 |
Post Office Box 1147
▪
Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945
▪ (781) 639-9709
“Every Tax is a Pay Cut ... A Tax Cut is a Pay Raise”
46 years as “The Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers”
— and
their Institutional Memory — |
|
CLT UPDATE
Sunday, March 22, 2020
This
difficult time too shall pass
Jump directly
to CLT's Commentary on the News
|
The creep toward the
total cancellation of daily life as
residents knew it just a few weeks ago
continued unabated this week as bars,
restaurants, daycare centers and
elections were just a few of the things
to shut down or newly be put on
shut-down notice.
In a week that felt like
both a month and one long day, the
state's response to the spread of
coronavirus ratcheted up as Gov. Charlie
Baker and Congress began to take steps
to support the businesses and
institutions crippled by the
virus/government-induced economic
slowdown, and the National Guard was
called into duty....
Speaker Robert DeLeo and
Senate President Karen Spilka have said
their focus has shifted almost entirely
to coronavirus response, although their
plans for addressing the emergency and
its ramifications are still not
known....
There is, however, the
little matter of dealing with the
state's fiscal 2021 budget. The fiscal
year starts on July 1, and the House was
supposed to produce and debate its
version of Gov. Charlie Baker's $44.6
billion spending bill late next month.
That no longer seems
possible.
"We're not ready to make
a determination, but it would seem
highly unlikely that we would have a
budget in April at this point in time,"
House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron
Michlewitz told the News Service this
week.
Michlewitz has begun
discussing options with Administration
and Finance Secretary Michael Heffernan
and Senate Ways and Means Chairman
Michael Rodrigues, including having the
governor file a temporary budget to
carry state government beyond the start
of the new fiscal year, or reaching a
pre-arranged deal that could be sold to
members and obviate the need for
extended floor debate.
Economists are now
predicting with near certainty that a
recession is on the horizon, and the
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation said
the current state budget, with just one
quarter remaining, could be short as
much as $500 million in revenue with tax
collections expected to plummet as
commerce grinds to a halt.
State House News Service
Friday, March 20, 2020
Weekly Roundup - The New Abnormal
The old agenda -
transportation, housing, health care,
climate change - has receded, overtaken
for now by the larger struggle. The News
Service will bring continuing coverage
of both branches, each of which met four
times this week, and any new
developments on the state budget front.
Ways and Means Chairman
Aaron Michlewitz this week said it
appears unlikely that the House would
tackle its annual budget bill in April,
as is customary, and House leaders have
not yet announced an alternative path.
The Ways and Means
Committee received Gov. Baker's $44.6
billion budget bill in January. Before
the final two budget hearings were
postponed, House and Senate lawmakers
got feedback on the spending bill at a
series of hearings which featured
invite-only testimony primarily from the
Baker administration. The final budget
hearing was scheduled for March 24,
where anyone who wished to testify would
have the opportunity, but that hearing
is off and no process has been announced
to accept public feedback on spending
priorities for what is shaping up as an
historic budget year and cycle. The new
fiscal year begins on July 1.
State House News Service
Friday, March 20, 2020
Advances - Week of March 22, 2020
Of the 35 state
Legislatures that were in session when
the global coronavirus pandemic became
the focus of most government activity
and daily life, just less than half
continue to conduct business in some
capacity through the outbreak.
Massachusetts is among
the 17 states to press on in the face of
the rapid spread of COVID-19, according
to the Council of State Governments, and
the legislative agenda has shifted
nearly exclusively to prioritize
coronavirus response efforts....
Democratic leaders of
each branch have said they are uncertain
about how the rest of the session will
unfold, including debate and
finalization of a fiscal 2021 state
budget, which is due by July 1. House
Speaker Robert DeLeo and Ways and Means
Chair Rep. Aaron Michlewitz have said
it's unlikely that the House, which
usually debates and approves the annual
budget in April, will stick to that
pattern this year. "We're not ready to
make a determination, but it would seem
highly unlikely that we would have a
budget in April at this point in time,"
Michlewitz told the News Service this
week.
On Monday, DeLeo said,
"Right now we're really pretty much just
focused on this issue," referring to
coronavirus.
The other states that
continue to hold legislative sessions in
some capacity are: Alaska, Arizona,
Idaho, South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma,
Wisconsin, Michigan, Kentucky,
Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, South
Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and
New York, according to CSG.
State House News Service
Thursday, March 19, 2020
Mass. Among 17 State Legislatures
Meeting Through Pandemic
When are the layoffs
going to begin in the state’s hackeramas
like Massport and the University of
Massachusetts?
I mean, fair’s fair,
isn’t it? If sales clerks in strip malls
and waitresses and line cooks who are
making short money doing real jobs are
going to end up broke and collecting
unemployment, what about all the
overpaid hacks on the state payroll who
are being given what amounts to yet
another paid vacation?
The commonwealth has a
“rainy day fund” stuffed with billions
of dollars for alleged emergencies. This
is what the kleptocrats on Beacon Hill
will be dipping into as tax revenues
crater to keep the good times rolling
for their friends and relatives on the
public dole.
The governor, Tall Deval,
hasn’t totally shut down the Dreaded
Private Sector yet, but things are
moving into that direction. Next door,
in New York, Gov. Andrew “Baby Doc”
Cuomo has already ordered the closure of
all “non-essential” businesses....
If it’s your business, or
you’re getting a paycheck from one, you
are not likely to consider the
enterprise “non-essential.” ...
Of course no police or
firefighters or EMTs or hospital
personnel should face the prospect of
losing their jobs. Obviously they are
“essential.”
But most of the public
sector is anything but. Let’s start with
UMass. It’s shut down, for all practical
purposes. Check out the UMass salaries
on the Herald website. Just scroll down
the first thousand or so, say, to the
$200,000 level. Tell me who’s more
essential to anyone’s life — the UMass
“staff administrator” making $252,591 a
year, or the single mom handling
take-out at your favorite fast-food
hamburger joint.
Who has a job affecting
more people’s lives — your laid-off
local dental hygienist, or UMass’
“assistant to the president” who makes
$245,364.91? ...
We all get why the retail
and hospitality industries have to fire
people — if there’s no revenue coming
in, the owners can’t pay the workers,
the vendors, the landlords or the banks,
not to mention themselves.
The politicians always
lecture us that we’re all in this
together, until something like this
happens, when we find out we’re not,
actually. If my daughter has her hours
cut back because nobody’s walking
through the doors of the business she
works at, what about the payroll
Charlies at the courthouses?
Nobody’s walking through
those courthouse doors either....
On Friday night, with
taxpayers sweating the economic
dislocations that are coming our way,
the hackerama officially announced what
we told you weeks ago — none of the
crooked Massachusetts state troopers are
going to lose their pensions just
because they embezzled a few hundred
thousand dollars from the taxpayers.
Fourteen of them are
already retired. These greedy, crooked
cops suffered no consequences for their
crimes — they haven’t even had to make
restitution for the money they stole —
and now their kisses in the mail range
from $69,000 to $106,000 a year.
A failed candidate for
president used to say that there were
“two Americas.” He was right, just not
in the way he meant it.
In one America, the hacks
are planning how they’re going to enjoy
this latest paid vacation. In the other
America, people who actually keep the
nation running are wondering how they’re
going to put food on the table … and pay
for the pensions of the crooked state
police.
The Boston Herald
Saturday, March 21, 2020
Hackerama shares your pain, but keeps
their pay
By Howie Carr
|
The State House was
closed to the public
starting on Tuesday in
response to COVID-19.
House Speaker Robert
DeLeo announced
Wednesday that a House
staff member
had tested positive for
COVID-19 the previous
week. [Photo: Sam Doran/SHNS]
Chip Ford's CLT Commentary
There is something worse than poring over news reports hour after hour, day after day
all week digging up political news important to taxpayers.
Poring over news reports hour after hour, day after day all week digging
up political news important to taxpayers —
and finding so little for all the effort!
About all that's of interest on the
taxpayers front was boiled down by
the State House News Service in a
few paragraphs:
The old
agenda - transportation,
housing, health care,
climate change - has
receded, overtaken for now
by the larger struggle. The
News Service will bring
continuing coverage of both
branches, each of which met
four times this week, and
any new developments on the
state budget front.
Ways
and Means Chairman Aaron
Michlewitz this week said it
appears unlikely that the
House would tackle its
annual budget bill in April,
as is customary, and House
leaders have not yet
announced an alternative
path.
The
Ways and Means Committee
received Gov. Baker's $44.6
billion budget bill in
January. Before the final
two budget hearings were
postponed, House and Senate
lawmakers got feedback on
the spending bill at a
series of hearings which
featured invite-only
testimony primarily from the
Baker administration. The
final budget hearing was
scheduled for March 24,
where anyone who wished to
testify would have the
opportunity, but that
hearing is off and no
process has been announced
to accept public feedback on
spending priorities for what
is shaping up as an historic
budget year and cycle. The
new fiscal year begins on
July 1....
"We're
not ready to make a
determination, but it would
seem highly unlikely that we
would have a budget in April
at this point in time,"
House Ways and Means
Chairman Aaron Michlewitz
told the News Service this
week.
Michlewitz has begun
discussing options with
Administration and Finance
Secretary Michael Heffernan
and Senate Ways and Means
Chairman Michael Rodrigues,
including having the
governor file a temporary
budget to carry state
government beyond the start
of the new fiscal year, or
reaching a pre-arranged deal
that could be sold to
members and obviate the need
for extended floor debate.
Economists are now
predicting with near
certainty that a recession
is on the horizon, and the
Massachusetts Taxpayers
Foundation said the current
state budget, with just one
quarter remaining, could be
short as much as $500
million in revenue with tax
collections expected to
plummet as commerce grinds
to a halt.
I won't belabor the spreading
Wuhan/Covid-19 pandemic crisis.
I'm sure you know as much about the
expanding threat and hardships as I
do; it's hard to avoid the
24/7 reporting of the chaos, if not
impossible. One report caught
my attention which I thought might
interest you —
putting it a little better into
perspective. The State House
News Service reported:
Of the
35 state Legislatures that
were in session when the
global coronavirus pandemic
became the focus of most
government activity and
daily life, just less than
half continue to conduct
business in some capacity
through the outbreak.
Massachusetts is among the
17 states to press on in the
face of the rapid spread of
COVID-19, according to the
Council of State
Governments, and the
legislative agenda has
shifted nearly exclusively
to prioritize coronavirus
response efforts.
Bay
State legislators are the
only ones in New England
still working, according to
CSG.
Note: On Thursday night the
Tennessee General Assembly
(legislature) recessed for at least
eight weeks after passing an
emergency annual budget, so the most
current list is down to 16 "states
to press on."
According to the
National Conference of State
Legislatures there are ten
states defined as Full Time:
"Well-paid, large staff":
Of those 10, seven are among those
listed by the State House News
Service report as "17 states to
press on": Massachusetts,
Alaska; Wisconsin; Michigan;
Pennsylvania; New York, and New
Jersey.
26 states are considered "Hybrid" by
NCSL:
Legislatures in these states
typically say that they
spend more than two-thirds
of a full time job being
legislators. Although their
income from legislative work
is greater than that in the
part-time states, it's
usually not enough to allow
them to make a living
without having other sources
of income. Legislatures in
the hybrid category have
intermediate sized staff.
States in the middle of the
population range tend to
have hybrid legislatures.
Of the
"17 states to press on" reported by
the State House News Service, four
are among the "hybrid" group
currently composed of 26 states:
Arizona, Oklahoma, Alabama,
Kentucky, and Tennessee (now
recessed: "Some members
expressed publicly their concerns
about coming to the legislature in
the midst of the coronavirus
pandemic,"
WPLN Nashville Public Radio
reported).
The next category in the NCSL
breakdown are the 14 "Part Time"
state legislatures (Low pay, small
staff). Of those, 5 are cited
in the
"17 states to press on" group:
Idaho, South Dakota, Kansas, Idaho,
and Kansas.
Eight states ended their legislative
sessions prior to the
COVID-19 threat; two states
haven't started legislative
sessions this year, and; four state
legislatures had no regular
session scheduled in 2020.
These details are somewhat important
to that News Service report for
clarity, for example:
The Kentucky General
Assembly (legislature) is
still in session as this is
a biennial budget year.
The state adopts two-year
budgets. The Kentucky
state constitution requires
that it convene in regular
session on the first Tuesday
after the first Monday in
January for 60 days in
even-numbered years, and for
30 days in odd-numbered
years. (It convenes in
special sessions at the call
of the governor.) The
Kentucky Constitution
mandates that a regular
session be completed no
later than April 15 in
even-numbered years and
March 30 in odd-numbered
years.
This year is what's called its "long
session" in the Kentucky
legislature: A budget year.
The General Assembly must have its
next two-year budget adopted not
later than April 15, just a few
weeks away. Then legislators
go home for the rest of the year,
unless the governor calls them back
for a special or emergency session.
Other states still in session are
similarly affected by such
differences, some by other rules and
mandates. Nevada, for example,
holds biennial sessions only in
odd-numbered years; in even-numbered
years like this one the State House
in Carson City is empty.
Even in times like this
— maybe
especially in times like this
— somebody's got to keep a
weather eye on the politicians.
Whether it's
U.S. Senators suspected of cashing
in on insider trading, or just
the usual hypocrisy of government
shutting down the private sector
while bureaucrats stay fat and
comfortable at the public trough,
unaffected by the financial chaos
that engulfs everyone else, it
becomes more clear every passing day
that there truly is "Two Americas."
Howie Carr reminds us of this great
divide in his current column.
Stay safe everyone. This
difficult time too shall pass.
|
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|
Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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State House News
Service
Friday, March 20, 2020
Weekly Roundup - The New Abnormal
Recap and analysis of the week in state
government
By Matt Murphy
The creep toward the
total cancellation of daily life as
residents knew it just a few weeks ago
continued unabated this week as bars,
restaurants, daycare centers and
elections were just a few of the things
to shut down or newly be put on
shut-down notice.
In a week that felt like both a month
and one long day, the state's response
to the spread of coronavirus ratcheted
up as Gov. Charlie Baker and Congress
began to take steps to support the
businesses and institutions crippled by
the virus/government-induced economic
slowdown, and the National Guard was
called into duty.
Testing for the virus also ramped up, to
some degree, but the number of people
screened for COVID-19 still fell way
short of the number of people some
scientists believe could already be
infected.
The official tally as of Friday
afternoon was 413 confirmed cases, up
from 123 a week ago. The state also
reported its first death from COVID-19
illness, a Suffolk County man in his 80s
with underlying health conditions that
put him at higher risk for the illness.
Baker set a goal of having as many as
3,500 samples a day tested by next week,
with state lab work aided by efforts
ramping up at private labs in
Massachusetts. The governor toured one
of the labs - Quest Diagnostics - on
Thursday, the same day the first
drive-through testing center in
Shrewsbury opened in a CVS parking lot.
Massachusetts nurses, however, continue
to warn that personal protective
equipment is at a premium, and Baker
told President Donald Trump in a call
with governors that he had been outbid
by the feds three times trying to
purchase gear, despite the White House
telling states not to rely on the
national stockpile alone.
Meanwhile, rumors of forthcoming shelter
in place orders could not be squashed,
even after Baker repeatedly said that
option is not supported at this time by
the facts on the ground.
"Massachusetts is not planning any
forced shelter in place order," Baker
said.
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh made a
televised speech Tuesday evening, trying
to address the fears of the city,
without ordering people to stay home.
And Baker on Friday reiterated that he
had no plans to order all people to
hunker down at home, despite what some
other states might be doing.
Residents in and around Boston are
probably more familiar with the idea of
sheltering in place than most in the
country, having followed such an order
during the manhunt for the Boston
Marathon bombers in 2013.
But while it may seem to be the final
card to play for leaders like Baker and
Walsh, in New York and California the
governors made that call.
Ordered to or not, many, many Bay
Staters were staying home this week,
perfecting the art of video conferencing
and learning just how spotty their home
internet can be.
Not the Legislature, though. Both
branches met four of five days this week
with small ensembles of lawmakers on
hand to conduct the people's business,
collaborating to pass a bill to waive
the one-week waiting period for
unemployment benefits to kick in. On
Monday alone, 19,884 unemployment claims
were filed with the state.
According to the Council of State
Governments, the Great and General Court
is one of just 17 legislatures currently
still meeting in the era of coronavirus,
and showing no signs of stopping anytime
soon.
Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate
President Karen Spilka have said their
focus has shifted almost entirely to
coronavirus response, although their
plans for addressing the emergency and
its ramifications are still not known.
The committees that received Baker's
bills regarding budgeting flexibility
for cities and towns and the creation of
a Sept. 14 holiday for the delayed
running of the Boston Marathon have been
soliciting feedback in writing since
public hearings are no longer an option.
DeLeo has also asked all committee
chairs to hold a conference call with
their members to gather ideas of how the
House should be responding to the
COVID-19 outbreak. House leadership and
the House's coronavirus task force will
meet with chairs next week.
There is, however, the little matter of
dealing with the state's fiscal 2021
budget. The fiscal year starts on July
1, and the House was supposed to produce
and debate its version of Gov. Charlie
Baker's $44.6 billion spending bill late
next month.
That no longer seems possible.
"We're not ready to make a
determination, but it would seem highly
unlikely that we would have a budget in
April at this point in time," House Ways
and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz told
the News Service this week.
Michlewitz has begun discussing options
with Administration and Finance
Secretary Michael Heffernan and Senate
Ways and Means Chairman Michael
Rodrigues, including having the governor
file a temporary budget to carry state
government beyond the start of the new
fiscal year, or reaching a pre-arranged
deal that could be sold to members and
obviate the need for extended floor
debate.
Economists are now predicting with near
certainty that a recession is on the
horizon, and the Massachusetts Taxpayers
Foundation said the current state
budget, with just one quarter remaining,
could be short as much as $500 million
in revenue with tax collections expected
to plummet as commerce grinds to a halt.
Baker on Monday said he and legislative
leaders had agreed to create a $10
million small business loan fund for
businesses with 50 or fewer employees
who have had their bottom lines impacted
by coronavirus.
The fund, to be managed by the
Massachusetts Growth Capital
Corporation, made up to $75,000
available to companies hurting due to
coronavirus, and the MGCC is reviewing
the applications it received and plans
to disperse funding.
But less than three days after the fund
was announced, the MGCC stopped taking
applications at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday
as the U.S. Small Business
Administration granted the state's
disaster request and opened its economic
injury disaster loan program to
Massachusetts businesses.
Small businesses, private non-profits
and agricultural venturers of any size
can apply for federal loans of up to $2
million. And Baker said that because the
state fund had been "oversubscribed," it
would get an infusion of $10 million
more next week from MassDevelopment.
Baker also said Friday he was
accelerating payments through MassHealth
for safety net providers by $200 million
to keep them afloat after Congress also
passed and Trump signed a relief bill
that the state's Congressional
delegation said would result in $1.08
billion in new Medicaid reimbursements,
which would help to cover expected
growth in enrollment.
And somehow, amidst all this turmoil,
the presidential election continued with
Arizona, Florida and Illinois all
voting, while Ohio postponed its
primaries until June 2.
Previously one of the biggest stories on
the political beat, presidential
politics has taken a backseat to
pandemic planning.
But that didn't stop former Vice
President Joe Biden from racking up
three more wins in his march toward the
Democratic nomination, and President
Donald Trump mathematically clinched his
party's nod, prompting Massachusetts's
last remaining candidate Bill Weld to
drop out of the race.
The beat will not go on for voters in
Plymouth, or Taunton or Lunenburg or
Westfield.
Senate President Karen Spilka and DeLeo
both announced Thursday that they were
in negotiations to postpone the four
special elections set for March 31 to
fill two House seats and two Senate
seats.
The Democratic leaders are hoping to
finalize that plan by Monday when they
will also take up legislation to give
cities and towns flexibility to postpone
municipal elections this spring, and to
give voters additional absentee and
mail-in voting options for those who
don't want to turn out to the polls.
Lawmakers, however, do not seem ready to
address signature gathering deadlines
for candidates to qualify for primary
and general elections in the late summer
and fall, even as Democrats and
Republicans have raised concerns about
sending volunteers into the field to
collect signatures.
But as with everything learned and
announced this week, it's all subject to
change.
STORY OF THE WEEK: ... and for the
foreseeable future, coronavirus.
State House News
Service
Friday, March 20, 2020
Advances - Week of March 22, 2020
The State House is closed
to the public, but the wheels of
government are firing in response to the
ongoing public health crisis. The
executive branch is in emergency
operations mode. The legislative branch
is weighing a growing load of requests
for action in response to the unfolding
COVID-19 pandemic. And the judiciary is
trying to keep critical functions
moving....
Unemployment, as evidenced by a torrent
of new claims, is expected to rise
sharply and a write-down of expected tax
revenues is anticipated since the
outbreak has canceled so much economic
activity and estimates used to guide
current and projected spending are no
longer valid....
The old agenda - transportation,
housing, health care, climate change -
has receded, overtaken for now by the
larger struggle. The News Service will
bring continuing coverage of both
branches, each of which met four times
this week, and any new developments on
the state budget front.
Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz
this week said it appears unlikely that
the House would tackle its annual budget
bill in April, as is customary, and
House leaders have not yet announced an
alternative path.
The Ways and Means Committee received
Gov. Baker's $44.6 billion budget bill
in January. Before the final two budget
hearings were postponed, House and
Senate lawmakers got feedback on the
spending bill at a series of hearings
which featured invite-only testimony
primarily from the Baker administration.
The final budget hearing was scheduled
for March 24, where anyone who wished to
testify would have the opportunity, but
that hearing is off and no process has
been announced to accept public feedback
on spending priorities for what is
shaping up as an historic budget year
and cycle. The new fiscal year begins on
July 1.
State House News
Service
Thursday, March 19, 2020
Mass. Among 17 State Legislatures
Meeting Through Pandemic
By Colin A. Young
Of the 35 state
Legislatures that were in session when
the global coronavirus pandemic became
the focus of most government activity
and daily life, just less than half
continue to conduct business in some
capacity through the outbreak.
Massachusetts is among the 17 states to
press on in the face of the rapid spread
of COVID-19, according to the Council of
State Governments, and the legislative
agenda has shifted nearly exclusively to
prioritize coronavirus response efforts.
Bay State legislators are the only ones
in New England still working, according
to CSG. The other five New England
states -- and 13 others around the
country -- temporarily closed or
adjourned early due to COVID-19,
according to the council's coronavirus
resource page.
Lawmakers have held informal sessions
each day this week to work through a
suite of legislation Gov. Charlie Baker
filed to blunt the economic impacts of
the pandemic. The lightly-attended
sessions are now being streamed live on
the Legislature's website, something the
House and Senate typically do only for
formal sessions.
Democratic leaders of each branch have
said they are uncertain about how the
rest of the session will unfold,
including debate and finalization of a
fiscal 2021 state budget, which is due
by July 1. House Speaker Robert DeLeo
and Ways and Means Chair Rep. Aaron
Michlewitz have said it's unlikely that
the House, which usually debates and
approves the annual budget in April,
will stick to that pattern this year.
"We're not ready to make a
determination, but it would seem highly
unlikely that we would have a budget in
April at this point in time," Michlewitz
told the News Service this week.
On Monday, DeLeo said, "Right now we're
really pretty much just focused on this
issue," referring to coronavirus.
The other states that continue to hold
legislative sessions in some capacity
are: Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, South
Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin,
Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama,
Florida, South Carolina, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, and New York, according to
CSG.
The Boston Herald
Saturday, March 21, 2020
Hackerama shares your pain, but keeps
their pay
By Howie Carr
When are the layoffs
going to begin in the state’s hackeramas
like Massport and the University of
Massachusetts?
I mean, fair’s fair, isn’t it? If sales
clerks in strip malls and waitresses and
line cooks who are making short money
doing real jobs are going to end up
broke and collecting unemployment, what
about all the overpaid hacks on the
state payroll who are being given what
amounts to yet another paid vacation?
The commonwealth has a “rainy day fund”
stuffed with billions of dollars for
alleged emergencies. This is what the
kleptocrats on Beacon Hill will be
dipping into as tax revenues crater to
keep the good times rolling for their
friends and relatives on the public
dole.
The governor, Tall Deval, hasn’t totally
shut down the Dreaded Private Sector
yet, but things are moving into that
direction. Next door, in New York, Gov.
Andrew “Baby Doc” Cuomo has already
ordered the closure of all
“non-essential” businesses.
If it’s your business, or you’re getting
a paycheck from one, you are not likely
to consider the enterprise
“non-essential.”
UMass, on the other hand. …
Two headlines from Satuday’s Wall Street
Journal: “Downturn Could Cost 5 Million
Jobs,” and “Low Wage Workers Face Brunt
of Coronavirus Crisis.”
Massport, on the other hand. …
Of course no police or firefighters or
EMTs or hospital personnel should face
the prospect of losing their jobs.
Obviously they are “essential.”
But most of the public sector is
anything but. Let’s start with UMass.
It’s shut down, for all practical
purposes. Check out the UMass salaries
on the Herald website. Just scroll down
the first thousand or so, say, to the
$200,000 level. Tell me who’s more
essential to anyone’s life — the UMass
“staff administrator” making $252,591 a
year, or the single mom handling
take-out at your favorite fast-food
hamburger joint.
Who has a job affecting more people’s
lives — your laid-off local dental
hygienist, or UMass’ “assistant to the
president” who makes $245,364.91?
A friend of mine flew out of Logan
Airport Friday night to West Palm. He
was one of four passengers on the
flight. I don’t think Massport is
collecting a lot of their customary
exorbitant “fees” this weekend.
So when is Massport going to start its
reductions-in-force (RIFs), like
everybody in the Dreaded Private Sector?
As I mentioned here last week, Massport
now has a “deputy director, state
affairs and community affairs,” for
$130,000 a year, as well as a “deputy
director, community relations and
federal affairs,” for $129,375 a year.
Do you think either of those two legacy
hacks is worried about having to lift
their snouts from the trough?
Of course not. They’ll be
“telecommuting,” wink wink nudge nudge.
The chairwoman of Massport, an old Mitt
Romney hack, makes $360,000, and the guy
she beat out for the job got a
$311,000-a-year consolation sinecure.
We all get why the retail and
hospitality industries have to fire
people — if there’s no revenue coming
in, the owners can’t pay the workers,
the vendors, the landlords or the banks,
not to mention themselves.
The politicians always lecture us that
we’re all in this together, until
something like this happens, when we
find out we’re not, actually. If my
daughter has her hours cut back because
nobody’s walking through the doors of
the business she works at, what about
the payroll Charlies at the courthouses?
Nobody’s walking through those
courthouse doors either.
House Speaker Bob DeLeo had no problems
with shutting down vaping sales last
year and throwing hundreds out of work
until the taxes were raised to 75%. Now,
he wants to jack up the state’s gasoline
taxes by a nickel (a bargain compared to
Tall Deval’s plan to raise them 26 cents
per gallon).
So why doesn’t the unindicted
co-conspirator tighten his 50-inch belt
for a change — how about an unpaid
furlough for DeLeo’s $142,515-a-year
godson in the now-not-busy-at-all
hack-infested Probation Department? And
maybe the godson can take along the
college-dropout wife of DeLeo lieutenant
Tom Petrolati, who makes $134,786 a year
for doing … whatever.
On Friday night, with taxpayers sweating
the economic dislocations that are
coming our way, the hackerama officially
announced what we told you weeks ago —
none of the crooked Massachusetts state
troopers are going to lose their
pensions just because they embezzled a
few hundred thousand dollars from the
taxpayers.
Fourteen of them are already retired.
These greedy, crooked cops suffered no
consequences for their crimes — they
haven’t even had to make restitution for
the money they stole — and now their
kisses in the mail range from $69,000 to
$106,000 a year.
A failed candidate for president used to
say that there were “two Americas.” He
was right, just not in the way he meant
it.
In one America, the hacks are planning
how they’re going to enjoy this latest
paid vacation. In the other America,
people who actually keep the nation
running are wondering how they’re going
to put food on the table … and pay for
the pensions of the crooked state
police.
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Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪
PO Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
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