13-month period sponsored by various
funds of GOPAC – a national Republican
organization whose focus is to elect
conservative Republicans to state legislatures.
The newspaper reported that GOPAC is
significantly funded by the tobacco industry,
payday lenders and casino interests.
The Legislative Ethics Commission has
recommended legislation requiring lawmakers to
list each trip they take out of state the prior
year in their annual personal financial
disclosure reports. Commission Chairman Anthony
Wilhoit said the requirement would allow the
public to easily find such information on the
commission’s website. |
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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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