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“Every Tax is a Pay Cut ... A Tax Cut is a Pay Raise”
46 years as “The Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers”
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their Institutional Memory — |
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CLT UPDATE
Sunday, June 15, 2020
Birth of the Tax Hike Economists'
"Vault"
Jump directly
to CLT's Commentary on the News
Most Relevant News Excerpts
(Full news reports follow
Commentary)
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The COVID-19
pandemic is a unique event that is sure to rock the state
budget and overall financial picture for years to come, and
it might take some creativity and outside-the-box thinking
from policymakers for Massachusetts to address both the need
for individual and business aid and the state's need for a
stable budget.
That's the
conclusion of a new report that the Center for State
Policy Analysis at Tufts University published Monday
morning to assess how Massachusetts, which has to
maintain a balanced budget, might be able to assist
residents and businesses struggling financially as a
result of the pandemic while also addressing a widening
state budget deficit.
After talking
the situation over with economists and state budget
experts, the center suggested a suite of possible policy
responses, including setting up a commission to roll
back regulations on the hardest-hit industries, creating
a surtax on healthy businesses to help at-risk ones, and
increasing the state's income tax rate temporarily....
Though it
might be less-palatable to lawmakers, especially during
an election year, the center also suggests that
Massachusetts alter its tax code in order to impose a
surtax on companies that are earning greater profits
during the COVID-19 pandemic and to increase the state's
5 percent income tax rate.
"Perhaps the
most straightforward way to fund economic aid -- or to
avoid cuts to vital programs -- is to temporarily
increase the state's income tax," the report said. "With
this approach you can raise substantial funds in a very
precise way, without needing to design a new program or
setup a new collection system."
State House
News Service
Monday, June 8, 2020
Tufts Center: Pandemic Budgeting Calls for Creativity
Tax Hike, Rent Loans Among Ideas
The second
quarter of 2020 is on track to be the worst for the
state economy in the recorded history of Massachusetts
and gross state product "may decline on the order of 50
percent," economists at MassBenchmarks said
Tuesday.
The COVID-19
pandemic and government-mandated businesses closures
imposed to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus
have blown a hole in the state's economy. In
weeks, Massachusetts went from a sub-3 unemployment rate
to a record high of 15.1 percent, and tax collections
went from $235 million ahead of benchmarks to now
standing $2.253 billion behind expectations.
"State
economic performance in the second quarter of 2020 is
shaping up to be the worst in the recorded history of
the Commonwealth," MassBenchmarks, which is published by
the UMass Donahue Institute with the Federal Reserve
Bank of Boston, wrote in a summary of its May 28
editorial board meeting. "While board members
agreed that the economic damage from COVID-19 is
probably greatest in the current quarter, they were
similarly unanimous that projecting the path of the
economy is highly uncertain and more about future
epidemiological conditions than economic fundamentals."
...
As
policymakers consider ways to balance the state budget,
MassBenchmarks said it is as important as ever to heed
the Hippocratic command to "first, do no harm."
The group urged legislators to "avoid counterproductive
state and local spending cuts" and to consider
temporarily raising some state tax rates.
State House
News Service
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Economists: Mass. In Midst of Worst Economic Quarter on
Record
Law
enforcement's infamous "blue wall" started showing its
cracks this week as momentum picked up on Beacon Hill
for a major push at policing reform, and the odds
increased that by mid-summer something that wasn't on
anyone's radar three months ago will get done before an
annual budget....
It's only been
five days since Gov. Charlie Baker plunged the state
into Phase 2 of his business restart strategy, but the
public health data continues to show that the state is
making progress in its fight against the spread of
COVID-19.
Restaurants
owners on Monday wiped the pollen off their outdoor
tables as they reopened for dining al fresco, and
retailers, hotels, warehouses, driving ranges and host
of other businesses also got the green light to reopen,
with restrictions.
That and the
warm weather had Cape Cod lawmakers and business leaders
starting to feel better about the prospects for summer
and their livelihoods, but there remains the threat that
with reopening there could be a viral resurgence like
the ones seen in states like Florida, Texas and Arizona.
State budget
officials, who are still playing the waiting game with
the virus, are crossing their fingers that commerce can
rebound and blunt the worst of the revenue losses that
some economists have predicted. While that plays
out, the Senate approved a bill this week to borrow $300
million for municipal road and bridge repairs and create
a seven-member MBTA board to oversee the transit agency
when temporary Fiscal and Management Control Board's
authority expires at the end of the month....
Senate leaders
pulled the two pieces from larger transportation tax and
spending bills approved by the House before the pandemic
struck, and now the two Democrat-led branches must agree
on a path forward.
Of course, one
way to free up some money for state and local budgets
would be to redirect spending away from law enforcement.
The "defund the police" movement has been gathering
steam, and has found some receptive ears in
Massachusetts.
So what would
it look like to actually defund the police? House
Speaker Robert DeLeo admitted he wasn't sure....
[Gov.] Baker
said Thursday he doesn't support defunding the police,
as a slogan or as a public policy, but he has been
working on legislation that would put Massachusetts in
the company of the vast majority of states that have a
licensing and decertification processes for police
officers....
Boston Mayor
Marty Walsh, meanwhile, declared racism a public health
emergency in the city on Friday, and said he would be
reallocating $12 million, or about 20 percent of the
Boston Police Department's overtime budget, to invest in
trauma teams and counseling, youth programs and
minority-owned businesses.
State House
News Service
Friday, June 12, 2020
Weekly Roundup - Tear Down That Wall
As the Senate
prepares to take up bills that are likely to draw
multiple amendments, the branch adopted new temporary
rules Tuesday that will allow members to debate remotely
from outside the chamber to cut down on risk of exposure
to COVID-19....
Except for the
presiding officer, Ways and Means chairman, minority
leader, and others deemed "necessary" by the president,
senators are encouraged to stay outside the chamber
unless they wish to speak from the floor. Only
essential staff such as court officers and top aides,
along with "other staff as identified by the President,"
will be permitted inside....
The first
session under the new guidelines will be Thursday, to
consider a $300 million local road and bridge funding
bill that would also institute a new MBTA Board of
Directors. Another is planned for Tuesday when the
Senate will take up mail-in and early voting legislation
(S 2755), which drew more than 20 amendments in the
lower branch.
Tarr told the
News Service that the rules will stay in effect until
July 31, when formal sessions are scheduled to end, and
rules would be revisited if formal sessions are extended
past that point.
State House
News Service
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Senate Agrees to Temporary Rules Governing Remote
Sessions
The Senate
approved legislation Thursday that would allocate $300
million to a municipal road and bridge maintenance
program and create a new, larger board of directors to
oversee the MBTA, teeing up a potentially crunched
negotiation process with the House after several months
of inaction.
In the first
formal session since senators agreed this week to new
rules for remote debate and roll call voting, the Senate
approved the bill (S 2746) on an unrecorded voice vote
with no debate.
The
legislation directs $300 million to the Chapter 90
program that reimburses cities and towns for road and
bridge repairs and projects. The vote means both
branches are now on record supporting $100 million more
than previous years to the annual authorization that
cities and towns look for each year in early spring....
Sen. Joseph
Boncore, co-chair of the Legislature's Transportation
Committee, said during Thursday's session that the bill
is "a first step."
"Prior to this
pandemic, our transportation system was in desperate
need of investment, modernization and reform," he said.
"Now, the global pandemic and the cause for civil rights
have only underscored the need to improve
transportation."
All four
amendments to the legislation, including one from Boston
Sen. Nick Collins that would have given the city a
designated seat on the board, were withdrawn without any
discussion. The Senate passed the bill following
introductory in-person remarks from Boncore and Minority
Leader Bruce Tarr.
The two issues
in the Senate bill were tackled by the House in March --
about a week before Gov. Charlie Baker declared the
COVID-19 state of emergency -- as part of larger bills
creating new taxes and fees to fund transportation and
authorizing $18 billion in long-term borrowing to fund
transit and infrastructure projects....
The Senate
bill would empower the new board to hire the T's general
manager, a responsibility that currently rests with the
transportation secretary. The House bill did not
include that provision.
Asked about
that language during an unrelated Thursday press
conference, Baker said he believes the governor should
maintain a role in appointing the MBTA's top leader.
He also said one of the key funding mechanisms for the T
is dedicated revenue from the state's sales tax, which
means many Massachusetts residents effectively pay into
a system they do not use....
[Sen. Joseph
Boncore, co-chair of the Legislature's Transportation
Committee] said the Chapter 90 authorization, which
won't be settled until the House and Senate agree to a
final vehicle, will be the latest the Legislature has
resolved that matter in recent memory....
Both branches
have now approved language increasing the annual funding
to $300 million after years of holding it at $200
million despite pleas from municipalities for more
money. The state's revenue outlook is dire because
of the pandemic, with fiscal year 2020 tax revenues
lagging projections $2.25 billion and fiscal year 2021
projections also pointing toward revenues declining by
billions of dollars from pre-pandemic estimates.
State House
News Service
Thursday, June 11, 2020
Senate, House Now In Agreement on $300 Mil Road Program
Both the House
and Senate have now taken initial votes boosting the
amount of state funding available for local road and
bridge repairs, but House leaders are concerned that
their counterparts left untouched a package of tax and
fee increases that could help cover the extra $100
million per year.
The Senate
approved legislation Thursday directing $300 million to
the Chapter 90 maintenance program and creating a new
MBTA Board of Directors, but top Senate Democrats opted
to pull those two narrow topics out of larger bills the
House approved three months ago and have not indicated a
plan for addressing the broader transportation revenue
or borrowing questions.
With the
country in the depths of a recession and the state
facing a grim economic outlook and wondering how to
balance a budget with revenues falling, House Speaker
Robert DeLeo and one of his top deputies on Friday
questioned how they could afford to increase
transportation spending without a related revenue
injection.
"We did a bill
in March, obviously, and we increased Chapter 90 at that
point in time, but we had a way to pay for it," said
Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, chair of the House Ways and Means
Committee. "We had mechanisms to pay for it.
We're in the midst of dealing with potentially $6 to $8
billion dollars in a shortfall of revenue for (fiscal
year) 2021, so it's a little perplexing to figure out
how we're going to be doing that and raising Chapter 90
without using the revenue sources that have been put out
there by the House."
"Times have
changed," Michlewitz added, and "the Chapter 90
discussion should have changed as well."
In March, the
House approved a range of tax and fee increases,
including a 5-cent hike to the state's gasoline tax and
a 9-cent increase to the diesel tax, that bill authors
estimated could bring in more than half a billion
dollars per year....
In April,
Senate President Karen Spilka said she is "not certain
that now is the time to be talking about taxes." ...
Asked if the
state could afford the $300 million allocation without
new revenues, Spilka said, "I think we're able to do
it."
State House
News Service
Friday, June 12, 2020
House: Senate Failed to Fund $300 Mil Road Bill
Speaker DeLeo: "We Took the Tough Vote"
House Speaker
Robert DeLeo plans to create an "omnibus" piece of
legislation before Aug. 1 that's likely to address
policing and other equity issues, he said Wednesday as
Gov. Charlie Baker made it clear he does not support
defunding police budgets.
Speaking to
reporters hours before meeting virtually with the
Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus
Wednesday, DeLeo described the potential legislation
that he pledged to develop on Friday when he said the
House would take "decisive action" against structural
racism. The caucus outlined a 10-point plan last week
addressing police brutality and structural racism that
DeLeo said is an important starting point for
discussions.
"There's no
pre-arranged agenda so to speak. But I think a lot of
the items probably which are part of the 10-point plan
will probably be the subject of discussion," he said.
"Can we do a better job in terms of the economy, in
terms of making sure that you know, minorities are
better represented, have more opportunity for economic
advancement?" ...
Later
Wednesday, Senate President Karen Spilka announced the
creation of a Senate advisory group on racial justice
chaired by Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, a member of the Black
and Latino Legislative Caucus, and Sen. William
Brownsberger. The group, which is tasked with reviewing
existing legislation and recommending further policies
to address systemic racism, met for the first time
Wednesday, Spilka said.
"I believe we
have reached a history-making moment in our Commonwealth
and that it should not pass without taking action on
policing and racial justice this session," the Ashland
Democrat said in a statement in which she described
herself as "the driving force" behind the promised
action.
After swearing
in two new representatives, Carol Doherty and Dan Sena,
Gov. Charlie Baker said Wednesday that he has been
working with the House and Senate, but said he does not
support defunding the police, the phrase attached to a
movement to redirect public funds assigned to police to
other areas of government to benefit minority
communities.
"I am
reasonably optimistic that they'll do something at some
point that relates to state and local government, but I
don't believe in slogans as a general rule, and I
certainly don't support the whole concept that we should
get out of the business of providing public safety to
our communities," he said. "I don't support defunding
the police."
State House
News Service
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
DeLeo, Spilka Attach Immediacy to Policing, Justice Bill
Baker: "I Don't Support Defunding the Police"
People with
coronavirus but no symptoms infecting others is "very
rare", a World Health Organization scientist has said.
Although a
proportion of people test positive with no symptoms, it
is believed these infections are mostly not passed on.
But people can
pass on the disease just before symptoms develop.
The evidence
comes from countries that carry out "detailed contact
tracing", Dr Maria Van Kerkhove said....
Dr Van
Kerkhove, the WHO's head of emerging diseases ... said
the weight of evidence suggested people who never
develop symptoms do not play a significant role in
passing on the virus, the WHO said.
And WHO
guidance on wearing masks published at the weekend,
says. "The available evidence from contact tracing
reported by member states suggests that
asymptomatically-infected individuals are much less
likely to transmit the virus than those who develop
symptoms."
BBC
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Asymptomatic coronavirus transmission 'very rare'
Dr. Anthony
Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious-disease
expert, says the World Health Organization had to
backtrack on its statement about asymptomatic spread of
the coronavirus being rare because that simply “was not
correct.”
WHO’s
technical lead on the pandemic has tried to clear up
“misunderstandings” about comments she made that were
widely understood to suggest that people without
COVID-19 symptoms rarely transmit the virus. Maria
Van Kerkhove insisted Tuesday that she was referring
only to a few studies, not a complete picture....
Fauci said on
ABC’s “Good Morning America”: “What happened the
other day is that a member of the WHO was saying that
transmission from an asymptomatic person to an
uninfected person was very rare.”
Associated
Press
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
Dr. Anthony Fauci: W.H.O. “was not correct”
Looking to
grab a drink at your favorite watering hole? Unless it
provides seated food service, you'll have to wait until
Phase 4 after administration officials delayed the
reopening timeline for bars....
It is unclear
when the change was made....
A Housing and
Economic Development spokesman said the list of
businesses and activities is subject to revision based
on the latest public health data and the issuance of
sector-specific guidelines. As of Monday afternoon, a
downloadable copy of the reopening plan on the state's
website still lists bars under Phase 3. An FAQ page on
the same website categorizes bars under Phase 4.
State House
News Service
Monday, June 8, 2020
Bars Quietly Moved To Last Phase of Reopening
For bars
without seated food service in Massachusetts, the path
towards reopening includes a difficult challenge:
figuring out a risk-free framework for operating during
the COVID-19 era.
"The big issue
with respect to bars is coming up with a model that we
believe can actually be done safely," Gov. Charlie Baker
said at a Tuesday press conference. "And as we've seen
in a number of other places around the country that have
moved forward very aggressively, they've started to see
a pretty significant rise in new cases, and we're going
to work very hard to make sure that doesn't happen here
in Massachusetts."
Bars were
originally categorized in Phase 3 of the governor's
reopening plan, which could begin later this month, but
the administration moved those without food licenses
into Phase 4 after officials determined that if they do
not provide seated food service, they are more similar
to nightclubs. Dance clubs and nightclubs cannot resume
operations until Phase 4, which the administration has
said will require a vaccine or effective treatment for
COVID-19.
It is unclear
when this change occurred.
State House
News Service
Tuesday, June 9, 2020
Food Factor Critical as Bars Look to Future
Charlie Baker
— it’s time you apologized to the state of Maskachusetts.
You have
totally blown it with your hysterical overreaction to a
crisis that was largely of your own creation.
Just admit it
— you panicked when you realized all those nursing-home
deaths were going to be on you, and in a pathetic
attempt to change the subject, you needlessly shut down
the entire state.
And now, like
the buck-passing bureaucrat that you are, you have no
idea how to climb out of this hole that you’ve dug for
yourself and 6.7 million innocent citizens.
Enough with
these phased-in phase-ins (for everybody except looters
and lieutenant governors). Open it up! You’ve won the
bet.
Let
Maskachusetts be Massachusetts again.
The Boston
Herald
Monday, June 8, 2020
Charlie Baker can’t admit he blew it
By Howie Carr
With the
Senate getting fully on board this week, both branches
are now set up to hold formal sessions with members
participating remotely. Now it's time for Democratic
legislative leaders to agree on an agenda they can
deliver before the scheduled July 31 end of formal
sessions, which is just 49 days away.
Lawmakers
appear poised to make a run at agreeing on bills dealing
with transportation spending, policing and justice
reforms, and COVID-19 bills dealing with voting access
and relief to the struggling restaurant industry. The
police reform bill is just taking shape and the House is
waiting to see if the Senate will join it in raising new
revenues for transportation or passing a multi-year
transportation bond bill....
Agreeing on a
fiscal 2021 budget by July 1 is now out the window and
reaching an accord by July 31 is shaping up as a
significant challenge as well, unless the House and
Senate reach some kind of unconventional agreement.
Tackling other
big issues, like climate change for instance, is also a
question mark since the demands raised by the virus will
continue to warrant responses. Most notably, lawmakers
face record numbers of unemployed residents whose
immediate futures may be riding on the ability to access
extended unemployment benefits if they can't return to
their old jobs or find new ones....
The House
passed two major bills in March, right before
Massachusetts entered a state of emergency, proposing
more than half a billion dollars of tax and fee
increases to support transportation and authorizing $18
billion in borrowing for transportation projects. Senate
leaders, however, still have not outlined a plan for
dealing with most of those proposals.
The Senate
this week approved legislation allocating $300 million
to road and bridge repairs and creating a new MBTA Board
of Directors -- two of the most time-sensitive issues
included in the larger House packages....
In separating
out the roadway funding from the House's tax package,
the Senate also endorsed spending $100 million more on
the program than previous years without also approving
new revenue sources....
The budget
will not be done on time this year. House budget chief
Aaron Michlewitz told the News Service Friday that
leaders are looking at a one-month budget to cover the
start of the new cycle in July.
"We're
probably looking at a one-twelfth at least for the first
month of fiscal '21, and then I think we'll try to
proceed and see where we can go from there," the North
End Democrat said. "It's still a little too early to
determine exactly how that's going to proceed. But
everything's on the table, as it needs to be, in this
unprecedented time. And certainly a budget process being
unique as it is, we'll have to have unique solutions to
that process as well."
One question
hanging over Beacon Hill is whether to extend formal
sessions past July 31 to consider bills, including the
budget, later in the year, when lawmakers will also be
involved in re-election campaigns....
"We started
off at four billion, we went to six billion, now we're
talking seven billion," [House Speaker Robert] DeLeo
said Friday of the projected fiscal 2021 revenue
shortfall.
State House
News Service
Friday, June 12, 2020
Advances - Week of June 14, 2020 |
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
Two more reports calling
for tax hikes emerged this week, the first on Monday
followed by another on Tuesday. A concerted push
is on to hike the income tax back up to 6 percent, among
other tax hike schemes, orchestrated by a cabal of
"economists."
Excerpts from the first:
Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University
Creative Ways for Massachusetts to Provide Economic Aid
A
temporary income tax increase
Perhaps the most straightforward way to fund economic
aid — or to avoid cuts to vital programs — is to
temporarily increase the state’s income tax.
With this approach you can raise substantial funds in a
very precise way, without needing to design a new
program or setup a new collection system. However,
because the state has a flat income tax, where everybody
pays the same rate, many small business owners and
middle-class families would be affected by an increase
(whereas, with an excess profits tax or voluntary
payments to a Covid recovery fund, there would be a
cleaner distinction between those who can afford to pay
and those who need support).
One
way around this is to pair a temporary income tax
increase with some kind of family rebate, where a
large portion of the money goes right back to workers
and middle-class taxpayers in the form of a stimulus
check. Then, the combined impact of the tax
increase and rebate would be more progressive, chiefly
affecting residents whose incomes have remained elevated
despite the recession.
To
maximize the impact for FY 2021, Massachusetts could
also combine a multiyear income tax increase with a
one-time revenue bond. In that scenario, the state
would get a bigger infusion of dollars in FY 2021, while
the cost to taxpayers would be spread over a longer time
frame.
As
surety that the tax increase would be temporary, it
could be proposed as a way to stabilize the budget until
2022, when voters will likely have the choice to
introduce a millionaires tax.
READ /
DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT
Who wrote
and produced this report at Tufts University Center for
State Policy Analysis?
●
Thomas Downes, Associate
Professor, Department of Economics, Tufts University
●
Jay Gonzalez, Partner, Public Finance
Practice, Hinckley Allen
●
Michael Widmer, Advisory Council
Member, Center for State Policy Analysis
●
Michael Goodman, Professor of Public
Policy, Executive Director of the Public Policy Center, UMass
Dartmouth
Jay Gonzalez was Secretary of
Administration and Finance from 2009-13 under Gov. Deval Patrick.
He was also the Democrat Party's 2018 nominee for governor who ran
against Charlie Baker. He was defeated by a margin of
two-to-one.
Michael Widmer was the president
of Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation since 1992, retired in 2014
from a base salary of $330,000. Before joining MTF, Widmer
worked for Cabot Corporation (1979-1990) as director of public
affairs and vice president for human resources. In the 1970s,
Widmer was a special assistant in Gov. Frank Sargent's
administration. Widmer also worked as director of
communications and deputy chief secretary for former Gov. Michael
Dukakis during his first term.
You might recall CLT's decades-long
crusade to expose what used to be regularly termed "the highly
respected" Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation
— until the media finally changed and
adopted our more honest description: The "business-backed"
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. MTF has never had the
interests of average taxpayers as part of its mission
— only those of the highest-rolling
corporations. It opposed CLT's Proposition 2½,
it opposed CLT's income tax rollback, it opposed rolling back the
sales tax hike. It opposed every tax cut proposal for ordinary
working taxpayers. That's why CLT created:
So-Called
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation:
The Fat-Cats' Trojan Horse
Michael Goodman, an "economic
sociologist" at UMass-Dartmouth, is the director
of its new
Public Policy Center. Goodman served for
the previous five years as Associate Professor and Chair of the
UMass-Dartmouth's former Department of Public Policy.
Goodman is Co-Editor of MassBenchmarks, published by the
University of Massachusetts in collaboration with the Federal
Reserve Bank of Boston.
Not by coincidence, MassBenchmarks
"editors" released their own report and recommendations the next
day:
"Creative Ways for
Massachusetts to Provide Economic Aid;
Creative Approaches to Stabilizing the Budget"
Q2 shaping up to be the worst in the recorded history of the
Commonwealth,
declares MassBenchmarks Editorial Board
Policymakers urged to take action to avoid counterproductive state
and local spending cuts
. . . As
policymakers consider ways to balance the state budget,
MassBenchmarks said it is as important as ever to heed the
Hippocratic command to "first, do no harm." The group
urged legislators to "avoid counterproductive state and local
spending cuts" and to consider temporarily raising some state
tax rates.
Note the quiet disclaimer in
the MassBenchmarks report:
Disclaimer:
MassBenchmarks is published by the University of Massachusetts
Donahue Institute in cooperation with the Federal Reserve Bank
of Boston. The views expressed are not necessarily those
of the University of Massachusetts or the Federal Reserve Bank
of Boston.
I expect "the views expressed"
are primarily if not solely those of economic
sociologist Michael Goodman —
period.
READ MASSBENCHMARKS REPORT
All three of the recent reports
recommending tax hikes have a common denominator
— the imprimatur of
UMass-Dartmouth's Michael Goodman —
along with a growing list of the usual suspects always seeking to
tax average taxpayers more to protect, perpetuate, and justify their
own generous sinecures.
Add these two latest calls for hiking
taxes "temporarily" to the previous one
released on May 26 by the "91 economists"
— or as I prefer to call them (my apology to the Arabian
Nights folk tale "Ali
Baba and his 40 Thieves") —
Jonathan Gruber and his 90 Thieves, and a certain coordination
emerges.
This incestuous singleness of purpose
among the elite "economists" brings to mind the old "Vault" of
Boston lore and its derivative, the Massachusetts Competitive
Partnership, aka, the "New Vault." On February 28, 2010 Boston
Globe business reporter Steven Syre wrote ("14
CEOs unite to make business heard"):
. . . While
[construction magnate John Fish] said the Partnership is not a
reprise of the Vault, there are similarities. Formally
known as the Coordinating Committee, the Vault consisted of 25
business leaders from downtown Boston who operated secretively
and wielded great influence over public affairs through its
policy positions and behind-the-scenes advocacy. After
John Collins was elected Boston mayor in 1960, the Vault
persuaded him to hire urban planner Ed Logue, who ushered in the
modern building era in the city’s downtown.
So named
because its members met in the basement vault of the Boston
Safe Deposit & Trust Co., the Vault diminished in power over
the years and disbanded in 1997.
“The Vault
wanted to rescue the city from its deteriorating future and,
despite its undemocratic nature, it did a lot of good for
Boston,’’ said Jeffrey Berry, a political science professor at
Tufts University. . . .
The Boston Globe's business
writer, Jon Chesto later wrote in January of 2016 of the old
and new "Vault" in his report "Powerful
business group keeps low profile in Boston":
They meet in secret
several times a year, in a nondescript conference room 13
stories above the din of Boylston Street.
The cost
of a seat at the table? $100,000 annually.
But the steep
membership fee isn’t what makes this club so exclusive. To
join, you also need to run — or have run — one of the biggest
companies in the state.
The
Massachusetts Competitive Partnership is the state’s most
powerful business group, a who’s who of Greater Boston’s
corporate elite, with top executives from Fidelity, Bank of
America, Vertex, and the Patriots, among others.
The
partnership’s hallmark is its privacy. Most people have no
idea it even exists. The group usually steers clear of the
news. Its 15 members — all but one of them white males —
don’t hold the networking breakfasts or rubber-chicken dinners
that are the staples of Boston’s other business associations.
It has
regularly been dubbed “the New Vault,” a nod to the now-defunct
crew of chief executives who plotted Boston’s future a
generation ago, a storied group whose cast of characters were so
powerful that they were considered a shadow government at one
point.
Like the
Vault, the Partnership has used its influence to sway major
policy decisions. . . .
Mike Widmer,
the retired Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation president, said
the partnership, like other business groups, faces a broad
challenge: Can it remain relevant with the shifts underway
in the local economy and the shrinking number of local
headquarters, as exemplified by Dell’s pending acquisition of
EMC?
Some say the
region has changed too much for any group to hold the same sway
over the economy. The Boston of today is not the same as
the Vault’s Boston. The challenges are more complicated,
and the competition for everything from talent to market share
is more global than it has ever been.
In
my
commentary for the CLT Update of April 12 ("Never let a
crisis to go waste") I wrote:
Keller asked rhetorically, "Could a
resurgent economy amid public gratitude for state and
local government’s handling of the crisis clear the way
for a Prop 2½ takedown?"
I expect that question will be
broadened in the weeks and months ahead: Could a
resurgent economy amid public gratitude for state and
local government’s handling of the crisis clear the way
for all sorts of tax increases?
I won't be surprised if a
complacent, historically-challenged, and relieved public
buys a promise that any and all tax hikes will be "only
temporary, just to get us back on track after this
crisis."
Crises by definition are
temporary. Taxes never are.
We taxpayers and taxpayer advocates
know all too well, have learned that bitter lesson the
hard way: Any and all tax hikes inevitably mutate
into forever. . . .
After CLT's
two separate, onerous, and expensive statewide
petition signature drives (1997-98 then again in 1999)
and a successful state ballot campaign in 2000; after
the Legislature then freezing our rollback of that
"temporary" income tax hike in 2002, replacing it with
its own "economic triggers" — the income tax was
finally returned to its historic rate of 5 percent
just this year — THIRTY YEARS after the
promise of a "temporary, only 18-months, trust us, we
promise!" tax hike.
Understandably, we won't be buying any more
"temporary" tax hike deceptions.
As we predicted, the next
"TEMPORARY" income tax hike scam has arrived with a
vengeance.
This cabal of self-serving economist
shills pushing it while living well off taxpayer-funded institutions
are shallow, tiresome, and — very
predictable.
For once I actually have
empathy for the dazed and confused Legislature, hobbled by
Gov. Baker's draconian lockdown orders, trying to re-invent
state government to function with few legislators physically
present at the State House. It's a work in progress
slowly gaining some traction. The Senate finally found
its footing toward operating remotely, following the House's
lead a month
ago. Meanwhile important must-pass legislation and
responsibilities, such as the next state budget due by the
end of this month, among other once-important policy
considerations, continue to pile up as the July 31 deadline
closes in when formal sessions are scheduled to end
— and more new legislation is
being piled on. More chaotic are the differing
versions of proposed legislation among the House and Senate
that need to be reconciled before passing
— with limited or no debate.
Just as the state and nation
began to see a little light at the end of the Wuhan Chinese
Pandemic and its three-months-and-counting lockdown, as the
economy appears to have bottomed out and begun to reopen
ever so cautiously, along came the next crippling crisis:
Protests, riots, and stunning anarchy over a single horrific
case of indisputable police brutality. One has to
wonder what's coming next, when and if the populace recovers
from this latest societal aberration.
The pandemic has lost much of its
gravitas; the 24/7 media cycle's attention has been transferred to
the hordes burning down cities while protesting "systematic police
brutality." Like throwing a switch "social distancing"
directives were abruptly sidetracked, ignored when thousands
protested and rioted cheek-to-jowl in cities across the nation and
the world. You could be harassed for going to church, but it's
now open season for mobs burning them down. Go figure.
On Tuesday we were informed:
People with coronavirus but no
symptoms infecting others is "very rare", a World Health
Organization scientist has said.
Although a proportion of people
test positive with no symptoms, it is believed these
infections are mostly not passed on.
The very next day that good
news was quickly yanked back:
Dr. Anthony Fauci,
the U.S. government’s top infectious-disease expert, says the
World Health Organization had to backtrack on its statement
about asymptomatic spread of the coronavirus being rare because
that simply “was not correct.”
"Not correct," or it shattered
the narrative? Make of that immediate reversal what
you will.
The mob demands "defunding" the
police, if not outright abolishing all law enforcement.
Cowardly politicians assume the fetal position and run for
the path of least resistance, bowing obsequiously to the
mob.
I came across a moving alternative
perspective from a member of the besieged "thin blue line," Major
Travis Yates of the Tulsa, Oklahoma police department. He
wrote in "America,
We Are Leaving":
. . . I used to
talk cops out of leaving the job. Now I’m encouraging them.
It’s over
America. You finally did it.
You aren’t
going to have to abolish the police, we won’t be around for
it.
And while
I know, most Americans still appreciate us, it’s not enough
and the risk is too high. Those of you that say thank you or
buy the occasional meal, it means everything.
But those
of you that were silent while the slow turning of the knives
in our backs happened by thugs and cowards, this is on you.
Your
belief in hashtags and memes over the truth has and will
create an environment in your community that you will never
expect.
If you
think Minneapolis will turn into Mogadishu and that is far
from you, it’s coming.
And when
it does, remember what your complicity did.
This is
the America that you made.
Let's hope this never comes,
that cooler heads prevail among our elected representatives.
If the chaos does arrive on our doorsteps and calling 9-1-1
becomes futile, then we'd all better be prepared to defend
ourselves and our families.
The State House News Service
reported on Monday:
Bars
were originally slated to open in Phase 3 of Gov.
Charlie Baker's restart plan but were moved to Phase 4
after administration officials determined that if they
do not provide seated food service, they are more akin
to nightclubs. Dance clubs and nightclubs aren't
allowed to resume operations until Phase 4, which the
administration has said will require a vaccine or
effective treatment for COVID-19.
It is
unclear when the change was made.
In last week's CLT Update
("Chaos, Confusion, Autocracy and Hypocrisy Reign") in
my
commentary I wrote:
Baker
yesterday decreed that his subjects of Massachusetts may
now enter "Phase 2" starting tomorrow — but added a new
royal caveat: His Royal Majesty has abruptly broken his
"Phase 2 — Cautious" expectation into two new parts:
"Phase 2A" and "Phase 2B" ("More Cautious" and "Less
Cautious" I guess?) further extending his absolute power
and autocratic rule. His second grant of restricted
additional freedom to his subjects, apparently "Phase
2B," is scheduled to start at "a point determined based
on continued improvements in public health metrics."
Why
are each of his triggers so amorphous, so vague and
indefinable, so secretive and decreed apparently on a
whim at a time of his choosing? Will His Royal
Excellency order a Phase 2C next, followed by Phase 2D .
. . ? Will we ever reach Phase 3 ("Vigilant — June 29
at the earliest")? Why do I even need to ask such a
once-absurd question?
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