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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
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Beacon
Hill taxing craze ramping up
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. . . The thing about the gas tax was a
joke, of course. (Sort of.) But no one really knows what
House Speaker Robert DeLeo is cooking up on the revenue
front.
What is known is that it's the middle of
October and there's only a month left until the Legislature
recesses for the year. Lawmakers have joined T riders and
drivers in squawking about the sad state of transportation
in Massachusetts and if DeLeo is to make good on his promise
to advance a revenue bill this calendar year it has to
happen soon.
"It's still on the agenda," DeLeo assured
reporters on Wednesday.
Two of DeLeo's top deputies - Ways and Means
Chairman Aaron MIchlewitz and Transportation Committee
Chairman William Straus -- were both busy with other issues
this week.
State House News Service
Friday, October 18, 2019
Weekly Roundup - #1
The decision by Michlewitz and the House to
sock away $400 million into the state's "rainy day" account
meant, he said, leaving Gov. Baker's proposal for a family
tax break on the shelf.
The House spending bill dropped Baker's
proposal to double the tax exemption for dependents from
$1,000 to $2,000, saving the state about $87 million year.
Meanwhile, the branch elected to keep a business tax break
that would allow companies to continue to deduct interest.
"It was a cost issue," Michlewitz said.
The debate on the budget bill, if it can be
called that, dragged on into the night as lawmakers puttered
around the chamber waiting for Ways and Means to bundle one
large amendment full of changes to the bill.
The biggest thing to bubble up was actually
a confrontation between some freshman lawmakers and
leadership that played out in the chamber and subsequently
on social media.
Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa felt she had been
ignored and denied a chance to speak on a tax amendment that
ultimately failed, prompting others to express feelings of
being sidelined, and DeLeo calling them cynical.
While overdue, the fiscal 2019 closeout
budget was a big item for the House to check off its fall
to-do list, and education funding reform is up next, with
floor debate planned on Wednesday.
State House News Service
Friday, October 18, 2019
Weekly Roundup - #2
The House on Wednesday is set to launch
deliberations on a long-term education funding bill and the
Senate plans on Thursday to debate its plan to allocate the
big fiscal 2019 surplus. Both debates are unfolding over
these last days of October, a time when both tax relief and
tax increases are in the air on Beacon Hill.
House leaders reiterated this week that they
plan to debate new revenue proposals for transportation this
fall, although they still haven't outlined any specific
plan.
"Groups are really starting to come in now
and pitch their own ideas. We're working with other members
of the House to get a sense of what's palatable and what's
not," Revenue Committee Chairman Rep. Mark Cusack told the
News Service Thursday. "I don't think there's anyone that
disagrees with doing something. It's just: what does that
actually become and what does that look like and keeping it
focused on transportation and not these other ideological
topics."
State House News Service
Friday, October 18, 2019
Advances - #1
Senate leaders also have to decide how much
surplus revenue to stash in the state's savings account
after the House upped the ante on that front this week.
Business groups persuaded the House to embrace the tax break
decoupling from part of the federal tax code, and business
lobbyists are now leaning on the House to insist on
accountability measures in the education bill after the
Senate struck parts of the bill in a bid to preserve local
control over education decisions. Look for the education
bill to flow from the House Ways and Means Committee soon,
and for members to then scramble to draft proposed
amendments.
With just over four weeks left for formal
sessions, the fiscal 2019 closeout bill appears to be the
most pressing matter, since the state comptroller faces a
Nov. 1 financial reporting deadline and it appears the
branches will have quite a few differences to settle, and
not much time to do so, once the Senate agrees to its
version of the bill.
State House News Service
Friday, October 18, 2019
Advances - #2
One of the Legislature's leading voices on
climate change does not think the Baker administration needs
the House or Senate's approval to join a regional pact to
cap carbon emissions from vehicles.
Sen. Marc Pacheco, the chair of the Senate
Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change, said the
2008 law setting carbon emission reduction requirements for
the state gives the administration explicit authority to
pursue "market-based compliance mechanisms" like the
cap-and-trade program in development.
The administration has said it's looking
into whether the Legislature will have to vote next spring
to join the Transportation Climate Initiative once it's
fully developed, and the conservative Massachusetts Fiscal
Alliance has called for lawmakers to take a vote.
Some of the 12 states working to develop the
program, including possibly New Hampshire, will need
legislative approval to join.
State House News Service
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Senator: Legislative Approval Not Needed for TCI Program
House Democrats appear to have embraced tax
relief worth $37 million to businesses while severing from
their final fiscal 2019 budget bill a $175 million income
tax exemption proposal that would have helped one million
Massachusetts residents.
Analysts at the Massachusetts Taxpayers
Foundation said a $715 million bill that emerged from the
House Ways and Means Committee on Monday night and earned a
quick and favorable House vote Tuesday did not include the
tax relief Gov. Charlie Baker sought for residents who have
children or care for dependent relatives who are elderly or
have a disability.
Baker proposed doubling the income tax
exemption for dependents from $1,000 to $2,000. To pay for
the tax relief and share fiscal 2019 surplus revenues with
taxpayers, Baker had proposed depositing $175 million 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....
House Minority Leader Brad Jones pointed out
that the House bill does include two of the governor's tax
relief proposals and that the plan to double the exemption
for dependents is "a little bit more expensive."
"I'm going to assume they decided not to
include it because they decided to spend it," Jones said of
the decision to drop Baker's dependent exemption plan. He
said Tuesday afternoon he was working through the bill to
determine where the money that could have been put aside for
tax relief is being spent.
Jones also thinks the juxtaposition between
supporting the governor's tax relief proposals and later
this year debating potential tax increases to support
transportation investments made House leadership less
interested.
"Given that there seems to be a very serious
discussion underway on the Democratic side, the leadership
side, about what taxes to increase, it probably doesn't sit
too well that we're going to increase taxes ... and at the
same time they're providing tax relief," he said.
State House News Service
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
House Dems Dump Baker's "Working Families" Tax Relief
Citing the Baker administration's warning
that traffic is at a "tipping point," lawmakers and
advocates renewed calls Tuesday for Massachusetts to follow
its peers and adjust roadway tolls at different times of day
in an attempt to reduce congestion.
A version of the system, referred to as
congestion pricing, is already in place in nine of the
country's 10 largest metropolitan areas, according to
Transportation for Massachusetts Executive Director Chris
Dempsey....
Several bills before the Transportation
Committee would create congestion pricing in Massachusetts.
Two proposals range in specificity and duration: one calls
for a pilot program in the Sumner, Callahan and Ted Williams
tunnels (H 3075 / S 2035), and the other would enact full
statewide implementation (S 2033).
Both systems would call for roadway tolls to
decrease at least 25 percent during off-peak times, and the
larger-scale version would impose a premium cost of at least
25 percent during peak travel.
The bills do not define peak and off-peak
periods, and peak traffic periods have been lengthening.
State House News Service
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Lawmakers Urged to Try Congestion Pricing
As you wrap up your bumper-to-bumper commute
to Boston tomorrow, lawmakers will be debating whether you
should pay more for the privilege. State Sen. Joseph Boncore,
(D-Winthrop) and state Rep. Adrian Madaro, (D-East Boston),
both have bills before Tuesday’s Joint Committee on
Transportation meeting, which let the state bump up tolls
during rush hour and lower them the rest of the day.
As the Herald’s Sean Philip Cotter reported,
Boncore said it would give people a reason to get out of
their cars and onto public transportation by making car
trips more expensive during peak times.
“Doing nothing for this problem is only
exacerbating this problem,” Boncore said.
But doing the wrong thing for the problem
isn’t going to help much.
For people with jobs in which they can
adjust their hours, it seems a good move. But for those who
have scheduled shifts designed to meet the needs of their
customers and employers, it just makes a traffic-choked
commute more expensive.
As for the notion that this will serve as
incentive to take the T, many people don’t live close to
stations, or would have to take a combination of buses and
trains to reach Boston. And the recent fare hike did nothing
to make the MBTA more attractive to riders.
A Boston Herald editorial
Monday, October 14, 2019
Workers shouldn’t be penalized for commutes
The commute was grinding on him, taking its
toll.
The drive from Plymouth to Boston can take
close to an hour on a good day. Then layer on the Greater
Boston road congestion and it's a recipe for frustration.
So before his Democratic colleagues could
ask this Republican and RWA Mobil station owner to vote on a
higher gas tax, Sen. Viriato deMacedo flipped his blinker
on, took the exit to higher education, and accepted a job at
Bridgewater State University.
DeMacedo's decision to leave makes him the
first lawmaker this session to parachute off the Golden
Dome, where legislators substantially boosted their own pay
last session. The special election to come is already
drawing interest from a range of candidates, both inside and
outside the building, and from both parties.
The district is as purple as they come in
Massachusetts, held for decades by former Senate President
Therese Murray until she left after a term-limited eight
years running the Senate and deMacedo slid into the seat.
Reps. David Vieira and Dylan Fernandes, a
Republican and Democrat both of Falmouth, are giving it a
look, as is Plymouth Rep. Mathew Muratore, some local
officials from Plymouth and Falmouth, an AFL-CIO official
and the 24-year-old great nephew of Congressman Joe Moakley.
While deMacedo's departure cuts the GOP
Senate caucus to five for now, Republicans have a good
chance of retaining the seat. Their biggest concern at the
moment is the possibility that Senate President Karen Spilka
will choose to piggy-back off the presidential primary in
March and set the date for the special election on a day
that would save cities and towns money, but also tap into
strong Democratic turnout.
State House News Service
Friday, October 18, 2019
Weekly Roundup - #3
State Senator Viriato deMacedo, who has
represented the Plymouth and Barnstable District since 2015
after eight terms in the Massachusetts House of
Representatives, announced today that he has an accepted an
offer to join Bridgewater State University as Director of
Regional Partnerships.
“I’m excited by the opportunity to continue
working at the intersection of three of the things I’ve
focused on in public service: education, health care, and
economic opportunity and development,” Senator deMacedo
said. “The chance to connect students to career
opportunities, to provide constituent services to the next
generation, has me thrilled to open the next chapter.” ...
"Vinny deMacedo is an exemplary public
servant and while he will be sorely missed in the
Legislature, I am happy he is bringing his talents to one of
the jewels of the Commonwealth's higher education system,”
said Governor Charlie Baker....
“Senator deMacedo served as the ranking
Republican member on the House Committee on Ways and Means
when I was Chairman and he always made meaningful
contributions to our budget debates,” said House Speaker
Robert DeLeo.
Cape Cod Today
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Senator DeMacedo Will Step Down from Senate Seat
Will assume a position with Bridgewater State University
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
The clock is running out for the Legislature
— as it always does.
Whatever is
going to happen will occur in standard Beacon Hill
procedure: sudden votes on huge bills late into the night in
the few closing days when nobody has even a clue what
they're voting on
—
with legislators expected to just blindly take it or leave
it, going along to get along.
The Massachusetts state
legislature sits in a biennial session, which begins
on the first Wednesday in January of the
odd-numbered years. All formal business of the first
year of the session must be concluded by the third
Wednesday in November of that year. The legislature
then sits in an informal session until the first
Wednesday of January of the second year (even
numbered years) at which time the Legislature begins
formal sittings until the last day of July of the
second year, and finishes the remainder of the
session in an informal sitting.
—
Massachusetts Bar Association
"The Legislative Process"
The third
Wednesday in November this year falls on November 20
— just a month from now.
House Speaker Robert DeLeo has vowed to
push a big tax bill and restructure transportation
spending this calendar year and time is running out.
The State House News Service reported:
House
leaders reiterated this week that they plan to
debate new revenue proposals for transportation this
fall, although they still haven't outlined any
specific plan. . . .
"It's still on
the agenda," DeLea assured reporters on Wednesday.
Two of DeLeo's
top deputies
— Ways and Means
Chairman Aaron MIchlewitz and Transportation
Committee Chairman William Straus — were both busy
with other issues this week.
Big policy restructuring, radical
changes, and higher taxes are expected, and big votes are piling up.
As I said, whatever is going to happen will occur in
standard Beacon Hill procedure: sudden votes on huge
bills late into the night in the few closing days when
nobody has even a clue what they're voting on
—
with legislators expected to just blindly take it or
leave it, going along to get along.
The decision by
Michlewitz and the House to sock away $400 million
into the state's "rainy day" account meant, he said,
leaving Gov. Baker's proposal for a family tax break
on the shelf.
The House
spending bill dropped Baker's proposal to double the
tax exemption for dependents from $1,000 to $2,000,
saving the state about $87 million year.
"It was a cost
issue," Michlewitz said. . . .
"I'm going to
assume they decided not to include it because they
decided to spend it," House Minority Leader Brad
Jones responded.
The Community Development Committee
holds a hearing on Thursday. One of the bills
before it (S-84) is the brainchild of extreme leftwing
Sen. Jamie Eldridge. It proposes to "launch a
universal basic income pilot program, where 100
participants across economically diverse cities or towns
would receive $1,000 from the state per month for three
years to test whether such a system has significant
economic and quality-of-life impacts."
Let's see if it gets through the
committee, then Ways and Means Chairman Aaron MIchlewitz
and the House find the money for this ridiculous
boondoggle's $3.6 million price tag.
One of the
Legislature's leading voices on climate change does
not think the Baker administration needs the House
or Senate's approval to join a regional pact to cap
carbon emissions from vehicles.
Sen. Marc
Pacheco, the chair of the Senate Committee on Global
Warming and Climate Change, said the 2008 law
setting carbon emission reduction requirements for
the state gives the administration explicit
authority to pursue "market-based compliance
mechanisms" like the cap-and-trade program in
development. . . .
Some of the 12
states working to develop the program, including
possibly New Hampshire, will need legislative
approval to join.
Someone must have focus-grouped the
phrase "cap-and-trade" and found it carried negative
baggage. So — just as
"taxation" was changed to "revenue," "spending" became
"investments," and so many other long-familiar political
terms were revised to obfuscate
— "cap-and-trade" suddenly
became "cap-and-invest."
Only in Massachusetts do elected
alleged-representatives in the House and Senate and
other officials elected and appointed feel entitled to
empower its governor to unilaterally raise taxes
disguised as a "Transportation and Climate Initiative"
among agreeable states —
those other states that must first pass it through their
respective legislatures.
Even in the federal government a treaty
between nations made by the president needs two-thirds
consent of the U.S. Senate.
Only in Massachusetts can elected
alleged-representatives in the House and Senate and
other officials elected and appointed officials possibly
get away with this.
Several bills
before the Transportation Committee would create
congestion pricing in Massachusetts. Two proposals
range in specificity and duration: one calls for a
pilot program in the Sumner, Callahan and Ted
Williams tunnels (H 3075 / S 2035), and the other
would enact full statewide implementation (S 2033).
Both systems
would call for roadway tolls to decrease at least 25
percent during off-peak times, and the larger-scale
version would impose a premium cost of at least 25
percent during peak travel.
The bills do
not define peak and off-peak periods, and peak
traffic periods have been lengthening.
As the Boston
Herald noted in its editorial:
For
people with jobs in which they can adjust their
hours, it seems a good move. But for those who have
scheduled shifts designed to meet the needs of their
customers and employers, it just makes a
traffic-choked commute more expensive.
Legislators
and taxpayer-victims haven't even gotten a hint of
what'll be in House Speaker DeLeo's promised big tax
bill and transportation restructure spending due by next
month.
Massachusetts
is about to lose one of the six Republican state
Senators when Sen. Vinny deMacedo steps down in the next
few weeks to take a job with Bridgewater State
University as Director of Regional Partnerships.
According to the State House News Service:
DeMacedo's
decision to leave makes him the first lawmaker this
session to parachute off the Golden Dome, where
legislators substantially boosted their own pay last
session. The special election to come is already drawing
interest from a range of candidates, both inside and
outside the building, and from both parties.
The
district is as purple as they come in Massachusetts,
held for decades by former Senate President Therese
Murray until she left after a term-limited eight years
running the Senate and deMacedo slid into the seat.
Republicans in
the Massachusetts Legislature are overwhelmingly
outnumbered. They hold 32 seats in the 160-seat
House and six in the 40-seat Senate, so any departure by
a Republican is painful. Replacing one with another
Republican is difficult at best. Nonetheless, we
wish him luck with his new career step.
Vinny deMacedo
came to the rescue for taxpayers in a 2001 episode,
during his second term in the House. I'll never
forget it and you might enjoy the story as well.
A CLT Blast
from the Past
For the full report see the CLT Update of September 7,
2001
("Thank
you CLT Minuteman Norm Paley, and courageous Rep. Vinny
deMacedo: Heroes both!")
Late one
afternoon in September, 2001, when the Legislature was
home on vacation, aka, "recess," CLT got a warning call.
We were alerted that then-House Speaker Tom Finneran was
going to push through a bill during an informal session
the next day to spend a $550 million surplus instead of
rolling back the "temporary" income tax hike. We
had to act fast. All it takes to stop a rogue bill
in an informal session is for one legislator to
object. Barbara and I called around and found none
would be there in the empty chamber all day to object.
We called Rep. Vinny deMacedo but he couldn't make it
into the State House either —
due to a sudden employee absence he had to work at his
Plymouth gas station.
I came up with
an idea: We asked him, if we could provide a
substitute worker, could he make it into Boston to block
the vote. He agreed.
I quickly
called longtime CLT activist and my good friend Norm
Paley of Scituate, close to Plymouth. Norm agreed
to meet me at Vinny's gas station when it opened and man
the pumps. Early the next morning I climbed into
my car and raced from Marblehead through Boston
rush-hour traffic to Plymouth, pumped gas with
Norm for a while when Rep. deMacedo went to the State
House. When I took off back to the CLT office Norm
continued to hold the fort and do his
duty-above-and-beyond at Vinny's gas station.
Here's an excerpt from the State House News Service's
report of September 6, 2011, "Rep., Scituate citizen
team up to prevent spending bill from advancing":
Orthodontic lab technician Norm Paley rode to the
rescue today when short-staffing at a gas station
nearly caused a state lawmaker to miss his chance to
put the brakes on a Beacon Hill spending bill filled
with controversial policy issues.
The
House of Representatives, in an informal session,
was set to take up a bill aimed at spending most of
the $550 million fiscal 2001 surplus. With a single
member able to delay action during such informal
sessions, Rep. Vinny deMacedo (R-Plymouth) was set
to stall the legislation by objecting to a provision
allowing the state to avoid an automatic tax cut by
raising the cap on the state's rainy day fund.
But an
employee at deMacedo's R.W.A. Mobil station in
Plymouth suddenly bailed out for a new job, leaving
the representative in "a lurch" that was going to
require him to spend the morning pumping gas instead
of blocking laws.
So Citizens for Limited
Taxation, which also opposes the cap hike, put
out an SOS call to Paley, a Scituate resident who
volunteers for the organization. And Paley, who is
not deMacedo's constituent but knows the rep through
the Plymouth County Republicans Club, took a
half-day off from work and spent four hours filling
motorists' tanks while deMacedo shot up to the State
House.
Reached on a cell phone this
afternoon on his way to Quincy to meet with a
doctor, Paley said he's just an ordinary citizen who
pitched in to help out a fellow Republican in a
pinch.
"I'm well aware of the
deficiency budget, but even if there was no
deficiency budget and I got a call saying Vinny
needed some help down there, I'd have done it," said
Paley, adding that business this morning was brisk
but not crazy. . . .
CLT chief Barbara Anderson
praised deMacedo, who she called a "hero," and
Paley, who's going to receive a CLT award for
"valiant effort on behalf of the taxpayers."
Anderson said it's "bizarre" enough that lawmakers
are still trying to spend money for a fiscal year
that ended two months ago. But if they're going to
try to deny taxpayers an automatic tax cut by
raising the Rainy Day Fund cap, they should at least
have to go on the record in a roll call vote, she
said.
"They shouldn't be doing this
in an informal session," Anderson said. "We figured,
let's just stop it all until they can have a formal
session."
Scituate's
longtime CLT activist and friend Norm indeed was awarded
the first and only "Minuteman Award" CLT ever presented,
at CLT's 2001 Dinner. (The illustration for the
bronze plaque award was drawn by me
— bet you didn't know I was
an artist!)
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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State House News Service
Friday, October 18, 2019
Weekly Roundup - Plymouth Toll Road
Recap and analysis of the week in state
government
By Matt Murphy
The commute was grinding on him, taking its
toll.
The drive from Plymouth to Boston can take close
to an hour on a good day. Then layer on the
Greater Boston road congestion and it's a recipe
for frustration.
So before his Democratic colleagues could ask
this Republican and RWA Mobil station owner to
vote on a higher gas tax, Sen. Viriato deMacedo
flipped his blinker on, took the exit to higher
education, and accepted a job at Bridgewater
State University.
DeMacedo's decision to leave makes him the first
lawmaker this session to parachute off the
Golden Dome, where legislators substantially
boosted their own pay last session. The special
election to come is already drawing interest
from a range of candidates, both inside and
outside the building, and from both parties.
The district is as purple as they come in
Massachusetts, held for decades by former Senate
President Therese Murray until she left after a
term-limited eight years running the Senate and
deMacedo slid into the seat.
Reps. David Vieira and Dylan Fernandes, a
Republican and Democrat both of Falmouth, are
giving it a look, as is Plymouth Rep. Mathew
Muratore, some local officials from Plymouth and
Falmouth, an AFL-CIO official and the
24-year-old great nephew of Congressman Joe
Moakley.
While deMacedo's departure cuts the GOP Senate
caucus to five for now, Republicans have a good
chance of retaining the seat. Their biggest
concern at the moment is the possibility that
Senate President Karen Spilka will choose to
piggy-back off the presidential primary in March
and set the date for the special election on a
day that would save cities and towns money, but
also tap into strong Democratic turnout.
The thing about the gas tax was a joke, of
course. (Sort of.) But no one really knows what
House Speaker Robert DeLeo is cooking up on the
revenue front.
What is known is that it's the middle of October
and there's only a month left until the
Legislature recesses for the year. Lawmakers
have joined T riders and drivers in squawking
about the sad state of transportation in
Massachusetts and if DeLeo is to make good on
his promise to advance a revenue bill this
calendar year it has to happen soon.
"It's still on the agenda," DeLeo assured
reporters on Wednesday.
Two of DeLeo's top deputies - Ways and Means
Chairman Aaron MIchlewitz and Transportation
Committee Chairman William Straus -- were both
busy with other issues this week.
Straus was battling Gov. Charlie Baker's
administration over what he basically described
as obstruction of his committee's investigation
into the Registry of Motor Vehicles and its
failure to process out-of-state driving
violations.
The man from Mattapoisett called a press
conference to present what he considered
evidence that the Department of Transportation
was withholding documents from the committee
that Straus considered important to his inquiry.
MassDOT officials said they did not deliberately
withhold anything. They chalked up the document
snafu to differing opinions over what fell into
the scope of the Legislature's request. And
neither Straus nor DeLeo were willing to go down
the subpeona road just yet.
While Straus was doing his best Adam Schiff
impersonation, Michlewitz was finetuning a $723
million budget bill that spent the surplus from
fiscal 2019 on everything from education and
school safety to saving for the next recession
when government services will be threatened by
budget cuts.
The decision by Michlewitz and the House to sock
away $400 million into the state's "rainy day"
account meant, he said, leaving Gov. Baker's
proposal for a family tax break on the shelf.
The House spending bill dropped Baker's proposal
to double the tax exemption for dependents from
$1,000 to $2,000, saving the state about $87
million year. Meanwhile, the branch elected to
keep a business tax break that would allow
companies to continue to deduct interest.
"It was a cost issue," Michlewitz said.
The debate on the budget bill, if it can be
called that, dragged on into the night as
lawmakers puttered around the chamber waiting
for Ways and Means to bundle one large amendment
full of changes to the bill.
The biggest thing to bubble up was actually a
confrontation between some freshman lawmakers
and leadership that played out in the chamber
and subsequently on social media.
Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa felt she had been ignored
and denied a chance to speak on a tax amendment
that ultimately failed, prompting others to
express feelings of being sidelined, and DeLeo
calling them cynical.
While overdue, the fiscal 2019 closeout budget
was a big item for the House to check off its
fall to-do list, and education funding reform is
up next, with floor debate planned on Wednesday.
While he waits for things to reach his desk,
Baker on Friday gave House and Senate leadership
something else to think about.
The former top Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
executive filed the most comprehensive health
care bill of his governorship to date that,
should it pass, would easily become one of his
signature achievements.
Rolled out on a Friday afternoon, the proposal
called for significant new spending and focus on
mental health and primary care and once again
put the administration and the pharmaceutical
industry at odds.
Baker went beyond his budget play to allow
MassHealth to negotiate prices with drug
manufacturers for the most expensive drugs, and
proposed even more stringent price caps on drugs
across the system.
While it might be a next-year problem for the
Legislature, the introduction of Baker's health
care bill seemed timed to his appearance next
week at the Health Policy Commission's annual
two-day health care cost trends hearing.
State House News Service
Friday, October 18, 2019
Advances - Week of Oct. 20, 2019
The House on Wednesday is set to launch
deliberations on a long-term education funding
bill and the Senate plans on Thursday to debate
its plan to allocate the big fiscal 2019
surplus. Both debates are unfolding over these
last days of October, a time when both tax
relief and tax increases are in the air on
Beacon Hill.
House leaders reiterated this week that they
plan to debate new revenue proposals for
transportation this fall, although they still
haven't outlined any specific plan.
"Groups are really starting to come in now and
pitch their own ideas. We're working with other
members of the House to get a sense of what's
palatable and what's not," Revenue Committee
Chairman Rep. Mark Cusack told the News Service
Thursday. "I don't think there's anyone that
disagrees with doing something. It's just: what
does that actually become and what does that
look like and keeping it focused on
transportation and not these other ideological
topics."
The $723 million fiscal 2019 closeout budget
bill the House sent the Senate includes tax
relief for businesses, but not for working
families, as Gov. Charlie Baker requested. Baker
hopes the Senate will embrace his request for an
$87 million dependent children tax break
expansion, along with the $37 million dose of
business tax relief adopted by the House.
Senate leaders also have to decide how much
surplus revenue to stash in the state's savings
account after the House upped the ante on that
front this week. Business groups persuaded the
House to embrace the tax break decoupling from
part of the federal tax code, and business
lobbyists are now leaning on the House to insist
on accountability measures in the education bill
after the Senate struck parts of the bill in a
bid to preserve local control over education
decisions. Look for the education bill to flow
from the House Ways and Means Committee soon,
and for members to then scramble to draft
proposed amendments.
With just over four weeks left for formal
sessions, the fiscal 2019 closeout bill appears
to be the most pressing matter, since the state
comptroller faces a Nov. 1 financial reporting
deadline and it appears the branches will have
quite a few differences to settle, and not much
time to do so, once the Senate agrees to its
version of the bill.
"We want to do it as soon as possible," Senate
Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues told
the News Service Thursday. "We literally are
just getting our first look at it. They
completed it late (Wednesday) night. We'll be
going through it line by line, section by
section, to see what they're proposing to
balance that against what the governor has
proposed in his supp. Remember, he didn't file
it until September. The House had it for six
weeks. We've had it for less than 12 hours."
In the coming days, it's also possible that
children's health legislation could be routed to
a conference committee, unless legislative
leaders try to more informally reach consensus
on the House and Senate-approved bills.
The conference committee approach has not worked
so far on distracted driving legislation, which
appears to have lost its way in a six-member
conference that started talks on June 19.
Legislative leaders keep saying they're close to
an agreement but their definition of close has
itself come under scrutiny, and opponents of
electronic device use while driving are
infuriated.
State House News
Service
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Senator: Legislative Approval Not Needed for TCI
Program
By Matt Murphy
One of the Legislature's leading voices on
climate change does not think the Baker
administration needs the House or Senate's
approval to join a regional pact to cap carbon
emissions from vehicles.
Sen. Marc Pacheco, the chair of the Senate
Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change,
said the 2008 law setting carbon emission
reduction requirements for the state gives the
administration explicit authority to pursue
"market-based compliance mechanisms" like the
cap-and-trade program in development.
The administration has said it's looking into
whether the Legislature will have to vote next
spring to join the Transportation Climate
Initiative once it's fully developed, and the
conservative Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance has
called for lawmakers to take a vote.
Some of the 12 states working to develop the
program, including possibly New Hampshire, will
need legislative approval to join.
"If anything, the previous administration, the
Patrick administration, and the Baker
administration have been waiting far too long to
deal with this issue with the authorization that
they had," Pacheco told the News Service last
week from Hawaii, where he was attending a
conference on climate change.
If the Legislature votes on anything, Pacheco
said, it should be to set additional deadlines
for the administration to tackle emissions from
other sectors, including the industrial,
commercial and residential building sectors. "I
think there's value in taking a vote to expand
it beyond transportation," Pacheco said.
State House News
Service
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
House Dems Dump Baker's "Working Families" Tax
Relief
By Michael P. Norton
House Democrats appear to have embraced tax
relief worth $37 million to businesses while
severing from their final fiscal 2019 budget
bill a $175 million income tax exemption
proposal that would have helped one million
Massachusetts residents.
Analysts at the Massachusetts Taxpayers
Foundation said a $715 million bill that emerged
from the House Ways and Means Committee on
Monday night and earned a quick and favorable
House vote Tuesday did not include the tax
relief Gov. Charlie Baker sought for residents
who have children or care for dependent
relatives who are elderly or have a disability.
Baker proposed doubling the income tax exemption
for dependents from $1,000 to $2,000. To pay for
the tax relief and share fiscal 2019 surplus
revenues with taxpayers, Baker had proposed
depositing $175 million 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.
The governor's plan to decouple Massachusetts
from the federal tax code in connection with the
treatment of business interest expenses was
included in the House bill, however. The tax
foundation said the change restores the tax
treatment approach in place prior to the 2017
passage of the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
In an Aug. 14 letter, the business-backed
foundation said the decoupling measure "would
prevent a corporate tax increase."
"Massachusetts has a longstanding tax policy
that allows the deduction of interest as an
ordinary and necessary business expense in order
to reduce the cost of capital and encourage
investment and expansion in the state," tax
foundation president Eileen McAnneny wrote in
her letter to the Revenue Committee.
The costs associated with the tax law change are
"likely to be more than offset" by increased
corporate tax collections the state is
experiencing due to the federal tax reform law,
according to McAnneny, who estimated the new
federal tax regime could increase the
Massachusetts corporate tax base by 12 percent.
Kurt Wise, senior policy analyst at the
Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center,
questioned the use of one-time surplus tax
revenues to drive permanent tax policy changes
and suggested adjustments to the earned income
tax credit would be a more targeted way to help
lower income taxpayers.
The business tax break, Wise said, would only
add to about $140 billion in tax cuts for
corporations included in the federal tax law
rewrite favored by President Trump and
Republicans in Congress.
While a $37 million break in a $42 billion state
budget is "not an absolutely huge giveaway,"
Wise said policymakers should be looking at the
state and local tax structure for ways to ensure
people in different income groups are paying the
same effective tax rates. "This moves us in the
opposite direction," he said.
A House Ways and Means Committee spokesman did
not respond to inquiries about the budget bill's
approach to tax policy.
The House bill does appear to include a
provision proposed by Baker that "would shield
permanently disabled veterans and other
individuals with disabilities whose federal
student loans have been forgiven on the basis of
disability from facing state tax liability," as
Baker wrote in his filing letter.
The governor's office said that specific type of
loan forgiveness would be considered a taxable
benefit under current state law, meaning a
$20,000 loan that's been forgiven could create a
$1,000 state tax bill.
House Minority Leader Brad Jones pointed out
that the House bill does include two of the
governor's tax relief proposals and that the
plan to double the exemption for dependents is
"a little bit more expensive."
"I'm going to assume they decided not to include
it because they decided to spend it," Jones said
of the decision to drop Baker's dependent
exemption plan. He said Tuesday afternoon he was
working through the bill to determine where the
money that could have been put aside for tax
relief is being spent.
Jones also thinks the juxtaposition between
supporting the governor's tax relief proposals
and later this year debating potential tax
increases to support transportation investments
made House leadership less interested.
"Given that there seems to be a very serious
discussion underway on the Democratic side, the
leadership side, about what taxes to increase,
it probably doesn't sit too well that we're
going to increase taxes ... and at the same time
they're providing tax relief," he said.
— Colin A. Young
contributed reporting
State House News
Service
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Lawmakers Urged to Try Congestion Pricing
By Chris Lisinski
Citing the Baker administration's warning that
traffic is at a "tipping point," lawmakers and
advocates renewed calls Tuesday for
Massachusetts to follow its peers and adjust
roadway tolls at different times of day in an
attempt to reduce congestion.
A version of the system, referred to as
congestion pricing, is already in place in nine
of the country's 10 largest metropolitan areas,
according to Transportation for Massachusetts
Executive Director Chris Dempsey.
The only city on that list without any form of
congestion pricing, he said, is Boston, which
one study deemed as having the worst and
costliest traffic in the nation.
"Traffic is not unique to Massachusetts, but we
have largely been throwing up our hands in
frustration or even adopting policies that make
things worse," Dempsey said. "Other regions
around the country are tackling this problem
head-on by providing pricing incentives for
where and when people drive."
Several bills before the Transportation
Committee would create congestion pricing in
Massachusetts. Two proposals range in
specificity and duration: one calls for a pilot
program in the Sumner, Callahan and Ted Williams
tunnels (H 3075 / S 2035), and the other would
enact full statewide implementation (S 2033).
Both systems would call for roadway tolls to
decrease at least 25 percent during off-peak
times, and the larger-scale version would impose
a premium cost of at least 25 percent during
peak travel.
The bills do not define peak and off-peak
periods, and peak traffic periods have been
lengthening.
Roadways within the Route 128 belt, for example,
now see a 14-hour "peak period" stretching
across the day, a study of congestion released
in August by the Baker administration. By 6 a.m.
on a typical weekday, one in four miles of road
inside Route 128 are either congested, which
means travel times are 50 percent higher than a
full-speed trip, or highly congested, where cars
move at least twice as slow. The afternoon rush
in that region starts as early as 3 p.m. and
lasts until well after 6 p.m.
The goal of the pricing bills is to incentivize
drivers to travel at less-crowded times of day
or to encourage greater use of public transit,
both of which would reduce the all-too-familiar
strain of clogged roadways.
"Roadway congestion is a threat to our economy,
our quality of life, and our climate change
goals," said Tom Ryan, director of public policy
and government affairs for the group A Better
City.
And because traffic scales up very quickly —
once roads are at maximum capacity, every
additional car creates more traffic than the one
before it — supporters say the goal is within
easy reach: a 5 percent reduction in total
vehicles in use at peak time would reduce
traffic 20 percent, according to Sen. Joseph
Boncore, who filed the Senate bills and
co-chairs the Transportation Committee.
"There's a lot of broad-based support," Boncore
said. "When we talk about congestion, the number
one policy recommendation of any expert in the
field is congestion pricing, all across the
country. We've seen it work in other states and
other cities. If we're going to have a really
serious conversation about doing something, it
needs to be part of the solution."
In an October 2008 report, the Federal Highway
Administration wrote that "there is a consensus
among economists that congestion pricing
represents the single most viable and
sustainable approach to reducing traffic
congestion," as Dempsey cited in his Tuesday
testimony.
However, Gov. Charlie Baker has previously
opposed the idea of congestion pricing, arguing
that increasing the price to drive at peak times
will have an undue impact on commuters who are
not able to change their schedules.
He vetoed legislation last year that would have
piloted a program, instead ordering a study of
traffic that concluded the problem is causing
economic and environmental impacts. This summer,
as he unveiled the study's results, Baker
instead supported the development of "managed
lanes," which drivers could pay to use and
travel faster.
Baker is not alone in raising concerns over
equity: Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, a Northampton
Democrat, pressed Dempsey on how congestion
pricing would affect residents in western
Massachusetts who have no rail options and few
bus options to reach Boston.
"I don't understand how congestion pricing works
when there's no way for us west of Worcester to
get into this part of the state without
driving," Sabadosa asked. "I keep trying to wrap
my head around: is this the right solution for
eastern Massachusetts but not western Mass?"
Supporters said other regions have taken several
steps to avoid uneven impacts, including
offering tax incentives for low-income drivers
or using revenue generated to increase low-cost
public transit.
"Fairness and equity are something we're talking
about and it's often brought up, but I think
what's unfair is that people who have to be at
work at certain hours are sitting in traffic,"
Boncore said. "That is unfair, and that's
something we can begin to do something about."
The Boston
Herald
Monday, October 14, 2019
A Boston Herald editorial
Workers shouldn’t be penalized for commutes
As you wrap up your bumper-to-bumper commute to
Boston tomorrow, lawmakers will be debating
whether you should pay more for the privilege.
State Sen. Joseph Boncore, (D-Winthrop) and
state Rep. Adrian Madaro, (D-East Boston), both
have bills before Tuesday’s Joint Committee on
Transportation meeting, which let the state bump
up tolls during rush hour and lower them the
rest of the day.
As the Herald’s Sean Philip Cotter reported,
Boncore said it would give people a reason to
get out of their cars and onto public
transportation by making car trips more
expensive during peak times.
“Doing nothing for this problem is only
exacerbating this problem,” Boncore said.
But doing the wrong thing for the problem isn’t
going to help much.
For people with jobs in which they can adjust
their hours, it seems a good move. But for those
who have scheduled shifts designed to meet the
needs of their customers and employers, it just
makes a traffic-choked commute more expensive.
As for the notion that this will serve as
incentive to take the T, many people don’t live
close to stations, or would have to take a
combination of buses and trains to reach Boston.
And the recent fare hike did nothing to make the
MBTA more attractive to riders.
Proponents point out that other cities both in
the U.S. and abroad have reduced traffic via
congestion pricing. But London, which
implemented heavy tolls on city drivers, saw
traffic drop only to rebound as ride-hailing
services took off.
And that is the elephant in the room.
The number of rides in Massachusetts through
ride-hail companies such as Uber and Lyft jumped
about 25% in 2018, to 81.3 million, compared
with 2017, according to a recent report from the
state Department of Public Utilities.
More than half of those rides — 42.2 million —
started in Boston. No wonder traffic is a
nightmare.
Sen. Brendan Crighton, (D-Lynn), and Reps. Jay
Livingstone of Boston and Cambridge and Madaro
had the right idea, proposing bills that would
charge ride-hailing companies 20 cents for every
mile traveled by empty cars during rush hour,
and charge a new fee of 6.25% of each ride fare
for single-rider trips, or 4.25% for shared
trips. Cities and towns along the MBTA’s rail
and bus system could charge an additional $2.25
“congestion assessment” for each ride.
The plan, backed by the Metropolitan Area
Planning Council, splits the money between the
community where a ride began, the state and a
taxi industry fund.
The ride-hailing companies oppose these new
fees.
Mayor Marty Walsh supported Moran’s empty car
bill during a July meeting of the Joint
Committee on Financial Services.
“It just causes a lot of congestion on our
streets. With all the stuff that’s going on with
transportation,” he said. “I think it’s
important that we address this issue, and
hopefully this is one way of addressing it.”
London should serve as a guide — congestion
pricing worked, until it didn’t, when
ride-hailing companies saw their popularity
surge and streets were clogged once more.
These companies have had an effect on Boston
traffic and should do their part to offset the
negative impact. And commuters would be best
served with lower-toll incentives to stagger
their commuting hours, if they can. Like
Causeway Street at 6 p.m. on a weeknight, there
are many players contributing to the mess on the
road, and it will take a multipronged approach
to fix it.
Cape Cod Today
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Senator DeMacedo Will Step Down from Senate Seat
Will assume a position with Bridgewater State
University
By Cape Cod Today Staff
PLYMOUTH – State Senator Viriato deMacedo, who
has represented the Plymouth and Barnstable
District since 2015 after eight terms in the
Massachusetts House of Representatives,
announced today that he has an accepted an offer
to join Bridgewater State University as Director
of Regional Partnerships.
“I’m excited by the opportunity to continue
working at the intersection of three of the
things I’ve focused on in public service:
education, health care, and economic opportunity
and development,” Senator deMacedo said. “The
chance to connect students to career
opportunities, to provide constituent services
to the next generation, has me thrilled to open
the next chapter.”
As Director of Regional Partnerships at
Bridgewater State, Senator deMacedo will connect
University resources with regional needs,
particularly with employers, municipalities
including Gateway Cities in Southeastern
Massachusetts, K-12 districts, health care
systems, and other higher education institutions
in the area. Senator deMacedo will help address
regional workforce needs by connecting
Bridgewater State University students with paid
internships and collaborate to advance the
University’s interests in the region and the
state.
"Vinny deMacedo is an exemplary public servant
and while he will be sorely missed in the
Legislature, I am happy he is bringing his
talents to one of the jewels of the
Commonwealth's higher education system,” said
Governor Charlie Baker. “He cares about others
and that's why he is a pleasure to be around and
to work with. And any organization is lucky to
have him as part of the team. I'm thrilled for
Vinny, Jennifer, and their family."
A Cape Verdean immigrant and business owner who
is the Ranking Member of the Senate Ways and
Means Committee, Senator deMacedo said he was
proud of a career that has been rooted in
constituent services and bipartisanship. He will
step down from the Plymouth and Barnstable
Senate seat in the coming weeks.
“Outside of my family, there is nothing of which
I’ve been prouder than having the honor to
represent first the people of Plymouth, and
later of Kingston, Pembroke, Bourne, Falmouth,
and Sandwich as well,” said Senator deMacedo.
“It’s been a privilege to have been a part of a
bipartisan Plymouth County and Cape Cod
delegation that has worked diligently and in
unity to provide the good people of this region
with representation at the State House.”
Founded in 1840, Bridgewater State University
counts roughly 11,000 undergraduate and graduate
students, and more than 70,000 alumni. It is the
10th largest four-year college or university in
Massachusetts, and remains devoted to becoming a
national leader in removing barriers to academic
success.
In recent years, under President Frederick W.
Clark Jr., Esq., the University has forged
ground-breaking relationships with neighboring
Massasoit Community College and Bristol
Community College to help students transition to
a four-year degree, and is expanding BSU’s
College of Continuing Studies to serve the needs
of adult learners.
“This position is critical to helping our
students, to connecting them to pathways to
employment, and in turn helping regional
employers to find the talent, resources and
programs they need to thrive,” said President
Clark, “and there is simply no one who
understands Southeastern Massachusetts better or
is more respected than Senator deMacedo.”
The Director of Regional Partnerships is an
existing university position that is currently
vacant, and where Senator deMacedo will earn
$99,000 annually.
Senator deMacedo, a longtime small business
owner in Plymouth, said he was grateful for the
opportunity to have served more than two decades
in the Legislature.
“Working on issues that affect my district and
the whole Commonwealth has been enormously
fulfilling, and it was a thrill to do it
alongside some great colleagues,” he said. “We
are always at our best when we put people before
politics.”
In his 20 years in the Legislature, Senator
deMacedo has been a leader on combating the
opioid crisis and on increasing education
funding, working with colleagues on both sides
of the aisle. He stood up for his constituents’
safety and health as the Pilgrim Nuclear Power
Station prepared to decommission, working to
establish a citizens’ panel and accountability
plan. He helped secure significant funding for
Plymouth’s quadricentennial next year, a
landmark celebration for America’s Hometown, and
worked for state funding to dredge Plymouth
Harbor, important for the area’s economic
development. Throughout the district, he has
long advocated for targeted investments that
have created jobs and healthy economies.
Senator deMacedo takes particular pride in his
devotion to constituent services, a hallmark of
his career that transcends partisan affiliation.
In his last campaign, in 2018, Senator deMacedo
received endorsements from, among others, the
Massachusetts Retirees Association, the
Massachusetts Police Association, the
Massachusetts Police Chiefs Association, the
Cape Cod Times, and Governor Charlie Baker.
Senator deMacedo is also proud to have served
his district in its bipartisan tradition,
believing that no ideological differences should
ever get in the way of representing
constituents.
"Senator deMacedo has been a wonderful advocate
for his district and a trusted colleague,” said
Senate President Karen E. Spilka. “I worked with
him extensively during my tenure as Senate Ways
and Means Chair, and I found him to be
thoughtful, intelligent, caring and kind.
Senator deMacedo exemplifies how well we can
work across the aisle if we treat each other
with respect and focus on what's important to
the people of the Commonwealth. He will be
missed."
And he is looking forward in his next role to
continuing good relationships with fellow
legislators from both parties in both the Senate
and the House.
“Senator deMacedo served as the ranking
Republican member on the House Committee on Ways
and Means when I was Chairman and he always made
meaningful contributions to our budget debates,”
said House Speaker Robert DeLeo. “In our many
years of working together, he has become not
only a trusted colleague, but a great friend. He
has left an indelible mark on his district and
the Legislature and his presence will be
sincerely missed. I wish him all the best in
this next chapter and am looking forward to
seeing the contributions he will make to
Bridgewater State University.”
Born in Brava, Cape Verde, Senator deMacedo came
to the United States with his parents when he
was six months old. He graduated from Silver
Lake Regional High School and from King’s
College. Since 1991, he has owned and operated
the RWA Mobil gas station on Route 3A in the
Cedarville section of South Plymouth.
Senator deMacedo was first elected to the
Legislature in 1998. After eight terms in the
House, he was elected to the Senate in 2014.
During his time in the Legislature, he received
widespread recognition, including being named
Legislator of the Year by the Jewish Community
Relations Council, Legislator of the Year by the
Massachusetts Police Association, Legislator of
the Year twice by the Massachusetts Town Clerks
Association, and Legislator of the Year by the
Council of Human Services Providers. He also
received the Presidential Medal from the
Government of Cape Verde.
Senator deMacedo and his wife, Jennifer, live in
Plymouth and have three children and two
grandchildren.
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