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Post Office Box 1147 ●
Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945 ●
(781) 639-9709
“Every Tax is a Pay Cut ... A Tax Cut is a Pay Raise”
45 years as “The Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers”
— and
their Institutional Memory — |
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CLT UPDATE
Saturday, September 7, 2019
Gov
proposes "graduated tax relief"
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Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, who has been
open to raising taxes, on Friday outlined a new tax relief
proposal that his administration says will benefit 1 million
taxpayers with dependents.
In a $648 million spending bill that
allocated surplus fiscal 2019 revenue, Baker is proposing to
double the income tax exemption for dependents from $1,000
to $2,000. The tax break would affect taxpayers who have
children or care for dependent relatives who are elderly or
have a disability, and is worth about $50 per dependent,
according to the administration....
To pay for the tax relief, Baker proposes
depositing $175 million in surplus revenues into a tax
reduction fund to support two years of deductions at the
higher rate without affecting this year's budget or the
fiscal 2021 budget. After that, the tax relief would then be
incorporated into annual budget assumptions, according to
the governor's plans.
The 5.05 percent income tax rate is on track
to fall to 5 percent on Jan. 1 and the governor, in his
bill, sets the income tax at that rate, bypassing near-term
revenue tests. The fiscal 2020 budget already assumes a 5
percent income tax rate, and the governor is not calling for
any further changes in the income tax rate.
The governor's tax proposals are expected to
be entertained by the Legislature this fall, since lawmakers
must close out the books on fiscal 2019 in the coming
weeks....
Preliminary tax collections last fiscal year
were $1.1 billion above budgeted estimates, according to the
administration, and Baker said in May that he anticipated a
surplus would "mean more significant deposits" into the
state's stabilization fund.
Under statutory requirements around excess
capital gains tax revenue, the state has already transferred
$848 million into the stabilization fund. Baker wrote in his
filing memo to lawmakers that $764 million of that money
will stay in the fund, while a total of $84 million will go
to reserves for pensions and future retiree health
insurance.
The bill filed Friday makes what Baker's
office called a "milestone" deposit of an expected $168
million to the rainy day fund, bringing the balance to its
highest-ever level at $3 billion.
State House News Service
Friday, September 6, 2019
Baker offers tax relief plan as revenues surge
While most people were returning from a
Labor Day weekend retreat or vacation, the Senate's majority
leader, Sen. Cindy Creem, was apparently just starting hers.
"First day of vacation!!," she tweeted with a selfie on
Tuesday, serving as a helpful barometer of when the Senate
might get back to work....
To close out the week, Gov. Charlie Baker
offered a bill to close out fiscal year 2019 and use some of
the surplus funds the state collected from taxpayers last
fiscal year to offset new tax relief measures. That could be
among the items the Legislature takes up whenever it boots
back up later this month.
State House News Service
Friday, September 6, 2019
Weekly Roundup - Labor Day Week [Excerpt]
By Colin A. Young
As pundits ponder the possible fates of both
Massachusetts U.S. Senate seats, the state Legislature is
trying to squeeze out every last bit of summer sunshine
before gaveling back into formal sessions on Beacon Hill.
Five weeks have passed since the House and
Senate conducted serious legislative activity, a distracted
driving bill has been hung up in conference committee for 80
days, and the wait continues for legislative direction on
priority issues like K-12 education funding and reform,
transportation investments, and housing production....
The branches are planning to eventually stir
back to life this month and committees are poised for an
active week ahead, hearing bills pertaining to local option
fees for affordable housing and water infrastructure, gender
neutral identification proposals, reproductive health,
student loans, credit unions, the estate tax, and
veteran benefits....
Other loose ends: Gov. Charlie Baker is
putting on the table plans to spend the fiscal 2019 surplus.
State House News Service
Friday, September 6, 2019
Advances - Week of Sept. 8, 2019
Potential ballot question campaigns were
cleared for takeoff Wednesday, and voters next year could
decide the fate of proposals dealing with immigration law
enforcement, liability for gun crimes, ranked choice voting,
and access to vehicle repair information, among others.
Attorney General Maura Healey announced her
certification Wednesday of several initiative petitions as
ballot eligible.
Healey also certified proposed
constitutional amendments that would restore the voting
rights of incarcerated Massachusetts felons and stipulate
that there is no requirement for public funding of abortion.
Those measures could reach the ballot in 2022 if supporters
are able to clear significant hurdles before then. An income
surtax on the wealthy, proposed as a legislative amendment
to the constitution, is already on track for the 2022
ballot....
Healey declined to certify four proposed
laws that would expand the Legislature's ability to limit
political spending and contributions by corporations, manage
fishing equipment to ensure whale safety, place the top two
finishers in a primary election regardless of party on the
general election ballot, and create a commission to limit
human-rights risks from technology.
Healey's office said her certification
decisions were based on constitutional requirements and do
not reflect her support or opposition for any of the
proposals....
To stay on track for the ballot, supporters
of the proposed laws must collect signatures from 80,239
registered voters by Dec. 4, after which the Legislature
will get an opportunity to act on the issues. If lawmakers
do not address the measures, supporters can gather
additional signatures to force a November 2020 ballot
question....
The two constitutional amendment proposals
must secure approval from at least 25 percent of the House
and Senate acting jointly in two separate two-year lawmaking
sessions. If that threshold is cleared, they will appear on
the November 2022 ballot.
[Details below]
State House News Service
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Range of topics deemed eligible for 2020 ballot
The Massachusetts Department of
Transportation has already paid more than half a million
dollars to investigate and explain the botched Registry of
Motor Vehicles record keeping linked to a deadly crash in
June.
“This is just another example of the long
list of consequences due to these oversights,” said Sen.
Eric Lesser (D-Longmeadow), who sits on the legislative
Transportation Committee investigating the issue.
Transportation officials have issued two
payments to Grant Thornton, the independent auditing firm
hired to conduct the investigation. The first payment of
$244,000 came on Aug. 14, two days before the firm released
a preliminary report. The most recent $300,000 payment
occurred on Aug. 28.
“This is really just the start. There will
be a significant cost to implement whatever is finally
recommended,” Lesser said about the scandal.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
RMV crisis costs taxpayers half a million dollars … and
counting
Today, on Beacon Hill, a joint hearing will
be held on a pair of bills that would clear the way for
illegal immigrants in Massachusetts to receive driver’s
licenses.
The legislation, filed by two Democratic
lawmakers, would green-light licenses for all qualified
residents. The thinking behind the bill is that legitimizing
drivers would actually make the roads safer for everyone as
those drivers would now be on the grid like the rest of us.
They would be held to the same standards as anyone else,
having to pass tests and get insurance.
This effort is a cynical maneuver that would
only go to undermine the rule of law. It will result in an
influx of illegal immigrants to the Bay State who will look
to use the RMV documentation to begin to obtain legitimacy.
A driver’s license can bridge the gap
between undocumented status and the full privileges of
citizenship, including voting. It is quite a reward to
bestow upon someone who has repeatedly broken the law, in
most cases, in establishing an unearned livelihood in this
country.
Earlier this year, Gov. Charlie Baker, told
the Boston Herald he would “certainly veto” a bill to grant
licenses to undocumented immigrants. If it gets that far he
must do just that.
A Boston Herald editorial
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Illegal immigrants should not get driver’s licenses
We must not reward bad behavior
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
It's hard to
fault Gov. Baker for his inclination toward some tax
relief after the huge revenue surplus (tax overpayment)
last fiscal year, $648 million of which is about to be
spent, of course. But if this overpayment of taxes
is to be given back — as
it should be — why does
he feel compelled to dole it out to some and not
all taxpayers? All taxpayers paid it
without discrimination. Why are not all eligible
for relief without discrimination? When the
state government has taken in far more (almost two
billion in excess taxpayer's dollars) who is he
or anyone else to pick which taxpayers will be
reimbursed and which will not?
To pay for the tax relief, Baker proposes
depositing $175 million in surplus revenues into
a tax reduction fund to support two years of
deductions at the higher rate without affecting
this year's budget or the fiscal 2021 budget.
After that, the tax relief would then be
incorporated into annual budget assumptions,
according to the governor's plans.
The 5.05 percent income tax rate is on track to
fall to 5 percent on Jan. 1 and the governor, in
his bill, sets the income tax at that rate,
bypassing near-term revenue tests. The fiscal
2020 budget already assumes a 5 percent income
tax rate, and the governor is not calling for
any further changes in the income tax rate.
The governor's
"tax relief" will benefit 1 million taxpayers
— but only those with
dependents. Did they pay more taxes than those
without dependents?
This is
another of Charlie's moves toward Progressivism
— "graduated tax relief."
"From each according to his ability, to each according
to his need."
I was
contacted by Rep. Shawn Dooley's (R-Norfolk) office this
past week asking for CLT's support of the
representative's estate tax reform bill (H-2466).
Rep. Dooley's chief-of-staff reminded me that Shawn
Dooley was formerly Chip Faulkner's state rep and that
Chipster was backing this bill. Basically, it
updates the Massachusetts estate tax to catch up with
inflation and property appreciation, long overdue.
According to excerpts from a
summary of the bill:
Currently, estates worth under $1,000,000 are excluded
from paying the estate tax, but when it reaches a value
of $1,000,000 the tax is triggered and the entire estate
is taxed. This bill changes the system to an
exclusion-based method where only the value of the
estate above a basic exclusion amount is taxed, not the
entire estate. This exclusion is amount is set to be
indexed with inflation each year.
Currently Massachusetts is an outlier even among the 11
states that have a state estate tax. We are currently
tied with Oregon for the lowest exemption of $1,000,000.
The reality is that wealthy people are leaving
Massachusetts because of our estate (and other) taxes.
This occurs at a much higher rate in retirement.
Therefore we are not only losing 100% of their estate
tax, but we are also losing 100% of 30-40 years worth of
income tax, capital gains tax, property tax, excise tax,
sales tax, etc. It is a compounding factor.
There are a
multitude of bills coming up
before the Joint Committee on Revenue on Tuesday,
many addressing just this estate tax situation.
The cleanest, most straightforward are
S.1657 and
S.1731, both titled "An Act abolishing the death
tax." Now that would take care of the
problem once and for all, but they stand little chance
of even getting out of the committee. Not in
Massachusetts — one of
only 11 states across the nation with an estate tax
whatsoever. (If there's a tax or fee invented by
Mankind, Taxachusetts has found, adopted, and imposes
it.)
I'll begin
preparing CLT's testimony for the Revenue Committee
tomorrow.
A little
aside. Remember when that committee was called the
Taxation Committee —
not so long ago?
If you control language, you
control the argument. If you control the argument,
you control information. If you control information,
you control history. If you control history, you
control the past.
“He who controls the past
controls the future.”
– George Orwell’s Big Brother,
"1984"
"Control
the language and control history" by William
Haupt III
One dangerous
bill is being proposed on Tuesday by Sen. Julian Cyr
(D-Cape and Islands) and Rep. Dylan A. Fernandes
(D-Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket). It would
transform the local municipal property tax into a
progressive tax with different tax rates and brackets
dependent on some criteria not defined by the bill.
You might be assessed $1.75 per thousand valuation of
your property, while your neighbor's tax rate might be
only 88 cents per thousand of his
property's assessed value. Of course, if your
neighbor's tax rate is lowered, then the tax rates of
others would need to be jacked up to make up the
difference.
"From each according to his ability, to each according
to his need."
S.1634
An Act relative to a bifurcated property tax
By Mr. Cyr, a
petition (accompanied by bill, Senate, No. 1634) of Sen.
Julian Cyr and Rep. Dylan A. Fernandes for legislation
relative to a bifurcated property tax.
SECTION 1.
Chapter 59 of the General Laws is hereby amended by
inserting after section 5N the following 2 sections:-
Section 5O. In
any city or town that accepts this section, the board of
selectmen of a town, or in a municipality having a town
council form of government, the town council or the
mayor, with the approval of the city council in a city,
may establish a bifurcated or progressive tax rate on
real property.
https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/S1634
If a "graduated property
tax" was ever adopted by the Legislature and signed by
the governor, it would likely be found unconstitutional
under the Massachusetts Constitution's requirement that
all classes of property must be taxed at the same rate
— the reason why
Progressives and Socialists are attempting to amend the
constitution to impose a "millionaire's tax" on income.
The 5.05 percent income tax rate is on track
to fall to 5 percent on Jan. 1 and the governor, in his
bill, sets the income tax at that rate, bypassing near-term
revenue tests. The fiscal 2020 budget already assumes a 5
percent income tax rate, and the governor is not calling for
any further changes in the income tax rate.
Finally
— after thirty years
— the Dukakis "temporary"
income tax increase will be fully rolled back to its
once-historic 5 percent. Nineteen years
after the voters, through
CLT's ballot question, resoundingly mandated that it
be rolled back — then the
voters' decision was "frozen" by the Legislature
— it now appears certain
that the income tax rate as of 2020 will drop to 5
percent.
It's sad that Barbara
Anderson and Chip Faulkner — both
relentless, tireless, and critical leaders of the
two CLT petition drives and our victorious 2000
ballot campaign — did not live long enough to
celebrate the attainment of their long labors.
Many who fought and sacrificed with us over the years,
the decades — for over an
entire generation to roll it back also aren't
around any longer to appreciate the satisfaction of this
overdue success, as you and I will at long last.
Another
Thirty Years' War has been a long, exhausting battle
by any measurement.
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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State House News
Service
Friday, September 6, 2019
Baker offers tax relief plan as revenues surge
By Michael P. Norton and Katie Lannan
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, who has been open
to raising taxes, on Friday outlined a new tax
relief proposal that his administration says
will benefit 1 million taxpayers with
dependents.
In a $648 million spending bill that allocated
surplus fiscal 2019 revenue, Baker is proposing
to double the income tax exemption for
dependents from $1,000 to $2,000. The tax break
would affect taxpayers who have children or care
for dependent relatives who are elderly or have
a disability, and is worth about $50 per
dependent, according to the administration.
The supplemental spending bill also includes
funding addressing fentanyl trafficking,
drinking water contaminants, education for
low-income students, and local roads and
bridges.
To pay for the tax relief, Baker proposes
depositing $175 million in surplus revenues into
a tax reduction fund to support two years of
deductions at the higher rate without affecting
this year's budget or the fiscal 2021 budget.
After that, the tax relief would then be
incorporated into annual budget assumptions,
according to the governor's plans.
The 5.05 percent income tax rate is on track to
fall to 5 percent on Jan. 1 and the governor, in
his bill, sets the income tax at that rate,
bypassing near-term revenue tests. The fiscal
2020 budget already assumes a 5 percent income
tax rate, and the governor is not calling for
any further changes in the income tax rate.
The governor's tax proposals are expected to be
entertained by the Legislature this fall, since
lawmakers must close out the books on fiscal
2019 in the coming weeks.
Preliminary tax collections last fiscal year
were $1.1 billion above budgeted estimates,
according to the administration, and Baker said
in May that he anticipated a surplus would "mean
more significant deposits" into the state's
stabilization fund.
Under statutory requirements around excess
capital gains tax revenue, the state has already
transferred $848 million into the stabilization
fund. Baker wrote in his filing memo to
lawmakers that $764 million of that money will
stay in the fund, while a total of $84 million
will go to reserves for pensions and future
retiree health insurance.
The bill filed Friday makes what Baker's office
called a "milestone" deposit of an expected $168
million to the rainy day fund, bringing the
balance to its highest-ever level at $3 billion.
On the public health front, the bill calls for
$5 million to support regional fentanyl
interdiction programs, and $3.5 million for
additional spraying to reduce the risk of
Eastern equine encephalitis. Seven human cases
of EEE have now been confirmed in Massachusetts,
and fentanyl was found present in 92 percent of
all opioid overdose deaths in the first quarter
of 2019 where a toxicology screen occurred.
Baker is recommending $100 million in education
investments, including $50 million for "targeted
assistance" in districts with high
concentrations of low-income students, $15
million for school security infrastructure
grants, and $15 million to support scholarships
for high school students enrolled in early
college programs.
The bill, which will be vetted and likely
amended by the House Ways and Means Committee
before coming before lawmakers for a vote, also
proposes $50.5 million in grants to
municipalities for local road and bridge
improvements; more than $60 million related to
clean drinking water; $10 million for mortgage
down payment assistance; $6.9 million for fiscal
2019 snow and ice removal costs; $16.4 milion to
improve services for men who are civilly
committed for substance use treatment; and $1.2
million in grants to address security needs at
non-profit institutions.
State House News
Service
Friday, September 6, 2019
Advances - Week of Sept. 8, 2019
As pundits ponder the possible fates of both
Massachusetts U.S. Senate seats, the state
Legislature is trying to squeeze out every last
bit of summer sunshine before gaveling back into
formal sessions on Beacon Hill.
Five weeks have passed since the House and
Senate conducted serious legislative activity, a
distracted driving bill has been hung up in
conference committee for 80 days, and the wait
continues for legislative direction on priority
issues like K-12 education funding and reform,
transportation investments, and housing
production. Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito this week
turned up the pressure on lawmakers to act on a
housing bill.
The joint committee structure is controlled by
the House, and stakeholders are looking to
chairs Alice Peisch of Wellesley for direction
on education, William Straus of Mattapoisett and
Mark Cusack of Braintree on transportation
revenues, and Kevin Honan of Brighton, whose
Housing Committee needs to make a recommendation
on a production bill. Senators are coming back
to Beacon Hill for a closed caucus on Thursday,
perhaps to brainstorm on a fall agenda.
Like the Senate, the House does not have any
formal sessions planned next week. Gov. Charlie
Baker and Democratic legislative leaders do plan
a Monday afternoon meeting.
The branches are planning to eventually stir
back to life this month and committees are
poised for an active week ahead, hearing bills
pertaining to local option fees for affordable
housing and water infrastructure, gender neutral
identification proposals, reproductive health,
student loans, credit unions, the estate tax,
and veteran benefits. U.S....
Other loose ends: Gov. Charlie Baker is putting
on the table plans to spend the fiscal 2019
surplus....
Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2019
REVENUE COMMITTEE: Bills related to
property and estate taxes come before the
Revenue Committee for a hearing. Several
bills deal with the estate tax, which critics
call a "death tax," and some would abolish it
entirely. Sen. Julian Cyr of Truro has dubbed
his estate tax modification bill (S 1631) "an
act to mitigate snowbird relocation." The
committee will also solicit testimony on an
array of bills dealing with the payments in lieu
of taxes, or PILOTs, that tax-exempt non-profits
contribute to their host communities.
Full Agenda (Tuesday, 1 p.m., Room B-2)
State House News
Service
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Range of topics deemed eligible for 2020 ballot
By Chris Lisinski
Potential ballot question campaigns were cleared
for takeoff Wednesday, and voters next year
could decide the fate of proposals dealing with
immigration law enforcement, liability for gun
crimes, ranked choice voting, and access to
vehicle repair information, among others.
Attorney General Maura Healey announced her
certification Wednesday of several initiative
petitions as ballot eligible.
Healey also certified proposed constitutional
amendments that would restore the voting rights
of incarcerated Massachusetts felons and
stipulate that there is no requirement for
public funding of abortion. Those measures could
reach the ballot in 2022 if supporters are able
to clear significant hurdles before then. An
income surtax on the wealthy, proposed as a
legislative amendment to the constitution, is
already on track for the 2022 ballot.
Overall, Healey certified 12 initiative
petitions, a hurdle that any potential statewide
ballot question must clear. The proposals cover
11 topics, one fewer than the total number of
active petitions because a measure related to
persons with disabilities was filed and approved
twice.
In addition to ballot proposals to cap state
employee sick time payouts, boost nursing home
funding and create alcohol licenses for food
stores, Healey certified two different
initiatives that would codify a ban on any
state-funded treatment that harms individuals
with disabilities. The petition targets hitting,
pinching, and electric shock "for the purposes
of changing the behavior of the person or
punishing the person."
Healey declined to certify four proposed laws
that would expand the Legislature's ability to
limit political spending and contributions by
corporations, manage fishing equipment to ensure
whale safety, place the top two finishers in a
primary election regardless of party on the
general election ballot, and create a commission
to limit human-rights risks from technology.
Healey's office said her certification decisions
were based on constitutional requirements and do
not reflect her support or opposition for any of
the proposals.
If backers of the prisoner voting rights
amendment are successful, thousands of
Massachusetts residents in prison on felony
convictions would once again be allowed to vote,
a right they had until it was revoked by a
constitutional amendment that was approved in
2000.
Austin Frizzell, an organizer with the Mass
POWER campaign leading the effort, said the
change would likely affect about 9,200
incarcerated residents currently in state
prison, citing statistics from the Prison Policy
Institute. People who have completed felony
sentences, inmates in local jails and parolees
can vote in Massachusetts, he said, "though
access to ballots is often difficult."
"We know our criminal justice system
disproportionately and unjustly targets people
of color, especially Black communities, and
therefore it is also a system of voter
repression," Frizzell said in a press release.
"The right to vote is fundamental and removing
it does not contribute to healing for our
state."
The push comes amid similar efforts elsewhere in
the country. In Florida, voters approved a
ballot question last year to re-enfranchise
about 1.5 million individuals with felony
convictions, though the state Legislature then
passed a law limiting those rights and was
quickly challenged in court.
In April, the Joint Committee on Election Laws
in Massachusetts gave an adverse report to a
similar proposal looking to restore felon voting
rights through a legislative constitutional
amendment.
The abortion-related proposal had cleared
Healey's review in 2017, but supporters did not
secure enough signatures to advance their
measure further in the process.
They will renew their efforts now after the call
for a constitutional amendment, which would add
a line to the state Constitution saying there is
no requirement to publicly fund abortion, was
certified by Healey.
Proposals for changes to state law cover a range
of topics, from allowing police cooperation with
federal immigration authorities to capping
political donations from non-Massachusetts
residents and entities.
One of the petitions would update the 2013 state
law on access to diagnostic information for
vehicle repairs, requiring manufacturers to make
digital repair information accessible.
Proponents say that as technology advances, it
has grown more complicated for independent
repair shops to handle various car needs.
"These shops are increasingly facing the
prospect of having limited or no access to
diagnostic and repair information now that
automakers are restricting access through
rapidly expanding wireless technologies in
vehicles," said Massachusetts Right to Repair
Coalition Director Tommy Hickey in a statement.
"We need to update Right to Repair to keep pace
(with) the massive growth of digital and
wireless technologies cars over the last 6
years."
Automakers plan to oppose the effort, and Conor
Yunits, a spokesperson for the Coalition for
Safe and Secure Data, said the change would
expose personal driving data to third parties
and create privacy risks.
"This ballot proposal is not about who can fix
your car; it is about how many companies and
people have remote access to your driving
habits, patterns and location in real-time,"
Yunits said in a statement. "Automakers already
provide all information needed to repair and
diagnose a vehicle today and will continue to in
the future."
Another proposal Healey certified would
implement a ranked-choice voting system for most
elections in Massachusetts, a proposal that has
drawn attention on Beacon Hill and has been
suggested in several separate pieces of
legislation.
The version as outlined in the initiative would
apply to most statewide or legislative
elections, excluding president, with two or more
candidates on the ballot.
Voters would rank the candidates in their order
of preference, and if no single person receives
an outright majority of number-one votes,
runoffs would occur in which the lowest-ranked
candidate is eliminated and ballots are
redistributed to whoever that candidate's voters
selected as their next choice. The process would
repeat until someone received at least 50
percent of the vote.
A similar system is in place in Maine.
"Massachusetts voters want a stronger voice when
we cast our ballots, and it’s just common sense
to make sure that our elected leaders are
supported by a true majority," said Mac
D'Alessandro, campaign manager of the Voter
Choice for Massachusetts group pushing for the
change. "Ranked Choice Voting would give voters
the option to rank candidates in the order they
prefer them, empowering and re-energizing
Massachusetts voters at a critical time in our
democracy."
Other petitions reflect ongoing debates at the
State House. While lawmakers again weigh whether
to support the Safe Communities Act — which
would effectively create a firewall between
local law enforcement and federal immigration
authorities — one proposed ballot question would
explicitly allow police to detain suspects
wanted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in
some cases.
Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael
O'Keefe was the lead proponent on the
immigration initiative. Top signatures backing
the idea include Bristol County Sheriff Thomas
Hodgson, Worcester County Sheriff Lewis
Evangelidis, Barnstable County Sheriff James
Cummings, Republican legislators Rep. William
Crocker, Rep. Norman Orrall and Sen. Dean Tran,
Democratic Rep. Colleen Garry, Gardner Mayor
Mark Hawke and others.
Another initiative would change state law so
that all gun owners, including Massachusetts
residents and out-of-state visitors, would be
held "equally responsible for any and all
actions and crimes committed" with any weapons
they own, regardless of whether they provided
the firearms intentionally. It would also
require every gun owner to obtain a certified
gun safe.
To stay on track for the ballot, supporters of
the proposed laws must collect signatures from
80,239 registered voters by Dec. 4, after which
the Legislature will get an opportunity to act
on the issues. If lawmakers do not address the
measures, supporters can gather additional
signatures to force a November 2020 ballot
question.
Signature-gathering has been an obstacle for
many initiatives in the past. In 2017, Healey
deemed 20 proposed laws eligible to proceed, but
only seven cleared the signature threshold. One
related to an income surtax was later tossed by
the Supreme Judicial Court, while three dealing
with the sales tax, minimum wage, and paid leave
were abandoned after lawmakers worked them into
last year's so-called "grand bargain" agreement.
The two constitutional amendment proposals must
secure approval from at least 25 percent of the
House and Senate acting jointly in two separate
two-year lawmaking sessions. If that threshold
is cleared, they will appear on the November
2022 ballot.
The Boston
Herald
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
RMV crisis costs taxpayers half a million
dollars … and counting
By Hillary Chabot
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation
has already paid more than half a million
dollars to investigate and explain the botched
Registry of Motor Vehicles record keeping linked
to a deadly crash in June.
“This is just another example of the long list
of consequences due to these oversights,” said
Sen. Eric Lesser (D-Longmeadow), who sits on the
legislative Transportation Committee
investigating the issue.
Transportation officials have issued two
payments to Grant Thornton, the independent
auditing firm hired to conduct the
investigation. The first payment of $244,000
came on Aug. 14, two days before the firm
released a preliminary report. The most recent
$300,000 payment occurred on Aug. 28.
“This is really just the start. There will be a
significant cost to implement whatever is
finally recommended,” Lesser said about the
scandal.
Grant Thornton’s preliminary report suggested
creating two new positions within the RMV, while
Interim Registrar Jamey Tesler promised to hire
a deputy registrar for safety and to create a
new six-person out-of-state notifications
processing unit.
The department-wide scandal also cost the jobs
of two transportation bigwigs. The RMV’s former
Registrar Erin Devaney resigned when the
department’s poor record keeping came to light.
Former Merit Rating Board Director Thomas Bowes
was fired last month by board members.
Those costs, Lesser pointed out, pale in
comparison to the seven lives lost in a June 21
crash following the systemic management failures
at the RMV. Registry officials for years failed
to suspend driver’s licenses based on
out-of-state offenses.
The oversight meant Volodymyr Zhukovskyy, a
23-year-old man accused of causing the fatal
crash, kept his driving license despite a May 11
operating under the influence charge in
Connecticut that should have prompted an
automatic suspension.
Grant Thornton is days away from a two-month
deadline to produce its final report. A contract
requires Grant Thornton to produce a final
report within 60 days of the firm’s July 9
engagement date, according to a copy of the
Statement of Work provided to the Herald.
But DOT spokeswoman Jacquelyn Goddard said there
is no set date for the report’s release.
“We’re waiting with bated breath for the final
issuance of the report, which could be any day
now,” said Lesser.
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