 |
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, April 5, 2020
Wuhan Pandemic Day 23:
What else is happening?
Jump directly
to CLT's Commentary on the News
|
Direct deposit payments to qualifying Americans could start
as soon as April 6 and states should receive additional
guidance on expanding unemployment eligibility "within the
next few days," Congresswoman Katherine Clark told reporters
Wednesday.
Some aspects of the historic $2 trillion coronavirus relief
package, such as emergency loan advances for small
businesses, are already open to the public, but the timeline
of several components affecting workers remains unclear days
after President Donald Trump signed the law....
During a conference call the House delegation from
Massachusetts held to explain the law . . . Representatives
said during the call that Massachusetts would receive more
than $3.8 billion in funding calculated by formulas through
the $2 trillion package. The state will also receive
significant additional funding from programs at the
discretion of federal agencies, but they said that amount is
difficult to quantify.
State House News Service
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Delegation: The Direct Deposits are Coming Soon
The
hit from COVID-19 on the state's finances didn't fully
materialize in March, but state tax collectors acknowledged
Friday that it's coming.
The
Department of Revenue announced that collections for March
totaled $2.66 billion, which is only $8 million less than
what was collected in March 2019, and $83 million or 3.2
percent above the state's monthly benchmark....
"Most major categories of revenue performed roughly as
expected in March and the corporate and business taxes were
the primary contributor to the above-benchmark performance,"
Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder said. "With
approximately 70% of revenue collections in the door for
Fiscal Year 2020 through March, we have seen overall steady,
moderate growth above the prior year."
Snyder acknowledged, though, that revenue collections moving
forward will be impacted by the economic disruptions seen as
essential to staunching the spread of the coronavirus,
including sales, meals, and room taxes deferrals, and the
extension of the personal income tax filing deadline into
the next fiscal year.
"We
will monitor the economic conditions and the impact of
COVID-19 and tax deferrals on tax collections very closely
for the rest of the fiscal year 2020 and into the next
fiscal year," Snyder said.
State House News Service
Friday, April 3, 2020
March Tax Collections Beat Benchmark by $83 Mil
Things are going to get worse before they get better, that
much is clear. How much worse and when is a tougher question
to answer.
So
it should come as no surprise that this week, like the one
before it, the state was focused on preparing for both the
known and unknown.
As
Congressional lawmakers attempted to explain how a historic
$2 trillion stimulus would help Massachusetts, talks were
underway for a fourth federal relief package, state
lawmakers were exploring how they could chip in, and the
state was building a volunteer force of medical
professionals that by Monday was already 1,800 people
strong.
Gov. Charlie Baker also made the call to extend his
executive order closing all non-essential businesses for at
least another month, telling businesses to prepare to be
shuttered through at least May 4....
Baker said the surge was now projected to arrive between
April 10 and April 20, and as many as 172,000 people could
ultimately become infected. Of course, that was the high end
of what turned out to be an extremely broad range that could
be as low as 47,000 infections if social distancing goes
well over the next few weeks....
[T]he
House on Thursday passed legislation to put a moratorium on
evictions and foreclosures, lasting 30 days beyond the end
of the state of emergency. The House also passed a bill that
would let the commissioner of education waive or modify MCAS
testing requirements for seniors hoping to graduate this
spring, while the Senate tackled an expansion of
unemployment benefits.
While the two Democrat-led chambers work to get on the same
page on those three bills, the Legislature did finally
strike a deal on a municipal governance bill that was signed
by Gov. Baker Friday giving towns some flexibility in their
deadlines to deal with permits, budgets and other government
functions.
The
bill also extended the personal income tax filing deadline
to July 15, and gave restaurants doing take-out business
permission to sell beer and wine to go....
State House News Service
Friday, April 3, 2020
Weekly Roundup - Preparing for the Surge
Recap and analysis of the week in state government
VIRTUAL REVENUE HEARING: Ways and Means Committee chairs
Rep. Michlewitz and Sen. Rodrigues and Administration and
Finance Secretary Heffernan hold a "virtual roundtable" with
economic exports to try to get a handle on what the
coronavirus pandemic will mean for the state budget....
In
the wake of coronavirus-driven business closures, job losses
and economic restrictions, Michlewitz has said the state is
now facing a "dire and unprecedented" fiscal situation.
Projections that have been publicly released so far also
present a grim budgetary outlook.
The
Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center is estimating annual
revenue shortfalls of $5 billion to $6 billion, the
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation has said that job losses
in the state "could be in the 10 to 12 percent range," and
the Center for State Policy and Analysis has cautioned of a
"dramatic collapse" in state revenue, including a tax
revenue shortfall of $1.8 billion to $3 billion over the
next 15 months.
State House News Service
Friday, April 3, 2020
Advances - Week of April 5, 2020
Saving lives and jobs and limiting the depths of suffering
and economic collapse are among the many goals in
Massachusetts and across the world amid a pandemic that has
derailed life as we have known it. Confirmed cases of
COVID-19 are growing dramatically and no one knows how many
unconfirmed cases are out there.
The
state and federal government are front and center in the
fight, with elected officials and everyone else focused on
the coming surge in cases, which Gov. Charlie Baker
estimates will arrive somewhere between next Friday and
April 20. To prepare, state officials, in addition to
begging people to comply with social distancing and stay
home, are setting up makeshift hospitals, converting nursing
homes into COVID-19 centers, and acquiring as much
protective gear as possible to safeguard health care workers
whose own health is critical to successful pandemic response
efforts in the coming weeks.
Health care workers, first responders, supermarket workers
and gas station attendants have become heroes overnight by
putting their lives at risk to help and serve others.
The Legislature
As
the state's chief executive, Gov. Charlie Baker is leading
the COVID-19 response and has rewritten rules of daily life
through a flood of executive orders. Baker has held daily
press conferences to keep people apprised of what's
happening. The Legislature has been trying to help, but the
pandemic has also shown that the Great and General Court is
not well-suited to functioning at its full capacity, and
with transparency, during a pandemic.
Compared to Baker, legislative leaders have been far less
accessible. And without remote voting capabilities, the full
Legislature is unable to meet for deliberations while also
complying with social distancing. The result: a skeleton
crew of top House and Senate leaders have been making the
decisions, largely based on back-channel discussions, and
putting proposals up for votes in sessions featuring less
than a handful of members in both branches. Debate has
ceased, and lawmakers so far haven't overly compensated to
divulge more details about legislative intent and bill
contents.
Congress has passed three major laws to address COVID-19;
the Legislature has enacted laws allowing municipal
elections to be postponed and waiving a one-week waiting
period for jobless benefits.
Other COVID-19 bills have moved, but are unfinished. They
deal with access to unemployment benefits (S 2598), eviction
and foreclosure prevention (H 4615), and relaxing MCAS
requirements in the COVID-19 era (H 4616).
On
Thursday night, after marathon sessions, the Legislature
moved to Baker's desk a third COVID-19 bill (H 4598)
designed to give taxpayers relief by pushing the annual
filing deadline to July 15, lift restaurants by allowing
beer-and-wine sales with takeout or delivery orders, and
give cities and towns flexibility concerning town meetings,
tax payments and permits. Baker signed that bill on Friday.
The stack of newly filed bills calling for more aggressive
legislative action is growing as are demands for an
emergency appropriations bill. - Michael P. Norton ...
The Budgets
The
economic slide brought on by the pandemic and forced
business shutdowns aimed at slowing infections is having
grave ramifications for state budgeting.
On
the positive side, the state has built up $3.5 billion in
its rainy day fund and historic levels of federal funding
are about to pour into Massachusetts. On the other hand,
state tax collections are collapsing and spending demands
are soaring. "We spent money on a lot of stuff and we're
going to continue to spend money on the things we believe we
need to spend money on to deal with this," Baker said
Thursday afternoon.
Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders this
week described a $15 million state appropriation as a
"deposit" toward COVID-19 response and said the state is
also documenting its expenses to ensure federal
reimbursements.
To
get their minds around all the change, state budget
officials plan a hearing Tuesday featuring economic experts
who will offer their best guesses about what the future
might bring and how all the chaos will affect tax
collections. From there, it appears likely that state
officials will recalibrate anticipated fiscal 2020 and
fiscal 2021 revenues.
The
job of keeping the fiscal 2020 budget balanced with three
months remaining in that year falls to Gov. Baker, whose
options are limited because so much of the spending for this
year has already occurred. The job of balancing for fiscal
2021, since Baker filed his spending plan for that year in
January, will be largely up to the House and Senate, working
with advice from Baker, since they have yet to take up
annual budget deliberations and haven't said when they will
do so.
State officials are documenting expenditures with plans to
exact the maximum amount of federal reimbursements, which
would mitigate effects on other state spending accounts
which until recently seemed safe from cuts and likely in
line for small increases. - Michael P. Norton
Legislative Skeleton Crew
A
skeleton crew of legislators are keeping some bills moving
during the state of emergency and that's expected to
continue for an indefinite period as the COVID-19 pandemic
keeps most lawmakers in their districts and homes and away
from Beacon Hill.
The
usual band of members in the two chambers includes Sens.
Bruce Tarr of Gloucester, Walter Timilty of Milton, and
Michael Rodrigues of Westport and Reps. Paul Donato of
Medford, Donald Wong of Saugus, and David Vieira of
Falmouth. As for House and Senate leadership, Speaker Robert
DeLeo and President Karen Spilka are taking advantage of
virtual meeting programs and opportunities to work from
home.
Spilka has perfected her use of meeting programs like Zoom
and Microsoft Teams, a spokesman said. These days she is
working from home, and her staff says she's spending about
14-16 hours per day on conference calls. She was last in the
State House for a leadership meeting on March 23, the
spokesman said. DeLeo's schedule for the past two weeks has
been a combination of working remotely from home and
utilizing his office at the State House, a spokeswoman said.
- Chris Van Buskirk and Sam Doran
State House News Service
Friday, April 3, 2020
Advances - Week of April 5, 2020
On
Jan. 20, the United States confirmed its first case of the
coronavirus. The nation’s political and media elite obsessed
over Mitch McConnell’s just-announced resolution governing
the impeachment trial of Donald Trump.
On
Jan. 23, China locked down the city of Wuhan. Cable news in
America lit up with praise for the epic, nay historic,
performance by House impeachment manager Adam Schiff in the
trial’s opening arguments.
On
Jan. 30, the World Health Organization declared a world
health emergency. The U.S. Senate prepared to vote on
impeachment witnesses.
On
Feb. 5, the cruise ship Diamond Princess quarantined
thousands of passengers after a major outbreak on board.
Mitt Romney announced that he’d vote to convict Trump on one
of the two counts against him, and the Senate voted to
acquit on both.
If
the Senate had approved additional impeachment witnesses,
the trial would have at least stretched further into
February, overlapping even more with the epidemic.
Trump closed off travel from China while the trial was still
ongoing, the day after senators asked their final questions
of the impeachment managers and the White House defense
team. Only two and a half weeks after the trial, the White
House requested $1.25 billion in emergency coronavirus
funding from Congress.
If
the trial hadn’t ended expeditiously, the Senate easily
could have been still seeking the testimony of, say, former
White House counsel Don McGahn about the details of the
non-firing of special counsel Robert Mueller — at the same
time everyone expected the administration to be shifting
into wartime footing against the virus....
In
short, the epidemic has put in stark relief the pettiness
and absurdity of much what has transpired in our national
life since Trump won the presidency.
How
Trump performs now — finally without Mueller or impeachment,
artifacts of another time — dogging him will determine how
he’s remembered.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
A crisis is a terrible thing to manufacture
By Rich Lowry
|
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
Day 23 since
the
Proclamation of National Emergency was announced for
the United States of America by President Trump.
There are news
reports upon reports this week but, as with the past few
weeks, understandably virtually all of them concerned the
Chinese Wuhan Pandemic and the crisis it has inflicted
worldwide, across the United States in Massachusetts and the
other states. Any news even remotely political was
directly or indirectly connected to the health crisis, but
there were a few interesting and useful insights.
The State House
News Service reported on Wednesday ("Delegation:
The Direct Deposits are Coming Soon"):
Direct
deposit payments to qualifying Americans could start
as soon as April 6 and states should receive
additional guidance on expanding unemployment
eligibility "within the next few days,"
Congresswoman Katherine Clark told reporters
Wednesday.
Some
aspects of the historic $2 trillion coronavirus
relief package, such as emergency loan advances for
small businesses, are already open to the public,
but the timeline of several components affecting
workers remains unclear days after President Donald
Trump signed the law....
During
a conference call the House delegation from
Massachusetts held to explain the law . . .
Representatives said during the call that
Massachusetts would receive more than $3.8 billion
in funding calculated by formulas through the $2
trillion package. The state will also receive
significant additional funding from programs at the
discretion of federal agencies, but they said that
amount is difficult to quantify.
A day later
The Washington Times
reported:
House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday she’s formed
a bipartisan committee to oversee the funds
allocated for the coronavirus response.
“The
panel will root out waste, fraud and abuse; it will
protect against price-gauging, profiteering and
political favoritism,” Mrs. Pelosi, California
Democrat, told reporters on a press call. “We need
transparency and accountability.”
“Where
there’s money, there’s frequently mischief,” she
said.
Here comes her
next quixotic "witch hunt." This is right up there
with her infamous statement on Obamacare: “We have to
pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it”
I suppose this warning means we'll have to keep a real
close taxpayers' eye on the big-spenders on Beacon Hill.
Thanks for the reminder, Nancy!
On Friday the
State House News Service reported:
The
Department of Revenue announced that collections for
March totaled $2.66 billion, which is only $8
million less than what was collected in March 2019,
and $83 million or 3.2 percent above the state's
monthly benchmark....
"Most
major categories of revenue performed roughly as
expected in March and the corporate and business
taxes were the primary contributor to the
above-benchmark performance," Revenue Commissioner
Geoffrey Snyder said. "With approximately 70% of
revenue collections in the door for Fiscal Year 2020
through March, we have seen overall steady, moderate
growth above the prior year."
Snyder
acknowledged, though, that revenue collections
moving forward will be impacted by the economic
disruptions seen as essential to staunching the
spread of the coronavirus, including sales, meals,
and room taxes deferrals, and the extension of the
personal income tax filing deadline into the next
fiscal year.
The
Commonwealth's U.S. Congressional delegation announced that
Massachusetts would receive over $3.8 billion in funding
from the $2.2 trillion national Coronavirus relief package.
"The state will also receive significant additional funding
from programs at the discretion of federal agencies, but
they said that amount is difficult to quantify." With
over two months remaining in this fiscal year, deferring the
income tax filing date to July 15 will certainly have an
impact on state coffers from those who owe the state taxes.
The State House News Service reported
on Friday ("Advances - Week of April 5"):
The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center is
estimating annual revenue shortfalls of $5 billion
to $6 billion, the Massachusetts Taxpayers
Foundation has said that job losses in the state
"could be in the 10 to 12 percent range," and the
Center for State Policy and Analysis has cautioned
of a "dramatic collapse" in state revenue, including
a tax revenue shortfall of $1.8 billion to $3
billion over the next 15 months.
In its Advances for the week ahead The
State House News Service also reported:
Compared to Baker, legislative
leaders have been far less accessible. And without
remote voting capabilities, the full Legislature is
unable to meet for deliberations while also
complying with social distancing. The result: a
skeleton crew of top House and Senate leaders have
been making the decisions, largely based on
back-channel discussions, and putting proposals up
for votes in sessions featuring less than a handful
of members in both branches. Debate has ceased, and
lawmakers so far haven't overly compensated to
divulge more details about legislative intent and
bill contents.
"[A]
skeleton crew of top House and Senate leaders have been
making the decisions,
largely based on back-channel discussions, and
putting proposals up
for votes in sessions featuring less than a handful of
members in both branches.
Debate
has ceased." Even a pandemic has changed little if
anything on Beacon Hill; it's business as usual just without
the pretense.
This seems to support
a strong argument, if not providing proof, that the
preponderance of well-paid alleged "full-time" legislators
are in fact sheltered-at-home "non-essential."
Finally, in
closing: On
Wednesday, April 1, The Boston Herald published a
syndicated column by Rich Lowry, editor of The National
Review and one of the founders of the NeverTrump
faction. In it he breaks down critical dates of
the virus's discovery in China —
and what was happening simultaneously in Washington DC,
our nation's capital. In "A crisis is a terrible
thing to manufacture" [full column below] one point he
makes is:
If the [impeachment] trial hadn’t ended
expeditiously, the Senate easily could have been
still seeking the testimony of, say, former White
House counsel Don McGahn about the details of the
non-firing of special counsel Robert Mueller — at
the same time everyone expected the administration
to be shifting into wartime footing against the
virus....
What made this
most interesting for me was Lowry's conversion from a
staunch NeverTrumper
—
I did not realize that he had checked out.
In January of
2018 political columnist Tim Donner wrote in Liberty
Nation ("NeverTrumper
Rich Lowry: I Was Wrong"):
There is nothing more
caloric to swallow than your pride. So when
National Review Editor Rich Lowry, who
engineered the infamous
Against Trump issue of the one-time
conservative flagship late in 2015, finally
admitted recently that he was wrong about Trump,
it may have represented a watershed moment for
the NeverTrump “movement.”
Then again, maybe not.
Lowry is the first high-profile NeverTrumper to
admit his mistake – almost one year into Trump’s
presidency. Many of the NeverTrump morally
superior pompous asses like Bill Kristol, George
Will, and Bret Stephens are unlikely to ever
give an inch – or God forbid admit they were
mistaken about Trump – as they twist themselves
into knots trying to discredit or minimize the
impressive accomplishments of the 45th
President.
Stay safe my
friends. This too shall pass, will come to an end
— and
the sooner the better for everyone. America needs to
be liberated from arbitrary shut-downs, enforced isolation,
questionable edicts, and fear itself. Americans want
to get back to work while an economy is still warm enough to
resuscitate — want to return to something at least
resembling the normalcy that was stripped from us.
That celebration gets closer every day.
Meanwhile, be careful out there!
|
 |
 |
|
Chip Ford
Executive Director |
|
|
|
|
State House News Service
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
Delegation: The Direct Deposits are Coming Soon
By Chris LisinskiDirect deposit
payments to qualifying Americans could start as soon as
April 6 and states should receive additional guidance on
expanding unemployment eligibility "within the next few
days," Congresswoman Katherine Clark told reporters
Wednesday.
Some aspects of the historic $2 trillion coronavirus relief
package, such as emergency loan advances for small
businesses, are already open to the public, but the timeline
of several components affecting workers remains unclear days
after President Donald Trump signed the law.
During a conference call the House delegation from
Massachusetts held to explain the law, Clark said the goal
in Washington is to begin by next Monday electronic deposits
of $1,200 to residents who earn $75,000 or less per year and
have direct deposit information on file with the federal
government. Clark also said federal agencies will provide
information to states this week about how to make
unemployment assistance newly available to workers who were
self-employed or on contracts.
"We are working and pushing them because we know how
critical this funding is," Clark said. Gov. Charlie Baker
this week warned workers not to apply for unemployment
benefits unless they qualify under the existing unemployment
insurance system. Until federal guidance comes down, he
said, states cannot direct help to those newly eligible
under the aid package.
Representatives said during the call that Massachusetts
would receive more than $3.8 billion in funding calculated
by formulas through the $2 trillion package. The state will
also receive significant additional funding from programs at
the discretion of federal agencies, but they said that
amount is difficult to quantify.
State House News Service
Friday, April 3, 2020
March Tax Collections Beat Benchmark by $83 Mil
By Colin A. Young
The hit from COVID-19 on the state's
finances didn't fully materialize in March, but state tax
collectors acknowledged Friday that it's coming.
The Department of Revenue announced that collections for
March totaled $2.66 billion, which is only $8 million less
than what was collected in March 2019, and $83 million or
3.2 percent above the state's monthly benchmark.
Through three quarters of the fiscal year, DOR said
Massachusetts tax receipts have totaled $21.064 billion,
which is $878 million or 4.3 percent more than the same
year-to-date point in 2019, and $235 million or 1.1 percent
above the year-to-date benchmark.
"Most major categories of revenue performed roughly as
expected in March and the corporate and business taxes were
the primary contributor to the above-benchmark performance,"
Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder said. "With
approximately 70% of revenue collections in the door for
Fiscal Year 2020 through March, we have seen overall steady,
moderate growth above the prior year."
Snyder acknowledged, though, that revenue collections moving
forward will be impacted by the economic disruptions seen as
essential to staunching the spread of the coronavirus,
including sales, meals, and room taxes deferrals, and the
extension of the personal income tax filing deadline into
the next fiscal year.
"We will monitor the economic conditions and the impact of
COVID-19 and tax deferrals on tax collections very closely
for the rest of the fiscal year 2020 and into the next
fiscal year," Snyder said.
State House News Service
Friday, April 3, 2020
Weekly Roundup - Preparing for the Surge
Recap and analysis of the week in state government
By Matt Murphy
Things are going to get worse before they
get better, that much is clear. How much worse and when is a
tougher question to answer.
So it should come as no surprise that this week, like the
one before it, the state was focused on preparing for both
the known and unknown.
As Congressional lawmakers attempted to explain how a
historic $2 trillion stimulus would help Massachusetts,
talks were underway for a fourth federal relief package,
state lawmakers were exploring how they could chip in, and
the state was building a volunteer force of medical
professionals that by Monday was already 1,800 people
strong.
Gov. Charlie Baker also made the call to extend his
executive order closing all non-essential businesses for at
least another month, telling businesses to prepare to be
shuttered through at least May 4.
Thursday was supposed to be Opening Day at Fenway Park, but
the only talk of fields had to do with the hospitals the
state was scrambling to set up in time for the surge in
infections on its way, and the only sports franchise
generating headlines was getting its attention for a covert
mission to China to secure 1.2 million masks.
But enough, already. Let's go to the tape.
A day after visiting the DCU Center in Worcester as it was
being set up as a field hospital to accept COVID-19
patients, Gov. Charlie Baker was back at the State House on
Thursday and finally ready to share his public health team's
best estimates for when the virus will peak in
Massachusetts.
Baker said the surge was now projected to arrive between
April 10 and April 20, and as many as 172,000 people could
ultimately become infected. Of course, that was the high end
of what turned out to be an extremely broad range that could
be as low as 47,000 infections if social distancing goes
well over the next few weeks.
That was the bad news.
The good news, if you can call it that, is that using models
based on what happened in Wuhan, China, Baker said that the
state's current fatality rate of 1.5 percent is on track to
remain lower than some other states and parts of the world,
in part because of lower population density and smoking
rates and earlier action to keep people home.
"We know all models are not perfect, but obviously you need
to plan for the worst and at the end of the day hope you do
not need to go that far," the governor said.
To meet the surge demand, Baker said the state needs to add
500 intensive care beds and an untold number of acute-care
beds for less severe infections.
Which circles back to the DCU Center, where three trucks
full of supplies showed up this week to turn the hockey,
concert and convention venue into a 250-bed field hospital
to accept overflow from UMass Memorial Medical Center.
The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center is being looked
at as a second field hospital for both the homeless and
COVID-19 patients, and Baker said Joint Base Cape Cod and
the MassMutual Center were also on the radar to locate
additional acute care beds.
Hospitals are also working to maximize their own physical
footprints, and at least two nursing homes so far - Beaumont
in Worcester and AdviniaCare in Wilmington - are being
emptied to accept coronavirus patients.
In that process, at least one patient at Beaumont tested
positive for COVID-19 and was kept at the facility so as not
to carry the disease to another nursing facility.
Some local communities, like the city of New Bedford, are
going further to prevent the coronavirus from infiltrating
senior care facilities. On the opening day of scallop
season, New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell said he would start
requiring twice-daily temperature checks of all staff, and
regular screenings for residents.
Mitchell was trying to prevent the type of outbreak that led
to the death of 21 residents of the Holyoke Soldiers' Home,
15 of which had tested positive for the coronavirus as of
Friday. All told, 59 residents of the home have been
diagnosed with COVID-19.
Amid suggestions from Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse and others
that the superintendent of the Holyoke veterans' home
Bennett Walsh concealed the outbreak until it was too late,
Baker put Walsh on leave, and brought on former federal
prosecutor Mark Pearlstein of McDermott Will & Emory to
conduct an investigation.
"We will get to the bottom of what happened and when and by
who," Baker said.
On a more uplifting note, the Wall Street Journal on
Thursday morning detailed the who, what and when of a
complex, back-channel humanitarian mission that involved the
governor, Robert Kraft, the Boeing 767 that doubles as the
New England Patriots' team plane, and a tight three-hour
window on a tarmac in China to bring over a million medical
masks back to Boston.
The successful delivery of personal protective equipment
came after an order of 3 million masks from BJs got
confiscated in the port of New York. Instead of trying
traditional channels again, Baker found a partner in the
Krafts to help transport masks directly from China, getting
help from the Chinese embassy, the State Department and the
governor of Alaska along the way.
The Patriots were back in the picture a day later when it
was announced that Gillette Stadium would become the site of
a drive-thru testing center for first responders -- another
positive story for the team that didn't involve Tom Brady
moving into Derek Jeter's Tampa manse.
For those who don't live in mansions, the House on Thursday
passed legislation to put a moratorium on evictions and
foreclosures, lasting 30 days beyond the end of the state of
emergency. The House also passed a bill that would let the
commissioner of education waive or modify MCAS testing
requirements for seniors hoping to graduate this spring,
while the Senate tackled an expansion of unemployment
benefits.
While the two Democrat-led chambers work to get on the same
page on those three bills, the Legislature did finally
strike a deal on a municipal governance bill that was signed
by Gov. Baker Friday giving towns some flexibility in their
deadlines to deal with permits, budgets and other government
functions.
The bill also extended the personal income tax filing
deadline to July 15, and gave restaurants doing take-out
business permission to sell beer and wine to go.
With restaurant operation severely cut back, celebrity
Boston chef Tiffani Faison had time one night this week to
go on the Joseph Kennedy III nightly webcast to cook some
chicken and talk about coronavirus.
Kennedy has largely suspended his campaign during the
pandemic, but he did manage to outraise incumbent Sen. Ed
Markey in the first quarter of 2020, pulling in $1.95
million in donations and starting the second quarter with
$6.2 million in the bank to Markey's $4.4 million.
Markey, however, scored a win of his own when the Democratic
Party decided to cancel its May 30 nominating convention in
Lowell, with the blessing of both Markey and Kennedy's
campaigns.
As part of that decision, Kennedy conceded the party
endorsement to Markey, who all agreed was likely to prevail
based on the delegates elected so far.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Baker and Kraft family connect on a Hail
Mary to bring 1 million masks back to Massachusetts.
State House News Service
Friday, April 3, 2020
Advances - Week of April 5, 2020
Saving lives and jobs and limiting the
depths of suffering and economic collapse are among the many
goals in Massachusetts and across the world amid a pandemic
that has derailed life as we have known it. Confirmed cases
of COVID-19 are growing dramatically and no one knows how
many unconfirmed cases are out there.
The state and federal government are front and center in the
fight, with elected officials and everyone else focused on
the coming surge in cases, which Gov. Charlie Baker
estimates will arrive somewhere between next Friday and
April 20. To prepare, state officials, in addition to
begging people to comply with social distancing and stay
home, are setting up makeshift hospitals, converting nursing
homes into COVID-19 centers, and acquiring as much
protective gear as possible to safeguard health care workers
whose own health is critical to successful pandemic response
efforts in the coming weeks.
Health care workers, first responders, supermarket workers
and gas station attendants have become heroes overnight by
putting their lives at risk to help and serve others.
The Legislature
As the state's chief executive, Gov. Charlie Baker is
leading the COVID-19 response and has rewritten rules of
daily life through a flood of executive orders. Baker has
held daily press conferences to keep people apprised of
what's happening. The Legislature has been trying to help,
but the pandemic has also shown that the Great and General
Court is not well-suited to functioning at its full
capacity, and with transparency, during a pandemic. Compared
to Baker, legislative leaders have been far less accessible.
And without remote voting capabilities, the full Legislature
is unable to meet for deliberations while also complying
with social distancing. The result: a skeleton crew of top
House and Senate leaders have been making the decisions,
largely based on back-channel discussions, and putting
proposals up for votes in sessions featuring less than a
handful of members in both branches. Debate has ceased, and
lawmakers so far haven't overly compensated to divulge more
details about legislative intent and bill contents. Congress
has passed three major laws to address COVID-19; the
Legislature has enacted laws allowing municipal elections to
be postponed and waiving a one-week waiting period for
jobless benefits. Other COVID-19 bills have moved, but are
unfinished. They deal with access to unemployment benefits
(S 2598), eviction and foreclosure prevention (H 4615), and
relaxing MCAS requirements in the COVID-19 era (H 4616). On
Thursday night, after marathon sessions, the Legislature
moved to Baker's desk a third COVID-19 bill (H 4598)
designed to give taxpayers relief by pushing the annual
filing deadline to July 15, lift restaurants by allowing
beer-and-wine sales with takeout or delivery orders, and
give cities and towns flexibility concerning town meetings,
tax payments and permits. Baker signed that bill on Friday.
The stack of newly filed bills calling for more aggressive
legislative action is growing as are demands for an
emergency appropriations bill. - Michael P. Norton
The Surge
The model put together for Massachusetts by public health
experts, health care providers, state officials and
academics suggests that the state will see its surge of
COVID-19 patients requiring hospital care hit as soon as
April 10, next Friday. "We estimate at this point in time
that the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in
Massachusetts will range somewhere between 47,000 and
172,000 cases during the course of the pandemic. That's
about 0.7 percent to two-and-a-half percent of the total
population in Massachusetts, and at this time the modeling
indicates that hospitalizations would potentially peak
between April 10 and April 20," Gov. Baker said Thursday.
The model is based on data and experiences in Wuhan, China,
where the virus originated, but Baker noted there are
several important differences between Wuhan and
Massachusetts -- including a lower population density here,
a lower smoking rate and strict social distancing measures
enacted sooner -- and said "we do anticipate Massachusetts
trajectory could differ for" those reasons and others.
Hospitals have been implementing surge plans and the state
is working to establish field hospital sites that might be
able to treat patients who need to be monitored but might
not have symptoms as severe as other patients. Still, the
governor said Massachusetts expects to need more acute care
and intensive care beds. "We know all models are not
perfect, but obviously you need to plan for the worst and at
the end of the day hope you do not need to go that far," the
governor said Thursday. - Colin A. Young
Testing and Tracing
Massachusetts was slow to start COVID-19 testing but has
become a leader among U.S. states in testing. Now the Baker
administration is rolling out a long-term contact tracing
program, which stems from expanded testing and is designed
to expand efforts to pinpoint the spread of the virus and
then attempt to limit it. Partners in Health is taking a
lead role in the contact tracing program that Gov. Baker on
Friday said could make Massachusetts a leader in the virus
fight. Firsthand knowledge of contacts with COVID-19 is
essential to making decisions to help limit the spread of
the novel coronavirus, and prevent it from overwhelming the
state's health care system. While the program will take time
and be difficult to roll out, supporters say it's necessary
to mitigate the suffering and damage caused by the virus.
Gov. Baker said that with tens of thousands of cases
projected, a major tracing program driven by technology and
led by a group with the experience of Partners in Health is
necessary. He said the program can also generate predictive
modeling about virus hot spots. - Michael P. Norton
Long-Term Care Facilities
Facilities that house and care for senior citizens are
shaping up to be one of the most significant battlegrounds
in the state's fight against the coronavirus. The
highly-contagious virus is said to be most severe for older
people and people with underlying health conditions, which
describes much of the population at long-term care
facilities. The most serious outbreak yet appears to be at
the Holyoke Soldiers' Home, where as of Friday at least 15
of the 21 veterans who have died since late March were
confirmed to have COVID-19. The state said 59 residents
there tested positive and 160 veterans living at the Holyoke
home tested negative. Two veterans have died of COVID-19 at
the Chelsea Soldiers' Home. This week, the Department of
Public Health began reporting both the number of long-term
care facilities reporting at least one case of COVID-19 and
the number of long-term care residents who have tested
positive. As of Friday afternoon, there were 82 facilities
reporting at least one case of COVID-19 and a total of 382
long-term care facility residents had tested positive. On
Thursday, the state had reported that COVID-19 had been
detected in 85 long-term care facilities. The state has
activated the National Guard to help expedite testing at
long-term care facilities around the state. On Friday
afternoon, U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey and
U.S. Reps. Richard Neal and Ayanna Pressley sent a letter to
the director of the Veterans Affairs New England Healthcare
System to express their concern about the "disturbing
reports" out of Holyoke and to urge the VA to do everything
in its power to keep veterans safe. The lawmakers also
"asked that he work closely with the VA Boston Healthcare
System and the Governor's Office to appropriately hold
Soldiers' Home officials accountable and ensure that
VA-operated long-term care facilities in Massachusetts do
not see similar outbreaks." - Colin A. Young
The Budgets
The economic slide brought on by the pandemic and forced
business shutdowns aimed at slowing infections is having
grave ramifications for state budgeting. On the positive
side, the state has built up $3.5 billion in its rainy day
fund and historic levels of federal funding are about to
pour into Massachusetts. On the other hand, state tax
collections are collapsing and spending demands are soaring.
"We spent money on a lot of stuff and we're going to
continue to spend money on the things we believe we need to
spend money on to deal with this," Baker said Thursday
afternoon. Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou
Sudders this week described a $15 million state
appropriation as a "deposit" toward COVID-19 response and
said the state is also documenting its expenses to ensure
federal reimbursements. To get their minds around all the
change, state budget officials plan a hearing Tuesday
featuring economic experts who will offer their best guesses
about what the future might bring and how all the chaos will
affect tax collections. From there, it appears likely that
state officials will recalibrate anticipated fiscal 2020 and
fiscal 2021 revenues. The job of keeping the fiscal 2020
budget balanced with three months remaining in that year
falls to Gov. Baker, whose options are limited because so
much of the spending for this year has already occurred. The
job of balancing for fiscal 2021, since Baker filed his
spending plan for that year in January, will be largely up
to the House and Senate, working with advice from Baker,
since they have yet to take up annual budget deliberations
and haven't said when they will do so. State officials are
documenting expenditures with plans to exact the maximum
amount of federal reimbursements, which would mitigate
effects on other state spending accounts which until
recently seemed safe from cuts and likely in line for small
increases. - Michael P. Norton
"A Month of Learning"
School districts are expected to ramp up their online and
remote learning in the coming days, with students learning
from home for at least another month. In cities like Boston,
Lawrence and Holyoke, efforts to prepare students for the
new reality have included distribution of Chromebooks and
laptops to kids who don't have devices at home. Guidance
from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
called for districts to have their remote learning plans in
place by early April, recommending that models involve
"meaningful and productive learning for approximately half
the length of a regular school day," through a combination
of both self-directed and educator-directed activities. With
internet and technology access varied at home, the
department has advised that remote learning can include
large-group video calls, one-on-one phone calls, work
packets, email, projects, reading lists, and learning
through online platforms. Education Secretary James Peyser
said at a Board of Elementary and Secondary Education
meeting this week that April should be "a month of
learning," with more than just occasional or ad hoc
enrichment opportunities. Students should be delving deeper
into material that's already been covered, he said. - Katie
Lannan
The Weather
Temperatures are rising, the trees are budding, and spring
is on the way. That's usually just the recipe for enjoying
the great outdoors but in the stay-home COVID-19 era and
amid pleas for social distancing, outdoor gatherings could
speed the transmission of the potentially deadly virus and
worsen the pandemic. Public officials are pleading with
people to maintain distancing when outdoors. "This weekend,
the weather's going to get warmer. For Massachusetts, it's
going to be like a heat wave," Boston Mayor Martin Walsh
said Thursday, urging people across the state to take
distancing guidelines seriously. "I think we're going to
have 55 degree weather. That does not mean that you can go
out and socialize." The warmer weather's effects on the
virus itself, as well as its transmission, are an emerging
topic of discussion. The change in weather also stirs up
seasonal allergies, adding another new wrinkle. - Michael P.
Norton
Legislative Skeleton Crew
A skeleton crew of legislators are keeping some bills moving
during the state of emergency and that's expected to
continue for an indefinite period as the COVID-19 pandemic
keeps most lawmakers in their districts and homes and away
from Beacon Hill. The usual band of members in the two
chambers includes Sens. Bruce Tarr of Gloucester, Walter
Timilty of Milton, and Michael Rodrigues of Westport and
Reps. Paul Donato of Medford, Donald Wong of Saugus, and
David Vieira of Falmouth. As for House and Senate
leadership, Speaker Robert DeLeo and President Karen Spilka
are taking advantage of virtual meeting programs and
opportunities to work from home. Spilka has perfected her
use of meeting programs like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, a
spokesman said. These days she is working from home, and her
staff says she's spending about 14-16 hours per day on
conference calls. She was last in the State House for a
leadership meeting on March 23, the spokesman said. DeLeo's
schedule for the past two weeks has been a combination of
working remotely from home and utilizing his office at the
State House, a spokeswoman said. - Chris Van Buskirk and Sam
Doran
Tuesday, April 7, 2020
VIRTUAL REVENUE HEARING: Ways and Means Committee
chairs Rep. Michlewitz and Sen. Rodrigues and Administration
and Finance Secretary Heffernan hold a "virtual roundtable"
with economic exports to try to get a handle on what the
coronavirus pandemic will mean for the state budget.
Budget writers in January agreed to a revenue estimate of
$31.151 billion for fiscal 2021, and Gov. Charlie Baker
worked off that figure to file his $44.6 billion spending
plan -- this year's budget had a bottom line of $43.59
billion, and the administration has projected $44.37 billion
in fiscal 2020 spending.
In the wake of coronavirus-driven business closures, job
losses and economic restrictions, Michlewitz has said the
state is now facing a "dire and unprecedented" fiscal
situation. Projections that have been publicly released so
far also present a grim budgetary outlook.
The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center is estimating
annual revenue shortfalls of $5 billion to $6 billion, the
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation has said that job losses
in the state "could be in the 10 to 12 percent range," and
the Center for State Policy and Analysis has cautioned of a
"dramatic collapse" in state revenue, including a tax
revenue shortfall of $1.8 billion to $3 billion over the
next 15 months.
The list of participants was still being finalized Friday
and is expected to be released Monday, according to a Senate
Ways and Means Committee spokesman. Participants will be
invited to join via video or audio call or in-person. The
event will be closed to the public but broadcast online, and
a spokesman said the participants in the hearing room will
practice social distancing. Treasurer Goldberg plans to join
via video conference at 10:10 a.m., according to her office.
(Tuesday, 10 a.m., Room 428)
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, April 1, 2020
A crisis is a terrible thing to manufacture
By Rich Lowry
On Jan. 20, the United States confirmed
its first case of the coronavirus. The nation’s political
and media elite obsessed over Mitch McConnell’s
just-announced resolution governing the impeachment trial of
Donald Trump.
On Jan. 23, China locked down the city of Wuhan. Cable news
in America lit up with praise for the epic, nay historic,
performance by House impeachment manager Adam Schiff in the
trial’s opening arguments.
On Jan. 30, the World Health Organization declared a world
health emergency. The U.S. Senate prepared to vote on
impeachment witnesses.
On Feb. 5, the cruise ship Diamond Princess quarantined
thousands of passengers after a major outbreak on board.
Mitt Romney announced that he’d vote to convict Trump on one
of the two counts against him, and the Senate voted to
acquit on both.
If the Senate had approved additional impeachment witnesses,
the trial would have at least stretched further into
February, overlapping even more with the epidemic.
Trump closed off travel from China while the trial was still
ongoing, the day after senators asked their final questions
of the impeachment managers and the White House defense
team. Only two and a half weeks after the trial, the White
House requested $1.25 billion in emergency coronavirus
funding from Congress.
If the trial hadn’t ended expeditiously, the Senate easily
could have been still seeking the testimony of, say, former
White House counsel Don McGahn about the details of the
non-firing of special counsel Robert Mueller — at the same
time everyone expected the administration to be shifting
into wartime footing against the virus.
In that circumstance, the impeachment trial obviously would
have been immediately shelved, because a discretionary
national crisis can’t compete with a real, unavoidable one.
Political melodrama must give way to a potential
public-health catastrophe.
For more than three years, American national politics has
been constantly on a crisis footing over presidential
tweets, two-day controversies, dubious storylines whipped up
by the media and Trump’s genuine outrages. Little of it has
been enduring, or nearly as important as the intense,
wall-to-wall attention at any given moment suggested.
Trump and his opposition have been engaged in a performative
dance of mutual animosity that is angry, hysterical and,
ultimately, inconsequential.
The Mueller probe constituted the tent pole of this period.
For years, it drew wishful comparisons to Watergate in the
media, but it came up empty, since its premise of a Trump
conspiracy with the Russians was always a progressive
phantasmagoria.
After we spent months pretending that Trump would somehow be
ousted from the presidency by his own party in the Senate,
not only is he still the president, all people of good will
are rooting for him to perform as ably as he can in this
crisis.
After acting as though we had endless time and energy to
waste on nonsense because the stakes were so small in what
was until the day before yesterday a time of peace and
prosperity, we have been jolted into a period when our
national decisions really matter, and time and resources are
of the essence.
In short, the epidemic has put in stark relief the pettiness
and absurdity of much what has transpired in our national
life since Trump won the presidency.
How Trump performs now — finally without Mueller or
impeachment, artifacts of another time — dogging him will
determine how he’s remembered.
— Rich Lowry is editor of the National Review. |
| |
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this
material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes
only. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪
PO Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
▪ (781) 639-9709
BACK TO CLT
HOMEPAGE
|
