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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
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Many
Moving Pieces
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Eva Millona, executive director of the
Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition,
will chair the 2020 Complete Count Committee, Secretary of
State William Galvin, the state's official liaison to the
U.S. Census, announced after the inaugural meeting of that
panel.
"I think her expertise and her knowledge of
the different communities of our state is going to be
enormously helpful," Galvin said. Millona is also co-chair
of the
National Partnership for New Americans, which represents
the nation's 37 largest regional immigrant and refugee
rights organizations in 31 states.
The statewide committee features government
and community leaders who will provide education about the
decennial census. Population counts gathered in each state
will lead to recalculations of federal funding to the
states, redistricting and changes in political
representation - Massachusetts lost a U.S. House seat after
the 2010 Census, for instance, a change that coincided with
the decisions of former Reps. John Olver and Barney Frank
not to seek re-election.
The population in Massachusetts has been
growing, largely due to international migration, and Galvin
and others in Massachusetts are working to ensure that all
people in the state are counted, and mindful that the Trump
administration's crackdown on illegal immigration might
affect how people respond....
Galvin said Massachusetts in 2000 and in
2010 reached out to college students and immigrants and "had
pretty good success." He estimated the non native-born
population in Massachusetts at more than a million people,
out of an estimated 6.8 million.
"To make sure that that million is counted
is going to be very challenging, not just the people who are
legally present here, who are in fact should be counted but
perhaps are in fear, but especially those persons who may
not be legally present here but who are here, who work day
in and day out in our state, who provide support to our
economy that couldn't function without them. They are here."
...
A report marked for release Wednesday
estimates the Latino population in Massachusetts will grow
to more than 1.15 million by 2035 and represent more than 15
percent of the population.
State House News Service
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Immigrant group director to chair key census count committee
The Senate is proposing to eliminate a state
limit on family welfare benefits as part of a $144 million
mid-year spending bill that is poised to become the first
significant piece of legislation passed this session by the
Senate later this week.
New Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman
Michael Rodrigues proposed a new version (S 2181) of the
supplemental budget bill passed last week in the House (H
3506) and the Senate teed it up for consideration at a full
formal session this Thursday.
The Senate's version of the bill, which is
intended to funnel money in the current fiscal year to state
accounts that either have run out of cash or will soon run
dry, comes with a bottom line of $143.9 million, about $9
million more than the House version, which clocked in at
$135 million.
In its budget bill, the Senate is also
proposing to eliminate the so-called cap on kids, the state
law that precludes additional public benefits for families
that have another child while already receiving aid. A
majority of lawmakers in both branches -- 104
representatives and 27 senators -- have signed on in support
of a bill (H 104, S 37) to lift the cap on family welfare
benefits.
"This proposal is all about making sure we
do everything we can to help the most vulnerable members of
our Commonwealth," Rodrigues said in a statement....
The House and Senate both voted last
session, as part of the fiscal 2019 budget, to repeal the
cap. Gov. Charlie Baker returned the proposal with an
amendment offering additional welfare reforms, saying that
he does not oppose lifting the cap but was concerned that
without changes to the way aid is calculated, there would be
inequity in the system....
The Senate version also mirrors the House
bill in that it would provide $39 million for collective
bargaining costs. Baker had requested $54 million for
collective bargaining costs, but wrote in his filing letter
that "$38 million is for contracts that are already in
effect but only partially funded, while $1 million is for
contracts that are newly ratified and ready to go into
effect."
State House News Service
Monday, March 4, 2019
Senate lifts family cap in $144 Mil budget bill
Upgrading the state's transportation
infrastructure while keeping the economy moving is like
performing surgery on a patient who's simultaneously running
a marathon, according to Senate President Karen Spilka.
Spilka made the analogy in a recent speech
in which she discussed her plans to take a "30,000-foot view
on transportation" and outlined a series of priorities for
the Senate as it pursues policy options.
While the Legislature has a Transportation
Committee made up of House and Senate members to review
bills and make recommendations, Spilka is eyeing a process
where the Senate can conduct its own work....
"Right now, I plan to focus less on
individual policy proposals and more on bringing the right
people to the table to get things done," Spilka said last
week at a meeting of the board of the Boston-based group A
Better City, according to her prepared remarks. "As I've
said before -- I don't think we can afford to take any idea
off the table right now when it comes to transportation --
either in terms of fixes, or in terms of how we pay for it."
A Better City in late February released a
report tallying an $8.4 billion shortfall in revenues needed
to ensure state roads, bridges and MBTA infrastructure are
in a state of good repair over the next 10 years.
The amount of money required to maintain a
state of good repair is "breathtaking," Spilka said....
Spilka detailed a series of principles she
said should be included in any proposal the Senate either
puts forward or agrees to. Among them are sustainability,
access and affordability, connectivity across regions of the
state, innovation, and achievability, including a way to pay
for whatever the proposal entails....
"To that end, I believe that if tolls are so
great for some areas of the state, they should also be great
for many other areas of the Commonwealth," said Spilka,
whose 30-mile commute to Boston involves paying tolls on the
Massachusetts Turnpike. "I joke about that, but as you are
likely aware, toll equity has been important to me for a
very long time. Regional equity is also the reason the
Senate has passed legislation allowing for communities to
finance transportation through regional ballot initiatives,
and why Regional Transit Authorities will always be a
priority of mine."
The Senate on more than one occasion has
approved language that would allow regional ballot
initiatives, where municipalities could group together to
propose to their voters new local taxes that would fund
transportation projects.
Last year, the Senate voted 27-10 to add a
regional ballot initiative measure into an economic
development bill. The measure did not survive talks with the
House to make it into the version that ultimately became
law.
Sen. Eric Lesser, a Longmeadow Democrat,
filed a regional transportation initiatives bill (S 1694)
this session. Nineteen other senators and 14 representatives
have signed on as cosponsors.
At a briefing Wednesday with regional
planning agencies, Lesser said supporters of the ballot
initiatives are "making really great progress" advancing the
issue. Dozens of states have already adopted them as a
funding mechanism to support rapid rail systems and other
projects, he said.
"How much longer, frankly, do our
constituents in Springfield, or I met the gentleman in
Brockton, or on the North Shore, have to wait for the State
House to start adequately funding transportation?" Lesser
said. "With regional ballot initiatives, local regional
economies ... like the Pioneer Valley or the Berkshires or
the North Shore could band together to fund and create and
set up their own projects, whether that's the ferry service
from the North Shore to Boston, or the Pioneer Valley
north-south rail service from Greenfield to Springfield and
even into New York City."
State House News Service
Monday, March 4, 2019
Excitement, uncertainty mark transportation debate, Spilka
says
Reducing the MBTA's budget deficit next year
and improving service will be possible thanks to new revenue
from proposed fare increases, according to the authority.
But one board member, aware of the pushback the hikes have
drawn, wants the state to explore other ways of funding
public transportation.
At the MBTA Board meeting on Monday, Brian
Lang said it would be "completely wrongheaded" to generate
new money for the system just by leaning more on commuters.
Instead, he suggested, officials should pursue some
combination of a higher gas tax, additional fees on
rideshare services and a congestion-pricing toll system....
"We don't operate in isolation and we are
never going to be able to have a world-class transportation
system unless there's some kind of coordination and unless
our political leaders grow a little bit of courage when it
comes to taking these issue on, because it does mean to tax,
to have fees," said Lang, a former meatpacker and bellman
who serves as president of UNITE HERE Local 26, Boston's
hotel and food service union....
He requested a study on how the projected
new revenue from higher fares would be affected if buses —
which would increase from $1.70 to $1.80 per ride ...
Dozens of people, including 19 members of
the Legislature's Boston delegation, spoke against the
proposal last week, recounting overcrowded trains and
frequent delays and warning of the economic and
environmental impacts the plan would have. Boston City
Councilor Michelle Wu, who argued that the T should be free,
submitted a petition with 2,700 names opposing the hikes.
Some called for alternative funding sources,
just as Lang did Monday. They called for an increase to the
state's gas tax, which has been raised just once in the past
28 years, or for new taxes to fund transportation
investments.
State House News Service
Monday, March 4, 2019
MBTA may be leaning too hard on riders, board member says
An estimated 464,000 Massachusetts workers
counted themselves as union members in 2018, the most since
2009, according to new federal data.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported
that union members accounted for 13.7 percent of wage and
salary workers in Massachusetts last year. The U.S. average
was 10.5 percent.
State House News Service
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Mass. union membership numbers at ten-year high
The new chairmen of the Joint Ways and Means
Committee understand the task ahead of them: in the coming
weeks, they must craft a more-than-$40-billion budget for a
fiscal year that starts in July while the economic picture
of the current fiscal year shifts beneath their feet.
Using the $42.7 billion fiscal year 2020
budget (H 1) Gov. Charlie Baker filed in January as a
starting point, the budget-writing committee began its slate
of public hearings Tuesday to give lawmakers their first
real opportunity to grill the administration on its spending
plans.
Senate Ways and Means Chairman Michael
Rodrigues said he recognizes "the enormity" of the task
facing he and House Chairman Aaron Michlewitz and called it
"an undertaking that requires us to share responsibility as
stewards of taxpayers' dollars and put forward a fiscally
responsible budget that places our state on firm financial
footing."
State House News Service
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Lawmakers begin work on Baker's $42.7 Billion budget
Stronger than expected tax revenue
collections for the month of February took a bite out of
what had been a more than $400 million gap so far this
fiscal year, bringing the shortfall down to $292 million
with four months left in the fiscal year.
The state Department of Revenue on Tuesday
announced $1.43 billion in revenue collections in February,
a total that landed $111 million, or 8.5 percent, above
projections for the month.
State House News Service
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
February revenue growth eats into state budget shortfall
Now that the landmark 2018 criminal justice
reform law is on the books, lawmakers are exploring
additional ideas and "even harder work," as Sen. Jamie
Eldridge put it Thursday, including the possibility of
releasing prisoners serving life-without-parole sentences
for the most serious crimes, including murder....
In Massachusetts, 1,018 people in 2016 were
serving life sentence without the possibility of parole....
Under legislation sponsored by Rep. Jay
Livingstone (H 3358) and Sen. Joseph Boncore, all people
serving life sentences would have the opportunity for a
parole hearing after 25 years, a change in law that would
apply retroactively so that it would affect people currently
incarcerated. Both bills are titled "An Act to Reduce Mass
Incarceration." ...
"We addressed some of the non-violent
mandatory minimum drug crimes, repealing them last session,"
Eldridge said, referring to a law that also emphasized
treating offenders for substance use addiction. "But now we
need to get into, in some ways, the more nuanced discussions
around people who are in prison for violent crimes and
whether we should be changing the sentencing for some group
of those individuals."
State House News Service
Thursday, February 28, 2019
Justice reformers set their sights on life sentences
"PredictWise
was able to rank all 3,000 counties in the country based
on the estimated level of partisan prejudice in each
place.... Nationwide, if we disregard the smallest
counties (which may be hard to pin down statistically,
since they have fewer than 100,000 people), the most
politically intolerant county in America appears to be
Suffolk County, Massachusetts, which includes the city
of Boston."
The Atlantic
March 4, 2019
The Geography of Partisan Prejudice
A guide to the most—and least—politically open-minded
counties in America
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
Secretary of State William Galvin has
delegated the foxes to guard the chicken coop
– and to determine the
number of fowl in the hen house.
The State House News Service (SHNS)
reported on December 19 ("Bay
State population growth tops in New England"):
"[Galvin] said while Massachusetts continues to
lose population by residents moving to other
states, the loss is offset by twice that number
of people moving to the state from other
countries.... 'These numbers show how
important it is that we ensure every person in
Massachusetts is counted in the 2020 Census,
whether or not they are United States citizens,'
Galvin said."
Yesterday the State House News Service
noted:
"A
report marked for release Wednesday estimates
the Latino population in Massachusetts will grow
to more than 1.15 million by 2035 and represent
more than 15 percent of the population."
Galvin himself "estimated the non
native-born population in Massachusetts at more than a
million people, out of an estimated 6.8 million" so
150,000 more by 2035 is a low-ball estimate by far.
MIRA, the immigrants' advocacy organization,
boasts "Over time, Massachusetts’ immigrant and
refugee population has grown significantly, to 1.1
million, about half of whom arrived after 2000. . . . We
have worked to secure millions of dollars in state
funding for programs that support the social, civic and
economic integration of immigrants and refugees. We
advocate for progressive policies at the state, local
and national levels, and fight to defeat anti-immigrant
measures."
Meanwhile, on Monday the Senate proposed
its own version to eliminate a state cap on family
welfare benefits (S 37). "A majority of lawmakers
in both branches -- 104 representatives and 27 senators
-- have signed on in support of a bill . . . that
precludes additional public benefits for families that
have another child while already receiving aid," SHNS
reported.
As part of its $135 million
"supplemental budget," the House version (H 104) passed
unanimously last week; the Senate will vote on its $144
million version of a mid-year supplemental budget on
Thursday.
I reiterate what I wrote in
my commentary of December 23: "Productive
taxpayers bailing out, immigrants moving in at greater
numbers, an economic slowdown on the horizon. Am I the
only one who sees a connection between these
uncomfortable facts?"
"A Better City in late February
released
a report tallying an $8.4 billion shortfall in revenues
needed to ensure state roads, bridges and MBTA
infrastructure are in a state of good repair over the
next 10 years.
"The amount of money required to maintain
a state of good repair is "breathtaking,"
[Senate president Karen] Spilka
said....
"The Senate on more than one occasion has
approved language that would allow regional ballot
initiatives, where municipalities could group together
to propose to their voters new local taxes that would
fund transportation projects."
Regional ballot initiatives to fund
transportation projects? This is precisely what
the auto excise (tax), the gas tax, Registry of Motor
Vehicles fees, tolls, and all the other "assessments" on
motorists are supposed to fund –
transportation projects! So where are all
those millions and billions going?
Though the MBTA continues to be given
over 15 percent of all state income taxes collected
― hardly transportation-related ―
it has consistently and grossly mismanaged the
billions it collects. Now some want to make riding
the T free ― now
there's a solution!
At the MBTA Board meeting on Monday,
Brian Lang said it would be "completely wrongheaded" to
generate new money for the system just by leaning more
on commuters. Instead, he suggested, officials should
pursue some combination of a higher gas tax, additional
fees on rideshare services and a congestion-pricing toll
system....
Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu, who
argued that the T should be free, submitted a petition
with 2,700 names opposing the hikes.
Will they ever learn that nothing is free, that
somebody has to pay for their freebies?
Using the $42.7 billion fiscal year 2020
budget (H 1) Gov. Charlie Baker filed in January as a
starting point, the budget-writing committee began its
slate of public hearings Tuesday to give lawmakers their
first real opportunity to grill the administration on
its spending plans.
Almost on cue along came the latest
Department of Revenue monthly report:
Stronger than expected tax revenue
collections for the month of February took a bite out of
what had been a more than $400 million gap so far this
fiscal year, bringing the shortfall down to $292 million
with four months left in the fiscal year.
You don't need me to tell you where this is going, I
suspect.
"Now that the landmark 2018 criminal justice
reform law is on the books, lawmakers are exploring
additional ideas and 'even harder work,' as Sen. Jamie
Eldridge put it Thursday, including the possibility of
releasing prisoners serving life-without-parole sentences
for the most serious crimes, including murder...."
Here is another worthy example of both
More Is Never Enough and the moving-target
paradigm; the camel's nose under the tent strategy.
Capital punishment was a huge issue in Massachusetts
back in 1997, following the brutal murder of 10-year old
Jeffrey Curley. A bill to re-establish it in the
Bay State passed in the state Senate, but in a shocking
reversal state Rep. John Slattery (D-Peabody) cast the
deciding vote in the House that defeated it. His
one vote.
In a Boston Globe
column of February 7, 1997, "Saying no to the death
penalty" by Derrick Z. Jackson he noted:
"The Death
Penalty Information Center, which opposes
executions, conducted a poll that found that
only 41 percent of Americans supported the death
penalty if life without parole was an option.
Without that option, earlier polls found that up
to 77 percent of Americans supported capital
punishment....
"Life without parole releases jurors from being
haunted by the issue of whether they should be
in the business of taking a life (once a killer
is safely behind bars) ...
"A Virginia juror who voted for life without
parole in a murder case told the [Washington]
Post, "If a person is dangerous you don't want
him to get out to cause harm again. . . . I'm
not sure what we would have done if we knew he
could get out. I'm glad we had the choice we
did.'"
On October 28, 1997 the Globe's Peter S.
Canellos reported ("On an agonizing issue, sentiment has
been shifting"):
"'All over the country people are improperly
released from prison,' even if sentenced to
life, said Dudley Sharp, vice president of
Justice For All, a Texas victims' rights
organization. 'They maim, they rape, they kill.
Why should they get a second chance? Isn't one
murder enough?'"
Life without parole was sold back then
as the more humane alternative to capital punishment.
Citizens were promised that murderers would be locked up
for life, the key thrown away. Convicted murderers
would die behind bars. They would never, ever
be loose on the streets again, a threat. Never!
Once again we find that the only thing
certain from government is broken promises.
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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State House News
Service
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Immigrant group director to chair key census
count committee
By Michael P. Norton
Eva Millona, executive director of the
Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy
Coalition, will chair the 2020 Complete
Count Committee, Secretary of State William
Galvin, the state's official liaison to the U.S.
Census, announced after the inaugural meeting of
that panel.
"I think her expertise and her knowledge of the
different communities of our state is going to
be enormously helpful," Galvin said. Millona is
also co-chair of the
National Partnership for New Americans,
which represents the nation's 37 largest
regional immigrant and refugee rights
organizations in 31 states.
The statewide committee features government and
community leaders who will provide education
about the decennial census. Population counts
gathered in each state will lead to
recalculations of federal funding to the states,
redistricting and changes in political
representation - Massachusetts lost a U.S. House
seat after the 2010 Census, for instance, a
change that coincided with the decisions of
former Reps. John Olver and Barney Frank not to
seek re-election.
The population in Massachusetts has been
growing, largely due to international migration,
and Galvin and others in Massachusetts are
working to ensure that all people in the state
are counted, and mindful that the Trump
administration's crackdown on illegal
immigration might affect how people respond.
"We are living in a very different time in terms
of the climate," Galvin said during a briefing
in February.
At that briefing, Galvin said he wanted to
ensure that people living in public housing are
counted, noting the ability exists currently to
take information from other "secondary sources,"
such as administrators of dormitories or nursing
homes. He said he's discussed the issue with
members of Congress.
"I'm actively exploring any means I can to make
sure we get an accurate count, because at the
end of that day that's what it's about," Galvin
said.
The population growth in Massachusetts has
exceeded growth in other Northeast states, at a
rate that's sufficient to justify the state's
federal aid levels and to protect its
representation in the U.S. House, where
Massachusetts has nine seats, according to
Galvin.
"They are here"
Galvin said Massachusetts in 2000 and in 2010
reached out to college students and immigrants
and "had pretty good success." He estimated the
non native-born population in Massachusetts at
more than a million people, out of an estimated
6.8 million.
"To make sure that that million is counted is
going to be very challenging, not just the
people who are legally present here, who are in
fact should be counted but perhaps are in fear,
but especially those persons who may not be
legally present here but who are here, who work
day in and day out in our state, who provide
support to our economy that couldn't function
without them. They are here."
Sen. Sal DiDomenico of Everett pointed out that
the state budget includes about $16 billion in
federal funds. "If we don't have accurate counts
our communities are going to feel it in a very
big way," he said.
Rep. Michael Moran of Boston, who led House
redistricting efforts after the last Census,
said he was encouraged about early organizing.
He said some areas of his district are
challenging to count and that everyone who lives
in Massachusetts needs to be counted in the
Census "no matter where they're from."
"To do that correctly I think we're going to
have to reach out to some people who maybe
haven't been engaged in this process for a
while," Moran said. "We know - the Census is
telling us - that they're cutting back on staff.
They're cutting back on budgets. We know that
the amount of people on the streets are not
going to be the same as it was 10 years ago.
We're going to have to try to find a way in the
coming months to see if we can assist with that.
It might be some assistance in funding. It could
be some assistance in technology."
Low-income areas in cities were the most
difficult to obtain accurate counts in 2010,
said Luc Schuster, director of Boston
Indicators, a Boston Foundation research
institute, as well as college students, people
who rent or move frequently, and people living
in group quarters or non-traditional households.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in
April in the case surrounding a possible
citizenship question on the Census, Schuster
said. "Ultimately this is going to be up to the
new very conservative Supreme Court to decide,"
he said. "My understanding is we'll get a
decision in late spring or early summer."
The next Census will also be conducted online,
which could facilitate organizing at community
meetings, or in other settings.
"Imagine Jaylen Brown at halftime of a Celtics
game asked everybody in the Garden to take out
their phone and fill out the Census," Schuster
said, summing up an idea that he said was
suggested by the regional Census director.
There are related challenges though.
One in eight households statewide in
Massachusetts do not have access to the
internet, including cellphone access through a
data plan, said Nancy Wagman, KIDS COUNT
director at the Massachusetts Budget and Policy
Center. In Hampden County, one in five
households do not have access to the internet,
she said.
Wagman said there are strict privacy protections
on information provided as part of the Census,
with violators subject to a five-year prison
sentence and a fine of up to $250,000. "There
are very clear and explicit protections for your
data, my data, all of our data, in Census law,"
she said.
A report marked for release Wednesday estimates
the Latino population in Massachusetts will grow
to more than 1.15 million by 2035 and represent
more than 15 percent of the population. The
Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative
Caucus plans to host a State House event to
present "Latinos in Massachusetts: 2010-2035," a
new report by The Mauricio Gastón Institute for
Latino Community Development and Public Policy
at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
State House News
Service
Monday, March 4, 2019
Senate lifts family cap in $144 Mil budget bill
By Colin A. Young
The Senate is proposing to eliminate a state
limit on family welfare benefits as part of a
$144 million mid-year spending bill that is
poised to become the first significant piece of
legislation passed this session by the Senate
later this week.
New Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman
Michael Rodrigues proposed a new version (S
2181) of the supplemental budget bill passed
last week in the House (H 3506) and the Senate
teed it up for consideration at a full formal
session this Thursday.
The Senate's version of the bill, which is
intended to funnel money in the current fiscal
year to state accounts that either have run out
of cash or will soon run dry, comes with a
bottom line of $143.9 million, about $9 million
more than the House version, which clocked in at
$135 million.
In its budget bill, the Senate is also proposing
to eliminate the so-called cap on kids, the
state law that precludes additional public
benefits for families that have another child
while already receiving aid. A majority of
lawmakers in both branches -- 104
representatives and 27 senators -- have signed
on in support of a bill (H 104, S 37) to lift
the cap on family welfare benefits.
"This proposal is all about making sure we do
everything we can to help the most vulnerable
members of our Commonwealth," Rodrigues said in
a statement. "It eliminates an outdated policy
that harms children and families, supports
critical heating assistance programs that help
seniors and veterans stay warm, and demonstrates
our commitment to offering a path of healing and
justice for sexual assault survivors. In those
ways and others, the proposed supplemental
budget reflects our goals of ensuring economic
security for all and strengthening public
safety."
The House and Senate both voted last session, as
part of the fiscal 2019 budget, to repeal the
cap. Gov. Charlie Baker returned the proposal
with an amendment offering additional welfare
reforms, saying that he does not oppose lifting
the cap but was concerned that without changes
to the way aid is calculated, there would be
inequity in the system.
Like the House version, the Senate's
supplemental budget includes $30 million in
funding for the low-income heating energy
assistance program (LIHEAP) and about $10
million for emergency shelter assistance for
families. House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron
Michlewitz called LIHEAP "a critical program
that has seen declining support from the federal
government over the last year due to regulation
changes."
Senate Ways and Means departed from the House's
approach, though, on funding for the collection
and testing of sexual assault evidence kits.
When Gov. Charlie Baker filed the initial
version of the mid-year budget bill (H 74), he
requested about $16 million to be able to
address a backlog of assault evidence kits.
While the House directed $8 million to the
purpose -- Michlewitz said the $8 million will
allow the state to "begin to address the backlog
of assault kit tests and continue the progress
we made last session with criminal justice
reform" -- the Senate is proposing to fund the
full $16 million of the governor's request.
The Senate version, like the House bill, does
not include $5 million requested by Baker for a
regional fentanyl interdiction program, meant to
address the synthetic drug that has been a
significant driver in the state's opioid
overdose death epidemic.
The Senate version also mirrors the House bill
in that it would provide $39 million for
collective bargaining costs. Baker had requested
$54 million for collective bargaining costs, but
wrote in his filing letter that "$38 million is
for contracts that are already in effect but
only partially funded, while $1 million is for
contracts that are newly ratified and ready to
go into effect."
The rest of the funds he requested were to go
into "a reserve for the remainder of anticipated
fiscal 2019 collective bargaining costs, to be
drawn upon once the relevant agreements are
approved through legislation," Baker wrote.
The spending bill includes almost $1.5 million
for "the costs associated with an independent
statewide examination of the safety of gas
distribution infrastructure" with a caveat that
the state will levy assessments on the gas
distribution companies "at a rate sufficient to
produce the amount expended from this item."
In the wake of the natural gas disaster in the
Merrimack Valley last year, Baker's
administration contracted with Canadian company
Dynamic Risk Assessment Systems Inc. to examine
and make recommendations about "the physical
integrity and safety of the natural gas
distribution system and the operation and
maintenance policies and practices of all
natural gas distribution companies operating
within the Commonwealth."
The Senate bill also contains some, but not all,
of the policy changes sought by the governor,
including technical changes to the short-term
rental tax and regulation law to address the
definition of rent and the way properties are
registered in an online database.
When the House debated and unanimously approved
its $135 million spending bill last week, state
tax collections were running $400 million below
benchmarks through January. By the time the
Senate debates its version of the spending bill,
the Department of Revenue is expected to have
reported on state tax collections through
February, a month in which state tax collectors
are expecting to pull in $1.303 billion in tax
revenue.
The Senate is planning to debate its
supplemental budget during a full formal session
on Thursday, starting at 11 a.m. The Senate did
not establish a deadline by which senators must
file amendments.
State House News
Service
Monday, March 4, 2019
Excitement, uncertainty mark transportation
debate, Spilka says
By Katie Lannan
Upgrading the state's transportation
infrastructure while keeping the economy moving
is like performing surgery on a patient who's
simultaneously running a marathon, according to
Senate President Karen Spilka.
Spilka made the analogy in a recent speech in
which she discussed her plans to take a
"30,000-foot view on transportation" and
outlined a series of priorities for the Senate
as it pursues policy options.
While the Legislature has a Transportation
Committee made up of House and Senate members to
review bills and make recommendations, Spilka is
eyeing a process where the Senate can conduct
its own work.
As has been frequent practice in recent years on
major issue areas like health care, the Senate
will form an "informal transportation working
group" that Spilka said would take an
"interdisciplinary" approach, involving members
of her newly formed leadership team and chairs
of relevant committees.
"Right now, I plan to focus less on individual
policy proposals and more on bringing the right
people to the table to get things done," Spilka
said last week at a meeting of the board of the
Boston-based group A Better City, according to
her prepared remarks. "As I've said before -- I
don't think we can afford to take any idea off
the table right now when it comes to
transportation -- either in terms of fixes, or
in terms of how we pay for it."
A Better City in late February released a report
tallying an $8.4 billion shortfall in revenues
needed to ensure state roads, bridges and MBTA
infrastructure are in a state of good repair
over the next 10 years.
The amount of money required to maintain a state
of good repair is "breathtaking," Spilka said.
She said the state continues "to struggle with
providing enough reliable public transportation
- most notably in and out of Boston -- so that
commuters feel comfortable leaving their cars at
home."
"As a result, we all spend too much of our time
sitting in -- and complaining about -- traffic,"
the Ashland Democrat said. "And as a result of
all that traffic, we spend a lot of time
worrying about our collective impact on the
environment."
In response to the ABC report, Transportation
Secretary Stephanie Pollack touted the increased
investments in state transportation
infrastructure and the MBTA. Baker
administration officials also noted the ABC
report included a list of transportation
expansion and improvement projects that are no
longer under consideration.
Calling transportation infrastructure and
financing the policy area with the "most
exciting and uncertain" future, Spilka said she
hears agreement that the state must do something
to address transportation but has yet to hear
consensus on what the fix should be or how to
get there.
Spilka detailed a series of principles she said
should be included in any proposal the Senate
either puts forward or agrees to. Among them are
sustainability, access and affordability,
connectivity across regions of the state,
innovation, and achievability, including a way
to pay for whatever the proposal entails.
Spilka said the Senate must also consider
"responsiveness," saying ride-for-hire services
Uber and Lyft have taken off because technology
gives them the ability to "meet consumers where
they are, while our current systems of public
transportation require consumers to stand in the
snow and rain for who knows how long to maybe
get a seat."
She called for increased reliability, bigger
service areas, and more competitive pricing to
make public transportation more responsive to
people's needs.
Lawmakers should also pay attention to "regional
equity," Spilka said, and listen to residents
and local officials from different parts of the
state to understand their needs.
"To that end, I believe that if tolls are so
great for some areas of the state, they should
also be great for many other areas of the
Commonwealth," said Spilka, whose 30-mile
commute to Boston involves paying tolls on the
Massachusetts Turnpike. "I joke about that, but
as you are likely aware, toll equity has been
important to me for a very long time. Regional
equity is also the reason the Senate has passed
legislation allowing for communities to finance
transportation through regional ballot
initiatives, and why Regional Transit
Authorities will always be a priority of mine."
The Senate on more than one occasion has
approved language that would allow regional
ballot initiatives, where municipalities could
group together to propose to their voters new
local taxes that would fund transportation
projects.
Last year, the Senate voted 27-10 to add a
regional ballot initiative measure into an
economic development bill. The measure did not
survive talks with the House to make it into the
version that ultimately became law.
Sen. Eric Lesser, a Longmeadow Democrat, filed a
regional transportation initiatives bill (S
1694) this session. Nineteen other senators and
14 representatives have signed on as cosponsors.
At a briefing Wednesday with regional planning
agencies, Lesser said supporters of the ballot
initiatives are "making really great progress"
advancing the issue. Dozens of states have
already adopted them as a funding mechanism to
support rapid rail systems and other projects,
he said.
"How much longer, frankly, do our constituents
in Springfield, or I met the gentleman in
Brockton, or on the North Shore, have to wait
for the State House to start adequately funding
transportation?" Lesser said. "With regional
ballot initiatives, local regional economies ...
like the Pioneer Valley or the Berkshires or the
North Shore could band together to fund and
create and set up their own projects, whether
that's the ferry service from the North Shore to
Boston, or the Pioneer Valley north-south rail
service from Greenfield to Springfield and even
into New York City."
State House News
Service
Monday, March 4, 2019
MBTA may be leaning too hard on riders, board
member says
By Chris Lisinski
Reducing the MBTA's budget deficit next year and
improving service will be possible thanks to new
revenue from proposed fare increases, according
to the authority. But one board member, aware of
the pushback the hikes have drawn, wants the
state to explore other ways of funding public
transportation.
At the MBTA Board meeting on Monday, Brian Lang
said it would be "completely wrongheaded" to
generate new money for the system just by
leaning more on commuters. Instead, he
suggested, officials should pursue some
combination of a higher gas tax, additional fees
on rideshare services and a congestion-pricing
toll system.
"We don't operate in isolation and we are never
going to be able to have a world-class
transportation system unless there's some kind
of coordination and unless our political leaders
grow a little bit of courage when it comes to
taking these issue on, because it does mean to
tax, to have fees," said Lang, a former
meatpacker and bellman who serves as president
of UNITE HERE Local 26, Boston's hotel and food
service union. "The money's going to have to
come from somewhere, and not just — I'm sorry,
they're not customers, they're riders — from the
people who are depending on riding every day."
Lang told reporters after the meeting he did not
know if those proposals should fully replace a
fare hike, but he did have his eye on at least
lessening the MBTA's proposal. He requested a
study on how the projected new revenue from
higher fares would be affected if buses — which
would increase from $1.70 to $1.80 per ride — as
well as student and senior passes were kept
level.
Officials say the fare hikes, which average 6.3
percent, would bring in an extra $32 million per
year, on a budget that approaches $2.1 billion.
They defend the push as necessary to pay for
service upgrades and as a way to help achieve
fiscal stability after a decade of upheaval.
Early projections use the proposed increases as
a key way to improve the MBTA's finances. The
baseline deficit is forecast to double in fiscal
year 2020, according to a presentation by Paul
Brandley, the authority's CFO.
However, through a combination of cost-cutting
measures and fare increases, Brandley said that
deficit could be cut from $74 million to $24.5
million, which would be about a third lower than
fiscal year 2019. He expressed optimism about
the authority's long-term financial trends,
noting that revenues are expected to grow at a
higher rate than operating expenses.
"This is critical to holding the line and
continuing on the path toward fiscal
sustainability," Brandley said.
Keeping revenue on an upward trend remains key.
Own-source dollars, which come from advertising,
parking and real estate, have increased about 60
percent since 2015, according to an earlier
presentation Monday, and totaled $70 million in
fiscal 2019.
However, the figure is still $30 million below
the goal leaders wanted to hit by 2020, and that
money is crucial for investments in the T's
infrastructure. By statute, the authority is
supposed to rely more on non-fare revenue for
service improvements.
"My concern is that the reason for the statutory
emphasis on own-source is in part so the fares
are not the only place the T turns to when they
want to make additional investments in
performance and the system," said Transportation
Secretary Stephanie Pollack. "While a lot of
progress has been made and it's not easy, the
kind of progress we hoped for five years ago is
turning out to be harder than we thought."
Pollack noted that much of the criticism
directed at the fare hikes has come from riders
frustrated with performance. The numbers back
that up: service quality has been a theme in 60
percent of the 2,500 public comments submitted,
according to an MBTA analysis presented Monday.
That figure is 38 percentage points higher than
the second-most common theme, affordability.
Dozens of people, including 19 members of the
Legislature's Boston delegation, spoke against
the proposal last week, recounting overcrowded
trains and frequent delays and warning of the
economic and environmental impacts the plan
would have. Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu,
who argued that the T should be free, submitted
a petition with 2,700 names opposing the hikes.
Some called for alternative funding sources,
just as Lang did Monday. They called for an
increase to the state's gas tax, which has been
raised just once in the past 28 years, or for
new taxes to fund transportation investments.
Support for new transportation taxes has not
been high on Beacon Hill in recent years, but
ideas continue to draw attention as lawmakers
can't avoid constituent concerns about both
traffic and the MBTA.
One bill would implement a pilot program in the
Sumner Tunnel to lower toll prices at off-peak
hours, encouraging drivers to avoid contributing
to congestion. Another would increase the
state's 20-cent flat fee on TNC rides using
platforms such as Uber and Lyft to an amount
scaled by distance traveled.
Advocates argue targeting those companies will
both bring in new money to support transit
improvements and also encourage commuters to
take public options more frequently, cutting
down on traffic.
"As long as Uber and Lyft are allowed to go
unfettered, particularly in our city, we're
never going to be able to compete with them,"
Lang said during the FMCB meeting Monday. "To
me, it's a travesty that the TNCs operate
unfettered and that there's no public reward for
the way they're operating."
A vote has not been scheduled, but the board
could vote on fare hikes next week, at the
earliest. The fare increases are scheduled to
take effect July 1, if adopted.
State House News
Service
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Mass. union membership numbers at ten-year high
By Michael P. Norton
An estimated 464,000 Massachusetts workers
counted themselves as union members in 2018, the
most since 2009, according to new federal data.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported
that union members accounted for 13.7 percent of
wage and salary workers in Massachusetts last
year. The U.S. average was 10.5 percent.
Federal data shows there were 476,000 union
members in Massachusetts in 2009, the highest
level in recent years, and union members
accounted for 16.6 percent of the employed
workforce that year.
Eight states had union membership rates below 5
percent in 2018 - North Carolina, South
Carolina, Utah, Texas and Virginia. Two states
had union membership rates over 20 percent in
2018: Hawaii and New York. More than half of the
14.7 million union members in the U.S. last year
lived in California, New York, Illinois,
Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, and Washington.
In Connecticut, 16 percent of workers were union
members, down from 17.5 percent in 2016,
according to the data.
State House News
Service
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
Lawmakers begin work on Baker's $42.7 Billion
budget
By Colin A. Young
The new chairmen of the Joint Ways and Means
Committee understand the task ahead of them: in
the coming weeks, they must craft a
more-than-$40-billion budget for a fiscal year
that starts in July while the economic picture
of the current fiscal year shifts beneath their
feet.
Using the $42.7 billion fiscal year 2020 budget
(H 1) Gov. Charlie Baker filed in January as a
starting point, the budget-writing committee
began its slate of public hearings Tuesday to
give lawmakers their first real opportunity to
grill the administration on its spending plans.
Senate Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues
said he recognizes "the enormity" of the task
facing he and House Chairman Aaron Michlewitz
and called it "an undertaking that requires us
to share responsibility as stewards of
taxpayers' dollars and put forward a fiscally
responsible budget that places our state on firm
financial footing."
Fiscal responsibility was an early theme of
Tuesday's hearing and was the subject of the
first question for Administration and Finance
Secretary Michael Heffernan. Michlewitz noted
that "we had a rough December" and that state
tax collections have come in below expectations
in recent months, leaving the state staring at a
$403 million revenue gap more than halfway
through fiscal 2019.
Though he did not reveal any new information to
the committee, Heffernan noted that state tax
collections for February -- a month during which
the state expects to have collected $1.303
billion in tax revenue -- would be announced
later Tuesday.
"We'll have made a little bit of progress
against that deficit," he foreshadowed.
The recent downward trend in state revenue
collections, though not as serious as previous
years, "reminds us that we have to exercise
great caution and maintain awareness for
continued fiscal challenges" during the budget
process, Rodrigues said.
"As we all know, the state budget has an impact
on our children, hard-working families, small
businesses and the communities where our
constituents live," he said.
At the outset of Tuesday's hearing, Heffernan
laid out the governor's $42.7 billion budget
proposal -- "a responsible budget for FY20 that
reflects our shared priorities but most
importantly meets the needs of the people of
Massachusetts" -- which raises state spending by
1.5 percent and is built on the assumption that
state tax revenues will meet projections this
year and then grow by 2.7 percent next fiscal
year.
The administration is counting on collecting
$133 million in taxes on recreational marijuana
sales, $28 million from new taxes on short-term
housing rentals, $14 million from a tax on
opioid manufacturers and $6 million from an
expansion of tobacco excise taxes to
e-cigarettes and vaping products.
Not all of that revenue is a sure thing. For
example, the governor has proposed to tax opioid
manufacturers 15 percent of their gross receipts
from the sale of opioid products but the
Legislature has not authorized the new levy.
Heffernan said the state spends $266 million
annually to fight the opioid epidemic.
"To ask the drug manufacturers who are partially
responsible, if not wholly responsible, to pay
$14 million as a downpayment towards our $266
million seems extremely reasonable to us," he
said.
The Legislature has also not OK'ed Baker's
proposed new excise taxes on vape and
e-cigarette products. Heffernan said
e-cigarettes and other paraphernalia would be
subject to an effective tax rate of 20 percent
-- mirroring marijuana products -- and that the
actual vaping liquids would be taxed at a 40
percent rate.
"Vaping has really come into the under-21
community all across the state and putting it on
a level playing field with tobacco products
seems to be at least the first step," Heffernan
said. "It's a fairness issue, but it's also
trying to slow down the illegal use of vaping
products."
At MassHealth, the state-run Medicaid program
that serves 1.86 million residents and has grown
to consume about 40 percent of state spending,
Heffernan said the administration's efforts to
"bend the MassHealth cost curve" have delivered
"solid results" that have made the program not
as great of a concern heading into the FY20
budget.
"In large part due to more sustainable growth at
MassHealth, tax-supported spending growth in
Massachusetts is now lower than tax revenue
growth on a sustained basis," he said.
The governor's budget would fund MassHealth at
$16.539 billion which Heffernan said represents
a growth rate of 0.1 percent over the current
budget year. Though gross MassHealth spending
would increase just 0.1 percent, the net amount
the state pays after federal reimbursements
would rise 4.3 percent under Baker's budget plan
to $6.586 billion.
The secretary said the budget assumes $80
million in savings at MassHealth's pharmacy
program from two reforms: allowing MassHealth to
negotiate drug prices directly with
manufacturers and imposing new requirements on
pharmacy benefits managers.
Responding to questions from Rep. Hannah Kane,
Heffernan said $70 million of the savings
MassHealth expects to see would come from direct
negotiations on the price of the 20 most
expensive drugs MassHealth purchases.
"It starts at about $100,000 and runs up ...
that narrow list can run hundreds of millions of
dollars to MassHealth," he said.
Heffernan also confirmed the $200 million
Employer Medical Assistance Contribution
assessments that lawmakers and Gov. Charlie
Baker approved in 2017 to help defray the cost
of MassHealth "will sunset by the end of
calendar year 2019" as is called for in law.
Business groups have pushed for those
assessments to end sooner.
While Heffernan touched upon Baker's revamped
plan to accelerate the process for large
retailers to remit sales taxes to the state in a
more timely manner -- netting $306 million in
fiscal 2020 as one-time revenues -- Sen. Joan
Lovely questioned how the administration planned
to use that money for education.
"One-time needs and education don't usually go
in the same sentence. I'm not trying to be flip,
but can you just elaborate on how that $306
million will kind of be parsed out and how we
don't depend on this funding source in years
going forward," she asked.
Heffernan explained that the funding is "set up
as one-time funds, not set up as recurring
initiatives." He said $39 million would flow to
the MBTA and another $39 million would flow to
the School Building Authority. Then, $100
million would be deposited into a college
scholarship initiative, $50 million would go
into a public school improvement fund, $30
million would be dedicated for school safety
improvements and $20 million would be marked for
eliminating lead from school drinking water.
Though the state is expecting a relatively
stable budget year 2020, economists have warned
that the national economy, and the state's
economy with it, could be headed toward a
recession in the next 18 to 24 months.
"Our consensus view in light of a growing number
of emerging risks and economic and political
uncertainties is that caution is the watchword,"
economists at MassBenchmarks reported Monday.
Heffernan said the administration is expecting
to make $297 million in deposits into the
state's rainy day fund during FY20 as part of an
effort "to protect the state budget from
recession or other future disruption in the
economy." Last year, the fund's balance topped
$2 billion for the first time since fiscal 2008.
Rep. Russell Holmes noted that the last time the
rainy day fund had a balance of $2 billion, the
state budget was about $15 billion smaller,
meaning the state had a greater share of its
annual expenses socked away in the event of a
downturn. He asked how the administration sees
its long-term goal for the account's balance.
"I don't have a specific goal and I don't mean
to be flip, but more is better," Heffernan said
in response. "I take your point that the budget
was larger than it was the last time we were at
$2 billion."
The Joint Ways and Means Committee budget
hearings continue next Monday in Needham.
Lawmakers will hold a total of eight hearings on
the governor's budget proposal around the state
through early April before the House rewrites
the budget and debates its version of the
spending plan in mid-April. The Senate is
expected to follow suit and debate its own
budget bill in May.
State House News
Service
Tuesday, March 5, 2019
February revenue growth eats into state budget
shortfall
By Katie Lannan
Stronger than expected tax revenue collections
for the month of February took a bite out of
what had been a more than $400 million gap so
far this fiscal year, bringing the shortfall
down to $292 million with four months left in
the fiscal year.
The state Department of Revenue on Tuesday
announced $1.43 billion in revenue collections
in February, a total that landed $111 million,
or 8.5 percent, above projections for the month.
Revenue collections for this fiscal year through
February now total $17.52 billion, leaving the
state $292 million or 1.6 percent behind
projections. Collections at this point in fiscal
2019 are running $374 million, or 2.2 percent,
higher than the same point in fiscal 2018.
Revenue Commissioner Christopher Harding said
most major revenue categories performed as
expected in February, historically the smallest
tax collection month of the year. He said the
state remains behind its benchmark "due to
shortfall in estimated payments in December and
January, a significant component of which is
likely due to volatile capital gains."
Withholding collections in February were $107
million above the monthly benchmark. Harding
said withholding revenue, which had been a
problem area for the state, was the "primary
contributor" driving February above projections.
"The remaining four months of the fiscal year,
from March through June, have in the past
contributed nearly 40% of total revenues on
average, making it the largest four-month
revenue period in each of the past 15 fiscal
years," Harding said in a statement. "DOR will
monitor revenue trends closely in the coming
months."
The revenue figures came as House and Senate
Ways and Means committee conducted their first
hearing on Gov. Charlie Baker's $42.7 billion
fiscal 2020 budget.
Senate budget chief Michael Rodrigues said
during the hearing that the downward trend in
state revenue collections in previous months
"reminds us that we have to exercise great
caution and maintain awareness for continued
fiscal challenges" during the budget process.
State House News
Service
Thursday, February 28, 2019
Justice reformers set their sights on life
sentences
By Michael P. Norton
Now that the landmark 2018 criminal justice
reform law is on the books, lawmakers are
exploring additional ideas and "even harder
work," as Sen. Jamie Eldridge put it Thursday,
including the possibility of releasing prisoners
serving life-without-parole sentences for the
most serious crimes, including murder.
Eldridge and Rep. Mary Keefe on Thursday hosted
a meeting of the Criminal Justice Reform Caucus
where the focus was on legislation eliminating
life sentences without the possibility of
parole. Marc Mauer of the Sentencing Project
said a record 206,000 people are serving life
terms in prisons across the nation. That's more
than the entire prison population in 1970, he
said.
In Massachusetts, 1,018 people in 2016 were
serving life sentence without the possibility of
parole.
"There's beginning to be increasing questioning
of these policies around the country," Mauer
said, adding that "people age out of the high
crime years" and pose "very much diminished"
public safety risks in their older years.
Under legislation sponsored by Rep. Jay
Livingstone (H 3358) and Sen. Joseph Boncore,
all people serving life sentences would have the
opportunity for a parole hearing after 25 years,
a change in law that would apply retroactively
so that it would affect people currently
incarcerated. Both bills are titled "An Act to
Reduce Mass Incarceration."
Noting the number of people serving life
sentences has "skyrocketed," Eldridge said the
bill deserves attention, although he told the
News Service after the briefing that as chairman
of the Judiciary Committee he needs to fully
review the bill and declined to comment on his
position on the legislation.
"We addressed some of the non-violent mandatory
minimum drug crimes, repealing them last
session," Eldridge said, referring to a law that
also emphasized treating offenders for substance
use addiction. "But now we need to get into, in
some ways, the more nuanced discussions around
people who are in prison for violent crimes and
whether we should be changing the sentencing for
some group of those individuals."
A provision in the 2018 law permitting medical
parole, Livingstone said, shows lawmakers are
open to changes that reduce incarceration costs
while taking into account the danger that
individuals pose if released from prison.
Asked about her position on the bill, Middlesex
District Attorney Marian Ryan, who attended
Thursday's briefing, told the News Service that
she was still gathering information on the
topic. In 1980, Ryan was the victim of a vicious
assault and a witness to the murder of her
then-boyfriend.
Ryan said the life-without-parole sentence is
reserved for first degree murder, and outlined
considerations for lawmakers weighing the bill.
"There's all of those considerations of - what
are we trying to accomplish through
incarceration? How has somebody behaved while in
custody? And as is clearly true, none of us
would ever want to be defined by the worst act
of our lives," said Ryan, a veteran prosecutor
whose district spans 54 cities and towns and
includes a quarter of the state's population.
"And then you have to weigh against that the
loss that victims' families have suffered and
sometimes it isn't just the immediate loss, it's
the continuing piece. So, many of the things you
heard about that continued for years when
someone's in custody, obviously the same thing
is happening on the other side. So it is a
balance. And then obviously our overall goal is
the protection of the public safety and the
concern about - what does real rehabilition
mean? When and is someone ready to be back out
in society, while the rest of us are keeping
folks safe?"
Livingstone, who attracted 27 co-sponsors to his
bill, noted it's been 22 years since the last
commutation of a sentence for a person serving
life without parole. Commutations must be
recommended by governors, and approved by the
eight-member Governor's Council. He also said
the bill would apply to convicted murderers,
people with stacked sentences and those
convicted under the "three strikes" law.
According to backers of the Livingstone and
Boncore bills, Massachusetts has a lower overall
incarceration rate than most other states but
ranks second among all states for the highest
percentage of its prisoners serving
life-without-parole sentences.
The number of incarcerated men over the age of
60 increased 41 percent between 2010 and 2018,
while the overall prison population declined by
18 percent, according to Prisoners' Legal
Services of Massachusetts, and it's up to three
times more expensive to house an elderly
prisoner in the general population.
The proclivity to commit crime is "highly age
dependent," the group said in literature
distributed at the event, adding, "The peak age
is in one's early to mid-twenties, and continues
to decline as one ages. It makes little sense to
mandate that a person in their twenties must
stay in prison for the rest of their life
without a chance to later determine if they
still pose a threat to public safety.
Incarcerating people who pose no threat is a
waste of resources."
Membership in the caucus co-chaired by Eldridge
and Keefe has increased in the past four years,
Eldridge said, and the "standing room only"
attendance at Thursday's briefing "reflects the
fact that as much as we passed a major reform
last session, there's still a need and an
interest and enthusiasm for more reform."
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