Revenue Committee Hearing on Estate Tax
Bills
Quotes of Note
"I'm against repeal because it would make
our tax system less progressive and less adequate,” said
Sen. Pat Jehlen (D-Somerville). “The estate tax is one
of our most progressive: only the top 2 to 3 percent of
estates, those with over $1 million in assets after
deductions, and not including those where the spouse
inherits, pay the estate tax, and it's a graduated tax.
Estates of $1 million pay 0.8 percent. We can't afford
to lose the $350 million to $450 million a year the estate
tax brings in. We need to repair and improve our
transportation, to give all our children an adequate
education, and to pay enough to attract and keep child care
and elder care workers into important and fast-growing
jobs."
*
* *
"As one of only a dozen states in the nation
still imposing an estate tax on the heirs of its deceased
citizens, not even indexed for inflation since it was
imposed in 2001, only Massachusetts and Oregon trigger its
imposition at just one million dollars of lifetime assets.
Only Massachusetts reaches back and taxes on the first cent
when that million dollar threshold is crossed," said Chip
Ford, executive director of Citizens for Limited
Taxation, which provided testimony to the committee.
"Long ago Benjamin Franklin noted, 'In this
world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and
taxes,'" Ford added. "The Massachusetts
Legislature in its insatiable pursuit of revenue, pushes
that certainty to the limits, and beyond."
Beacon Hill Roll Call
Volume 44 - Report No. 37
September 9-13, 2019
By Bob Katzen
A long-running debate over the state's
estate tax revived on Beacon Hill as the Revenue Committee
took up bills Tuesday calling for reforms or outright
abolition of the levies charged when assets are passed along
following a person's death.
As other states reexamine their estate taxes
— only 12 others currently have one remaining on the books,
and only Oregon's kicks in at as low a level — opponents of
the current Massachusetts system want lawmakers to get
behind some sort of action, even if the move would carry
revenue implications....
Dooley's bill (H 2446) has been filed
several sessions in a row, but has never been passed. It
would increase the level at which the estate tax kicks in
from $1 million to $2.75 million and add a homeowner
exemption.
The Norfolk Republican told the committee
that he does not want to see the estate tax repealed
entirely, but rather modified to strike a middle ground
between its financial benefits and the burden it places on
residents who have assets — which includes property owned
and, in some cases, retirement accounts and life insurance —
between $1 million and $5 million.
With a threshold of $1 million, Dooley said,
the state loses "tons of people every year" who move away to
avoid having to pay. That argument is similar to one made
about a proposed 4 percent surtax on household income above
$1 million.
"This isn't a bill that's trying to help the
ultra, ultra, ultra rich," Dooley said. "What this does is
it's trying to help that person who has a triple-decker in
Cambridge and owns a garage and maybe a little bit of a
pension and a few stocks and a cottage down in Harwich, all
of these things that he bought and lived [over] a lifetime,
never considering himself wealthy."
"All of a sudden, this person becomes, on
paper, very, very wealthy, and this person just wants to
pass it down to the next generation," Dooley continued.
Dooley told the committee that it is
difficult to provide an exact figure on the revenue
implications of updating the estate tax threshold. He said
that, last year, the administration's Department of Revenue
estimated the state would likely forego roughly $60 million
in taxes under the change....
[Paul] Craney said that MassFiscal supports
eliminating the estate tax overall, but opted to endorse
Dooley's bill — noting the broad support it enjoys — as a
way that "starts getting us there."
Other business and interest groups renewed
their advocacy Tuesday for significant changes to the
policy. Brad MacDougall, vice president of government
affairs for the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, also
backed Dooley's legislation.
Citizens for Limited Taxation group
supported the bill, too, but described other legislation (S
1657 and S 1731) that would completely eliminate the estate
tax as the "cleanest, most straightforward" approach.
National Federation of Independent Business
Massachusetts Director Christopher Carlozzi said in a press
release that the organization supports either a repeal,
phase-out or update to the policy....
Fiscal year 2019 estate tax collections
exceeded the benchmark lawmakers set by $151 million, the
Department of Revenue said in July.
State House News Service
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Estate tax targeted to keep capital in Massachusetts
The coming debate over tax hikes and other
ways to generate revenue for transportation investments is
getting more complicated by the facts on the ground.
State government is awash in surplus cash,
so much so that the state savings account balance is
whizzing past $3 billion and Gov. Charlie Baker, who looms
as a potential obstacle to tax increases, is now openly
pressing the Legislature to deliver tax relief to
Massachusetts residents.
As part of a plan to spend $648 million from
the fiscal 2019 surplus, Baker on Friday proposed using $175
million over the next two years to pay for a doubling of the
income tax exemption for dependents from $1,000 to $2,000,
which would deliver tax relief to 1 million taxpayers worth
$50 per dependent. In his letter to the Legislature, Baker
described it as a "working families" tax cut.
The governor's tax relief and spending
proposal arrived a day after the state Department of Revenue
reported collecting nearly $2 billion in August, which is
one of the state's lighter months for collections. That
marked a nearly 8 percent spike in revenues, up $146 million
from August 2018.
Playing defense against an expected push for
tax increases, the Massachusetts High Tech Council recently
noted that state tax collections surged by $4 billion in
just the last two fiscal years and rose by 58 percent, far
outpacing inflation, over the decade ending in fiscal
2019....
And legislators who favor raising the gas
tax or other revenue generation ideas like congestion
pricing will also need to explain why those proposals should
advance at a time when a recession could be around the
corner, or not. Democrats are already moving forward with a
$2 billion income surtax on the wealthy, and a new $800
million annual tax on businesses and employees is about to
kick in Oct. 1 to finance the state's new paid family and
medical leave law....
House Speaker Robert DeLeo has forecast a
fall debate in the House over transportation revenues....
The Transportation for Massachusetts
coalition is urging legislators to pass a five-point plan,
in addition to the wealth surtax.
The plan calls for a 25-cent per gallon
increase in the gas tax ...
On Monday, DeLeo named three House chairmen
that he said are working on a transportation revenue bill:
House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Aaron Michlewitz
of Boston, Transportation Committee Co-chair Rep. William
Straus of Mattapoisett and Revenue Committe Co-chair Rep.
Mark Cusack of Braintree.
"It is my plan to, before this session ends,
that we come up with some type of plan that's going to
address the financial part of the issue and what other
issues that the chairs may feel are necessary to be part and
parcel of the legislation," DeLeo told reporters.
State House News Service
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
As tax-raising talks heat up, Baker offers a new idea: Tax
Relief
Unsatisfied with the progress or lack
thereof at the bargaining table, the state's largest public
employee union last week called on Gov. Charlie Baker's
administration to exempt state employees from having to pay
into the state's new paid family and medical leave program.
Through a senior aide, the Baker
administration responded by accusing the union of a
political attack and asserting that public employees are
trying to push costs onto the backs of taxpayers.
The National Association of Government
Employees [NAGE] , which represents 22,000 state employees,
issued a press release highly critical of Baker's management
last Wednesday in which the union argued that its members
should not have to contribute to the estimated $800 million
paid family and medical leave program that's being launched
so workers can more easily take care of themselves and their
families without facing financial crises....
"Because of our collective bargaining
agreement, none or very few of our members will ever be able
to participate in that program," [NAGE National President
David Holway] said. He later clarified that NAGE members are
eligible for the state benefits, but would not fare as well
under the state program as they would if they used their
sick time....
The commonwealth itself -- the largest
single employer in Massachusetts -- will be among the
employers paying into the family and medical leave trust
fund. The Executive Office of Administration and Finance
previously estimated the state's contribution at $18 million
annually.
Holway said the state should cover all of
its employees' family and medical leave contributions,
pointing to last fiscal year's revenues that came in nearly
$2 billion ahead of targets and July revenue collections
that were up 6 percent over the previous July.
"If he wants them in there, he should pay
for it. Yet he's hellbent and determined to tax our people,"
Holway said, referring to Baker....
The new paid family and medical leave law,
part of the June 2018 "grand bargain" law, calls for up to
12 weeks of job-protected paid leave to care for a seriously
ill or injured family member, to care for a new child, or to
meet family needs arising from a family member's active-duty
military service. It also authorizes up to 20 weeks of
job-protected paid leave to recover from a worker's own
serious illness or injury, or to care for a seriously ill or
injured service member.
Benefits will become available on Jan. 1,
2021 for workers seeking time off to bond with a new child,
take care of a sick or injured service member or to tend to
a serious personal health condition. On July 1, 2021,
benefits will be made available for workers to care for a
family member with a serious health condition.
State House News Service
Monday, September 9, 2019
Paid leave law talks expose rift between union, Baker
Bay Staters are fed up with Democrats on
Beacon Hill, according to a recent Massachusetts Republican
Party poll — and they aren’t crazy about U.S. Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, either.
“The electorate is disapproving of Beacon
Hill Democrats. People are not happy in the direction
they’re taking the state,” said Remington Research Group
polling director Lexie Davis.
More than 50% of respondents to the
battleground survey last month said Democrats on Beacon Hill
are taking Massachusetts on the wrong track.
The survey of likely 2020 general election
voters in 25 target House districts showed a split of: 52%
wrong track, 33% right direction, and 15% not sure.
When the results are broken down by party
affiliation, the majority of nonpartisans (58%) said
Democrats are taking Massachusetts on the wrong track — and
81% of Republicans said the wrong track. Nearly two-thirds
of Democrats (65%) responded with the right direction.
The Boston Herald
Monday, September 9, 2019
Poll: Beacon Hill Democrats taking Massachusetts on wrong
track
The state GOP says it has identified
districts with strong potential for electing Republican
lawmakers in 2020, and they have the data to prove it.
“I am advising candidates to put the word
‘Republican’ in big letters on all campaign literature,”
said Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons.
The survey of nearly 1,500 likely 2020
voters spread out across 25 House “battleground” districts
reveals deep dissatisfaction with Beacon Hill Democrats and
shows strong potential for Republicans to pick up several
seats.
“It’s clear there are issues out there which
are driving people away from the Democrats as their party
keeps lurching further left,” said Lyons.
Massachusetts Republican Party
Monday, September 9, 2019
"Battleground poll" shows 25 Massachusetts House districts
seeing red
. . . For the Legislature, the return from
summer break also tends to be a slow process, and that held
true. Neither branch rushed backed to the State House to
pass any of its stated priority bills for the session, but
the hearing circuit kicked back into high gear on Tuesday
where lawmakers took testimony on everything from adding a
"Gender X" option to drivers licenses to repealing the
estate tax.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo, Senate President
Karen Spilka and Baker also resumed their fairly regular
Monday meetings where Baker said the trio discussed their
fall agendas, and the speaker said he hoped to check in with
mayors to retake their temperature on the governor's housing
bill, for which they have been hot for more than a year.
The recess failed to spawn a compromise on
legislation to ban held-held cellphone use while driving,
but DeLeo and Spilka made the case that it remains a front
burner issue. . . .
State House News Service
Friday, September 13, 2019
Weekly Roundup [Excerpt]
Recap and analysis of the week in state government
By Matt Murphy
Lawmakers are set to end their summer recess
and head back to the floors of the House and Senate this
week to begin the work of the fall session.
The House will get things started on
Wednesday with a formal [session], its first since July, to
consider overriding Gov. Charlie Baker's veto of pro-union
legislation that would let unions charge non-members for
costs in some cases. Baker vetoed the bill in early August
over his concern with protecting the privacy of workers. The
House also plans to consider overrides of the few budget
vetoes issues this year by the governor.
The Senate will hold a formal session on
Thursday, but its agenda won't come into focus until early
next week. There are large, ongoing pushes to get broad
education, transportation and housing bills to the floor,
but lawmakers ... need to consider a bill soon allocating
the fiscal 2019 budget surplus.
As they have waited for the action to pick
up, legislators have tried to stay busy post Labor Day with
meetings and hearings, and more gatherings are set up for
next week ...
State House News Service
Friday, September 13, 2019
Advances - Week of Sept. 15, 2019
