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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
Friday, April 5, 2019
“They’ve
gone over the edge”
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Regular Democrats are on the verge of losing
their long-standing control of the Massachusetts
Legislature.
No, it will not be to the Republicans, who
don’t count for much at the State House, either in the
160-member House or in the 40-member Senate. Republicans in
the Legislature are all but irrelevant. The loss will be to
the growing number of progressive Democrats who are to the
far left of the regular liberal/moderate leadership of House
Speaker Robert DeLeo and his Democratic predecessors.
The changeover has already taken place in
the Senate where Senate President Karen Spilka, the
progressive leader, rules. While there are 34 Democrats to
six Republicans in the senate, 18 of those Democrats belong
to the Progressive Caucus.
Led by leftist Sen. Jamie Eldridge of Acton,
progressives would make Massachusetts a sanctuary state for
illegal immigrants, grant them driver’s licenses, allow
people to identify as X rather than M or F on their license,
curtail ICE’s practice of rounding up criminal illegal
immigrants, increase taxes, especially on millionaires, and,
among other things, provide for single payer health care.
“They’ve gone over the edge,” one top House
regular Democrat said.
While DeLeo has been able to kill some of
the progressive ideas and bills — like barring police
officials from cooperating with ICE to detain criminal
illegal immigrants — he is fighting a losing battle. While
DeLeo and the regular Democrats still control the House,
inroads by progressive Democrats indicate that they will
soon be taking over.
There are 127 Democrats in the 160 member
House to 32 Republicans. There is one Independent. However,
60 of those Democrats are members of the House Progressive
Caucus, which is committed to “promoting social, economic
and environmental justice for all people of the
Commonwealth.”
The House Progressive Caucus is headed by
Reps. Tricia Farley-Bouvier of Pittsfield and Jack Patrick
Lewis of Framingham....
House leaders and veteran State House
observers view Spilka’s move as part of the progressive
takeover of the Legislature, and they are right.
What was once a political battle between the
Democrats and Republicans ended a long time ago. Now the
battle is between the progressive and moderate Democrats,
and the progressives are winning.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Progressives wresting control from moderate Bay State Dems
By Peter Lucas
Rep. Liz Miranda "never believed" that her
first week as a state lawmaker in January would involve
working on two constituent cases involving Immigration and
Customs Enforcement, she said Wednesday....
Miranda is one the lead sponsors of a bill
referred to as the Safe Communities Act, which supporters
say protects immigrants' due process rights. It would also
bar local police and court officers from inquiring about
someone's immigration status, and limit their ability to
notify ICE about someone's impending release from custody.
The Safe Communities Act (H 3573/S 1401) is
one of 16 bills Progressive Massachusetts lists as
priorities for this session.
Miranda was one of four lawmakers to speak
at the lobby day, along with Sens. Sonia Chang-Diaz and
Jamie Eldridge and Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa.
Eldridge, who chairs the 18-member Senate
Progressive Caucus, said the speaking lineup was a "perfect
highlight," with two new representatives and two senators
elected 11 years ago.
"That's really when we formed the Senate
Progressive Caucus to really move the Senate much further to
the left than where it was," he said. "It was a fairly
moderate body back then, and to see new legislators like Liz
Miranda, like Lindsay Sabadosa, like Tami Gouveia, like Nika
Elugardo, in this first-year class is incredibly exciting."
State House News Service
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Progressives tout Safe Communities Act, other priorities
Explaining to her colleagues how she came to
propose two amendments to the Massachusetts Constitution in
her first 15 days as a lawmaker, Rep. Mindy Domb on Tuesday
said filing legislation "can sometimes be like pulling a
string on a sweater."
Domb testified before the Judiciary
Committee on two amendments she's filed, including one
dealing with lawmakers' oaths of office and another that
would replace the word "he" with the gender-neutral pronoun
"they" in instances where the constitution is not
specifically referring to men.
"For me, it's really about making sure that
the constitution is as inclusive a document as we can make
it," the first-term Amherst Democrat said. "It says 'he.' It
doesn't mean 'he.' It doesn't mean only men. There are lots
of women who are in office. It means all of us, and we need
to make sure that the document says that so that all of us
and all of our kids can see themselves in this
constitution." ...
Her second amendment (H 81) would give
anyone taking an oath the option to swear or affirm it, and
replace the word "he" in that section with "they."
Once she took that step in one area, Domb
said, "It felt almost like we had to address the other times
in the constitution where it also says 'he' but doesn't only
refer to men."
Sen. Jamie Eldridge, the Judiciary
Committee's Senate chair, told Domb he wanted to commend her
for her testimony.
"Just in your first few months in the
Legislature, you put in an incredible amount of thought into
the problem and the challenge, your vision, and drafting
these two pieces of legislation," he said.
State House News Service
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Freshwoman lawmaker looking to make constitution's verbiage
more "inclusive"
A freshman state representative wants to
strike the word “he” entirely from the Massachusetts
Constitution, substituting “they” in an effort to make the
239-year-old document gender-neutral — but critics say the
Legislature has more important work to do....
There are likely no legal implications to
the change, constitutional lawyer Harvey Silverglate said —
but he also called it “meaningless and unnecessary.”
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Amendment proposed to make state constitution ‘gender
inclusive’
The state's budget revenue shortfall has
disappeared after $2.67 billion in taxes were collected in
March putting Massachusetts $19 million above the estimates
used to build the state's current $41 billion budget.
The tax collections in March exceeded
projections by $316 million, or 13.4 percent, and were 19
percent higher than the same month last year....
Income taxes beat estimates in March by $86
million and corporate taxes were $226 million higher than
the benchmark, according to the Department of Revenue.
State House News Service
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Budget back in black as tax refunds in March fall from 2018
An anti-tax organization took aim at state
Democrats Monday after the party’s leadership floated the
possibility of a gas tax hike, a move tried once and
overturned by voters five years ago.
“Beacon Hill does what it wants,” said Holly
Robichaud, a member of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Best Ally
political action committee. “Beacon Hill doesn’t listen to
the people. It’s very disappointing that not one Democrat,
when asked, was willing to support the will of the people.”
The Legislature upped the gas tax by three
cents in 2013 with a trigger to increase it with inflation.
But, Geoff Diehl, a former state representative and
Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, led a successful
charge to repeal the tax, earning 53 percent of the vote....
Robichaud said her organization, which
formerly went by Tank Automatic Gas Tax Hikes, recently
contacted house members asking for a pledge to oppose the
hikes. She says no Democratic House members responded.
Another chairman of the MTBA organization,
Marty Lamb, slammed the Democrats’ failure to sign the
pledge as a “bad joke on the hard-working people of
Massachusetts who voted to end automatic tax hikes five
years ago.”
“The majority of voters said they don’t want
taxation without representation,” Robichaud told the Herald
Monday. “People have already spoken on this.”
The Boston Herald
Monday, April 1, 2019
Anti-tax PAC slams State House Dems on potential gas tax
hike
Members cite repeal of ’13 increase
As lawmakers on Beacon Hill consider an
automatic gas tax, the opposition is letting its voice be
heard, and that is a good thing. The Massachusetts Taxpayers
Best Ally political action committee is taking a stand on
the right side of the issue.
As the Herald’s Brooks Sutherland reported,
Steve Aylward, a chairman of the MTBA PAC, has sounded off,
saying gas tax hikes are a “settled issue” and calling on
Beacon Hill to “work for the people.”
“The legislature was wrong five years ago,”
Aylward said in a release obtained by the Herald. “They
should have apologized to the people instead of passing
themselves a big fat pay raise.” ...
The gas tax index should not be on the
table. To automatically raise gas taxes with every increase
in inflation will hit middle-class and lower-class families
unfairly. Their pay and benefits do not also increase with
the rate of inflation. To have this taxation occur without
representation is obscene.
Though proponents of the automatic gas tax
suggest that fixing dilapidated roads and bridges may make
such a measure more palatable to voters, we believe they
have underestimated the ire legislators have drawn to
themselves by declaring a need to raise revenue while giving
themselves multiple pay raises in the last few years.
If our leaders on Beacon Hill want higher
gas taxes every year, let them vote for higher gas taxes
every year. Let them explain to their constituents why more
of their hard-earned money belongs in Beacon Hill coffers
and less in their wallets.
A Boston Herald editorial
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Gas tax resistance rises
To address youth smoking, Massachusetts
should raise taxes on tobacco products and ban flavored
tobacco products, according to advocates and legislators.
"The data is there," Rep. Marjorie Decker
said. "When you increase taxes on tobacco you lower the
rates of new smokers who are coming in. It works." ...
The group's main priority is to adjust taxes
on tobacco products, raising the cigarette tax by $1 per
pack, creating a 75 percent wholesale excise tax on
e-cigarettes and increasing the cigar tax to 80 percent of
wholesale. The calls come as lawmakers and Gov. Charlie
Baker are showing an openness toward tax hikes, with Baker
having put his own plan on the table to tax vaping
products....
Decker also spoke in support for all of the
tobacco tax increases, and plans on offering them as a
budget amendment later this month, as well as sponsoring
legislation that would create them independently.
"There is no excise tax on e-cigarettes and
it doesn't make sense that we don't treat it the same way as
cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products," Decker
said....
"We need revenue, but more importantly we
need to continue saving lives," Decker said....
Last session, the Legislature and Baker
agreed to a law raising the minimum age to buy tobacco from
18 to 21, which went into effect January.
State House News Service
Thursday, April 4, 2019
Vaping, cigarette taxes getting strong push this session
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
As a state grassroots political activist
for the past 35 years, a close observer of and vigorous
participant in Bay State politics, I was confident that
Massachusetts was close to reaching its bottom in a long
and storied history. I've anticipated an eventual
turnaround, the typical pendulum swing. I've
expected citizens to inevitably wake up to what's being
done to them in their name. Sooner or later they
will have endured enough and there will follow a
political revolution; the oppressive status quo will be
recognized for what it is and finally be rejected.
The Massachusetts political majority
never ceases to dash expectations, to disappoint.
The political revolution has arrived,
but the pendulum has swung even further in the wrong
direction.
As with U.S. House of Representatives in
Congress from Speaker Nancy Pelosi on down, "regular"
Democrats on Beacon Hill are also looking over their
shoulders in fear of the mounting threat from the even
more radical Democrat-Socialists. "These
are not your grandfather's Democrats"!
Who could have anticipated that the
political battle will be fought between the "regular"
Democrats and the far-left extremist "Progressive"
Democrats?
The Bay State's self-styled Che Guevara
– the extremist wing's apparent point man
– is Senate chairman of
Judiciary Committee Sen. Jamie Eldridge of Acton, who
also chairs the 18-member Senate Progressive Caucus.
(That group of radicals represents 18 of the Senate's total membership of
40, and six of those 40 are Massachusetts
Republicans.)
Newly-minted "progressive" state
representatives have arrived on Beacon Hill and
immediately proposed rewriting "the oldest functioning
written constitution in continuous effect in the world"
– to the applause of
alleged elder statesmen.
Despite historic levels of spending and
revenue, still legislators are scrambling to increase
"revenue" by any means available and necessary so more
is available to spend. Tax hike schemes are
ricocheting off the walls and through the corridors of
the State House, each trying to outdo the other.
Every Beacon Hill denizen seems to have a favorite or
two or three, including supposedly tax-adverse Governor
Baker.
The Beacon Hill ruling class has decided
it no longer needs to respect the will of voters if the
outcome displeases them. When voters say "hell
no!" to higher taxes their vote is simply ignored as
meaningless and overturned. First was CLT's 2000
income tax rollback ballot question, now it's the
voters' 2014 repeal of gas tax indexing.
Any pretext is sufficient, any excuse
permissible.
Just one example follows
– the latest proposal to
again hike the excise tax on cigarettes by another buck
a pack, again dragging out the "for the
children" lame rationale.
Sen. John Keenan (D-Quincy) supports the tax
increases. . . "It's time that we stand up and
we say to the big tobacco industry, the big nicotine
industry, and say you are not going to take another
generation," he said.
But how can that be possible?
"Last session, the Legislature and Baker agreed to a law
raising the minimum age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21,
which went into effect January." That
prevents those formerly-victimized children from access to tobacco products.
This can mean only one thing: They
are not hiking taxes "for the children" at all.
It is another shameless lie.
They're hiking taxes on
adult tobacco users over the age of 21 because they can. And because
it'll raise hundreds of millions in additional state
revenue.
Forbes Magazine
reported in July, 2016:
According to a Boston news report, the state's
cigarette smokers have paid an extra $285
million from the $1 per pack hike tax approved
in 2013. With that increase, Massachusetts'
cigarette tax soared from $2.51 per pack to
$3.51 per pack, making the tax, at the time, the
second-highest rate in the country after New
York. That has since changed: it's now fourth
behind New York ($4.35), Rhode Island ($3.75)
and Connecticut ($3.65)....
[M]ost of the cigarette revenue ($222 million)
went to the state's general fund. The remaining
$63 million went to the Commonwealth Care Trust
Fund. The Commonwealth Care Trust Fund is used
to pay for subsidized health insurance and
Medicaid rate increases for those in the
state....
Overall, Massachusetts collected more than $882
million in tobacco taxes for the fiscal year
2015 alone. That total includes payments related
to a massive settlement with tobacco companies
from 1998....
There have been two increases in the
Massachusetts cigarette tax in the past decade:
a $1 per pack increase in 2008 and the more
recent $1 per pack increase in 2013. Funds are
pouring in. They're just not going towards
anti-smoking programs. They're being used for
other purposes, such as filling holes in the
budget.
●
"Massachusetts received an estimated $903.2 million in
tobacco settlement payments and taxes in FY2017,"
according to the website truthinitiative.org.
●
WCVB TV-5
reported on July 10, 2016: "From September
2013 through the end of May 2016, smokers have plunked
down an extra $285 million from the new $1-per-pack hike
tax, according to information provided to the Associated
Press by the Executive Office of Administration and
Finance."
●
Salestaxhandbook.com reports: "In
Massachusetts, cigarettes are subject to a state excise
tax of $3.51 per pack of 20. Cigarettes are also
subject to Massachusetts sales tax of approximately
$0.53 per pack, which adds up to a total tax per pack of
$4.04."
On
top of the tobacco excise tax the state added its sales tax,
double-taxation – a
tax on a tax. In 2009 the Legislature
imposed a sales tax on alcohol on top of its excise tax
– another case of
double-taxation. It didn't last long. The voters repealed it in 2010 (Question
1 on the 2010 ballot). At that time, then-candidate
for governor Charlie Baker supported its repeal.
"We need revenue, but more importantly
we need to continue saving lives," Rep. Marjorie Decker
(D-Cambridge) said. Note her real priority,
the first thought that entered her mind: "We
need revenue . . ." Then arrived her
afterthought, ". . . we need to continue saving lives."
Uh huh, got it.
As always, More Is Never Enough (MINE)
and never will be – until
they've taken it all from taxpayers and there's nothing
left to take, unless they're stopped.
And now the "Progressives" are
threatening to overwhelm "regular" Democrats.
Did you ever think you'd see the day
come when you were rooting for "regular" Democrats?
The Department of Revenue in its monthly
report issued this week noted: "The state's budget
revenue shortfall has disappeared after $2.67 billion in
taxes were collected in March putting Massachusetts $19
million above the estimates used to build the state's
current $41 billion budget."
How timely, just as the next budget is
being prepared. That must be euphoric news for Beacon
Hill budget-writers and other legislators as they prepare
next fiscal year's state budget. Any
potential restraints are off and wild spending can
resume full speed ahead!
So why the headlong scramble to find
infinite new ways to squeeze taxpayers for even more?
Because More Is Never Enough (MINE) and
never will be.
There will be very busy days ahead
– better saddle up, folks.
Defending taxpayers has just become an even greater
challenge.
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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The Boston Herald
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Progressives wresting control from moderate Bay
State Dems
By Peter Lucas
Regular Democrats are on the verge of losing
their long-standing control of the Massachusetts
Legislature.
No, it will not be to the Republicans, who don’t
count for much at the State House, either in the
160-member House or in the 40-member Senate.
Republicans in the Legislature are all but
irrelevant. The loss will be to the growing
number of progressive Democrats who are to the
far left of the regular liberal/moderate
leadership of House Speaker Robert DeLeo and his
Democratic predecessors.
The changeover has already taken place in the
Senate where Senate President Karen Spilka, the
progressive leader, rules. While there are 34
Democrats to six Republicans in the senate, 18
of those Democrats belong to the Progressive
Caucus.
Led by leftist Sen. Jamie Eldridge of Acton,
progressives would make Massachusetts a
sanctuary state for illegal immigrants, grant
them driver’s licenses, allow people to identify
as X rather than M or F on their license,
curtail ICE’s practice of rounding up criminal
illegal immigrants, increase taxes, especially
on millionaires, and, among other things,
provide for single payer health care.
“They’ve gone over the edge,” one top House
regular Democrat said.
While DeLeo has been able to kill some of the
progressive ideas and bills — like barring
police officials from cooperating with ICE to
detain criminal illegal immigrants — he is
fighting a losing battle. While DeLeo and the
regular Democrats still control the House,
inroads by progressive Democrats indicate that
they will soon be taking over.
There are 127 Democrats in the 160 member House
to 32 Republicans. There is one Independent.
However, 60 of those Democrats are members of
the House Progressive Caucus, which is committed
to “promoting social, economic and environmental
justice for all people of the Commonwealth.”
The House Progressive Caucus is headed by Reps.
Tricia Farley-Bouvier of Pittsfield and Jack
Patrick Lewis of Framingham.
This does not mean that all 60 members of the
House Progressive Caucus are in favor of every
looney-tunes idea that Eldridge and others have
come up with. There are some legislators who
joined simply to help themselves politically.
After all, the opposite of progressive is
regressive, and no politician in his right mind
wants to be labeled regressive.
But the divide between the progressive Democrats
and the moderate Democrats is deep and getting
deeper as the number of progressives increase.
It is also getting bolder.
An example is Spilka’s unicameral proposal to
launch a study of the state tax code by an
outside group of academics, business leaders and
policy organizations with the aim of raising
taxes.
While the group would include the Associated
Industries of Massachusetts and the
Massachusetts Business Council, it would also
include the left-leaning Raise Up Massachusetts,
which pushed last year’s millionaires tax
increase. Sen. Adam Hinds, chairman of the
Senate Revenue Committee, would head the study.
Neither Speaker DeLeo nor any member of his
leadership team are part of Spilka’s tax plan,
which is strange since all revenue raising
legislation must originate in the House, not the
Senate.
Also, there is concern that Spilka would
outsource some of the basic duties of the
Legislature — taxing and spending — to unelected
individuals and organizations that lobby the
Legislature.
DeLeo was diplomatic in response to Spilka’s
progressive power grab. He told the State House
News Service, “I congratulate the Senate
president for looking at this issue. I think our
means are probably just a little bit different
in terms of how we go about it.”
Translated, this means DeLeo believes his House
Ways and Means Committee or the House Revenue
Committee are up to the task of studying the tax
code and making revenue adjustments.
House leaders and veteran State House observers
view Spilka’s move as part of the progressive
takeover of the Legislature, and they are right.
What was once a political battle between the
Democrats and Republicans ended a long time ago.
Now the battle is between the progressive and
moderate Democrats, and the progressives are
winning.
DeLeo, 69, a moderate who has held the line
against progressive excesses, is into what is
probably his last term as speaker, if he doesn’t
pack it in before his current two-year term
expires. Odds are his successor will be Majority
Leader Ron Mariano, 72, of Quincy, a fellow
moderate Democrat, if he wants the job. If he
doesn’t, it is highly likely that a progressive
Democrat will emerge from the pack and become
the next speaker. Then the deluge begins.
State House News
Service
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Progressives tout Safe Communities Act, other
priorities
By Katie Lannan
Rep. Liz Miranda "never believed" that her first
week as a state lawmaker in January would
involve working on two constituent cases
involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement,
she said Wednesday.
The Roxbury Democrat said one of the two
constituents is now back with his family, while
the other, a 21-year-old who has been in the
United States since he was 5, now faces a "very
real" threat of deportation after he was "picked
out of Suffolk Superior Court and dragged out of
the back door."
"There is sort of a sentiment of what is a good
immigrant versus a bad immigrant, and we need to
not be supportive of that," Miranda said at a
Progressive Massachusetts lobby day.
Miranda is one the lead sponsors of a bill
referred to as the Safe Communities Act, which
supporters say protects immigrants' due process
rights. It would also bar local police and court
officers from inquiring about someone's
immigration status, and limit their ability to
notify ICE about someone's impending release
from custody.
The Safe Communities Act (H 3573/S 1401) is one
of 16 bills Progressive Massachusetts lists as
priorities for this session.
Miranda was one of four lawmakers to speak at
the lobby day, along with Sens. Sonia Chang-Diaz
and Jamie Eldridge and Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa.
Eldridge, who chairs the 18-member Senate
Progressive Caucus, said the speaking lineup was
a "perfect highlight," with two new
representatives and two senators elected 11
years ago.
"That's really when we formed the Senate
Progressive Caucus to really move the Senate
much further to the left than where it was," he
said. "It was a fairly moderate body back then,
and to see new legislators like Liz Miranda,
like Lindsay Sabadosa, like Tami Gouveia, like
Nika Elugardo, in this first-year class is
incredibly exciting."
State House News
Service
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Freshwoman lawmaker looking to make
constitution's verbiage more "inclusive"
By Katie Lannan
Explaining to her colleagues how she came to
propose two amendments to the Massachusetts
Constitution in her first 15 days as a lawmaker,
Rep. Mindy Domb on Tuesday said filing
legislation "can sometimes be like pulling a
string on a sweater."
Domb testified before the Judiciary Committee on
two amendments she's filed, including one
dealing with lawmakers' oaths of office and
another that would replace the word "he" with
the gender-neutral pronoun "they" in instances
where the constitution is not specifically
referring to men.
"For me, it's really about making sure that the
constitution is as inclusive a document as we
can make it," the first-term Amherst Democrat
said. "It says 'he.' It doesn't mean 'he.' It
doesn't mean only men. There are lots of women
who are in office. It means all of us, and we
need to make sure that the document says that so
that all of us and all of our kids can see
themselves in this constitution."
Domb said the Massachusetts Constitution uses
the word "he" 84 times and the word "she" only
once, in a specific reference to women in a
section on notaries public.
The hearing on her proposed amendment (H 80),
which is cosponsored by nine other lawmakers,
comes after the House and Senate this year
adopted rules that replaced the word "chairman"
with "chair."
It was another language issue she encountered
when preparing to take her oath of office -- the
first string she pulled -- that prompted her to
look more broadly at the constitution's wording,
Domb said.
Domb said she is not a Quaker but was "not
really comfortable swearing," and wanted to be
able to affirm her oath instead. She said she
wanted to give others the option to affirm oaths
as well to be inclusive of various religious or
spiritual beliefs.
In reviewing the language around oaths, Domb
noticed the use of the pronoun "he." Her second
amendment (H 81) would give anyone taking an
oath the option to swear or affirm it, and
replace the word "he" in that section with
"they."
Once she took that step in one area, Domb said,
"It felt almost like we had to address the other
times in the constitution where it also says
'he' but doesn't only refer to men."
Sen. Jamie Eldridge, the Judiciary Committee's
Senate chair, told Domb he wanted to commend her
for her testimony.
"Just in your first few months in the
Legislature, you put in an incredible amount of
thought into the problem and the challenge, your
vision, and drafting these two pieces of
legislation," he said.
Amending the constitution is a process that
takes years, and review by a committee is one of
the early steps. Committees have until April 24
to report out proposed constitutional
amendments, and proposals that are advanced will
need to earn the support of a majority of the
200-seat Legislature in two consecutive sessions
before the question can placed before voters.
The Judiciary Committee has custody of seven
other proposed amendments, including a Rep.
Thomas Golden measure (H 82) to impose
seven-year renewable term limits upon judges, a
Rep. Bradley Jones bill (H 83) prohibiting
eminent domain takings, a Sen. Cynthia Creem
proposal (S 14) banning amendments that restrict
"freedom and equality," and a Rep. Paul Mark
proposal (H 84) requiring the governor to
nominate a lieutenant governor, subject to
confirmation by the House and Senate, whenever
that office becomes vacant.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Amendment proposed to make state constitution
‘gender inclusive’
By Mary Markos
A freshman state representative wants to strike
the word “he” entirely from the Massachusetts
Constitution, substituting “they” in an effort
to make the 239-year-old document gender-neutral
— but critics say the Legislature has more
important work to do.
“This isn’t a gimmick. For me, it’s really about
making sure that the Constitution is as an
inclusive a document as we can make it,” Rep.
Mindy Domb said. “It says ‘he,’ it doesn’t mean
‘he,’ it doesn’t mean only men. There are lots
of women who are in office. It means all of us.
We need to make sure that the document says that
so all of us and all of our kids can see
themselves in this Constitution.”
The Amherst Democrat proposed two amendments to
the state Constitution at a joint Judiciary
Committee hearing Tuesday. Her first would allow
legislators of any religion to affirm their
allegiance rather than swear it, which currently
only Quakers can do. That made her realize that
all people are referred to as “he,” more than 80
times in the Constitution, with the exception of
notaries public, a section in which women are
specified using “she.”
There are likely no legal implications to the
change, constitutional lawyer Harvey Silverglate
said — but he also called it “meaningless and
unnecessary.”
“In this instance, in the name of gender
inclusivity, it is simply to make an ideological
statement but having no practical implication,”
Silverglate said. “There is enough real work to
do in this country without make-work.”
Massachusetts GOP Chairman Jim Lyons, known for
derailing a bill that would have added a third
gender “X” to Massachusetts driver’s licenses,
said, “It seems like during the midst of an
opioid epidemic, the Judiciary Committee would
have more important things to consider.”
But Ev Evnen of the Massachusetts Transgender
Political Coalition said the language should be
changed to include all gender identities.
“I think there is a real benefit to not using
‘he’ as a stand-in for all people,” Evnen said.
“This is just another example of how when we
make things more inclusive for transgender folks
and non-binary folks, oftentimes we make things
more inclusive for everyone.”
The process of amending the constitution can
take years, and involves two successive sessions
passing the legislation before going out to
ballot for voter approval. Proposed
constitutional amendments have to be reported
out earlier than other bills and are due by the
end of the month. Co-sponsor Sen. Rebecca L.
Rausch (D-Needham) called it “crucial” to
achieving gender parity.
“The language in the Constitution, as it
currently exists, is archaic and fails to
recognize the fact that it’s not just men
serving in elected office anymore,” Rausch said.
“The language should reflect the reality.”
State House News
Service
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Budget back in black as tax refunds in March
fall from 2018
By Matt Murphy
The state's budget revenue shortfall has
disappeared after $2.67 billion in taxes were
collected in March putting Massachusetts $19
million above the estimates used to build the
state's current $41 billion budget.
The tax collections in March exceeded
projections by $316 million, or 13.4 percent,
and were 19 percent higher than the same month
last year. Meanwhile, income tax refunds for the
month were down, totaling $350 million in March,
which was $43 million, or 11 percent, lower than
March 2018.
The gains erased a $292 million shortfall
through February with three more months in the
fiscal year, including the largest month for tax
collections in April.
Revenue collections of $20.2 billion for the
year to date are up 4.1 percent, or $796
million, from the same period in fiscal 2018.
"The corporate & business revenue and the
non-withholding income tax, which are generally
volatile, were the primary contributors to the
above-benchmark performance for the month,"
Revenue Commissioner Christopher Harding said in
a statement. "With approximately 71% of revenue
collections in the door for Fiscal Year 2019,
year-to-date revenue is now essentially even
with the year-to-date benchmark."
Harding said that the two largest tax categories
– withholding and sales taxes – showed
"continued growth" over 2018. Withholding
collections were up 3.7 percent from March 2018,
or $46 million, and beat projections by $2
million, while sales taxes of $487 million were
up 2.6 percent from last year, but missed the
target by $3 million.
"These categories are associated with overall
economic conditions in the state, which show
steady growth," Harding said.
Income taxes beat estimates in March by $86
million and corporate taxes were $226 million
higher than the benchmark, according to the
Department of Revenue.
March is the sixth largest month for state
revenues. Collections in April, May and June
have accounted for an average of 30 percent of
the state's total revenues in the last 15 fiscal
years.
The Boston Herald
Monday, April 1, 2019
Anti-tax PAC slams State House Dems on potential
gas tax hike
Members cite repeal of ’13 increase
By Brooks Sutherland
An anti-tax organization took aim at state
Democrats Monday after the party’s leadership
floated the possibility of a gas tax hike, a
move tried once and overturned by voters five
years ago.
“Beacon Hill does what it wants,” said Holly
Robichaud, a member of the Massachusetts
Taxpayers Best Ally political action committee.
“Beacon Hill doesn’t listen to the people. It’s
very disappointing that not one Democrat, when
asked, was willing to support the will of the
people.”
The Legislature upped the gas tax by three cents
in 2013 with a trigger to increase it with
inflation. But, Geoff Diehl, a former state
representative and Republican candidate for U.S.
Senate, led a successful charge to repeal the
tax, earning 53 percent of the vote.
Steve Aylward, a chairman of the MTBA PAC said
gas tax hikes are a “settled issue” and called
on Beacon Hill to “work for the people.”
“The legislature was wrong five years ago,”
Aylward said in a release obtained by the
Herald. “They should have apologized to the
people instead of passing themselves a big fat
pay raise.”
On Monday, Catherine Williams, a spokeswoman for
House Speaker Robert DeLeo, referred the Herald
to DeLeo’s comments after the Chamber of
Commerce dinner last month. While speaking with
reporters after the event, DeLeo said a gas tax
hike was “on the table.”
“I think everything and anything is on the
table. And again, that will be one of the
items,” DeLeo told reporters. “Some members have
already approached me on it, they feel that they
could support. It’s never an easy issue to take
up, but again, I think we’re at a stage where if
we’re going to get serious about addressing this
issue then everything and anything has to be on
the table.”
Robichaud said her organization, which formerly
went by Tank Automatic Gas Tax Hikes, recently
contacted house members asking for a pledge to
oppose the hikes. She says no Democratic House
members responded.
Another chairman of the MTBA organization, Marty
Lamb, slammed the Democrats’ failure to sign the
pledge as a “bad joke on the hard-working people
of Massachusetts who voted to end automatic tax
hikes five years ago.”
“The majority of voters said they don’t want
taxation without representation,” Robichaud told
the Herald Monday. “People have already spoken
on this.”
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, April 3, 2019
A Boston Herald editorial
Gas tax resistance rises
As lawmakers on Beacon Hill consider an
automatic gas tax, the opposition is letting its
voice be heard, and that is a good thing. The
Massachusetts Taxpayers Best Ally political
action committee is taking a stand on the right
side of the issue.
As the Herald’s Brooks Sutherland reported,
Steve Aylward, a chairman of the MTBA PAC, has
sounded off, saying gas tax hikes are a “settled
issue” and calling on Beacon Hill to “work for
the people.”
“The legislature was wrong five years ago,”
Aylward said in a release obtained by the
Herald. “They should have apologized to the
people instead of passing themselves a big fat
pay raise.”
Last month, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo
floated the idea of the return of the gas tax
index at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast. “Some
members have already approached me on it, they
feel that they could support,” DeLeo said. “It’s
never an easy issue to take up, but again, I
think we’re at a stage where if we’re going to
get serious about addressing this issue, then
everything and anything has to be on the table.”
The gas tax index should not be on the table. To
automatically raise gas taxes with every
increase in inflation will hit middle-class and
lower-class families unfairly. Their pay and
benefits do not also increase with the rate of
inflation. To have this taxation occur without
representation is obscene.
Though proponents of the automatic gas tax
suggest that fixing dilapidated roads and
bridges may make such a measure more palatable
to voters, we believe they have underestimated
the ire legislators have drawn to themselves by
declaring a need to raise revenue while giving
themselves multiple pay raises in the last few
years.
If our leaders on Beacon Hill want higher gas
taxes every year, let them vote for higher gas
taxes every year. Let them explain to their
constituents why more of their hard-earned money
belongs in Beacon Hill coffers and less in their
wallets.
State House News
Service
Thursday, April 4, 2019
Vaping, cigarette taxes getting strong push this
session
By Kaitlyn Budion
To address youth smoking, Massachusetts should
raise taxes on tobacco products and ban flavored
tobacco products, according to advocates and
legislators.
"The data is there," Rep. Marjorie Decker said.
"When you increase taxes on tobacco you lower
the rates of new smokers who are coming in. It
works."
The American Cancer Society Cancer Action
Network and The 84 Movement have each held
events in recent weeks to push for more laws to
combat youth smoking, especially vaping, an
industry that picked up a new ally this week
when former Attorney General Martha Coakley
joined the lobbying team at JUUL, where she was
a consultant.
The Cancer Action Network held a lobby day last
week to push for bills calling for more
transparency in health care and programs that
assist residents in quitting smoking.
The group's main priority is to adjust taxes on
tobacco products, raising the cigarette tax by
$1 per pack, creating a 75 percent wholesale
excise tax on e-cigarettes and increasing the
cigar tax to 80 percent of wholesale. The calls
come as lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Baker are
showing an openness toward tax hikes, with Baker
having put his own plan on the table to tax
vaping products.
Rep. Danielle Gregoire said she supports
creating a tax for e-cigarettes because the
products are not taxed at all right now, and the
increased price is a major deterrent to youth.
"Our youth are getting sick and they have no
idea what the consequences are, so it is time
for us to put a stop to that here in
Massachusetts and I'm looking forward to doing
just that," she said.
Decker also spoke in support for all of the
tobacco tax increases, and plans on offering
them as a budget amendment later this month, as
well as sponsoring legislation that would create
them independently.
"There is no excise tax on e-cigarettes and it
doesn't make sense that we don't treat it the
same way as cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco
products," Decker said.
She said nearby states have higher tax rates for
tobacco than Massachusetts.
Currently the tax on a pack of 20 cigarettes is
$3.51 in Massachusetts. According to The
Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, as of Dec. 21,
2018, the tax on a pack of cigarettes is $4.35
in New York and Connecticut, $4.50 in the
District of Columbia and $4.25 in Rhode Island.
"We need revenue, but more importantly we need
to continue saving lives," Decker said.
Sen. John Keenan said he supports the tax
increases, and has sponsored a bill that would
ban all flavored tobacco products. Currently,
142 cities and towns across Massachusetts have
some restrictions on flavored tobacco products,
but there are no statewide rules.
"It's time that we stand up and we say to the
big tobacco industry, the big nicotine industry,
and say you are not going to take another
generation," he said. "Together we are going to
fight you every step of the way."
It's not just adults who are concerned about big
tobacco targeting youth; teenagers have noticed
as well. The 84 Movement, a statewide tobacco
prevention program, gathered activitsts
Wednesday for Kick Butts Day, a youth-led rally
for teenagers to advocate for stronger tobacco
restrictions.
Hayli Manning, a senior at Holbrook Middle High
School, talked about watching her friends try
flavored tobacco products from lemon-berry tart
to menthol.
"For example, I've seen menthol not only in my
community but on a much more personal level as
well. I have friends who use mint flavored
products," Manning said. "One of them made a
comment about mint vape being like gum for your
lungs."
Manning also said that of youth between the ages
of 12-17 who do smoke traditional cigarettes, 54
percent of them smoke menthol cigarettes.
At the American Cancer Society event, Keenan
spoke about visiting a school in his district,
where he talked with students about the dangers
of vaping and an eighth-grade boy said he
worried not only about himself and his friends
being attracted to vaping, but his younger
brother too.
Rep. Sean Garballey sponsored Kick Butts' Day
and emphasized that tobacco companies target
kids to get them addicted for life.
"Tobacco companies spend hundreds of millions of
dollars each generation to try to get you
hooked," Garballey said. "They're not spending
it on 50-60 year olds. Why are they targeting
you? Because if they get you hooked they have a
customer for life."
Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito attended the Kick Butts
Day event, and said she was concerned about the
perception that e-cigarettes are less bad than
regular cigarettes.
"It feels to me like we're not doing our job if
we have out there this perception that this is a
safe choice," Polito said. "We've got to dispel
that perception, make the facts a reality in
people's minds and impact cultural norms."
Speakers at both events emphasized the
importance of fighting youth smoking, and while
the most recent data from Massachusetts in 2017
shows it on the decline, national data showed a
jump in e-cigarette use in 2018. It's that jump
that advocates are concerned about, as in the
past Massachusetts statistics have followed
national trends.
In 2017, the Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior
Survey showed that 24.6 percent of high school
students reported using any tobacco, including
e-cigarettes, in the past 30 days, down from
29.3 percent in 2015. In addition, in 2015, 44.8
percent of students reported ever using
"electronic vapor products," and in 2017 that
number decreased to 41.1 percent.
However, in February, 2019 the Center for
Disease Control released a national report,
"Vital Signs: Tobacco Product Use Among Middle
and High School Students — United States,
2011–2018," which showed a drastic jump in youth
smoking.
E-cigarette use by high schoolers increased
significantly from 11.7 percent in 2017 to 20.8
percent in 2018, adding up to approximately 1.5
million additional youths using e-cigarettes in
2018. This increase comes even as the report
states that there was no significant changes in
the use of any other tobacco products.
"However, current e-cigarette use increased by
77.8% among high school students and 48.5% among
middle school students during 2017–2018, erasing
the progress in reducing e-cigarette use, as
well as any tobacco product use, that had
occurred in prior years," said the report.
Marc Hymovitz, the director of governmental
relations for the American Cancer Society Cancer
Action Network in Massachusetts, said the
organization has also heard from teachers and
employees that there has been a drastic increase
in students caught vaping, something he blames
on the marketing of flavored e-cigarettes to
kids.
"We are mostly concerned because we know that
big tobacco is targeting kids," he said. "So
that's where we are trying to impact change."
Last session, the Legislature and Baker agreed
to a law raising the minimum age to buy tobacco
from 18 to 21, which went into effect January.
The Cancer Action Network also advocated for
bills to make health care plan choice easier.
A bill backed by Sen. Brendan Crighton and Rep.
Jen Benson would make cost and utilization
management information available to consumers
when they choose health plans. This would mean
that during open enrollment consumers can see
the list of drugs covered under each plan and
what the cost would be to them before purchasing
the plan.
The process of choosing a health plan can be
especially difficult when someone has cancer or
other serious illnesses, when the costs of
treatment are much higher and consumers don't
know exactly what medicines will be covered and
how much it will cost them.
"While you are having the fight of your life
against cancer, you shouldn't be fighting the
fine print, you shouldn't have to roll the dice
with uncertainty as you try to select a health
care plan," Crighton said.
Benson, who is the House chair of the Joint
Committee on Health Care Financing, said the
focus on health care reform should be on
patients not cost.
"I can say moving forward this session we are
focused on health," she said. "Now, you're going
to hear a lot about cost. And we all worry about
cost because if something is too expensive
you're not going to be able to access it. But we
also understand that the way to reduce cost in
the long term is keeping people healthy."
Patti Morris, a volunteer from the American
Cancer Society, spoke about her personal
experience with cancer. Twenty-nine of her
relatives have had cancer and several of them
have passed away from cancer, including her
mother, her sister-in-law and her mother-in-law.
Morris was shocked when her grandson seemed
interested in flavored e-cigarettes, telling her
that juuls must be good because it "smells
really good."
"I want you guys to know how important our
voices are and I have a voice, my mother doesn't
have one, my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law
they don't have those voices," Morris said. "And
I'll be damned if my 9-year-old grandson ever
picks up an e-cigarette."
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