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Post Office Box 1147
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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, July 5, 2020
The Week of Independence Day
Jump directly
to CLT's Commentary on the News
Most Relevant News Excerpts
(Full news reports follow
Commentary)
|
Massachusetts will
move into the third phase of its gradual plan to revive
public activity in most of the state on Monday, allowing
gyms, museums, movie theaters and more to resume some
operations even as COVID cases surge in other parts of the
country....
Citing positive
trends in public health data, Gov. Charlie Baker said
Thursday that he is confident the state can loosen
restrictions without prompting an infection rebound because
bars and nightclubs will remain closed and because residents
and businesses continue to abide by safety precautions....
Phase 3 will
consist of two smaller steps, though administration
officials have not yet announced when the second portion
will start. The loosened restrictions in the first step will
take effect in Boston on July 13, one week after every other
community in Massachusetts.
Under the first
step, movie theaters, museums, fitness centers and some
indoor recreation facilities that have all been closed since
mid-March will be allowed to reopen so long as they follow
industry-specific protocols....
Phase 3 will last
longer than the other phases, and Baker reiterated Thursday
that the fourth and final section will not begin until
treatment or a vaccine for COVID-19 is available....
Business groups
reacted to the announcement with mixed feelings, with the
National Federation of Independent Business of Massachusetts
saying the good news comes amid "many shops and restaurants
closing their doors permanently."
The right-leaning
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, which has been one of Baker's
most vocal critics during the state of emergency, said the
next stage of reopening "is the best gift Massachusetts
taxpayers can give our country on its Birthday."
"With over 100
days being locked down, and Phase 3 beginning on Monday, the
Governor is finally putting his faith in the people of
Massachusetts to make the best decisions for themselves,"
MFA spokesman Paul Craney said in a press release. "Every
day that goes by, it's clearer that this lockdown is
yesterday's news and it should never happen again."
State House News
Service
Tuesday, July 2, 2020
Mass. Barrels Ahead With Next Phase of Reopening
Vigilance Urged as Gyms, Museums, Theaters Set to Reopen
It turns out no
matter how they choose to cast their ballot, voters will
only have to render a verdict on two initiative petitions --
whether to allow ranked-choice voting and if independent
auto mechanics should have all-access passes to a car's
digital data. Cumberland Farms last Friday night said it was
dropping its push to allow more food stores to sell beer and
wine, and this week organizers behind a ballot initiative to
force more spending on nursing homes abandoned their
initiative.
While Cumberland
Farms blamed the pandemic and the need it created for the
company to focus on the health and safety of its workers,
climate activists this week made a hard sell for why
policymakers should not let the response to COVID-19 become
all-consuming....
The rapidly
closing window for legislative action this session was noted
by more than just climate advocates.
Thirty-seven House
progressives wrote to Senate President Karen Spilka urging
her to let the Senate vote on the House's tax bill to raise
money to improve the state's transportation system. The
liberal Democrats said Spilka's reluctance to put that bill
on the floor or offer an alternative was not just depriving
public transit of needed funding, but undercutting any case
progressives might try to make for raising additional tax
money to stave off budget cuts due to the pandemic.
The full impact
from the coronavirus on the state budget is still a major
question mark, and the new fiscal year - FY 2021 - began on
Wednesday without even the whisper of a spending plan
forthcoming from the Legislature.
Treasurer Deborah
Goldberg tapped into a line of credit for $500 million to
make sure the state has enough cash on hand to continue
covering its expenses as another month of local aid payments
went out the door and budget writers waited for uncertain
federal relief and the postponed July 15 tax filing deadline
to arrive.
In the meantime,
the House and Senate sent Gov. Baker legislation to extend
the MBTA's Fiscal and Management Control Board for another
year and to authorize $200 million in borrowing for local
road repairs....
The Senate also
passed a $1.1 billion COVID-19 relief bill and $1.7 billion
bond bill for information technology upgrades, including
funding to support schools with remote learning.
Final versions of
those bills must now be negotiated with the House.
State House News
Service
Friday, July 3, 2020
Weekly Roundup - Independent, But Not (Virus) Free
Beacon Hill
lawmakers have finalized a bill expanding voting access
during this year's elections and are working toward
agreements on a major information technology spending bill
and outlays to address COVID-19 response efforts. But with
four weeks left until formal sessions are scheduled to end
for 2020, the overdue fiscal 2021 budget hasn't even begun
to take shape, nor has a promised bill dealing with policing
reforms and social justice.
There are also big
questions about whether Democrats can agree on major
transportation, health care and climate change bills that
had appeared destined for passage this year before the
COVID-19 pandemic struck in mid-March. As the Pew Charitable
Trusts put it this week, the wide-ranging agendas offered in
states earlier this year based on economic stability "are
now in a deep freeze, overtaken by the COVID-19 pandemic and
ensuing state fiscal and economic collapse."
State House News
Service
Friday, July 3, 2020
Advances - Week of July 5, 2020
In a wide-ranging
interview on the CommonWealth Codcast, Senate President
Karen Spilka kept returning to the theme of substance over
process when it comes to legislation dealing with the
state’s many pressing needs.
She applauded the
House, Senate, and governor’s office for working
collaboratively on a budget for the coming fiscal year
rather than following the traditional path of each branch of
government doing their own spending plan.
“Unprecedented
times require unprecedented solutions,” she said. “We need
to work together for the people of Massachusetts.” ...
She says the
Senate will pass an $18 billion transportation bond bill by
the end of July but offered no assurances on whether the
Senate will act on a transportation revenue package passed
pre-COVID by the House. “We shouldn’t be taking votes just
because another branch has taken a vote. We need to look at
all the facts and circumstances before us,” she said. “It’s
more than an easy yes or no answer. But no decision has been
made yet.” ...
Spilka, who is an
attorney, didn’t want to weigh in on the debate about
whether the governor is on solid legal ground in relying on
the 1950 Civil Defense Act for the legal authority to issue
all of his COVID-19 emergency orders.
CommonWealth
Magazine
Monday, June 29, 2020
Spilka makes case for substance over process
Prominent
environmental organizations and activists have spent recent
months seeking to shoehorn talk of climate change into
discussions about current events. The Washington Post, for
example, published a June 29 article trying to make a
connection between race relations and climate change. On
June 30 Al Gore had an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal
arguing that the aftermath of the current downturn is an
opportune time for environmentalists to advance their
agenda.
Yet all of this
talk and rhetoric from activists follows recent action in
numerous state capitals featuring bipartisan opposition to
progressive proposals to impose Green New Deal-style
emissions caps and carbon pricing. The crux of the recent
pushback against two regional cap and trade proposals is not
due to any bugs, but rather the plans’ feature, which is
that they’re designed to inflate the cost of energy in some
of the most populous states in the country, and at a time
when many households and employers can ill-afford the added
cost....
TCI
[Transportation Climate Initiative], whose push has been led
by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s administration,
has run into possibly deal-breaking resistance since more
details about the plan were released last December. That
resistance started with New Hampshire Governor Chris
Sununu’s immediate announcement that he would not subject
his constituents to TCI and the inflationary impact it would
have on gas prices....
Other blue state
governors and lawmakers have since followed Governor Sununu
in either rejecting or refusing to support TCI. The cold
reception for this new cap and trade scheme has prompted
Governor Baker’s team to consider back up plans, such as
trying to link up with California or Canada as part of a
non-contiguous regional cap & trade scheme....
While even
Democrats and progressives in northeastern and New England
states are rejecting energy cost-increasing cap and trade
schemes and carbon taxes in the middle of a recession,
others are instead claiming that low oil prices are an
excuse to raise state gas taxes, or to impose a carbon tax
that will drive up the price of gas.
“Imposing a carbon
tax that would generate revenue sufficient to pay for the
pandemic relief bill while energy prices are historically
low would constitute a profound act of governing,” writes
Ike Brannon, a senior fellow at the Jack Kemp Foundation.
“Low global oil
prices provide an opportunity to increase carbon taxes
without hurting consumers,” the United Kingdom’s
state-appointed climate commission wrote in a recent letter
to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, echoing Brannon....
Carbon tax
supporters like to talk about building “momentum,” despite a
lack of legislative or electoral victories. Meanwhile the
cap & trade schemes currently pending on the east coast,
which have the same emissions-reducing goals and energy
cost-inflating effect as a carbon tax, are running into
bipartisan resistance. Amid a recession that has lowered
tolerance for tax hikes, particularly regressive levies like
a carbon tax, don’t expect carbon tax or cap & trade
supporters to get anything passed in 2020.
Forbes Magazine
Thursday, July 1, 2020
Pushback Against Two Cap & Trade Programs
Follows Electoral Rejection Of Carbon Taxes
The COVID-19
pandemic has created a host of problems for public education
in Massachusetts, the weathering of which will require
flexibility, compromise, and a recognition that we are all
in this together. And indeed, across the Commonwealth,
thousands of students, teachers, and parents have risen to
the occasion, adjusting to the unprecedented new demands the
outbreak has created for all of us.
Unfortunately,
that spirit is not what we’re currently seeing from the
heads of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the state’s
largest teachers union. Instead, the union leadership has
issued a long list of directives it says should be
preconditions if teachers are to return to school in the
fall.
MTA President
Merrie Najimy maintains the union is simply supporting its
local affiliates with their school-reopening negotiations,
but if MTA teachers refuse to return to work until those
demands are met, that would be a havoc-creating standoff
akin to a teachers strike.
So let’s look at
what the MTA wants. One demand: An assurance that public
schools will be safe for educators, students, and families,
with special consideration for teachers and students with
compromised immune systems. That’s certainly an appropriate
pandemic concern.
But not this
directive/demand: the permanent elimination of the
Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exams....
Still, the MTA
remains intractably opposed to the test. The union has many
reasons for its opposition to the MCAS, but one unstated
reason certainly is the school accountability it has helped
bring about. Indeed, it’s not just individual students who
are assessed with the MCAS. Schools whose students
chronically underperform on the exams can be subject to
state interventions, which may include altering union
contracts as deemed necessary to improve education....
So why does nixing
the MCAS qualify as a pandemic concern?
“You have to think
about the impact of the pandemic on learning at this
moment,” says Najimy, asserting that the need for social
distancing will render it impossible to cover the curriculum
the MCAS tests in the next school year. That remains to be
seen, but: Why should those short-term concerns prompt a
permanent elimination of the test? The MTA president
maintains that MCAS “just measures socioeconomics and race”
and that ending it is necessary to rid the schools of
structural racism.
Those are weak and
unconvincing arguments....
Let’s call this
MTA demand what it is: a transparent effort to use the
pandemic to achieve a self-interested goal the union hasn’t
otherwise been able to accomplish....
As policy makers
and stakeholders grapple with these very difficult times,
the MTA leadership needs to recognize that a
once-in-a-century pandemic calls for compromise and
cooperation — not line-in-the-sand demands.
The Boston Globe
Sunday, June 28, 2020
A Boston Globe editorial
The Massachusetts Teachers Association tries to exploit a
crisis
Who needs a budget
to have a budget battle?
Raise Up
Massachusetts sure doesn’t want to wait.
The coalition of
labor and community groups just sent a letter to the state
Senate calling for new corporate and investment taxes. The
goal: to provide enough money for crucial social services in
the new fiscal year that began Wednesday....
No one knows how
bad the budget will be in the new fiscal year. But everyone
agrees it won’t be pretty. The business-backed Massachusetts
Taxpayers Foundation estimates the revenue shortfall could
be as much as $6 billion — nearly 20 percent less than what
state leaders initially expected.
Raise Up offers up
one set of solutions in its new letter — changes that are
sure to get pushback from the business community. Increase
the state corporate tax back up to 9.5 percent, where it sat
before 2009, from the current level of 8 percent.
Significantly increase a state tax on overseas profits
(nicknamed “GILTI”). And raise the tax rate for “unearned
income,” aka investment income from capital gains and
dividends.
No budget? No
problem. Raise Up suggests the Senate tack these changes on
to a transportation financing bill that the House sent over
in March. That bill already includes increases in the gas
tax, Uber and Lyft fees, and the minimum corporate tax.
(Raise Up’s progressive allies in the House also just sent a
letter to the Senate, urging it to take up the House
transportation bill because of the budget crisis.)
Raise Up spokesman
Steve Crawford knows these tax increases likely won’t solve
all of the state’s fiscal problems; the corporate tax
increase might provide the biggest infusion of the three
proposals, at $450 million to $525 million a year. But it’s
important, he said, to start now....
Legislators here
face a deadline of July 31 to adjourn from formal sessions
for the year. In election years like this one, all
significant bills are supposed to be done by then. While not
impossible, getting the budget done in time for that
deadline seems highly unlikely at this point. Now rumors are
circulating of a possible special session this fall — maybe
after the elections — to clean up the budget mess....
Not only are state
leaders waiting on Washington, [Senator Adam Hinds,
cochairman of the revenue committee] said; they also need to
see the results of a three-month delay in state income tax
collections, since the big April 15 tax day cutoff fell
during the pandemic. The new filing deadline is July 15, so
any answer on that front might not be public until early
August.
And Hinds said his
colleagues also want to see what kind of bump in tax
collections is produced by the recent resumption of business
from the spring shutdowns, particularly from the hard-hit
retail and hospitality sectors.
Answering these
questions will also help lawmakers decide how much should be
drawn from the deep well that is the state’s $3.5 billion
rainy day fund.
Sooner or later,
lawmakers will need to address some of these revenue
questions. But Hinds said he would prefer that this tough
debate only happens once. The timing is not yet right, he
said, not with so much still up in the air.
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
Labor-backed group pushes Beacon Hill for new corporate
taxes
If elected to
Congress, Jesse Mermell would like to implement plans that
increase spending.
But when she had
the opportunity to pay more in taxes at the state level over
the past several years, the Brookline resident and Democrat
who is running to represent Massachusetts’s Fourth
Congressional District chose not to, according to her tax
returns.
Mermell is running
to replace U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III
(D-Newton), who is primarying U.S. Senator Ed Markey in
state’s U.S. Senate race.
Mermell released
five years of her tax returns on June 18, covering 2014 to
2018. The returns revealed that she made more than six
figures each year and paid the standard state income tax
rate — which was 5.2 percent in 2014, 5.15 percent in 2015,
5.1 percent in 2016, 2017, and 2018.
But she could have
paid more. Since state legislators approved it in 2002,
Massachusetts taxpayers have had the option of checking a
box and paying a higher income tax rate than required — 5.85
percent. The extra money gives legislators more to work
with.
The New Boston
Post
Monday, June 29, 2020
Pro-Spending Democrat Seeking Joe Kennedy III’s Seat
Opted Not To Pay Optional Higher Taxes
|
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
One of my pet peeves arises
this time every year when I hear people talking of "The
4th of July." They refer to America's Independence
Day — at least I hope
they know enough to, but with the abysmal ignorance
demonstrated by so many among recent generations of
indoctrinated high school and college grads all bets are
off. Many seem to interchange the two at best.
Nobody would think to say "Merry 25th of December" or
"Happy 1st of January" —
the dates on which Christmas Day and New Year's Day fall
every year. We should never forget the meaning of
the date.
The State House News Service reported on
Tuesday ("Mass. Barrels Ahead With Next Phase of Reopening"):
Massachusetts will move into the third phase of its
gradual plan to revive public activity in most of
the state on Monday, allowing gyms, museums, movie
theaters and more to resume some operations even as
COVID cases surge in other parts of the country....
Citing positive trends in public health data, Gov.
Charlie Baker said Thursday that he is confident the
state can loosen restrictions without prompting an
infection rebound because bars and nightclubs will
remain closed and because residents and businesses
continue to abide by safety precautions....
Phase 3 will consist of two smaller steps, though
administration officials have not yet announced when
the second portion will start. The loosened
restrictions in the first step will take effect in
Boston on July 13, one week after every other
community in Massachusetts.
Under the first step, movie theaters, museums,
fitness centers and some indoor recreation
facilities that have all been closed since mid-March
will be allowed to reopen so long as they follow
industry-specific protocols....
Phase 3 will last longer than the other phases, and
Baker reiterated Thursday that the fourth and final
section will not begin until treatment or a vaccine
for COVID-19 is available....
In last Sunday's CLT Update
("Latest
Scheme to Kill Proposition 2˝")
I included a report by The Committee to Unleash
Prosperity ("The
Blue State Depression"). In part it stated:
Ten states had
unemployment rates in May above 15 percent. They are all
states with Democratic governors, with the exception of Deep Blue
Massachusetts with its liberal Republican governor Charlie Baker.
. . . This is not a coronavirus recession. It is a blue
state lockdown recession. Democrats say they have shut down
their economies for health reasons, but these are also the states
that generally have had the highest death rates and the highest
nursing home fatalities.
Charlie Baker asserted that Phase 3 will last longer
than the other phases, and the fourth and final phase-in
will not begin until treatment or a vaccine for COVID-19
is available.
Remember just a few
months ago when the entire private-sector economy had to be shut down —
we were assured — to "flatten the curve" and prevent hospitals from
being overwhelmed with Wuhan Chinese Pandemic victims? When did
the destructive lockdown expand to "until treatment or a vaccine for
COVID-19 is available"? It's similar to how politicians treat
"temporary" tax hikes — hoping we're either forgetful, stupid,
apathetic, or impotent. Will power-hungry governors ever
relinquish their hijacked authority, without pushback from their captive
"subjects"?
In 1787, at the
conclusion of the constitutional convention held in Philadelphia's
Independence Hall, as Benjamin Franklin was departing Mrs. Powel outside
asked him, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"
Without hesitation
Franklin responded, "A republic, madam, if you can keep it."
On Independence Day
2020 I pray we can.
Forbes Magazine reported on Thursday
("Pushback Against Two Cap & Trade Programs Follows Electoral Rejection
Of Carbon Taxes" by Patrick Gleason):
TCI [Transportation Climate
Initiative], whose push has been led by
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s
administration, has run into possibly
deal-breaking resistance since more details about
the plan were released last December. That
resistance started with New Hampshire Governor Chris
Sununu’s immediate announcement that he would not
subject his constituents to TCI and the inflationary
impact it would have on gas prices....
Other blue state governors and
lawmakers have since followed Governor Sununu in
either rejecting or refusing to support TCI.
The cold reception for this new cap and trade scheme
has prompted Governor Baker’s team to consider back
up plans, such as trying to link up with California
or Canada as part of a non-contiguous regional cap &
trade scheme....
While even Democrats and
progressives in northeastern and New England states
are rejecting energy cost-increasing cap and trade
schemes and carbon taxes in the middle of a
recession, others are instead claiming that low oil
prices are an excuse to raise state gas taxes, or to
impose a carbon tax that will drive up the price of
gas.
In its Weekly Roundup the
State House News Service reported on Friday:
Thirty-seven House
progressives wrote to Senate President Karen Spilka urging her to
let the Senate vote on the House's tax bill to raise money to
improve the state's transportation system. The liberal
Democrats said Spilka's reluctance to put that bill on the floor or
offer an alternative was not just depriving public transit of needed
funding, but undercutting any case progressives might try to make
for raising additional tax money to stave off budget cuts due to the
pandemic.
The state Senate did pass
"a $1.1 billion COVID-19 relief bill and $1.7 billion
bond bill for information technology upgrades, including
funding to support schools with remote learning." It now
must be negotiated with the House.
The News Service further noted in its
Advances for next week:
There are also big
questions about whether Democrats can agree on major transportation,
health care and climate change bills that had appeared destined for
passage this year before the COVID-19 pandemic struck in mid-March.
As the Pew Charitable Trusts put it this week, the wide-ranging
agendas offered in states earlier this year based on economic
stability "are now in a deep freeze, overtaken by the COVID-19
pandemic and ensuing state fiscal and economic collapse."
Remember, His Royal Majesty Charles Baker
has asserted that he doesn't need approval by the Legislature
— or anyone else —
to impose his Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI).
Last Sunday The Boston Globe published an
editorial I never thought I'd ever read in The Globe, or they'd ever
dare write: "The Massachusetts Teachers Association tries to
exploit a crisis."
[T]he
MTA remains intractably opposed to the test.
The union has many reasons for its opposition to the
MCAS, but one unstated reason certainly is the
school accountability it has helped bring about.
Indeed, it’s not just individual students who are
assessed with the MCAS. Schools whose students
chronically underperform on the exams can be subject
to state interventions, which may include altering
union contracts as deemed necessary to improve
education.
So
why does nixing the MCAS qualify as a pandemic
concern?
“You have to think about the impact of the pandemic
on learning at this moment,” says Najimy, asserting
that the need for social distancing will render it
impossible to cover the curriculum the MCAS tests in
the next school year. That remains to be seen,
but: Why should those short-term concerns prompt a
permanent elimination of the test? The MTA
president maintains that MCAS “just measures
socioeconomics and race” and that ending it is
necessary to rid the schools of structural racism.
Those are weak and unconvincing arguments. . . .
Let’s call this MTA demand what it is: a transparent
effort to use the pandemic to achieve a
self-interested goal the union hasn’t otherwise been
able to accomplish. . . .
As
policy makers and stakeholders grapple with these
very difficult times, the MTA leadership needs to
recognize that a once-in-a-century pandemic calls
for compromise and cooperation — not
line-in-the-sand demands.
Back to more of what is expected from The
Globe, it reported on Wednesday ("Labor-backed group pushes Beacon Hill
for new corporate taxes"):
Who needs a budget to have a budget battle?
Raise Up Massachusetts sure doesn’t want to wait.
The coalition of labor and community groups just
sent a letter to the state Senate calling for new
corporate and investment taxes. The goal: to
provide enough money for crucial social services in
the new fiscal year that began Wednesday....
No
budget? No problem. Raise Up suggests
the Senate tack these changes on to a transportation
financing bill that the House sent over in March.
That bill already includes increases in the gas tax,
Uber and Lyft fees, and the minimum corporate tax.
(Raise Up’s progressive allies in the House also
just sent a letter to the Senate, urging it to take
up the House transportation bill because of the
budget crisis.)
Raise Up spokesman Steve Crawford knows these tax
increases likely won’t solve all of the state’s
fiscal problems; the corporate tax increase might
provide the biggest infusion of the three proposals,
at $450 million to $525 million a year. But
it’s important, he said, to start now....
Raise Up Massachusetts;
RUM. Rum is the preferred beverage of pirates
while plundering and pillaging. It seems an appropriate
acronym for The Takers.
The New Boston Post on Monday reported
("Pro-Spending Democrat Seeking Joe Kennedy III’s Seat; Opted Not To Pay
Optional Higher Taxes"):
If
elected to Congress, Jesse Mermell would like to
implement plans that increase spending.
But when she had the opportunity to pay more in
taxes at the state level over the past several
years, the Brookline resident and Democrat who is
running to represent Massachusetts’s Fourth
Congressional District chose not to, according to
her tax returns.
Mermell is running to replace U.S. Representative
Joseph P. Kennedy III (D-Newton), who is primarying
U.S. Senator Ed Markey in state’s U.S. Senate race.
Mermell released five years of her tax returns on
June 18, covering 2014 to 2018. The returns
revealed that she made more than six figures each
year and paid the standard state income tax rate —
which was 5.2 percent in 2014, 5.15 percent in 2015,
5.1 percent in 2016, 2017, and 2018.
But she could have paid more. Since state
legislators approved it in 2002, Massachusetts
taxpayers have had the option of checking a box and
paying a higher income tax rate than required — 5.85
percent. The extra money gives legislators
more to work with.
I contacted New Boston Post
editor Matt McDonald, provided him with the genesis of
"the option of checking a box and paying a higher income
tax rate than required." That would be CLT's
Voluntary Income Tax Check-Off. He wants to follow
up on this history with me in the days ahead:
CLT's Voluntary Income Tax Check-Off
Its history and timeline
I hope, despite the continuing lockdown and
confiscation of our constitutionally-enshrined freedoms, that you
nonetheless enjoyed and celebrated America's Independence Day.
If we fail to remember what we celebrate every July 4th we may well lose
what the American Revolution and those who pledged their "lives,
fortunes, and sacred honor" endowed upon us.
|
 |
 |
|
Chip Ford
Executive Director |
|
|
Full News Reports Follow
(excerpted above)
|
State House
News Service
Tuesday, July 2, 2020
Mass. Barrels Ahead With Next Phase of Reopening
Vigilance Urged as Gyms, Museums, Theaters Set to Reopen
By Chris Lisinski
Massachusetts will move into the third phase of its gradual
plan to revive public activity in most of the state on
Monday, allowing gyms, museums, movie theaters and more to
resume some operations even as COVID cases surge in other
parts of the country.
The Baker administration's decision shifts Massachusetts
toward the leading edge of states on the path to reopening,
pushing forward despite peers pumping the brakes on their
own progress due to concerns about massive outbreaks in the
south and west.
Citing positive trends in public health data, Gov. Charlie
Baker said Thursday that he is confident the state can
loosen restrictions without prompting an infection rebound
because bars and nightclubs will remain closed and because
residents and businesses continue to abide by safety
precautions.
"The success is due in no small part to the vigilance and
dedication that has been shown by the people of
Massachusetts, but we should not and cannot slow down or
step back now," Baker said. "We know that COVID-19 won't be
taking any time off this summer, and we need to maintain
vigilance if we wish to continue to move forward."
Phase 3 will consist of two smaller steps, though
administration officials have not yet announced when the
second portion will start. The loosened restrictions in the
first step will take effect in Boston on July 13, one week
after every other community in Massachusetts.
Under the first step, movie theaters, museums, fitness
centers and some indoor recreation facilities that have all
been closed since mid-March will be allowed to reopen so
long as they follow industry-specific protocols.
Most will face capacity limits and mandatory cleaning
requirements. Indoor and outdoor events such as weddings or
parties will not be allowed to open bars or dance floors.
"Going to the gym may not look the same the way it did
before the pandemic, but we hope these new protocols will
allow more residents to return to exercise and fitness and
get back into those routines that they were accustomed to,"
Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said at a press conference alongside
Baker and other cabinet officials.
The administration will also update restrictions on
gatherings to allow more people to congregate, starting
Monday statewide and July 13 in Boston.
Indoor gatherings will be capped at eight people per 1,000
square feet with a maximum of 25, while outdoor enclosed
gatherings will be limited to 25 percent of permitted
capacity with a maximum of 100. Caps do not apply to
unenclosed outdoor events, such as backyard parties or park
visits.
Baker said the next step along the path toward the new
normal will bring back "some bigger players that will
certainly draw more people into indoor settings," where
public health experts say the risk of COVID transmission is
far greater than outdoors. That underlines the importance of
individual caution, he said.
Phase 3 will last longer than the other phases, and Baker
reiterated Thursday that the fourth and final section will
not begin until treatment or a vaccine for COVID-19 is
available.
Professional sports teams will be permitted to host games
without spectators in Massachusetts as part of Phase 3,
though Baker said he is "not prepared to sign off" on any
plans to bring fans back.
Health care providers will also face a changed landscape in
the next phase. Some group treatment programs and day
programs that had not been allowed for months can resume,
such as community-based day services for adults with
intellectual and cognitive disabilities and substance abuse
services.
MassHealth telehealth service will continue through the end
of 2020, Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders
said Thursday, and the administration continues to encourage
remote medical appointments "whenever feasible."
State officials will also update visitation guidelines for
the next step in the reopening plan. Starting Monday, 24/7
congregate care programs will need to follow less strict
distancing requirements, while long-term care facilities
including nursing homes and assisted living residences can
start allowing minimum visits of 30 minutes rather than 10
minutes.
"We know that some of the measures that were put into place
to keep residents safe, including restricting visitations,
have been incredibly difficult on family members and friends
who wanted to visit loved ones," Sudders said. "I'm certain
that this is welcome news ahead of the holiday weekend."
Baker, who said he had received "heartbreaking" letters from
residents who could not visit their family in long-term care
facilities, said he planned to visit his father in such a
home during the holiday weekend.
The governor had initially said he wanted to track two weeks
of data from indoor dining before deciding when to start the
next phase, but Thursday's announcement comes only 10 days
after dine-in restaurant service resumed.
Asked if he had enough of a sense of indoor dining's impact,
Baker said the "overwhelming response we've gotten from the
folks we've talked to is that people are abiding by the
rules."
State leaders are moving forward with confidence, buoyed by
a massive drop in the average positive test rate to near or
below 2 percent and a decline in the number of hospitalized
COVID patients 79 percent below the mid-April surge period.
Those indicators come alongside a death toll above 8,000.
Elsewhere in the United States, though, the virus is
reaching new heights. Driven by rapidly growing outbreaks in
Florida, Texas, Arizona and other southern and western
states, the country has observed a higher average of new
daily cases over the past week-plus than ever before, even
as deaths continue to slowly decelerate.
"We find ourselves in an important place in time as a
Commonwealth as we start to see what a new normal will look
like, even while other states are sadly struggling to bring
the virus under control," Housing and Economic Development
Secretary Mike Kennealy said at Thursday's press conference.
Most northeast states, which were home to devastating
outbreaks in the spring, are on positive trends similar to
that in Massachusetts. In some, leaders have responded to
the worsening national infection numbers by slowing some
reopening progress.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said this week he would pause
plans to resume indoor dining due to concerns about the rest
of the country, though on Thursday he increased allowable
capacity for indoor gatherings to a maximum of 100 and for
outdoor gatherings to a maximum of 500, both far above what
Baker will allow.
Baker told reporters his administration's plan has undergone
rigorous review from medical experts, and he said he does
not think Massachusetts will experience a similar surge as
other states because of how the reopening is structured and
because residents have remained committed to precautions.
Bars and nightclubs will not open until Phase 4, which Baker
described as a key step to ensure safety.
"The primary driver of much of the significant increase in
positive tests in a number of states has been the reopening
of bars and nightclubs," Baker said. "Obviously bars and
nightclubs are sitting in Phase 4 under our guidance, and
there was a reason for that: as difficult as it is for the
people who operate and work in those institutions, we could
not figure out a way to do that safely."
Business groups reacted to the announcement with mixed
feelings, with the National Federation of Independent
Business of Massachusetts saying the good news comes amid
"many shops and restaurants closing their doors
permanently."
The right-leaning Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, which has
been one of Baker's most vocal critics during the state of
emergency, said the next stage of reopening "is the best
gift Massachusetts taxpayers can give our country on its
Birthday."
"With over 100 days being locked down, and Phase 3 beginning
on Monday, the Governor is finally putting his faith in the
people of Massachusetts to make the best decisions for
themselves," MFA spokesman Paul Craney said in a press
release. "Every day that goes by, it's clearer that this
lockdown is yesterday's news and it should never happen
again."
State House
News Service
Friday, July 3, 2020
Weekly Roundup - Independent, But Not (Virus) Free
Recap and analysis of the week in state government
By Matt Murphy
The Fourth of July will not be quite the same this year,
with the Boston Pops pushed off the Hatch Shell stage and
online like many other aspects of pandemic life.
The fireworks will not be exploding over the Charles River.
And there will be no pre-dawn rush to lay down a blanket and
claim a space on the Esplanade.
But given how the past few months have gone, rest assured
there is likely to be a Roman Candle or two brightening the
night sky on Saturday, regardless of warnings from public
officials like Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to keep the fuses
unlit.
Bay State residents are increasingly trying to make the best
of summer, with Cape Cod leaders reporting spikes in traffic
over the bridges, and beaches and hiking trails luring
social-distanced sunbathers and outdoor entertainment
seekers in record numbers. Gov. Charlie Baker did his part
for the tourism industry early in the week by easing up on
the state's travel guidance.
In light of successes in controlling the spread of
coronavirus within their own borders, Baker said anyone
coming from any of the other five New England states or New
York or New Jersey would no longer be asked to
self-quarantine for 14 days.
"It's our hope that many folks will still be able to visit
their favorite places in our great state," Baker said.
Massachusetts continues to see positive trends in its fight
against COVID-19, including the first day in a long time
this week when no new deaths from the virus were reported by
the Department of Public Health. So even as New York City
Mayor Bill DeBlasio and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy took a
look at the infection surges in states like Florida and
pulled back on their plans for indoor dining, Baker plowed
ahead with his own phased reopening.
The governor announced Thursday that Phase 3, including the
reopening of gyms, movie theaters, museums, casinos and
professional sports, would begin on Monday. The state also
revised its gathering-size limits to permit up to 25 people
indoors and up to 100 outdoors.
Still, the governor said the progress the state has made in
reopening should not be mistaken for a license to go back to
life as it was known before March.
"I can't repeat this enough -- there's no victory lap here,"
the governor said during a press conference Wednesday.
"There's no spiking the ball, there's no big celebration at
home plate, there's none of that, OK."
Two people who are not waiting to see what phase they'll fit
into are U.S. Sen. Edward Markey and U.S. Rep. Joseph
Kennedy III. The 2020 election is very much on, and the two
Democrats vying for a U.S. Senate seat are looking at a
runway of eight weeks to the primary.
Markey said he will enter that stretch with $4.8 million to
spend, followed closely behind by Kennedy's $4.7 million in
the bank.
Not only were their bank accounts virtually identical in
size, but Markey and Kennedy both reported raising $1.9
million in the second quarter, although Kennedy's campaign
was quick to point out it suspended fundraising activities
for over a month during the height of the outbreak.
Kennedy has also already spent $2.4 million on television
advertising to reach self-quarantining voters over the past
two months, while Markey has yet to go up on television.
To ensure that as many voters as possible feel comfortable
voting in two months, House and Senate negotiators struck a
deal this week to expand vote-by-mail and establish early
voting before both the primary and general elections.
The bill on its way to Gov. Baker's desk directs Secretary
of State William Galvin by July 15 to send every registered
voter an application to request a mail-in ballot for the
primary on Sept. 1.
It turns out no matter how they choose to cast their ballot,
voters will only have to render a verdict on two initiative
petitions -- whether to allow ranked-choice voting and if
independent auto mechanics should have all-access passes to
a car's digital data. Cumberland Farms last Friday night
said it was dropping its push to allow more food stores to
sell beer and wine, and this week organizers behind a ballot
initiative to force more spending on nursing homes abandoned
their initiative.
While Cumberland Farms blamed the pandemic and the need it
created for the company to focus on the health and safety of
its workers, climate activists this week made a hard sell
for why policymakers should not let the response to COVID-19
become all-consuming.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry lent his voice to that
cause on Wednesday, phoning in a Senate committee hearing to
urge state legislators to get a bill to Gov. Charlie Baker's
desk to address climate change before the end of the month.
"We're not getting the job done. When I say we, I mean
collectively everybody -- parliaments, legislators,
presidents, prime ministers," Kerry said.
The rapidly closing window for legislative action this
session was noted by more than just climate advocates.
Thirty-seven House progressives wrote to Senate President
Karen Spilka urging her to let the Senate vote on the
House's tax bill to raise money to improve the state's
transportation system. The liberal Democrats said Spilka's
reluctance to put that bill on the floor or offer an
alternative was not just depriving public transit of needed
funding, but undercutting any case progressives might try to
make for raising additional tax money to stave off budget
cuts due to the pandemic.
The full impact from the coronavirus on the state budget is
still a major question mark, and the new fiscal year - FY
2021 - began on Wednesday without even the whisper of a
spending plan forthcoming from the Legislature.
Treasurer Deborah Goldberg tapped into a line of credit for
$500 million to make sure the state has enough cash on hand
to continue covering its expenses as another month of local
aid payments went out the door and budget writers waited for
uncertain federal relief and the postponed July 15 tax
filing deadline to arrive.
In the meantime, the House and Senate sent Gov. Baker
legislation to extend the MBTA's Fiscal and Management
Control Board for another year and to authorize $200 million
in borrowing for local road repairs.
Extensions are pretty much the default for the Legislature
at this point, with lawmakers also agreeing to another year
of horse racing and simulcast wagering at the tracks rather
than figuring out a long-term licensing solution for what's
left of the racing industry in Massachusetts.
The Senate also passed a $1.1 billion COVID-19 relief bill
and $1.7 billion bond bill for information technology
upgrades, including funding to support schools with remote
learning.
Final versions of those bills must now be negotiated with
the House.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Not without risk, another step toward
normal as Gov. Baker greenlights Phase 3.
State House
News Service
Friday, July 3, 2020
Advances - Week of July 5, 2020
Beacon Hill lawmakers have finalized a bill expanding voting
access during this year's elections and are working toward
agreements on a major information technology spending bill
and outlays to address COVID-19 response efforts. But with
four weeks left until formal sessions are scheduled to end
for 2020, the overdue fiscal 2021 budget hasn't even begun
to take shape, nor has a promised bill dealing with policing
reforms and social justice.
There are also big questions about whether Democrats can
agree on major transportation, health care and climate
change bills that had appeared destined for passage this
year before the COVID-19 pandemic struck in mid-March. As
the Pew Charitable Trusts put it this week, the wide-ranging
agendas offered in states earlier this year based on
economic stability "are now in a deep freeze, overtaken by
the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing state fiscal and economic
collapse."
Massachusetts has made great progress in slowing the spread
of the deadly respiratory disease, which crippled the
economy in the spring and has led to the confirmed deaths of
roughly 8,000 people. Gyms, movie theaters and museums are
free to open on Monday, except in Boston, with capacity and
safety restrictions, and the Red Sox hope to play games
without spectators later this month at Fenway Park. The
expansion of reopenings here contrasts with backtracking in
states like Florida, Texas and California where surges in
COVID-19 cases have total U.S. cases rising nearly daily by
record levels.
The virus is the major determining factor for near-term
economic prospects, which will influence the eventual
contours of a fiscal 2021 budget.
The state is starting the fiscal new year with a $5.25
billion interim budget in place to keep the government
running in July and Gov. Charlie Baker's team says more
interim budgets are possible. The House this week quietly
brushed past the July 1 deadline it set for its House Ways
and Means Committee to release a fiscal 2021 spending plan.
There's a more binding deadline approaching for scores of
taxpayers who must file their 2019 state and federal returns
by July 15, if they haven't already. State officials are
waiting to see how delayed tax collections shake out after
the filing deadline and whether Congress will come through
with another state and local government aid package before
agreeing on a fiscal 2021 spending plan. The
Democrat-controlled U.S. House approved a $3 trillion aid
bill that has stalled out in the Senate, and this week
passed a $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill.
While state House and Senate leaders have talked about
cooperating on a budget, getting one done from start to
finish in July would be unprecedented. Legislative leaders
have not outlined a plan to take up the budget later in the
year and while they have recently pointed to July 31 as the
deadline for major legislative activity, they haven't ruled
out an extension.
Before breaking for the holiday, lawmakers sent Baker a bill
extending for one year the MBTA Fiscal and Management
Control Board and authorizing $200 million for the Chapter
90 local road and bridge program, which the governor
promptly signed on Friday evening. Baker is also receiving a
bill expanding early voting options and offering mail-in
voting as an option for this year's primaries and general
election.
CommonWealth
Magazine
Monday, June 29, 2020
Spilka makes case for substance over process
By Bruce Mohl - Editor
In a wide-ranging interview on the CommonWealth Codcast,
Senate President Karen Spilka kept returning to the theme of
substance over process when it comes to legislation dealing
with the state’s many pressing needs.
She applauded the House, Senate, and governor’s office for
working collaboratively on a budget for the coming fiscal
year rather than following the traditional path of each
branch of government doing their own spending plan.
“Unprecedented times require unprecedented solutions,” she
said. “We need to work together for the people of
Massachusetts.”
She also used the same substance over process argument in
talking about a feud between the House and Senate chairs of
the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Health Care Financing
that harkens back to a fairly bitter dispute between the two
branches in 2015. The House chair of the committee is
insisting all health care legislation should go through the
panel, while the Senate chair, frustrated with the slow pace
of law-making, is pulling bills filed by senators out of the
committee and steering them to the Senate for action.
“Legislating is sausage making,” Spilka said. “We did change
the rules, we believe, during that time period (2015-2016)
so House bills would go to the House and Senate bills would
go to the Senate. That way if the House wants to do their
bill they’re welcome to it. And we believe if the Senate
wants to do our bills we should have that same opportunity.”
The House approach is the more traditional one, but it gives
the House greater leverage because its members tend to
dominate joint committees. Spilka seems fine with trying
something different.
“My feeling is we shouldn’t be focused so much on process,”
she said. “We should be focused on substance, getting the
work done for the people of Massachusetts. That is what’s so
important. Getting good policy done, getting bills through.”
She noted a number of bills the Senate has passed – a
“revolutionary” prescription drug bill, a mental health
bill, and a telehealth bill, as well as climate change
legislation – all have not passed the House yet.
She says the Senate will pass an $18 billion transportation
bond bill by the end of July but offered no assurances on
whether the Senate will act on a transportation revenue
package passed pre-COVID by the House. “We shouldn’t be
taking votes just because another branch has taken a vote.
We need to look at all the facts and circumstances before
us,” she said. “It’s more than an easy yes or no answer. But
no decision has been made yet.”
One transportation issue she is solidly behind is toll
equity. Commuters from west of Boston pay tolls to come in
on the Massachusetts Turnpike and those from the north pay
tolls to come in via the Tobin Bridge, but other communities
don’t pay tolls. “If tolls are such a good way to pay for
roads and bridges,” she said, “then it should be fairly and
equitably done across the state.”
She is very worried about reconstruction of the I-90 Allston
interchange, which could disrupt commutes for her
constituents from Ashland and Framingham coming in to Boston
for 6 to 10 years. She said she won’t allow higher Turnpike
tolls to pay for the $1 billion project and she indicated
she is leaning toward the status quo design for
reconstruction of an elevated section of the Turnpike on a
narrow strip of land between Boston University and the
Charles River.
Spilka said Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack
briefed her last Monday on the three options for repairing
that section of the Pike before unveiling them at a joint
meeting of the MassDOT and MBTA boards. One option would
essentially rebuild all the transportation elements in
place, while the other two would either put the Turnpike at
ground level and elevate Soldiers Field Road or put all the
transportation elements at ground level. The latter two
approaches require a temporary or permanent incursion into
the Charles River, mostly for new parkland and bike and
pedestrian paths.
Spilka said she was concerned about any environmental impact
on the Charles River and sees advantages to the status quo
approach. “As a non-engineer, somebody who doesn’t look at
it that way, the thought of switching, putting the Pike
where Storrow is and Storrow Drive where the Pike is doesn’t
make sense to me if you have the major roads there already
and they’re going to be basically going in the same
direction anyway,” she said.
Spilka, who is an attorney, didn’t want to weigh in on the
debate about whether the governor is on solid legal ground
in relying on the 1950 Civil Defense Act for the legal
authority to issue all of his COVID-19 emergency orders.
“Again, that is focusing on process. Right now the governor,
the speaker, and the Senate president, we talk, usually
twice a week, we have meetings,” she said. “We are working
well together, and it shows,” she said, pointing to COVID-19
numbers that are dropping, at least for now.
“Isn’t that what really counts and matters?” she asked.
Forbes Magazine
Thursday, July 1, 2020
Pushback Against Two Cap & Trade Programs
Follows Electoral Rejection Of Carbon Taxes
By Patrick Gleason
Prominent environmental organizations and activists have
spent recent months seeking to shoehorn talk of climate
change into discussions about current events. The Washington
Post, for example, published a June 29 article trying to
make a connection between race relations and climate change.
On June 30 Al Gore had an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal
arguing that the aftermath of the current downturn is an
opportune time for environmentalists to advance their
agenda.
Yet all of this talk and rhetoric from activists follows
recent action in numerous state capitals featuring
bipartisan opposition to progressive proposals to impose
Green New Deal-style emissions caps and carbon pricing. The
crux of the recent pushback against two regional cap and
trade proposals is not due to any bugs, but rather the
plans’ feature, which is that they’re designed to inflate
the cost of energy in some of the most populous states in
the country, and at a time when many households and
employers can ill-afford the added cost.
Right now in the 2020 battleground state of Pennsylvania,
Governor Tom Wolf’s (D) attempt to commit the Keystone State
to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a
multi-state cap and trade scheme designed to inflate the
cost of energy derived from fossil fuels, is running into
bipartisan legislative resistance in Pennsylvania’s ornate
state capitol in Harrisburg.
RGGI is a more than decade old cap & trade system whereby 10
member states (Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode
Island, and Vermont) limit the amount of CO2 emissions that
power plants can release, while making “allowances”
available at interstate auctions that can be purchased and
traded among companies subject to the caps. This year
Virginia legislators passed a bill authorizing Governor
Ralph Northam (D) to implement RGGI in Virginia next year.
Representatives Pam Snyder (D) and Jim Struzzi (R) have
introduced House Bill 2025, which blocks Governor Wolf from
entering Pennsylvania into the RGGI agreement without
consulting the legislature. This legislative action comes in
response to Governor Wolf’s announcement last October that
he would seek to implement RGGI in Pennsylvania by executive
order, without a vote of the legislature.
Representatives Snyder & Struzzi’s bill asks Governor Wolf’s
Department of Environmental Protection “to conduct a public
comment process on and submit to the General Assembly a
measure or action intended to abate, control or limit carbon
dioxide emissions by imposing a revenue-generating tax or
fee on carbon dioxide emissions.”
Representative Struzzi says this bill, which recently passed
through the House Environmental Resources and Energy
Committee, “basically says that before any attempt to enter
into RGGI is undertaken, it needs to go through the
legislature first.”
Pennsylvania Senator Joe Pittman (R) has introduced
companion legislation, Senate Bill 950, in the
commonwealth’s upper chamber. At a February hearing on
Snyder & Struzzi’s bill, energy policy experts argued that
RGGI is an economic growth-depressing jobs killer with
questionable environmental benefits. Aside from process
arguments that any decisions about RGGI in Pennsylvania
should come through the legislature, Representatives Snyder
& Struzzi also oppose the substance of RGGI and what it
would do to employers, jobs, and the Pennsylvania economy.
“I’ve made no secret about my opposition to the Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative,” Representative Snyder noted in a
statement. “It’s bad news for our region. Locally, we’ve
made strides and continue to do so to protect the
environment without needing it.”
“The real conundrum here is that there is no evidence RGGI
will have even a small impact on the environment,”
Representative Struzzi said. “But it is for certain that it
will shut down power plants. Just the fact that Pennsylvania
officials are talking about RGGI is enough to drive away
business.”
“I was proud to support HB 2505, which specifically outlines
the process that the General Assembly has before the state
could impose a carbon tax on energy suppliers or join any
multi-state program, like RGGI,” Snyder added.
RGGI isn’t the only regional cap and trade plan for which
environmental activists are currently seeking additional
member states. The Transportation Climate Initiative (TCI)
is another regional cap and trade scheme that differs from
RGGI in that it strictly targets transportation emissions.
Whereas RGGI applies upward pressure on both utility bills
and gas prices, TCI only drives up gas prices.
TCI, whose push has been led by Massachusetts Governor
Charlie Baker’s administration, has run into possibly
deal-breaking resistance since more details about the plan
were released last December. That resistance started with
New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu’s immediate announcement
that he would not subject his constituents to TCI and the
inflationary impact it would have on gas prices.
“I will not force Granite Staters to pay more for their gas
just to subsidize other states’ crumbling infrastructure,”
Governor Sununu told the Boston Herald shortly after TCI was
unveiled. “New Hampshire is already taking substantial steps
to curb our carbon emissions, and this initiative, if
enacted, would institute a new gas tax by up to 17 cents per
gallon while only achieving minimal results. This program is
a financial boondoggle and the people of New Hampshire will
never support it.”
Other blue state governors and lawmakers have since followed
Governor Sununu in either rejecting or refusing to support
TCI. The cold reception for this new cap and trade scheme
has prompted Governor Baker’s team to consider back up
plans, such as trying to link up with California or Canada
as part of a non-contiguous regional cap & trade scheme.
“I fail to see how any friend of Labor could stand by such a
proposal,” David Van Deusen, president of the Vermont
AFL-CIO, wrote about the TCI after the plan’s December
introduction by Baker.
“Any scheme which seeks to price working people out of
driving a gas powered vehicle (without having a
comprehensive public transit system & affordable electric
cars readily available first) will not result in workers
driving less,” AFL-CIO’s Deusen wrote. “Rather, such moves
will do nothing more than take dollars out of the pockets of
working people; money which we desperately need while living
in a society which does not guarantee livable wages, public
healthcare, and affordable housing.”
While even Democrats and progressives in northeastern and
New England states are rejecting energy cost-increasing cap
and trade schemes and carbon taxes in the middle of a
recession, others are instead claiming that low oil prices
are an excuse to raise state gas taxes, or to impose a
carbon tax that will drive up the price of gas.
“Imposing a carbon tax that would generate revenue
sufficient to pay for the pandemic relief bill while energy
prices are historically low would constitute a profound act
of governing,” writes Ike Brannon, a senior fellow at the
Jack Kemp Foundation.
“Low global oil prices provide an opportunity to increase
carbon taxes without hurting consumers,” the United
Kingdom’s state-appointed climate commission wrote in a
recent letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, echoing
Brannon.
Unfortunately for Brannon, the UK climate commission, and
other carbon tax advocates, such regressive proposals have
been rejected repeatedly in recent years. Even more
deflating for carbon tax proponents is the fact that this
rejection has occurred in blue states whose voters should be
the most open to such ostensibly green tax hikes. Not only
have the more than a dozen carbon tax bills that have been
introduced at the state level in recent years all failed to
pass, two well-funded ballot measures to impose a statewide
carbon tax have both been rejected by voters in blue
Washington State over the last four years.
In the same elections that Washington State voters awarded
their electoral votes to Hillary Clinton and voted for
Democrats to control Congress, they also resoundingly
rejected carbon taxes. Now, two years after the last voter
rejection of a carbon tax ballot measure, cap & trade
schemes are being rejected on the east coast, while
structurally failing on the west coast. The May auction for
emissions credits under California’s cap & trade program,
enacted in 2006, was a disaster.
“Results from the Air Resources Board’s May 2020 quarterly
auction show that just 35% of the climate pollution
allowances made available for purchase were sold, raising
less than $25 million for the state’s Greenhouse Gas
Reduction Fund,” Danny Cullenward, a lecturer at Stanford
Law School and a member of the CalEPA Independent Emissions
Market Advisory Committee, wrote in a May 29 CalMatters
article.
“Successful auctions normally bring in between $600 million
and $800 million per quarter to support a wide variety of
air quality, climate and fire protection programs, but now –
in the middle a massive budget crisis – those funds are
gone,” Cullenward wrote, attributing the shortfall to a
failure in the structure of California’s cap and trade
system and allowances market.
“There’s no serious argument that the pandemic is
responsible for the auction shortfall,” Cullenward added.
“Faulty market design is the real culprit.”
Carbon tax supporters like to talk about building
“momentum,” despite a lack of legislative or electoral
victories. Meanwhile the cap & trade schemes currently
pending on the east coast, which have the same
emissions-reducing goals and energy cost-inflating effect as
a carbon tax, are running into bipartisan resistance. Amid a
recession that has lowered tolerance for tax hikes,
particularly regressive levies like a carbon tax, don’t
expect carbon tax or cap & trade supporters to get anything
passed in 2020.
The Boston
Globe
Sunday, June 28, 2020
A Boston Globe editorial
The Massachusetts Teachers Association tries to exploit a
crisis
The union has issued a long list of directives it says
should be preconditions
if teachers are to return to school in the fall, including
getting rid of the MCAS for good.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a host of problems for
public education in Massachusetts, the weathering of which
will require flexibility, compromise, and a recognition that
we are all in this together. And indeed, across the
Commonwealth, thousands of students, teachers, and parents
have risen to the occasion, adjusting to the unprecedented
new demands the outbreak has created for all of us.
Unfortunately, that spirit is not what we’re currently
seeing from the heads of the Massachusetts Teachers
Association, the state’s largest teachers union. Instead,
the union leadership has issued a long list of directives it
says should be preconditions if teachers are to return to
school in the fall.
MTA President Merrie Najimy maintains the union is simply
supporting its local affiliates with their school-reopening
negotiations, but if MTA teachers refuse to return to work
until those demands are met, that would be a havoc-creating
standoff akin to a teachers strike.
So let’s look at what the MTA wants. One demand: An
assurance that public schools will be safe for educators,
students, and families, with special consideration for
teachers and students with compromised immune systems.
That’s certainly an appropriate pandemic concern.
But not this directive/demand: the permanent elimination of
the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exams.
Those exams are a foundational aspect of the sustained and
bipartisan education-improvement efforts that have helped
make this state’s public schools the best in the nation.
The MCAS tests a sophomore level of high school knowledge in
English, math, and science. High school students must pass
it to receive a diploma in Massachusetts. (Exams are also
given in some lower grades, though passing isn’t required to
advance.)
The passing threshold is not a particularly hard bar to
clear. Over the last three years, about 87 percent of
students have passed all three MCAS tests (English language
arts, math, and science) on their first attempt. For the
class of 2021, the first-time passing rate for Black
students was 77 percent, for Latinx students, 73 percent.
Since 2003, about 95 percent of students have passed the
MCAS during their high school years.
Still, the MTA remains intractably opposed to the test. The
union has many reasons for its opposition to the MCAS, but
one unstated reason certainly is the school accountability
it has helped bring about. Indeed, it’s not just individual
students who are assessed with the MCAS. Schools whose
students chronically underperform on the exams can be
subject to state interventions, which may include altering
union contracts as deemed necessary to improve education.
So why does nixing the MCAS qualify as a pandemic concern?
“You have to think about the impact of the pandemic on
learning at this moment,” says Najimy, asserting that the
need for social distancing will render it impossible to
cover the curriculum the MCAS tests in the next school year.
That remains to be seen, but: Why should those short-term
concerns prompt a permanent elimination of the test? The MTA
president maintains that MCAS “just measures socioeconomics
and race” and that ending it is necessary to rid the schools
of structural racism.
Those are weak and unconvincing arguments. The MCAS exams
aren’t perfect, and test questions should be scrutinized for
possible racial bias before they are included in the exams.
But a test that identifies areas where high school students
need more work shouldn’t be considered racist simply because
there is an overall achievement gap between white and
nonwhite students. The MCAS exams didn’t cause that gap,
they merely reveal it. The problem is more likely the gap in
the amount of education and support the students receive.
Even as the MTA steps up its anti-MCAS offensive, a new
Brown University study underscores the value of
Massachusetts’ education-reform efforts and the MCAS. The
study finds that the “percentages of students graduating
from high school, enrolling in college, and earning
four-year college degrees have all risen over time,” a
pattern that “holds true for low-income students, English
learners, and students from all of the largest racial/ethnic
groups.”
What’s more, the report found that scores on the 10th grade
MCAS exams “predict longer-term educational attainments and
labor market success, above and beyond typical markers of
student advantage.”
And yet, after state Education Commissioner Jeff Riley on
Thursday issued an initial 23 pages of school reopening
guidance, the MTA responded within hours with a relatively
short and critical statement that, among other things,
underscored its stance that the MCAS should be eliminated.
Let’s call this MTA demand what it is: a transparent effort
to use the pandemic to achieve a self-interested goal the
union hasn’t otherwise been able to accomplish.
Other MTA demands are for a restoration of any positions cut
in the spring, the addition of more staff, and full funding
for the first installment of the Student Opportunity Act.
Schools should certainly have enough staff, though whether
that requires restoring any and all position cuts or
additional hires is really a district-by-district question.
More problematic is the MTA’s insistence on full first-year
funding of the Student Opportunity Act. Passed last year,
that legislation calls for raising education spending by
$1.5 billion annually, phased in over seven years. As a down
payment, Governor Charlie Baker had in his pre-pandemic
budget proposed some $300 million in new state spending for
the fiscal year that starts July 1. But now that the
pandemic-caused economic slowdown has blown a $6 billion
hole in state revenues, delivering that much new funding
will be exceedingly difficult, particularly if there isn’t
another infusion of federal dollars for states.
Najimy, however, brushes those concerns aside, saying state
policy makers can use rainy day reserves and raise several
billion more in taxes.
“The money exists and the legislators have the power to
raise revenues,” she says. A reality check: Even if state
budgeters used all of the $3.5 billion rainy day fund in the
next fiscal year and the Legislature raised new revenues
equivalent to the amount that would come from the $2 billion
millionaire tax that the MTA and a progressive coalition
backs — a measure that will likely be on the 2022 ballot —
that wouldn’t fill the projected revenue hole in next year’s
budget.
As policy makers and stakeholders grapple with these very
difficult times, the MTA leadership needs to recognize that
a once-in-a-century pandemic calls for compromise and
cooperation — not line-in-the-sand demands.
The Boston
Globe
Wednesday, July 1, 2020
Labor-backed group pushes Beacon Hill for new corporate
taxes
Lawmakers are holding off on a new budget for now,
but the liberal organization says programs to help the needy
and schools need funding certainty
By Jon Chesto
Who needs a budget to have a budget battle?
Raise Up Massachusetts sure doesn’t want to wait.
The coalition of labor and community groups just sent a
letter to the state Senate calling for new corporate and
investment taxes. The goal: to provide enough money for
crucial social services in the new fiscal year that began
Wednesday.
The Legislature enters this new cycle amid an unprecedented
level of fiscal uncertainty. Usually, leaders from the House
and Senate would be hammering out the details of a new state
budget by this point. They might even have reached an
agreement. But COVID-19 hit before the House leadership
crafted its proposal, essentially halting the normal
budget-writing process on Beacon Hill.
No one knows how bad the budget will be in the new fiscal
year. But everyone agrees it won’t be pretty. The
business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation estimates
the revenue shortfall could be as much as $6 billion —
nearly 20 percent less than what state leaders initially
expected.
Raise Up offers up one set of solutions in its new letter —
changes that are sure to get pushback from the business
community. Increase the state corporate tax back up to 9.5
percent, where it sat before 2009, from the current level of
8 percent. Significantly increase a state tax on overseas
profits (nicknamed “GILTI”). And raise the tax rate for
“unearned income,” aka investment income from capital gains
and dividends.
No budget? No problem. Raise Up suggests the Senate tack
these changes on to a transportation financing bill that the
House sent over in March. That bill already includes
increases in the gas tax, Uber and Lyft fees, and the
minimum corporate tax. (Raise Up’s progressive allies in the
House also just sent a letter to the Senate, urging it to
take up the House transportation bill because of the budget
crisis.)
Raise Up spokesman Steve Crawford knows these tax increases
likely won’t solve all of the state’s fiscal problems; the
corporate tax increase might provide the biggest infusion of
the three proposals, at $450 million to $525 million a year.
But it’s important, he said, to start now. Cities and towns
that rely on state aid, particularly for their schools, need
to plan, he said. And Crawford said companies that are
making money in this rough economy have a responsibility to
step up and help everyone else get back on their feet.
Unsurprisingly, business groups are objecting to the call
for more revenue — at least right now. They say state budget
writers should wait on Congress, to see what federal aid
might be forthcoming. That appears to be the state
Legislature’s strategy so far: Lawmakers last week passed a
monthly budget to cover the costs for July, the first of
what could be several “one-twelfth” budgets on Beacon Hill.
Several other states are taking similar steps, playing for
time with the hopes a lifeline arrives from Washington.
Legislators here face a deadline of July 31 to adjourn from
formal sessions for the year. In election years like this
one, all significant bills are supposed to be done by then.
While not impossible, getting the budget done in time for
that deadline seems highly unlikely at this point. Now
rumors are circulating of a possible special session this
fall — maybe after the elections — to clean up the budget
mess.
New corporate taxes certainly will face resistance. Chris
Anderson, president of the Massachusetts High Technology
Council, said state officials should be focusing on
revitalizing the battered economy, not pulling away the
welcome mat from job creators in the private sector.
Any sort of budget debate without knowing the level of help
from the federal government would be only a hypothetical
exercise, said Eileen McAnneny, president of the taxpayers
foundation. And Brooke Thomson, head of government affairs
at Associated Industries of Massachusetts, said her group is
urging lawmakers to be patient, and avoid disruptive tax
changes at a time when many business owners are struggling.
Senator Adam Hinds, cochairman of the revenue committee,
appears to side with the business community on the timing
issue — at least for now. Hinds has been leading a Senate
working group on state revenue since before the pandemic.
That group last met in April and isn’t expected to wrap up
with recommendations for several months.
Not only are state leaders waiting on Washington, Hinds
said; they also need to see the results of a three-month
delay in state income tax collections, since the big April
15 tax day cutoff fell during the pandemic. The new filing
deadline is July 15, so any answer on that front might not
be public until early August.
And Hinds said his colleagues also want to see what kind of
bump in tax collections is produced by the recent resumption
of business from the spring shutdowns, particularly from the
hard-hit retail and hospitality sectors.
Answering these questions will also help lawmakers decide
how much should be drawn from the deep well that is the
state’s $3.5 billion rainy day fund.
Sooner or later, lawmakers will need to address some of
these revenue questions. But Hinds said he would prefer that
this tough debate only happens once. The timing is not yet
right, he said, not with so much still up in the air.
The New Boston
Post
Monday, June 29, 2020
Pro-Spending Democrat Seeking Joe Kennedy III’s Seat
Opted Not To Pay Optional Higher Taxes
By Tom Joyce
If elected to Congress, Jesse Mermell would like to
implement plans that increase spending.
But when she had the opportunity to pay more in taxes at the
state level over the past several years, the Brookline
resident and Democrat who is running to represent
Massachusetts’s Fourth Congressional District chose not to,
according to her tax returns.
Mermell is running to replace U.S. Representative Joseph P.
Kennedy III (D-Newton), who is primarying U.S. Senator Ed
Markey in state’s U.S. Senate race.
Mermell released five years of her tax returns on June 18,
covering 2014 to 2018. The returns revealed that she made
more than six figures each year and paid the standard state
income tax rate — which was 5.2 percent in 2014, 5.15
percent in 2015, 5.1 percent in 2016, 2017, and 2018.
But she could have paid more. Since state legislators
approved it in 2002, Massachusetts taxpayers have had the
option of checking a box and paying a higher income tax rate
than required — 5.85 percent. The extra money gives
legislators more to work with.
Mermell’s campaign team put out a press release recently
praising her for her transparency concerning personal income
tax returns.
“With Donald Trump lying, cheating, and deceiving his way
through a failed presidency, Democratic candidates at all
levels have an obligation to lead by example and run open,
transparent campaigns that are accountable to the voters,”
Mermell said in the press release dated June 18. “That’s why
today I’m releasing five years of tax returns and
challenging my opponents to at least three debates across
the district. As candidates, we have a shared responsibility
to provide the people of the Fourth District with all of the
information they need and deserve to make their decisions,
and I hope that my opponents will join me in fulfilling that
responsibility.”
The release also said if elected, Mermell would introduce
legislation mandating that all federal candidates release
their tax returns.
Mermell’s tax returns show that she had the opportunity to
contribute another $4,746 to the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts during those five years, but passed up the
opportunity.
Here’s how.
On her 2014 return, Mermell paid $5,416 in state income tax
instead of the $6,093 higher option allowed on the
Massachusetts income tax form. A year later in 2015, she
paid $6,231 instead of $7,078. In 2016, it was $6,772
instead of $7,768. In 2017, she paid $7,304 rather than
$8,378. And in 2018, it was $7,834 — not the $8,986 she
could have paid voluntarily.
Mermell favors several government programs that would
necessitate spending increases — and presumably tax
increases to help pay for them.
A few such programs on Mermell’s platform include
Medicare-for-all, free public college, some form of student
loan debt forgiveness, and increased federal funding for
Massachusetts transit programs. Her platform notes that a
wealth tax would pay for her free public college plan.
While her proposals are for the federal government, they
could also be passed at the state level, if the funding
existed to pay for them.
It’s uncommon for anyone in the Commonwealth to pay the
higher optional 5.85 percent tax rate. According to the
Massachusetts Department of Revenue, 1,663 people did in
2015 (out of 3,783,209 returns), 1,619 did in 2016 (out of
3,642,896 returns), and 1,275 did in 2017 (out of 3,175,892
returns).
That works out to about .04 percent in each of those years,
or about 4 out of every 10,000.
One of those is U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Cambridge),
who chose the higher 5.85 percent option in Massachusetts
for the 2017 and 2018 tax years when she was running for
re-election to the Senate and preparing for a presidential
race — though not before then.
It’s unclear whether other candidates in theFourth
Congressional District race paid the higher optional income
tax rate; Mermell is one of nine Democrats expected to be on
the September 1 ballot, according to Ballotpedia, but the
only candidate who has released tax returns so far.
Before running for Congress, Mermell served as a senior
advisor to former governor Deval Patrick, as a selectman in
Brookline, and as the vice president for external affairs at
Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts.
Mermell’s campaign could not be reached for comment for this
story.
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