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Post Office Box 1147 ●
Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945 ●
(781) 639-9709
“Every Tax is a Pay Cut ... A Tax Cut is a Pay Raise”
45 years as “The Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers”
— and
their Institutional Memory — |
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CLT UPDATE
Saturday, January 19, 2019
Kleptocracy thrives in The People's Republic
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Gov. Charlie Baker is proposing an increase
in the state excise tax on real estate transfers to help
Massachusetts communities better prepare for the effects of
climate change....
Baker, who has opposed new taxes, didn’t say
if he’s changed his mind about whether he may support other
tax increases — arguing that his proposal is narrowly
focused.
Associated Press
Saturday, January 19, 2019
Charlie Baker: Tax hike will help towns address climate
change
Gov. Charlie Baker plans to proposed an
estimated $137 million annual increase in the excise tax
paid on real estate transfers, a proposal he said Friday
morning will generate $1 billion over the next decade to
protect properties and help cities and towns cope with
climate change impacts.
Baker said the fiscal year 2020 budget he
will file next week will include a proposal to dedicate $75
million next year towards "climate-smart infrastructure" and
"other initiatives to help build resilient communities." ...
Under Baker's plan, the excise rate will
increase from $2 per $500 of assessed value to $3 per $500
of value. The governor said the increase represents "a
point-two percent increase." Upon the transfer of property,
the seller is required to pay the excise tax.
The Republican governor has generally
opposed new taxes and fees, but just this week he has
proposed taxing daily fantasy sports, legalizing and taxing
sports wagering, and now increasing the tax on real estate
transactions. He's also signed into law new assessments on
the health care industry and taxes on short-term rentals
that operate like hotels.
Baker has previously defended his tax and
fee increases by saying he can get behind a tax hike if it
funds a new program.
"There is no program in Massachusetts that's
going to put a billion dollars on the table to put the kind
of resiliency programming in place that we're going to need
to deal with the intensity and frequency of storms," the
governor said Friday when asked how the climate adaptation
and resilience plan represents a new program given that he
said his administration has already spent $600 million on
similar programs.
The governor did not directly answer when
asked if he is now open to additional increases in taxes or
fees.
"This is an excise tax that's basically
about property and the proposal we're making here is to
protect property," he said. "We think, in the long run, the
cost/benefit on this one is a good deal for Massachusetts
residents."
State House News Service
Friday, January 18, 2018
Baker seeks transfer tax hike to protect properties
Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican who
once campaigned against raising taxes, unveiled a proposal
Friday to hike the tax on Massachusetts real estate
transfers by 50 percent, and funnel the more than $1 billion
it could generate in the next decade into steeling cities
and towns against the effects of climate change.
The plan, which Baker intends to include
in his state budget proposal on Wednesday, marks one of
his most high-profile bids to address climate resiliency
as he begins his second term.
But it’s also expected to face heavy
resistance within real estate circles, where trade
groups warn a tax hike could exacerbate the region’s
already steep housing costs.
Baker’s proposed tax increase would add
nearly $1,200 in taxes to the sale of a $500,000 home,
with those costs paid by the seller.
Baker said the increase to the so-called
deeds excise rate could generate anywhere from $130
million to $150 million annually toward a Global Warming
Solutions Trust Fund, which cities and towns could then
tap through grants, loans, and other avenues for local
projects.
The Boston Globe
Saturday, January 19, 2019
Governor Baker seeks big real estate
sales tax hike to fund climate programs
Fresh off his re-election defeat in
November, conservative Andover Republican Jim Lyons will be
the next chair of the Massachusetts Republican Party,
succeeding Quincy City Councilor Kirsten Hughes who is
giving up the post after six years at the helm.
Lyons bested MassGOP Treasurer Brent
Andersen, who had been considered a early favorite to win
the position and at one point claimed to have a majority of
votes on the 80-member State Committee locked down.
Lyons defeated Andersen 47-30, according to
sources and social media posts from committee members and
others at the Sheraton Framingham hotel, where party leaders
gathered Thursday to elect the new chair....
n his victory speech, Lyons blasted the
"top-down" Democratic leadership on Beacon Hill.
"DeLeo and the top power-brokers control
every aspect of it, and who does that hurt? It hurts us,"
Lyons said. "And it's time that we let the Democrats know
what we stand for matters and my job and my goal as your
party chair is to take them on, not just on Beacon Hill but
all across this great state and let me tell you, no one will
have more fun doing it."
And despite being one of the most
conservative members of the House, Lyons called for unity
among Republicans and a dialing back of the animosity some
in the right wing of the party have expressed toward the
moderate Gov. Charlie Baker....
Meanwhile, Democratic Party Chairman Gus
Bickford called on Baker to "publicly and swiftly denounce
Lyons' vision for an intolerant, discriminatory party."
"By electing Jim Lyons as Chairman, the
Massachusetts Republican Party has shown itself, once again,
to be profoundly out of step with the people of
Massachusetts," Bickford said. "Lyons, who served as
Massachusetts state chairman for Ted Cruz's presidential
campaign in 2016, spent his career on Beacon Hill railing
against fundamental rights and protections for women,
workers, and the LGBTQ community."
Bickford also highlighted Lyons's votes
against funding for Planned Parenthood and his "97% rating"
from the National Rifle Association.
"Lyons' election pushes the state Republican
Party further towards the policies and rhetoric of Donald
Trump, and away from the best interests of people in the
Commonwealth," Bickford said.
Paul Craney, a friend of Lyons's and a
member of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said that while
at the State House Lyons was Baker's "best ally" and "the
Democrats worst nightmare."
"There's no one better to lead the
Massachusetts Republican Party than Chairman Lyons and his
very large vote total demonstrates his broad support on the
committee," Craney said.
State House News Service
Thursday, January 17, 2019
MassGOP elects former Rep. Lyons as party chair
Conservative firebrand Jim Lyons will take
the reins of the state Republican Party, a changing of the
guard from the moderate establishment led by Gov. Charlie
Baker that had controlled the organization.
Lyons, a four-term Andover Republican state
representative who lost his bid for re-election last year,
beat party treasurer Brent Andersen, 47-30, in a vote by the
party’s state committee Thursday night, according to the
party.
The colorful Lyons is known for having
derailed a transgender-focused bill that would have added a
third gender to Massachusetts driver’s licenses — by
insisting that 73 “genders” be recognized instead of just
the “X” the sponsors were seeking. He also forced the state
to admit that it annually doled out $1.8 billion in welfare
payments to illegal immigrants. He was well known around the
State House for hosting a nativity scene, which drew
protests from atheist groups.
The Boston Herald
Friday, January 18, 2019
Conservative ex-state Rep. Jim Lyons wins Mass GOP chair
The election of Jim Lyons as the chair of
the MassGOP over the establishment choice Brent Andersen was
painted by one pundit as a message to Gov. Charlie Baker.
“There is a lot of resentment about the way
the last election was handled,” political consultant Chip
Jones told the Herald. “I think the vote was much more
visceral than logical, and I think Jim’s likability made a
visceral vote really easy to make.”
Jones said many in the Republican Party are
holding on to ill feelings over a perceived lack of ardor on
the campaign trail from the governor in support of certain
candidates.
“Some people would say that he’s the most
popular governor in the country who is not popular in his
own party, and if I were him that would hurt me,” Jones
said. “It pains me to say it. I like Charlie.” ...
“He’s far more conservative than the
mainstream Republicans in Massachusetts like Charlie Baker,”
GOP consultant Ryan Williams said. “Hopefully he’ll
understand that as state party chair, he needs to do
everything possible to help the party win and that includes
recruiting candidates that have a shot at winning in a
liberal state like Massachusetts.”
The Boston Herald
Saturday, January 19, 2018
Republicans hopeful about Jim Lyons leading state party
Tens of thousands of state pensions of up to
$350,000 a year are straining the retirement system, forcing
the Legislature to ask taxpayers for more cash to keep the
system afloat.
A staggering 1,000-plus retirees earned
$100,000 or more in pension pay last year — with former
troopers, judges, provosts and school superintendents
leading the way — with the total pension-fund liability at a
budget-busting $5.21 billion.
It’s a trend one watchdog said is heading
into the danger zone.
“These pensions are putting an enormous
burden on the state budget,” said Greg Sullivan, a former
state inspector general now with the Pioneer Institute.
“It’s taking away money we need for roads, bridges and to
fix the MBTA.”
Sullivan said the cost of footing the bill
for these golden years has “skyrocketed” — forcing the state
Legislature to pump $2.4 billion into that budget in 2018.
He warned that the tab for this liability will climb to $11
billion by 2033.
“This is such a serious problem,” Sullivan
added, “it’s become almost unrealistic.”
The Boston Herald
Sunday, January 13, 2019
Massachusetts pension tension: Some payouts hit $350,000
More than 1,000 retirees get over $100G annually
The Massachusetts state payroll climbed to
$7.2 billion in 2018, an increase of 2.5 percent over the
previous year, according to new data from the state
comptroller’s office.
The number of state workers earning six
figures also grew by about 14 percent from 2017, according
to the data. Last year, more than 13,500 people took home
$100,000 or more, up from 11,900 the previous year.
Twenty-four workers made upwards of $100,000
in overtime pay alone.
Overall, overtime spending ballooned to $290
million, an increase of about 6 percent from 2017....
The state’s payroll, which represents about
17 percent of Massachusetts’ overall $42 billion budget, has
risen virtually every year for nearly two decades....
In 2019, Baker is giving an array of top
deputies, from members of his Cabinet to dozens of
department heads, a 5.5 percent pay raise, a first for many
since Baker took office.
Baker and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito
also plan to collect pay hikes they’d previously turned
down. Baker’s pay will jump from $151,800 in 2018 to
$250,000 this year. Polito’s will climb from $122,058 to
$165,000.
Also this year, legislative leaders will
collect three pay increases thanks in part to controversial
legislation they passed nearly two years ago tying parts of
their paychecks to the state’s wage levels.
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Mass. state payroll climbs to $7.2 billion in 2018
Thousands of retiring state workers boosted
their pay last year by cashing in unused sick and vacation
days with more than a dozen receiving “gargantuan goodbye
kisses,” as one exasperated fiscal warrior said.
The top buyout went to a former University
of Massachusetts Boston provost who earned $317,000 last
year after receiving $185,700 for days off never used. Three
others also ended the year pulling down $300,000-plus with
the help of buyouts, a Herald analysis of state payroll
records shows.
They weren’t alone. More than 10,000 exiting
Bay State public employees put the buyout perk to work for
them. Under state law, buying back time is considered a
buyout.
“Most private employers have a certain
number of (vacation and sick) days, but you can’t carry them
over and you can’t cash them out when you leave,” said Jon
Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of
Massachusetts.
“It’s a phenomenon of public employers —
right or wrong,” Hurst added. “Somebody’s got to pay the
bill — right — and in this case it’s the taxpayer.”...
That, says Mary Connaughton of the Pioneer
Institute, is a budget-busting policy.
“The intention of providing sick and
vacation time is to keep employees healthy and rested,”
Connaughton said. “The state should cap buyouts rather than
accrue gargantuan goodbye kisses for employees on their way
out the door.”
The idea of saving up sick and vacation days
— especially for UMass educators who already have many off
days — is falling to taxpayers to pick up the tab for.
“It’s ridiculous,” said David Tuerck, a
Suffolk University economics professor and head of the
Beacon Hill Institute. “I don’t understand why the state
allows it. It’s a mistake to treat sick time as an
entitlement. It violates the whole purpose of the time off.”
The buyouts come after the Herald reported
pensions are also taxing the state budget, with the
Legislature being forced to pump $2.4 billion into that
budget in 2018. That tab for the pension liability will
climb to $11 billion by 2033.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Massachusetts state worker buyouts ‘gargantuan goodbye
kisses’
This is how bloated and out of control
Massachusetts pensions have become:
Billy Bulger, the Corrupt Midget, now has
only the 12th highest pension in the state — $201,656.
Somebody asked me recently, if I had my
career to start over again, what would I do differently? My
answer was, I would get me a hack job, as the fake Indian
and John Kerry would say. A hack job — what’s not to like,
no heavy lifting, no lifting period, collecting megabucks
for the rest of your life, never having to worry about money
again?
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Taxpayers foot bill for megabucks pensions
By Howie Carr
To enjoy the abundance of wonderful perks
someone receives when that someone makes their living on the
state payroll is only human. Gluttonous, but human. To do it
in plain view of the taxpayer whose hard-earned income is
tithed by law to provide such a bounty is just plain cruel.
State workers enjoy all the best employee
benefits that have ever been while those in the private
sector can only pine for the days when things like
vacation-day payouts were par for the course.
When your check is from the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, the possibilities are endless....
Built-in raises, job security, no-show jobs
and vacation-day buyouts. Working for the state is where
it’s at. The elected chaperones of our current system should
be on notice that voters see unfairness as an affront to
themselves and their families. Rightly so.
While working people watch with envy as
those on the state payroll get fat payouts, there will come
a time when they exact payback at politicians at the polls.
And it will happen. Remember, the state can’t hire us all.
A Boston Herald editorial
Friday, January 18, 2019
State payroll perks produce pain in private sector
Late last year the New York Committee on
Legislative and Executive Compensation concluded that state
lawmakers in Albany were overworked and underpaid. The
committee, appointed by the Legislature itself, recommended
a hefty raise. Legislators are set to earn $110,000 in base
salary this year, up from $79,500 in 2018. In 2021 their
salaries will rise to $130,000—more than double the state’s
median household income.
That might seem like typical New York
political audaciousness. In fact the raises are part of a
nationwide progressive movement to transform state lawmakers
into a “professionalized” elite who earn most of their money
from public work....
The move toward professionalization is part
of a campaign against citizen legislators—the part-time,
nonprofessional lawmakers who have populated state
legislatures since the early days of the republic. As the
size of government has grown, states have gradually moved
away from this model. Today, according to the National
Conference of State Legislatures, 14 states continue to have
part-time legislatures. Another 26 have adopted what’s
called hybrid models, where lawmakers spend a considerable
amount of their time on state work but still earn much of
their income from other jobs. Ten states have converted to
full-time legislatures—including California, New York and
Illinois—where salaries average more than $80,000 a year....
A recent Pew study found that over the past
15 years 10 states consistently spent more than they took
in, relying on debt and gimmicks to keep their budgets
afloat. The list of deficit spenders is filled with states
that pay their legislators generously, including California,
New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey. By contrast, the
states ranking at the bottom in terms of legislator
pay—including Wyoming, Utah, North Dakota and Montana—have
balanced their budgets consistently during the last 15
years.
States with the most “professionalized”
legislators also have some of the worst-managed government
pension systems....
Voters could be forgiven for wondering how
much worse part-time legislatures would have done.
Still, the momentum for more
professionalization grows....
The Wall Street Journal
Saturday, January 12, 2019
Lawmakers Are Doing a Bad Job—So Give Them a Raise?
States where lawmaking is part-time work have a better
record of handling taxpayers’ money.
Why should the state body that enacts laws
be exempt from laws granting greater public scrutiny?
Massachusetts, known for its restrictive,
archaic public-records laws, finally passed reform
legislation in 2016, the first update to those statutes in
nearly 40 years. However, those improvements to public
access only pertained to the workings of municipal
government. They didn’t address the long-standing exception
enjoyed by the Legislature, governor and judiciary.
And when it comes to accessing the dealings
of its lawmakers, Massachusetts remains squarely in the
minority. Legislatures in virtually every other state,
including our New England neighbors, are subject to
public-records laws.
So, we were at least guardedly optimistic
when the Legislature attempted to study ways to pry open the
seal of privacy.
The impetus for that step came out of that
records-reform legislation. But instead of taking on the
three-headed obstacle to the public’s right to know,
lawmakers set up a commission of separate Senate and House
panels to consider whether to expand the law to the
Legislature, judiciary and governor’s office; these bodies
supposedly set about examining and hopefully finding
solutions for accessing these records.
But in the end, neither one could reach any
consensus on potential legislation or new rules, and the
commission disbanded without rendering any formal
recommendations.
A Boston Herald editorial
Sunday, January 13, 2019
Public has right to know what lawmakers are doing
After taking the oath of office in the newly
renovated Senate Chamber on Wednesday for another four
years, Treasurer Deborah Goldberg previewed a second term in
which she plans to maintain and expand programs she said
have been successful and seek new revenue sources and
funding flexibility for school construction projects in
Massachusetts....
The treasurer called for lawmakers to
increase "our funding flexibility" and to find additional
revenue streams for the Massachusetts School Building
Authority, especially "as our schools become older and
older, and the cost of construction continues to increase."
In next year's state budget, Beacon Hill
leaders have already set aside $917 million in sales tax
revenues for the school building authority, but it appears
Goldberg is angling for a larger appropriation.
"As long as we have buildings without any
science labs -- and I'm going to underline without any
science labs -- or overcrowding forces the use of hallways
and gyms as classrooms, we are not meeting our kids' needs,
nor our businesses' that require a trained workforce,"
Goldberg said. "We hope to be able to work with our
legislative partners in increasing our funding flexibility
and finding additional revenue streams."
State House News Service
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Goldberg wants new revenue source for school construction
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
The recently re-elected "most popular
governor in the nation" has found a ruse to mask his
"evolving" desire to hike taxes. It worked for him
when he hiked the payroll tax by $800 million last year
in his "Grand Bargain," so he's rolling it out for a
reprise. "Baker has previously defended his tax
and fee increases by saying he can get behind a tax
hike," the State House News Service reminded us, "if it
funds a new program."
Has there ever been a lack of
"new programs" percolating in Massachusetts?
Governor Charlie Baker (RINO-Mass.) now
has proposed increasing the hostage release ransom on
those fleeing the commonwealth ―
a fifty percent increase in the deeds excise tax.
This increased revenue will ostensibly be used to shore
up the state against "Global Warming," aka "Climate
Change." This is something one would think is affordable
within a $42 billion state budget without hiking taxes
to rake in more from wrung-out taxpayers. But
that would assume billions aren't being transferred
from taxpayers directly to the anointed to fund lavish
lifestyles to which they've become accustomed.
It gets increasingly clear by the day
why More Is Never Enough (MINE) in The People's
Democratic Republic of Taxachusetts, and why more never
will be.
So much of the tens of billions taken
from taxpayers that pour into the state treasury is
being siphoned off by the hordes of thriving kleptocrats
to keep their gravy train chugging along, always picking
up speed.
Kleptocracy: "Government by those who
seek chiefly status and personal gain at the expense of
the governed." (The
Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
I admit to being pleasantly shocked by
news that the state Republican Party elected
former-State Rep. Jim Lyons (R-Andover) as its new
chairman. I never thought anything like that was
even remotely possible in Massachusetts
― but when you've got not a
thing to lose anymore it's time to try something,
anything new. A tireless, committed
conservative, Jim Lyons will shake things up among the
state's complacent Republican minority. The
MassGOP has had a long run of trying to out-Democrat Bay
State Democrats for decades.
President Harry S. Truman, speaking to
the National Convention of the Americans for Democratic
Action in 1952, noted: "If it's a choice between a
genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic
clothing, the people will choose the genuine article,
every time."
The obverse is just as true, as
Republicans have, or should have learned over
those decades.
Is it conceivable that Massachusetts is
so liberal Democrat entrenched because there has
not been another option in memory, a different vision, a
real contrast for so long? If you've had enough of
higher and higher taxes and cradle-to-grave control
where do you turn ― besides paying
Charlie's new hostage release ransom and running
for your life?
Maybe we'll find out with Jim Lyons at
the helm of "the loyal opposition." Massachusetts
Republicans have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
The same can be said for taxpayers.
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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Associated Press
Saturday, January 19, 2019
Charlie Baker: Tax hike will help towns address
climate change
By Steve LeBlanc
Gov. Charlie Baker is proposing an increase in
the state excise tax on real estate transfers to
help Massachusetts communities better prepare
for the effects of climate change.
Baker said Friday the plan will be included in
his proposed state budget for the fiscal year
that begins July 1. The Republican will unveil
his full budget plan next week.
Baker said the money from the proposed excise
tax increase would help communities pay for
“storm water upgrades, dams and flood controls,
drainage and culvert improvements, drought
mitigation strategies, nature-based solutions
and other adaptation strategies.”
The money would also help state and local
agencies prioritize and protect vulnerable
assets including transportation infrastructure,
critical care facilities, water resources, and
other key infrastructure, Baker said.
“This proposal will build on the over $600
million we have already invested to mitigate and
prepare for the adverse effects of climate
change and help to build more resilient
communities,” Baker said during a speech to the
Massachusetts Municipal Association. “We look
forward to working with the Legislature to get
this passed.”
The program would be paid for by an increase of
more than 0.2 percent in the state’s deed excise
tax rate. The tax is paid by the seller upon the
transfer of a property.
Baker said the increase, paid at the time of
sale, would increase from $2 to $3 per $500 of
property value. An exception would be in
Barnstable County where the increase would go
from $1.50 per $500 of value to $2.50.
Baker, who has opposed new taxes, didn’t say if
he’s changed his mind about whether he may
support other tax increases — arguing that his
proposal is narrowly focused.
“This is an excise tax that’s basically about
property and the proposal we’re making here is
to protect property,” he told reporters after
the speech. “We think, in the long run, the
cost/benefit on this one is a good deal for
Massachusetts residents.”
The proposal will be included in Baker’s
proposed budget for the new fiscal year.
Baker is scheduled to file his roughly $42
billion spending blueprint with lawmakers on
Wednesday. The plan will be based on a
projection of 2.7 percent growth in tax
revenues, a lower estimate than in the two
previous years.
Also Friday, the administration announced that
it will propose a $30 million increase in local
aid for cities and towns.
Baker’s budget proposal is the first step in a
long process. The House and Senate must still
come up with their own versions and approve with
a final, compromise version to send to Baker
before the end of June.
State House News
Service
Friday, January 18, 2018
Baker seeks transfer tax hike to protect
properties
By Colin A. Young
Gov. Charlie Baker plans to proposed an
estimated $137 million annual increase in the
excise tax paid on real estate transfers, a
proposal he said Friday morning will generate $1
billion over the next decade to protect
properties and help cities and towns cope with
climate change impacts.
Baker said the fiscal year 2020 budget he will
file next week will include a proposal to
dedicate $75 million next year towards
"climate-smart infrastructure" and "other
initiatives to help build resilient
communities."
"It's pretty clear that climate change is
starting to have a very significant impact on
our communities, on our infrastructure, on
personal property, on real property and on
community property, and this is a way for us to
build a program that can generate about $1
billion over 10 years to invest in communities,
to invest in resiliency, to invest in
infrastructure, to protect people's property and
to protect community property," Baker said
Friday after announcing the proposal at the
annual meeting of the Massachusetts Municipal
Association at the Hynes Convention Center.
Though the fiscal 2020 investment would total
$75 million, Baker said the investment will
ultimately grow to $137 million on an ongoing,
annualized basis for the Global Warming
Solutions Trust Fund. The money behind the
investment will come from a hike in the state's
deeds excise rate.
Under Baker's plan, the excise rate will
increase from $2 per $500 of assessed value to
$3 per $500 of value. The governor said the
increase represents "a point-two percent
increase." Upon the transfer of property, the
seller is required to pay the excise tax.
The Republican governor has generally opposed
new taxes and fees, but just this week he has
proposed taxing daily fantasy sports, legalizing
and taxing sports wagering, and now increasing
the tax on real estate transactions. He's also
signed into law new assessments on the health
care industry and taxes on short-term rentals
that operate like hotels.
Baker has previously defended his tax and fee
increases by saying he can get behind a tax hike
if it funds a new program.
"There is no program in Massachusetts that's
going to put a billion dollars on the table to
put the kind of resiliency programming in place
that we're going to need to deal with the
intensity and frequency of storms," the governor
said Friday when asked how the climate
adaptation and resilience plan represents a new
program given that he said his administration
has already spent $600 million on similar
programs.
The governor did not directly answer when asked
if he is now open to additional increases in
taxes or fees.
"This is an excise tax that's basically about
property and the proposal we're making here is
to protect property," he said. "We think, in the
long run, the cost/benefit on this one is a good
deal for Massachusetts residents."
The real estate lobby has previously argued
against increases to the real estate transfer
tax, saying a hike in the transfer tax will only
add to closing costs and make housing even more
expensive in Massachusetts.
The administration said the new program will
provide loans and grants for municipalities to
make investments identified by the Municipal
Vulnerability Preparedness program, including
stormwater upgrades, dams and flood controls,
drainage and culvert improvements, drought
mitigation strategies, assistance in
prioritizing, planning, and retrofitting
vulnerable assets, and developing climate-smart
land use frameworks.
"Over the last four years, we have increasingly
witnessed the effects that climate change has on
communities and infrastructure across the
Commonwealth, and know that the investments we
make today are critical to ensure cities and
towns are prepared to face the challenges of
tomorrow," Baker said.
Also Friday, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito told the MMA
that the FY2020 budget bill the administration
will file next week will increase general local
aid by $30 million over this year.
Polito said the administration will "continue
making our promise" that local aid will increase
each year apace with state tax revenue.
Unrestricted local aid would grow by 2.7 percent
to $1.129 billion, Polito said.
The increase in unrestricted local aid would be
shared by the state's 351 cities and towns.
Unrestricted aid and K-12 school aid are the
largest sources of state aid to cities and towns
and supplement property taxes to provide funding
for local government services, including public
safety, education, and other services.
The administration this year will also seek a
$200 million authorization for the Chapter 90
road and bridge repair program. City and town
officials have sought larger and multi-year
authorizations, saying road conditions warrant
more spending.
Lawmakers could increase Baker's proposed local
aid spending recommendation as the House and
Senate take up their own budgets in April and
May, but the Legislature is unlikely to reduce
them.
Baker's fiscal 2020 budget proposal is due by
Wednesday.
The Boston
Globe
Saturday, January 19, 2019
Governor Baker seeks big real estate sales tax
hike to fund climate programs
By Matt Stout
Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican who once
campaigned against raising taxes, unveiled a
proposal Friday to hike the tax on Massachusetts
real estate transfers by 50 percent, and funnel
the more than $1 billion it could generate in
the next decade into steeling cities and towns
against the effects of climate change.
The plan, which Baker intends to include in his
state budget proposal on Wednesday, marks one of
his most high-profile bids to address climate
resiliency as he begins his second term.
But it’s also expected to face heavy resistance
within real estate circles, where trade groups
warn a tax hike could exacerbate the region’s
already steep housing costs.
Baker’s proposed tax increase would add nearly
$1,200 in taxes to the sale of a $500,000 home,
with those costs paid by the seller.
Baker said the increase to the so-called deeds
excise rate could generate anywhere from $130
million to $150 million annually toward a Global
Warming Solutions Trust Fund, which cities and
towns could then tap through grants, loans, and
other avenues for local projects. That could
include modernizing public buildings, fortifying
sea walls, or improving drainage and flood
control methods, depending on a city or town’s
needs.
“This is an excise tax that’s basically about
property. And the proposal we’re making here is
to protect property,” Baker told reporters after
unveiling the contours of the plan to hundreds
of local officials at the Massachusetts
Municipal Association’s annual meeting.
“We think in the long run, the cost benefit on
this one is a good deal for Massachusetts
residents,” Baker said.
The tax increase, which would need legislative
approval, could mean hundreds, if not thousands,
more dollars borne by those unloading their
homes.
Under current law, a home seller in most parts
of the state pays $4.56 in transfer taxes per
$1,000 of a purchase price. That means for a
$500,000 home sale, a seller pays a $2,280 tax
bill. If Baker’s proposal passes, the transfer
tax rate would jump to $6.84 per $1,000, meaning
for the same $500,000 sale, the tax bill
balloons to $3,420.
On Cape Cod, where the excise tax is lower than
the rest of the state, the increase is actually
more dramatic under Baker’s proposal. The $3.42
per $1,000 of a purchase price home sellers
currently pay would jump by 67 percent to $5.70.
As a candidate in 2014, Baker continually
opposed tax and fee increases, later allowing
that if the state offered a new service and
attached a fee to it, he didn’t think he would
be breaking his commitment. En route to winning
reelection last fall, he reiterated that he is
against broad-based tax increases for the sake
of “balancing the budget.”
During four-plus years in office, he has signed
a number of new fees and taxes into law,
including an assessment to help cover the cost
of the state’s Medicaid program and an estimated
$800 million payroll tax, split between
employers and employees, that goes into effect
in July to pay for a new paid family and medical
leave program. Baker also signed off on a new $2
surcharge on car rental transactions to raise up
to $10 million toward training for local police.
Baker defended his pursuit of the tax hike in
the new climate change proposal. “There’s no
program in Massachusetts that’s going to put a
billion dollars on the table to put the kind of
resiliency programming in place that we’re going
to need to deal with the intensity and the
frequency of storms,” he said.
His administration, however, also noted that it
has already invested $600 million in programs
targeting the effects of climate change.
The proposal is the second major
climate-change-focused initiative Baker has
touted since winning reelection. Last month,
Massachusetts and eight other states announced a
landmark agreement to create a system to impose
regionwide limits on transportation emissions,
the nation’s largest source of carbon pollution.
Within hours, the plan was drawing resistance
from the real estate industry. Tamara Small,
chief executive of NAIOP Massachusetts, the
powerful trade group for commercial real estate,
questioned tying the fund to property sales.
“When we have a market downturn, which I think
is not far down the road . . . that could affect
the amount of money that could be raised,” Small
said. “When you’re talking about a 50 percent
increase, there’s no doubt that for someone who
is trying to sell their home, that’s going to
increase prices. That’s going to have an
impact.”
The Massachusetts Association of Realtors, which
opposes the increase, said efforts to support
climate resiliency shouldn’t target only those
looking to sell property, said Justin Davidson,
the group’s general counsel.
“This proposal would quite frankly increase the
cost of housing in Massachusetts,” he said.
“We’ll be reaching out to legislators to let
them know about our position.”
Baker is likely to have powerful support, too.
The plan received a “very positive response”
from local officials at their annual meeting,
according to Geoffrey Beckwith, the
Massachusetts Municipal Association’s executive
director, who called it a “common sense funding
solution.”
“There’s a direct connection between what cities
and towns have to do, and the proposal the
governor made,” Beckwith said.
Environmental groups, who have been critical of
Baker before, offered cautious praise Friday for
this proposal, noting they’re still waiting to
see all of the details.
“I think it’s a great signal that he intends to
take climate change and climate resilience and
adaptation seriously,” said Elizabeth Turnbull
Henry, president of the Environmental League of
Massachusetts. “Massachusetts has 1,500 miles of
coastline. The time is now to be thinking about
how we’re going to pay for the investments that
we need to protect ourselves.”
Bradley Campbell, president of the Conservation
Law Foundation, said he was encouraged by
Baker’s plan, but called the money it could
raise “modest” compared to the projected need.
“Ultimately, I think there will be a need to
look at multiple revenue sources to assure that
the cost burden of climate risk is allocated in
a fair and equitable way,” he said. “This
proposal provides a solid start to that
dialogue.”
State House News
Service
Thursday, January 17, 2019
MassGOP elects former Rep. Lyons as party chair
By Matt Murphy
Fresh off his re-election defeat in November,
conservative Andover Republican Jim Lyons will
be the next chair of the Massachusetts
Republican Party, succeeding Quincy City
Councilor Kirsten Hughes who is giving up the
post after six years at the helm.
Lyons bested MassGOP Treasurer Brent Andersen,
who had been considered a early favorite to win
the position and at one point claimed to have a
majority of votes on the 80-member State
Committee locked down.
Lyons defeated Andersen 47-30, according to
sources and social media posts from committee
members and others at the Sheraton Framingham
hotel, where party leaders gathered Thursday to
elect the new chair.
"I pledge to bring a new and fresh sense of
unity to our Republican Party," Lyons said in
victory remarks posted online by @CruzCrewSue.
Lyons was among a group of Republicans in
Massachusetts who initially backed Sen. Ted Cruz
for president in 2016. He takes over a party in
2019 that won the governorship for the second
straight time in November, but lost ground in
the state Legislature and struggled to be
competitive in other statewide and federal
contests.
Lyons, who lost his bid for a fifth term in the
House to Democrat Tram Nguyen, was a late
entrant to the MassGOP chairmanship sweepstakes,
only entering the race in late December after
former Rep. Geoff Diehl opted against seeking
the post.
Lyons, however, was able to consolidate support
among the grassroots activists on the committee,
particularly after Rep. Peter Durant dropped out
of the race on Sunday, making it a head-to-head
contest between Lyons and Andersen.
In his victory speech, Lyons blasted the
"top-down" Democratic leadership on Beacon Hill.
"DeLeo and the top power-brokers control every
aspect of it, and who does that hurt? It hurts
us," Lyons said. "And it's time that we let the
Democrats know what we stand for matters and my
job and my goal as your party chair is to take
them on, not just on Beacon Hill but all across
this great state and let me tell you, no one
will have more fun doing it."
And despite being one of the most conservative
members of the House, Lyons called for unity
among Republicans and a dialing back of the
animosity some in the right wing of the party
have expressed toward the moderate Gov. Charlie
Baker.
"It's probably the best kept secret on Beacon
Hill but I cast more roll call votes for Gov.
Charlie Baker and the Baker administration than
any other legislator. This may come as a
surprise to some, but really it shouldn't
because there are so many more things as
Republicans that unite us than divide us," Lyons
said.
Lyons and Baker have been on opposite sides of
many issues, including repeal of antiquated
anti-abortion laws and a bill that Baker signed
protecting the rights of transgender individuals
to use public accommodations that match their
gender identity.
Because of those positions, Baker drew heat
during his own re-election campaign for
headlining a fundraiser for Lyons in his
district.
Lyons also touted the progress achieved under
President Trump, who Gov. Baker often distances
himself from, citing deregulation, tax cuts and
job growth during the president's tenure.
"We don't have to agree with everything any
Republican or Republican governor says or does.
We do have to state clearly that the state and
the nation are better off because of the common
sense policies or our Republican chief
executives," Lyons said.
Baker did not get involved publicly in the
contest to become the next chairman of MassGOP,
but advisors close to the governor had nice to
things to say Thursday night about Lyons.
Meanwhile, Democratic Party Chairman Gus
Bickford called on Baker to "publicly and
swiftly denounce Lyons' vision for an
intolerant, discriminatory party."
"By electing Jim Lyons as Chairman, the
Massachusetts Republican Party has shown itself,
once again, to be profoundly out of step with
the people of Massachusetts," Bickford said.
"Lyons, who served as Massachusetts state
chairman for Ted Cruz's presidential campaign in
2016, spent his career on Beacon Hill railing
against fundamental rights and protections for
women, workers, and the LGBTQ community."
Bickford also highlighted Lyons's votes against
funding for Planned Parenthood and his "97%
rating" from the National Rifle Association.
"Lyons' election pushes the state Republican
Party further towards the policies and rhetoric
of Donald Trump, and away from the best
interests of people in the Commonwealth,"
Bickford said.
Paul Craney, a friend of Lyons's and a member of
the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said that
while at the State House Lyons was Baker's "best
ally" and "the Democrats worst nightmare."
"There's no one better to lead the Massachusetts
Republican Party than Chairman Lyons and his
very large vote total demonstrates his broad
support on the committee," Craney said.
The Boston Herald
Friday, January 18, 2019
Conservative ex-state Rep. Jim Lyons wins Mass
GOP chair
By Sean Philip Cotter
Conservative firebrand Jim Lyons will take the
reins of the state Republican Party, a changing
of the guard from the moderate establishment led
by Gov. Charlie Baker that had controlled the
organization.
Lyons, a four-term Andover Republican state
representative who lost his bid for re-election
last year, beat party treasurer Brent Andersen,
47-30, in a vote by the party’s state committee
Thursday night, according to the party.
The colorful Lyons is known for having derailed
a transgender-focused bill that would have added
a third gender to Massachusetts driver’s
licenses — by insisting that 73 “genders” be
recognized instead of just the “X” the sponsors
were seeking. He also forced the state to admit
that it annually doled out $1.8 billion in
welfare payments to illegal immigrants. He was
well known around the State House for hosting a
nativity scene, which drew protests from atheist
groups.
Lyons said in a statement after the vote, “I am
humbled by the trust placed in me by my fellow
members of the Massachusetts Republican State
Committee, and look forward to working with them
in the years ahead to grow and unify our Party
and secure victory in 2020. I want to thank
Brent Andersen for running a strong race and
offering compelling ideas for our Party’s
future, and I commit to working with him to
engage our grassroots, strengthen our resources,
and connect with a broad coalition of voters to
advance our common vision.”
Andersen was seen as the establishment choice, a
moderate New England Republican in the vein of
Baker, and former governors Mitt Romney and
William Weld, and other statewide elected
Republicans in deep-blue Massachusetts.
Lyons will replace Kirsten Hughes, who has held
the chairmanship for six year. The Quincy city
councilor — and Baker ally — decided against a
run for re-election for the chair in November as
a contest for the future direction of the state
party began to heat up.
During last year’s campaign season, Baker took
some flak from the left for campaigning with
Lyons, due to Lyons’ more conservative views,
particularly on LGBT and abortion issues. The
two were seen as representing divergent branches
of the GOP.
Lyons entered the GOP chairman race after former
state Rep. Geoff Diehl, who lost a bid to unseat
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren last year, decided
against running for the position, even though he
was considered the favorite. Diehl ultimately
endorsed Andersen, as did Beth Lindstrom and
John Kingston, the other two GOP U.S. Senate
hopefuls from last year.
The Boston Herald
Saturday, January 19, 2018
Republicans hopeful about Jim Lyons leading
state party
By Mary Markos
The election of Jim Lyons as the chair of the
MassGOP over the establishment choice Brent
Andersen was painted by one pundit as a message
to Gov. Charlie Baker.
“There is a lot of resentment about the way the
last election was handled,” political consultant
Chip Jones told the Herald. “I think the vote
was much more visceral than logical, and I think
Jim’s likability made a visceral vote really
easy to make.”
Jones said many in the Republican Party are
holding on to ill feelings over a perceived lack
of ardor on the campaign trail from the governor
in support of certain candidates.
“Some people would say that he’s the most
popular governor in the country who is not
popular in his own party, and if I were him that
would hurt me,” Jones said. “It pains me to say
it. I like Charlie.”
Lyons, a four-term Andover Republican state
representative who lost his bid for re-election
last year, beat party treasurer Andersen, 47-30,
in a vote by the party’s state committee
Thursday night. Lyons declined to comment
through the party Friday.
“He’s far more conservative than the mainstream
Republicans in Massachusetts like Charlie
Baker,” GOP consultant Ryan Williams said.
“Hopefully he’ll understand that as state party
chair, he needs to do everything possible to
help the party win and that includes recruiting
candidates that have a shot at winning in a
liberal state like Massachusetts.”
The colorful Lyons is known for having derailed
a transgender-focused bill that would have added
a third gender to Massachusetts driver’s
licenses, and having forced the state to admit
that it annually doled out $1.8 billion in
welfare payments to illegal immigrants. He ran
on a promise to unite the party and touted his
good relationship with Baker.
“Jim’s a friend of our operation and has worked
closely with the governor in the past,” Baker
adviser Jim Conroy said.
Lyons replaces Kirsten Hughes, who held the
chairmanship for six years. The Quincy city
councilor decided against a run for re-election
in November. Hughes did not respond to requests
for comment.
Lyons entered the GOP chairman race after former
state Rep. Geoff Diehl, who lost a bid to unseat
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren last year, decided
against running for the position, even though he
was considered the favorite.
“I’m excited,” Diehl said of the win. “I think
people see him as someone who wants to bridge
that divide, and I think Jim has a unique
ability to relate to everybody in the party and
I think there’s a renewed excitement for working
together because of that.”
Diehl ultimately endorsed Andersen, as did Beth
Lindstrom and John Kingston, the other two GOP
U.S. Senate hopefuls from last year.
The Boston Herald
Sunday, January 13, 2019
Massachusetts pension tension: Some payouts hit
$350,000
More than 1,000 retirees get over $100G annually
Tens of thousands of state pensions of up to
$350,000 a year are straining the retirement
system, forcing the Legislature to ask taxpayers
for more cash to keep the system afloat.
A staggering 1,000-plus retirees earned $100,000
or more in pension pay last year — with former
troopers, judges, provosts and school
superintendents leading the way — with the total
pension-fund liability at a budget-busting $5.21
billion.
It’s a trend one watchdog said is heading into
the danger zone.
“These pensions are putting an enormous burden
on the state budget,” said Greg Sullivan, a
former state inspector general now with the
Pioneer Institute. “It’s taking away money we
need for roads, bridges and to fix the MBTA.”
Sullivan said the cost of footing the bill for
these golden years has “skyrocketed” — forcing
the state Legislature to pump $2.4 billion into
that budget in 2018. He warned that the tab for
this liability will climb to $11 billion by
2033.
“This is such a serious problem,” Sullivan
added, “it’s become almost unrealistic.”
The 124,000-plus pension payouts studied by the
Herald show former provosts, professors,
prosecutors, teachers, social workers, toll
collectors and prison guards collecting hefty
checks:
• Two former UMass Medical junior chancellors
pulled down $347,000 and $338,000, respectively,
last year. Both retired recently.
• Ten retirees were close behind at more than
$200,000 each last year, including William
“Billy” Bulger, the brother of slain Southie
mobster James “Whitey” Bulger. The former UMass
president and onetime state Senate president
took home $201,656 last year.
• One man who retired in 1953 from “state
service” was listed as collecting $12,200 last
year. Others left state work in the 1960s, ’70s
and ’80s and are still collecting checks.
• Most retired public school teachers were paid
about $50,000 last year, but the top earner in
this category chalked up $149,000.
• School superintendents and teachers from Athol
to Wrentham had annual pensions of $209,000 to
$400. (That was a teacher on Nantucket.)
• Retired toll collectors, who had their jobs
eliminated due to electronic tolling, clocked in
at $61,000 and $56,000 a year, on the high side,
to $9,959 in the slow lane.
Sullivan, who collects a $91,000 annual pension
for his stint as an inspector general, said the
culprit is the state’s growing payroll.
As the Herald reported this week, the state
payroll for 2018 was $7.74 billion. That figure
has climbed 23 percent over the past five years.
Yet the median household income for
Massachusetts residents has gone up only 15
percent to $73,227 over the same period.
Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration said a
timeline has been set to get the pension system
under control, but it will take years.
“The Baker-Polito Administration has made
progress to pay down the commonwealth’s
long-term obligations like the unfunded pension
liability. Under the current statutory funding
schedule the final amortization payment will be
made in fiscal 2036, four years before the
statutory requirement,” said Julie Mehegan,
spokeswoman for the Executive Office for
Administration and Finance.
Until then, retired parole officers, jail
guards, librarians, chauffeurs and janitors will
need the Legislature to keep the payments
coming.
See the full state pension database here
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Mass. state payroll climbs to $7.2 billion in
2018
By Matt Rocheleau
The Massachusetts state payroll climbed to $7.2
billion in 2018, an increase of 2.5 percent over
the previous year, according to new data from
the state comptroller’s office.
The number of state workers earning six figures
also grew by about 14 percent from 2017,
according to the data. Last year, more than
13,500 people took home $100,000 or more, up
from 11,900 the previous year.
Twenty-four workers made upwards of $100,000 in
overtime pay alone.
Overall, overtime spending ballooned to $290
million, an increase of about 6 percent from
2017.
Eileen McAnneny, president of the Massachusetts
Taxpayers Foundation, said the spike in
six-figure earners raised questions as did the
increases in overtime spending.
“Having 24 workers make over $100K in overtime,
and the bump in overtime costs more generally,
suggests that the state may need to think of
hiring additional workers to reduce the amount
of overtime it is paying,” McAnneny said via
e-mail.
The list of the highest-paid state workers last
year was dominated by University of
Massachusetts employees, as it has been in
previous years.
The highest-paid employee was UMass Medical
School chancellor and senior vice president for
health sciences Michael Collins, who made
$1,069,751 last year, a 2.5 percent increase
from what he took home in 2017.
He was followed by:
• Terence Flotte, UMass Medical School dean,
provost, and executive deputy chancellor, who
made $946,537;
• James Glasheen, UMass Medical School executive
vice chancellor for innovation and business
development, who made $671,268;
• Martin Meehan, UMass system president, who
made $659,167;
• And Mark Klempner, UMass Medical School
executive vice chancellor for MassBiologics and
a professor of medicine, who made $640,263.
UMass system spokesman Jeff Cournoyer said those
pay rates are designed to be competitive in the
higher education world and “the vast majority of
UMass employees at the top of the list are
faculty members who are experts in their fields
and hold PhDs or other terminal degrees.”
The highest-paid state worker not from UMass was
chief medical examiner Mindy Hull, who collected
$375,000.
The UMass system is by far the largest state
department in terms of the number of people it
employs and the most costly in terms of payroll.
Overall, the UMass system’s payroll grew by
about 2.2 percent last year, but that amounted
to a $32 million increase in payroll spending
for the five campuses — the largest
year-over-year increase in state government.
Cournoyer noted UMass mostly uses funding
sources other than taxpayer dollars to cover
payroll costs; only 22 percent of the
university’s revenue comes from state tax
dollars.
“We generate $6.2 billion in annual economic
impact in the Commonwealth and educate more
Massachusetts residents than the top eight
private colleges and universities in the state
combined,” Cournoyer added.
The next largest payroll spending jump at any
agency, $28.8 million, was at the Department of
Children and Families, which saw a 10 percent
increase. That agency has been undergoing a
rebuild in recent years that has included hiring
of more social workers.
The state’s payroll, which represents about 17
percent of Massachusetts’ overall $42 billion
budget, has risen virtually every year for
nearly two decades.
Workforce reductions caused payroll spending to
dip slightly in 2016 — which marked the first
decrease in at least 16 years.
Since taking office in 2015, Governor Charlie
Baker, a fiscally conservative Republican, has
taken steps to rein in state spending and help
close budget gaps.
“The Administration will continue to pursue
policies to protect taxpayer funds and reduce
bureaucracy across state government,” Baker
spokeswoman Sarah Finlaw said in an e-mail.
However, much of the payroll isn’t under the
governor’s direct control. For example, state
colleges and universities account for large
chunks of the payroll, while the pay rates of
many other state workers are dictated by union
contracts.
In 2019, Baker is giving an array of top
deputies, from members of his Cabinet to dozens
of department heads, a 5.5 percent pay raise, a
first for many since Baker took office.
Baker and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito also
plan to collect pay hikes they’d previously
turned down. Baker’s pay will jump from $151,800
in 2018 to $250,000 this year. Polito’s will
climb from $122,058 to $165,000.
Also this year, legislative leaders will collect
three pay increases thanks in part to
controversial legislation they passed nearly two
years ago tying parts of their paychecks to the
state’s wage levels.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Massachusetts state worker buyouts ‘gargantuan
goodbye kisses’
By Joe Swinell
Thousands of retiring state workers boosted
their pay last year by cashing in unused sick
and vacation days with more than a dozen
receiving “gargantuan goodbye kisses,” as one
exasperated fiscal warrior said.
The top buyout went to a former University of
Massachusetts Boston provost who earned $317,000
last year after receiving $185,700 for days off
never used. Three others also ended the year
pulling down $300,000-plus with the help of
buyouts, a Herald analysis of state payroll
records shows.
They weren’t alone. More than 10,000 exiting Bay
State public employees put the buyout perk to
work for them. Under state law, buying back time
is considered a buyout.
It’s a pricey bonus that’s being phased out in
the private sector.
“Most private employers have a certain number of
(vacation and sick) days, but you can’t carry
them over and you can’t cash them out when you
leave,” said Jon Hurst, president of the
Retailers Association of Massachusetts.
“It’s a phenomenon of public employers — right
or wrong,” Hurst added. “Somebody’s got to pay
the bill — right — and in this case it’s the
taxpayer.”
Those who traded in unused sick and vacation
days hailed from state departments far and wide.
A slew of top earners came from the UMass
system, the state police, the Department of
Correction, the Trial Court and the Attorney
General’s Office.
Under state law, employees can quality for up to
20 percent in buyout pay for any sick days and
vacation days they piled up during their tenure.
Jeff Cournoyer, spokesman for the UMass
president’s office, said “pay-up of accrued sick
leave is capped at 120 days in many contracts,
but the effective dates of those caps vary.”
“The amount owed varies by policy and contract,
even within the UMass system,” he added. “Earned
vacation time is owed by law and many bargaining
contracts provide for a pay-up of 20 percent of
the value of unused accrued sick leave.”
That, says Mary Connaughton of the Pioneer
Institute, is a budget-busting policy.
“The intention of providing sick and vacation
time is to keep employees healthy and rested,”
Connaughton said. “The state should cap buyouts
rather than accrue gargantuan goodbye kisses for
employees on their way out the door.”
The idea of saving up sick and vacation days —
especially for UMass educators who already have
many off days — is falling to taxpayers to pick
up the tab for.
“It’s ridiculous,” said David Tuerck, a Suffolk
University economics professor and head of the
Beacon Hill Institute. “I don’t understand why
the state allows it. It’s a mistake to treat
sick time as an entitlement. It violates the
whole purpose of the time off.”
The buyouts come after the Herald reported
pensions are also taxing the state budget, with
the Legislature being forced to pump $2.4
billion into that budget in 2018. That tab for
the pension liability will climb to $11 billion
by 2033.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Taxpayers foot bill for megabucks pensions
By Howie Carr
This is how bloated and out of control
Massachusetts pensions have become:
Billy Bulger, the Corrupt Midget, now has only
the 12th highest pension in the state —
$201,656.
Somebody asked me recently, if I had my career
to start over again, what would I do
differently? My answer was, I would get me a
hack job, as the fake Indian and John Kerry
would say. A hack job — what’s not to like, no
heavy lifting, no lifting period, collecting
megabucks for the rest of your life, never
having to worry about money again?
The state system of “higher education,”
so-called, has become the hogs’ ultimate feeding
trough. Check out their pensions for yourself on
the Herald website. Let me just pick a few
educators emeritus, at random, starting with one
Dana Mohler-Faria, late of Bridgewater State
College, er University — $184,591 a year.
This is the same payroll patriot who walked away
in 2015 with, in addition to the pension, a lump
sum payment of $269,984 for, ahem, unused sick
and vacation pay. Oh yeah, and the trustees also
gave him a $100,000 a year “consulting”
contract, although that smash-and-grab was
foiled after news of it broke in a magazine.
Then there’s Daniel Asquino, longtime hack
president of Mount Wachusett Community College,
or has that become a community university? Since
2017, he’s been pocketing a $173,981 pension.
Asquino’s lump sum check for that traditional
unused vacation/sick time? $334,138.
Remember the two recent state police scandals
involving the junkie prostitute daughter of the
hack judge as well as the drug-dealing,
perjurious, money-laundering state trooper
Leigha Genduso?
Those twin scandals wiped out the top echelon of
the crooked state police, and probably added $10
million to the unfunded pension liability of the
commonwealth.
Among those “retiring” in the wake of the Bibaud
and Genduso catastrophes were Richard McKeon,
the colonel, $169,771, Genduso’s boyfriend Dan
Risteen, $159,999, his good buddy Francis
Hughes, $179,478, and the major who was in
charge of the barracks where they tried to put
the fix in for the judge’s daughter — Susan
Anderson.
She went out with $139,949 a year, for life. By
the way, Genduso was also tight with another
retired statie by the name of Marian McGovern.
Used to send her birthday tweets. Marian’s been
collecting her kiss in the mail since 2012 —
$164,741.
It’s like the hacks at the State House always
say: Forgotten but not gone. You scan down this
hack pension list, and the names come floating
back from the dim recesses of memory …
Let’s visit the 413 area code. David Bartley,
the ex-House speaker from Holyoke, last won an
election in, I think, 1974 or ’76. Now grabbing
$156,496 as ex-president of Holyoke Community
College, or is university?
Ken Lemanski, a ham-and-egger state rep —
$129,479 from Westfield State. Speaking of
Westfield, the ex-rep, Steve Pierce. He’s
grabbing two pensions, one for judge ($105,173)
and another from the Governor’s Executive Office
($72,589).
Jim Collins, ex-state rep from Amherst,
ex-judge: $101,150.
Closer to home, remember Mike Creedon, ex-rep
and senator from the Brockton hack family, run
off the bench after making untoward comments in
his judicial chambers a few years back —
$120,161.
Christine McEvoy, another judge, arrested for
driving under on Route 128 – $120,941.
Joan Menard, the totally worthless state senator
from Bristol, later interred at Bristol
Community University, or College, or something.
Phony Baloney Joanie’s pension is $100,467.
Charlie Lyons, Arlington hack who feasted on the
MWRA while at Shawsheen Valley Tech — $182,135.
Diane Kottmyer, retired judge who as a federal
organized-crime prosecutor once joked at the
retirement dinner of Zip Connolly, the
gangster/FBI agent now in prison in Florida,
about buying booze at the liquor store extorted
by Whitey Bulger: $120,941 a year.
How about some golden couples now on golden pond
with solid gold parachutes? Lynda Connolly,
ex-chief justice of the district court,
$103,293, and her husband, the former secretary
of space, uh, state, Mike Connolly, listed at
$32,051. (Is that all?)
Andrew Scibelli, ex-pres of Springfield Tech,
retired in 2004, $155,452, and his wife, former
tax deadbeat state Sen. Linda Melconian of
Springfield, $33,014. (Again, is that all?) I
googled the fun couple Tuesday and I came up
with an address in … Boca Raton. Nice
neighborhood!
I could keep going, maybe I will, on Sunday, but
in my next column I want to address the memoirs
of the above-mentioned Leigha Genduso, thrown
off the state police after her sordid criminal
background as a drug kingpin and money launderer
was revealed last year.
By her own account, Leigha is now making $20 an
hour working for a security company.
Twenty bucks an hour — you’re a long way from
the hackerama now, Trooper. Welcome back to the
real world. Welcome back to the Dreaded Private
Sector.
(Howie’s new book, “Kennedy Babylon Vol. 2,” is
now available for immediate shipment at
howiecarrshow.com.)
The Boston Herald
Friday, January 18, 2019
A Boston Herald editorial
State payroll perks produce pain in private
sector
To enjoy the abundance of wonderful perks
someone receives when that someone makes their
living on the state payroll is only human.
Gluttonous, but human. To do it in plain view of
the taxpayer whose hard-earned income is tithed
by law to provide such a bounty is just plain
cruel.
State workers enjoy all the best employee
benefits that have ever been while those in the
private sector can only pine for the days when
things like vacation-day payouts were par for
the course.
When your check is from the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, the possibilities are endless.
As the Herald’s Joe Dwinell reports, thousands
of retiring state workers boosted their pay last
year by cashing in unused sick and vacation
days, with more than a dozen receiving
“gargantuan goodbye kisses,” as one exasperated
fiscal warrior said.
A former University of Massachusetts Boston
provost earned $317,000 last year after
receiving $185,700 for days off never used.
Three others also ended the year pulling down
more than $300,000 with the help of buyouts, a
Herald analysis of state payroll records shows.
They weren’t alone. More than 10,000 exiting Bay
State public employees put the buyout perk to
work for them. Under state law, buying back time
is considered a buyout.
It’s a benefit of yesteryear in the private
sector, where it has been all but phased out.
“Most private employers have a certain number of
(vacation and sick) days, but you can’t carry
them over and you can’t cash them out when you
leave,” said Jon Hurst, president of the
Retailers Association of Massachusetts.
Buyout culture pervades the state roles. Many of
the top recipients came from the UMass system,
the state police, the Department of Correction,
the Trial Court and the Attorney General’s
Office.
“The intention of providing sick and vacation
time is to keep employees healthy and rested,”
said Mary Connaughton of the Pioneer Institute.
“The state should cap buyouts rather than accrue
gargantuan goodbye kisses for employees on their
way out the door.”
Likewise, David Tuerck, a Suffolk University
economics professor and head of the Beacon Hill
Institute, finds the buyout policy absurd. “I
don’t understand why the state allows it,” he
said. “It’s a mistake to treat sick time as an
entitlement. It violates the whole purpose of
the time off.”
Built-in raises, job security, no-show jobs and
vacation-day buyouts. Working for the state is
where it’s at. The elected chaperones of our
current system should be on notice that voters
see unfairness as an affront to themselves and
their families. Rightly so.
While working people watch with envy as those on
the state payroll get fat payouts, there will
come a time when they exact payback at
politicians at the polls. And it will happen.
Remember, the state can’t hire us all.
The Wall Street Journal
Saturday, January 12, 2019
Opinion | Commentary | Cross Country
Lawmakers Are Doing a Bad Job—So Give Them a
Raise?
States where lawmaking is part-time work have a
better record of handling taxpayers’ money.
By Steven Malanga
Late last year the New York Committee on
Legislative and Executive Compensation concluded
that state lawmakers in Albany were overworked
and underpaid. The committee, appointed by the
Legislature itself, recommended a hefty raise.
Legislators are set to earn $110,000 in base
salary this year, up from $79,500 in 2018. In
2021 their salaries will rise to $130,000—more
than double the state’s median household income.
That might seem like typical New York political
audaciousness. In fact the raises are part of a
nationwide progressive movement to transform
state lawmakers into a “professionalized” elite
who earn most of their money from public work.
Well-paid political professionals, the argument
goes, are less susceptible to corruption and
give citizens better government. It’s a nice
theory but certainly hasn’t been the case in New
York, where lawmakers are already
well-compensated but the Legislature is
dysfunctional.
The move toward professionalization is part of a
campaign against citizen legislators—the
part-time, nonprofessional lawmakers who have
populated state legislatures since the early
days of the republic. As the size of government
has grown, states have gradually moved away from
this model. Today, according to the National
Conference of State Legislatures, 14 states
continue to have part-time legislatures. Another
26 have adopted what’s called hybrid models,
where lawmakers spend a considerable amount of
their time on state work but still earn much of
their income from other jobs. Ten states have
converted to full-time legislatures—including
California, New York and Illinois—where salaries
average more than $80,000 a year.
Political insiders and academics claim that
“professionalized” equals better. Full-time
legislators are more responsive to their
constituents because they have greater political
ambitions than part-timers, argued political
scientist Cherie Maestas in a 2000 paper. In
2014, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez—then a Harvard
doctoral candidate in government and social
policy and now a Columbia professor—published a
peer-reviewed article claiming to find that the
more legislators are paid, the less likely they
are to pass bills that reflect “corporate”
influences. A 2017 Huffington Post article
declared that professionalizing legislatures is
a “progressive policy.”
What these studies and reports don’t account for
is that voters in states that pay legislators
the most are less happy with their
representatives than voters in states that pay
less. The fundamental task of state government
is to write and manage budgets that spend
taxpayers’ money. So-called professional
legislatures like New York’s haven’t been good
at that.
A recent Pew study found that over the past 15
years 10 states consistently spent more than
they took in, relying on debt and gimmicks to
keep their budgets afloat. The list of deficit
spenders is filled with states that pay their
legislators generously, including California,
New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey. By
contrast, the states ranking at the bottom in
terms of legislator pay—including Wyoming, Utah,
North Dakota and Montana—have balanced their
budgets consistently during the last 15 years.
States with the most “professionalized”
legislators also have some of the worst-managed
government pension systems. California’s
Legislature is the best-paid in the
country—Golden State lawmakers earn base pay of
$111,059 plus $192 for every day they attend
sessions in Sacramento. In 2018, according to a
California Senate report, lawmakers received an
average of $34,000 in tax-free per diem
payments. For years California’s well-paid
professional lawmakers refused to fund
adequately the retirement benefits they granted
state workers and teachers. Today the California
pension system owes more than $170 billion in
unfunded liabilities, which local governments
are struggling to pay off.
Illinois—the state with the fifth-highest
lawmaker salaries—has the nation’s worst-funded
retirement system, with $141 billion in debt and
only 40% of the money it needs to satisfy coming
obligations. In Pennsylvania, whose Legislature
is paid better than any except California’s, the
state’s retirement system is only 53% funded
with $68 billion in debt.
Voters could be forgiven for wondering how much
worse part-time legislatures would have done.
Still, the momentum for more professionalization
grows. Last April the minority leader of the
Arkansas Senate lamented that pay raises
engineered by a state panel were part of an
effort to convert Arkansas’s part-time
Legislature into a full-time body. A February
article in the Tampa Bay Times complained that
Florida’s current part-time body was composed of
the state’s “elite” who didn’t represent
ordinary citizens. It argued that a full-time
Legislature would better serve the state. But a
legislature of career politicians is itself an
elite body that would struggle to represent the
concerns of ordinary citizens.
In addition to pay increases, the New York panel
also proposed putting strict limits on how much
legislators can earn from outside sources. It
says this will help address Albany’s corruption
problem. But a lawsuit filed in state Supreme
Court by the nonprofit Government Justice Center
says the commission doesn’t have the power to
enforce such restrictions. Sen. George Amedore,
who runs a family construction company in
upstate New York, argues that such income limits
would exclude people like small-business owners
who had “real world” work experience from
serving in the Legislature.
Then again, it’s been years since anybody
described Albany government as in touch with the
real world.
― Mr. Malanga is
a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and
senior editor of City Journal.
The Boston Herald
Sunday, January 13, 2019
A Boston Herald editorial
Public has right to know what lawmakers are
doing
Why should the state body that enacts laws be
exempt from laws granting greater public
scrutiny?
Massachusetts, known for its restrictive,
archaic public-records laws, finally passed
reform legislation in 2016, the first update to
those statutes in nearly 40 years. However,
those improvements to public access only
pertained to the workings of municipal
government. They didn’t address the
long-standing exception enjoyed by the
Legislature, governor and judiciary.
And when it comes to accessing the dealings of
its lawmakers, Massachusetts remains squarely in
the minority. Legislatures in virtually every
other state, including our New England
neighbors, are subject to public-records laws.
So, we were at least guardedly optimistic when
the Legislature attempted to study ways to pry
open the seal of privacy.
The impetus for that step came out of that
records-reform legislation. But instead of
taking on the three-headed obstacle to the
public’s right to know, lawmakers set up a
commission of separate Senate and House panels
to consider whether to expand the law to the
Legislature, judiciary and governor’s office;
these bodies supposedly set about examining and
hopefully finding solutions for accessing these
records.
But in the end, neither one could reach any
consensus on potential legislation or new rules,
and the commission disbanded without rendering
any formal recommendations.
“I was really disappointed we didn’t come to
consensus,” Rep. Jennifer Benson of Lunenburg,
who co-chaired the commission on the House side,
told the State House News Service. “My staff and
I and the House members, as well as all the
members of the commission, really took this
seriously, did a lot of work and research around
this issue and tried to understand every facet
of not only the concept of public records, but
exactly how we can make this more robust and
accessible and transparent to the public and
ways specifically to do that, and unfortunately
we just did not agree on ways to do that.”
Benson indicated the Legislature faces
constraints contained in our state constitution
against extending the open-records law to the
governor’s office and judiciary. However,
somehow the rest of our republic has managed to
navigate those muddy legal waters. We realize it
took four decades to attain any semblance of
public-records reform, so we shouldn’t be
surprised that lawmakers have reservations about
opening the doors of their inner workings to
public view.
We’d hoped that revelations concerning the House
speaker’s disclosure of that chamber’s use of
nondisclosure and non-disparagement agreements
without the knowledge of fellow lawmakers might
move them to see the need to act, but even that
slight apparently proved insufficient to change
the insular culture on Beacon Hill.
Despite these setbacks, we shouldn’t just sit
back and allow the Legislature to conduct
business as usual. Efforts to open up the
dealings of the judiciary and governor’s office
can be put on the back burner for now, but the
news media should demand that lawmakers respond
to the public’s right for greater access.
And instead of forming a legislative group that
looks inward, we propose following the same
procedure as was done when investigating how
other states implemented the rollout of
recreational pot. There were only a few states
from which to choose for that assignment. But
legislators have the pick of just about every
other state in the union to find ways to shine a
stronger beacon of light on the State House.
State House News
Service
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Goldberg wants new revenue source for school
construction
By Colin A. Young
After taking the oath of office in the newly
renovated Senate Chamber on Wednesday for
another four years, Treasurer Deborah Goldberg
previewed a second term in which she plans to
maintain and expand programs she said have been
successful and seek new revenue sources and
funding flexibility for school construction
projects in Massachusetts.
"I said that I wanted the treasurer's office to
help all Massachusetts residents achieve
economic stability, security, and opportunity. I
asked you all to join me on this journey and
together we have achieved amazing results,"
Goldberg said after she was sworn in by her
parents, Carol and Avram.
The treasurer called for lawmakers to increase
"our funding flexibility" and to find additional
revenue streams for the Massachusetts School
Building Authority, especially "as our schools
become older and older, and the cost of
construction continues to increase."
In next year's state budget, Beacon Hill leaders
have already set aside $917 million in sales tax
revenues for the school building authority, but
it appears Goldberg is angling for a larger
appropriation.
"As long as we have buildings without any
science labs -- and I'm going to underline
without any science labs -- or overcrowding
forces the use of hallways and gyms as
classrooms, we are not meeting our kids' needs,
nor our businesses' that require a trained
workforce," Goldberg said. "We hope to be able
to work with our legislative partners in
increasing our funding flexibility and finding
additional revenue streams."
The treasurer used her speech to recap her first
term in office and when she did look ahead she
urged a steady hand. When she did call upon the
Legislature to do something -- allow the Lottery
to sell products online, increase funding for
school construction or make a retirement plan
available to non-profit employees -- she did not
delve deeply into the issues or apply much
pressure to lawmakers.
The Brookline Democrat celebrated fiscal year
2017's record-setting $1.035 billion in profits
from the Massachusetts Lottery and said her
office "will need to be working with our
legislative and retail partners" to ensure that
the Lottery can continue to generate near $1
billion for local aid each year.
She did not explicitly say in her speech that
the Lottery should be allowed to sell its
current products online as New Hampshire has
recently started doing, but said it is important
to "continue the modernization" of the Lottery.
"The world has changed with fantasy sports,
sports betting, casinos and online lottery in
neighboring states," she said, repeating an
observation she often made during her first
term. "We do not want to go the way of Sears or
Toys R Us."
As she did on the campaign trail, Goldberg
touted the relative health of the state's Rainy
Day Fund in her inaugural address, calling
recent growth in the account "excellent
progress" amid an uncertain global economy.
With the benefit of a surplus in fiscal year
2018, Massachusetts added to its Rainy Day Fund
and pushed its balance north of $2 billion for
the first time since fiscal 2008. Looking ahead,
Goldberg on Wednesday called for the state to
continue socking away money for the next
economic downturn.
"It is critical to maintain stability through
uncertain times by adhering to strict fiscal
guidelines," she said. "The governor and I will
be visiting with the rating agencies in New York
this spring to communicate and reaffirm our
state's commitment to our financially prudent
policies."
Last month, the treasurer told lawmakers that
she, Baker and Administration and Finance
Secretary Michael Heffernan should visit the New
York offices of credit rating agencies again --
Goldberg and Baker took a similar trip in 2016
-- to tout the state's progress with the
stabilization fund and other fiscal policies.
S&P Global Ratings lowered its rating for
Massachusetts bonds to AA from AA+ in June 2017,
largely due to the state diverting money from
the stabilization fund while the economy and tax
revenues were growing.
Goldberg also called for the Pension Reserves
Investment Management Board to "maintain the
focus of our unique strategies," which she said
have withstood volatility in the markets over
the last four years and helped PRIM outperform
its peer funds.
"It has grown by $10 billion through excellent
investment performance and careful cost control,
with a lower risk profile built to withstand
variations in the market," Goldberg said
Wednesday.
It's unclear how the pension fund fared in 2018;
officials have said return results are not yet
available.
Gov. Charlie Baker, Senate President Emerita
Harriette Chandler and House Speaker Robert
DeLeo attended Goldberg's noon swearing-in, and
DeLeo praised the treasurer for her largely
behind-the-scenes work on financial issues.
"When you take a look in terms of the economic
situation of what goes on here in the
commonwealth, this lady plays an extremely
important part in making sure, you know, that we
continue to grow and that we continue to grow at
a forward pace very well," DeLeo said. "And we
are doing that."
Goldberg defeated Republican Keiko Orrall in the
November election, winning about 68 percent of
the statewide vote en route to a second
four-year term.
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