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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”
47 years as “The Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers”
— and
their Institutional Memory — |
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CLT UPDATE
Monday, January 11, 2021
Wonder Why Out-Migration Continues
in Bay State?
Jump directly
to CLT's Commentary on the News
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Most Relevant News Excerpts
(Full news reports follow Commentary)
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Ending a General
Court whose course and operations were altered by the
pandemic, the Legislature kept its final sessions of the
biennium open until after 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, less than
seven hours until the new Legislature is due to be sworn in.
Sessions had been scheduled to end on Tuesday at midnight
but no objections were raised and the Senate held votes
throughout the evening that creeped its final adjournment
farther toward dawn.
After sending a
final day-and-a-half's worth of bills to Gov. Baker's desk
including accords on transportation infrastructure borrowing
and economic development and jobs, the Senate adjourned sine
die -- without any more sittings to follow -- at 4:41 a.m.
State House News
Service
Wednesday, January 6, 2021 | 5:23 AM
Senate Session Summary - Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021
Adjourns Sine Die At 4:41 a.m. Wednesday
In a year that
ushered in staggering unemployment amid the economic
collapse from the coronavirus pandemic, the state’s payroll
ballooned more than $17 million to $8.2 billion in 2020, a
Herald analysis shows.
Officials blamed
the payroll spike on contractual increases negotiated with
police, teachers and other unions. Responding to the
COVID-19 crisis was also cited.
But Beacon Hill
officials also welcomed the new year with fat raises thanks
in part to a 2017 law that ties legislators’ pay to
wages....
“Now’s the time
for belt tightening in government,” said the Pioneer
Institutes’ Greg Sullivan. “It’s a crisis situation for
small businesses. We can’t put all the burden on the small
business owner.”
Massachusetts had
the worst unemployment rate in the nation at 16.1% in July.
The state has climbed up since, but job growth continues to
slow after unprecedented losses, statistics show.
Paul Diego Craney
of Mass Fiscal Alliance said the high pay today sends the
wrong message.
“This is not the
direction the state should be going in this year,” he said
Tuesday night. “How is it possible a state can shut down and
an economy can tank and two employees can earn more than one
million?”
He said anyone
earning more than Gov. Charlie Baker — $184,999 — should be
looked at closely.
But the spending
continues. The state’s 200 senators and representatives saw
their salaries jump 6.46% this week, bringing their base pay
up to $70,536.
A separate 4.89%
boost to both expense accounts and stipends for legislative
leaders amounts to a lucrative payday especially for elected
officials, some of whom will get raises north of $9,000 this
year....
The state has
avoided layoffs until now. Baker must submit his budget by
the end of the month.
The Baker
administration said the state’s total $8.2 billion payroll
includes the UMass system, independent agencies and
constitutional offices “outside of the control of the
executive branch.” And some of the highest paid are in the
UMass system....
Jim Lyons, head of
the MassGOP, slammed lawmakers for not setting the tone.
“People are out of
work, families are struggling to put food on the table, and
these same Democrats who insist on further shutting down our
economy are giving themselves raises for the third time in
as many sessions,” Lyons said. “This honestly makes me sick
to my stomach.”
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
Massachusetts’ $8.2B state payroll, raises called a ‘sick’
trend during pandemic
State pay jumps by $17M and six-figure earners top the
charts
For public-sector
America, also known as the hackerama, 2020 was yet another
fantastically prosperous year. And most of them got to
“work” from home – wink wink, nudge nudge.
According to the
latest numbers, under the so-called leadership of Gov.
Charlie Baker, 19,962 coat holders on the public payroll
made over $100,000 last year. There were 879 earning over
$200,000, and 116 making more than $300,000.
And behind those
obscene salaries comes the pension — 80% of the top three
years if you’ve got the years in, and you know they’ve all
got the years in to max out the kiss in the mail.
As Thomas
Jefferson said more than 200 years ago of the nascent
federal bureaucracy: “Vacancies by death are few, by
resignation never.” ...
As they were
making these big bucks in 2020, most of the state’s payroll
Charlies were working “remotely,” as their voicemail
messages always say. Meanwhile, the DPS was utterly ravaged
by the insane, capricious dictates of someone who never once
missed either a paycheck or a meal. That would be Charlie
Baker, who’s making $200,355 a year.
The DPS got two
months of the nation’s highest unemployment rate, not to
mention the continuing highest nursing home death rate in
the US and the third highest overall death rate among the 50
states.
And yet Baker et
al. aren’t just feeding at the trough, they’re licking the
plate....
After their latest
raises, and increases in expenses, not to mention their
stipends, the least any state senator is making is $103,846
a year.
That includes
$70,537 salary, at least $17,044 for expenses (formerly per
diems, source of so many scandals) and a minimum bonus of
$16,245 for their positions in leadership.
Incidentally, 40
of 40 state senators are in “leadership” positions. Every
last one of them.
Hey, It beats
working.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
2020 was a fantastically prosperous year … for hacks
By Howie Carr
Over the last six
months of a pandemic that's led to wholesale changes in
consumer habits, business closures and job losses,
Massachusetts state government has collected $372 million
more in taxes from people and businesses than it did during
the same six months of pre-pandemic 2019.
The Department of
Revenue reported that December tax collections came in at
$2.842 billion, up by $230 million or 8.8 percent from the
December 2019 total. Halfway into fiscal 2021, the state has
collected approximately $14.306 billion from people and
businesses. That puts fiscal 2021 revenues $372 million or
2.7 percent ahead of what was collected during the six
months of fiscal 2020 that were entirely unaffected by the
COVID-19 pandemic....
Massachusetts will
also see billions in federal funds this fiscal year,
including about $1.3 billion for education aid as part of
the $900 billion pandemic relief and economic stimulus
package Congress passed late last month. President-elect Joe
Biden has signaled an interest in additional relief
packages, including aid to state and local governments,
which could further benefit Massachusetts.
State House News
Service
Thursday, January 7, 2021
State Tax Haul Rises Through December, But DOR Sees Descent
Ahead
Collections Higher Than Pre-Pandemic Levels
Despite everyone's
most fervent wishes, simply watching the ball drop on New
Year's Eve Thursday didn't end the madness of 2020. And
midnight wound up looking like an early bedtime for the week
that was about to unfold.
The first full
week of 2021 started innocently enough.
On Sunday night,
MassGOP Chairman Jim Lyons eked out a victory by three votes
over Rep. Shawn Dooley to maintain control of the state
party, and legislative negotiators announced they had struck
a deal on a climate change bill to set a statewide target of
net-zero emissions by 2050 and to authorize even more
offshore wind....
The Legislature
came to work Monday and passed the climate bill, set a
special election date to replace former Speaker Robert DeLeo
on March 30 and went home around dinner time to prepare for
the last day of session.
It was always
going to be a long night on Tuesday, with major economic
development and transportation financing legislation still
up in the air. But it's unlikely anyone had 4:34 a.m. in
their virtual office pool as the time the final gavel would
fall.
Not even five
extra months to finish their work could help lawmakers save
themselves from the last-minute rush, and though they went
home tired, they also went home having accomplished most of
the big ticket items on their to-do list....
The hardest thing
to do Wednesday should have been getting out of bed. But on
a day when new and returning lawmakers took their oaths to
start a new session on Beacon Hill and Senate President
Karen Spilka and Mariano were reelected to their leadership
posts, riots stoked by the president of the United States on
Twitter erupted on Capitol Hill.
A mob, fueled by
unproven claims of election fraud repeated by the president
and his allies, broke into the Capitol. They were intent on
disrupting the certification by Congress of the Electoral
College vote that would give President-elect Joe Biden the
victory.
But Congress
returned to work that night and certified the Electoral
College vote at around 3:45 a.m.
The fact that
Congress fulfilled its Constitutional obligation despite the
chaos of the day was the one bright spot, according to Gov.
Baker, who the next day said he was sickened by what he
watched on TV.
Baker, a
Republican, joined the chorus of Democrats, including every
member of Congress from Massachusetts, in calling for Trump
to be removed from office. No more waiting until Jan. 20 for
President-elect Joe Biden to be inaugurated. Let Vice
President Mike Pence oversee the transition, the governor
said.
State House News
Service
Friday, January 8, 2021
Weekly Roundup - Out with the Old, In with the Older
Secretary of State
William Galvin is calling on the state Legislature to offer
relief to homeowners who are unable to pay their property
taxes on time, a deadline that is quickly approaching in
most cities and towns.
“With so many
people struggling financially right now, property tax
payments can be a hardship,” Galvin said in a statement.
Last year, the
Legislature allowed cities and towns to waive interest and
penalties on late property tax payments due to the hardship
caused by the pandemic. That relief expired on June 30.
“Now that we are
in a second wave of the pandemic, I think the time has come
to offer additional relief to those who are unemployed
through no fault of their own,” said Galvin, who is
proposing the same type of relief take effect again.
Galvin is also
encouraging homeowners to take advantage of existing
abatement opportunities if they believe an assessment is too
high.
“You can challenge
a tax bill if you believe that the assessed value is too
high in relation to similar properties in the neighborhood,
or that the classification is improper,” Galvin said....
Across the state,
residential tax rates decreased on average in 2020,
according to data from the Department of Revenue’s Division
of Local Services.
The Boston Herald
Friday, January 8, 2021
William Galvin calling on Massachusetts Legislature for
property tax relief
Gov. Charlie Baker
is fattening his campaign coffers as speculation grows the
popular Republican may seek an unprecedented third term.
Baker reported
raising $165,418 last month, according to his latest filings
with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance.
That's his biggest fundraising haul in more than two years.
By comparison,
Baker's campaign account only reported about $900 in
contributions during the preceding month.
While Baker hasn't
said he will seek a third term, he hasn't ruled it out, and
his campaign has been keeping its fundraising on slow burn
in the event that he decides to run again in 2022.
To be sure, Baker
and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito already have a sizable war chest
at their disposal. The duo had more than $2.5 million
between their campaign accounts as of Jan. 4, according to
OCPF records....
There are no term
limits for Massachusetts governors, and while a handful in
the past have served three terms, most don't stick around
longer than eight years.
Democrat Mike
Dukakis is the most recent governor to serve three terms but
not consecutively. He was governor from 1975-79, and again
from 1984-1991.
Leverett
Saltonstall, a Republican, served three consecutive terms
from 1939-1945. But terms for governor were only two years
back then, so he was only in office six years.
Recent governors,
including Republican Bill Weld and Democrat Deval Patrick,
have toyed with the idea of seeking a third term but
ultimately decided against it.
Political
observers say Baker's stratospheric popularity — his job
approval numbers remain among the highest of any governor —
could ensure him a long tenure.
The Salem News
Saturday, January 9, 2021
Baker stuffs war chest with eye to 2022
There’s a
difference between doing the people’s business and giving
people the business.
Someone should
explain this to the Massachusetts legislators who intend to
take the 6.46% raise on the table this year.
Our lawmakers on
Beacon Hill get a raise every two years — it’s written into
the Massachusetts Constitution that their pay correlate with
the state’s median household income. They voted a nice
increase for themselves in 2017, overriding Gov. Charlie
Baker’s veto, and got another 6% raise in 2019.
Each of the
state’s 200 senators and representatives are in line for a
$4,280 bump in their base salaries. They’ll also get a bump
in their expense accounts and stipends.
How many people in
the private sector have missed out on pay raises because of
company “belt-tightening,” even before the coronavirus hit
our shores?
In past years,
umbrage was (rightly) taken at the taxpayer burden imposed
by the pay hikes.
But this year’s
raises add insult to injury....
State Rep. Mike
Connolly, another raise-taker, said, “Cost of living
increases make sense for everyone in terms of government
benefits, Social Security and other programs.”
Here’s what
seniors receiving Social Security will get for a cost of
living increase this year: 1.3%.
Members of the
military are set to receive a 3% pay raise this year,
according to federalnewsnetwork.com. Business Insider
reports that base pay for an enlisted service member in
their first six months comes out to less than $20,000 per
year. Newly commissioned officers make about $38,250 a year.
It’s good to be a
lawmaker in the Bay State....
David Tuerck,
president of the Beacon Hill Institute, summed up the
situation succinctly: “It is utterly inappropriate for any
state government official to take a pay raise at this time,
considering we are still in the depths of this COVID-19
crisis and considering the fact many that many people have
gone without pay for quite some time.”
Legislators, the
ball is in your court.
A Boston Herald editorial
Tuesday, January 5, 2021
Lawmakers should donate pay raises amid coronavirus pandemic
If you are a
Massachusetts resident who works a minimum-wage job, your
pay goes up this week to $13.50 per hour, an increase of 75
cents.
If you are one of
the state’s 1.2 million Social Security recipients, your
benefits check will be boosted by 1.3 percent this month.
For the average retiree, that will mean a monthly hike of
about $20.
If you are a
private sector worker in Greater Boston who gets an annual
cost-of-living adjustment based on the Consumer Price Index,
your wages may inch up by a slight 0.4 percent — the change
in prices locally over the past year, as determined by the
US Labor Department.
And if you are
among the 6.7 percent of the state workforce that is
currently unemployed — you won’t get any paycheck at all,
though you may be eligible for temporary unemployment
benefits.
But if you are a
member of the Massachusetts Legislature, you won’t have to
settle for such trifling (or nonexistent) gains in pay. The
salaries of Bay State legislators are going up by thousands
of dollars as a new session of the Legislature commences and
not one, not two, but three separate pay raises kick in.
Again....
Virtually no other
state pays its lawmakers so much money. (California, New
York, and Pennsylvania are the exceptions, according to the
National Conference of State Legislatures.) If Beacon Hill
were a model of legislative excellence, such exorbitant
compensation might be justifiable, but the opposite is true.
Most Massachusetts legislators have no influence, and the
handful who do conduct nearly all their business in secret —
indeed, our Legislature is one of the least transparent in
America. Year in, year out, the Legislature blows off its
deadline to pass a state budget. Rarely is any legislative
issue seriously debated in the open. Bills approved in
advance are typically gaveled to passage in pro forma votes
whose outcome is a forgone conclusion.
In most of
America, state lawmakers convene for just a few weeks or
months each year — long enough to hammer out a budget,
approve needed legislation, and adjourn. They know better
than to think of legislating as a full-time job requiring
bountiful salaries.
But not in
Massachusetts. Here, growing their own pay is one of the
things legislators do really well, and taxpayers keep
underwriting raises that they can only dream about for
themselves.
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
A new Legislature convenes and three pay hikes kick in. Only
in Massachusetts
Bay State taxpayers underwrite raises for politicians that
they can only dream about for themselves.
By Jeff Jacoby
Newly elected
House Speaker Ron Mariano’s first order of business should
be to rescind the pay raise the Massachusetts Legislature
just pocketed.
If the 74-year-old
veteran legislator wants to set a positive tone, he could
call on members to forego the unwarranted pay hike.
Not only would it
be a bold leadership move, but it would also show some
empathy towards hundreds of thousands of people who are out
of work and struggling to put food on the table and pay the
rent as a result of the coronavirus shutdown.
If legislators
find it too technically complicated to return the pay raise,
they could donate the money to a nonprofit that is providing
food for the needy and the homeless. They could figure it
out.
The new pay raise
for the 160 members of the House and 40 members of the
Senate — who have been working from home — is not only a bad
look, but also bad policy, coming at a time when people are
out of work while no legislator has missed a single
paycheck.
Who other than
politicians can get a pay raise in the middle of a pandemic
that has wreaked havoc with the working poor and everyone
else? Who else but legislators can also get an increase in
expenses and travel allowances during the COVID-19 lockdown?
Nobody, that’s who.
The latest pay
hike for the 2021 session raises the base pay for
legislators from $66,250 to $70,530. This comes on top of
the 5.9% raise that was approved by Gov. Charlie Baker in
2019.
The salary of
lawmakers is based on the median state household income, but
the governor has the authority to set the exact amount.
Baker last week ordered an increase of 6.46%.
However, the
$70,530 new base pay sum is misleading. Most legislators are
paid more than that....
More to the point,
however, is that House and Senate committee chairs, majority
and minority leaders, their assistants and just about
everybody else with a title is paid extra money as stipends.
Since the
Democrats dominate the Legislature, all committees are
controlled by the Democrats as are all the chairmanships.
And all the chairs are paid extra, starting at $30,000 for
the chairs of both the House and Senate Ways and Means
committees.
But Republican
legislators, scarce as they are on Beacon Hill, do not do
badly either. House Minority Leader Brad Jones of North
Reading, who is leader of some 30 Republicans in the House,
receives more than $50,000 in extra pay, bringing his salary
well over $100,000.
So does Rep.
Bradford Hill of Ipswich, the GOP assistant House minority
leader. Hill also received $50,000 in extra pay in the last
session of the Legislature.
If that is
surprising, it is even more startling in the Senate where
there are now only three Republicans — all “leaders” — in
the 40-member Democrat-controlled body even though there is
no one to lead. All make close to $100,000 or more. They are
Minority Leader Bruce Tarr of Gloucester and Assistant
Minority Leaders Ryan Fattman of Sutton and Patrick O’Connor
of Weymouth.
They all —
Democrats, Republicans and progressives — have turned public
service into private gain.
But not to worry.
It was announced last week that the minimum wage in 2021 —
if you have a job — will go from $12.75 an hour to $13.50, a
whopping increase of 75 cents. How thoughtful.
The Boston Herald
Saturday, January 9, 2021
Job #1 for Speaker Mariano: nix Legislature’s pay raise
By Peter Lucas
A study by
United Van Lines found the most common reason for moving in
or out of Massachusetts
was related to customers' jobs. [Courtesy]
More people moved
out of Massachusetts than relocated to the Bay State in
2020, with retirees and people seeking a change in lifestyle
driving the overall migration out of the state, according to
a recent study by a national moving company.
United Van Lines
found Massachusetts to be one of the top 10 states in the
country that people were moving from as the COVID-19
pandemic accelerated people's decisions to relocate and the
years-long trend of people moving south and west
continued....
New Jersey, New
York, Illinois, Connecticut and California saw the greatest
percentage of movers leaving, with Massachusetts ranking
eighth....
United reported
that 56.6 percent of its Massachusetts business was from
customers leaving the state, while 43.4 percent of moves
were people and family relocating here, primarily for work
or family. The company tracked 3,355 moves in and out of
Massachusetts in 2020.
The Boston metro
area did not make United's list of Top 25 urban areas for
inbound or outbound migration, but the Worcester-Fitchburg-Leominster
area ranked 18th on the outbound list with 64 percent of
movers leaving the region on a United van.
Customers cited
work as the most common reason for moving to Massachusetts,
with 40.4 percent of inbound moves related to a job,
followed by family at 30.6 percent, retirement at 12 percent
and lifestyle at 10.4 percent....
Of those leaving
Massachusetts, 35.2 percent of United customers surveyed
said it was because of work, while equal numbers of people
(24.2 percent) said they were leaving to retire or for
family. Another nearly 20 percent said they left for a
change in lifestyle....
Vermont, Maine,
Rhode Island and New Hampshire all witnessed more moves into
the state than out, with the numbers almost split in New
Hampshire, while the two higher-cost states - Massachusetts
and Connecticut - experienced the reverse.
State House News
Service
Thursday, January 7, 2021
Moving Out: Mass. Top Ten in 2020 Outbound Migration
United Van Lines Data Measures Moves During Pandemic
A new report has
found that Tennessee posted the largest net gain of U-Haul
trucks than any other state in 2020, making it U-Haul's top
growth state for the first time.
Growth rates are
determined by the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks entering
a state versus leaving that state in a given year. U-Haul
keeps tabs on more than two million one-way U-Haul truck
customer transactions annually, allowing the company to
observe migration trends, according to the report published
by U-Haul.
"Tennessee's
influx of do-it-yourself movers during a turbulent year
marked by the coronavirus pandemic means that a state other
than Florida and Texas tops the growth rankings for the
first time since 2015 when North Carolina led the way," the
report said.
Texas and Florida
were the top two other destinations. For three consecutive
years, Texas had the largest net gain of one-way U-Haul
trucks before Florida displaced it for the number one spot
last year.
Before the
pandemic, Americans fled liberal-run states and metro areas
because of high taxes to conservative states that were
business-friendly, such as Texas and Florida. The pandemic
certainly amplified the exodus....
On the flip side,
California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Oregon
were the top five states with the most significant net loss
of U-Haul trucks....
We have never seen
such a sudden mass exodus away from major cities in modern
American history. U-Haul's report offers a unique insight
into migration trends that are overwhelmingly benefiting
conservative states while liberal ones plunge into
socio-economic turmoil.
Zero Hedge Fund
Saturday, January 9, 2021
U-Haul Reveals 2020 Migration Trends As Pandemic And Taxes
Take Toll
Full List: States Ranked By Migration Growth
Chart linked above indicates previous year’s rankings in
parentheses.
Washington, D.C. is its own U-Haul market and is listed
among growth states for migration trends purposes.
Hawaii is not included since state-to-state truck
transactions are inapplicable.
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
It's such a relief having staved off the
latest attack on Proposition 2˝
— considering the tension it caused and the intense and extended
response it required since back in July. It's satisfying that we
were able to prevail in the end — not at the traditional and proverbial
"11th hour" but beyond the final 12th and into the 16th hour! The
State House News Service reported on Wednesday morning ("Adjourns
Sine Die At 4:41 a.m. Wednesday"):
Ending a General Court whose course
and operations were altered by the pandemic, the
Legislature kept its final sessions of the biennium open
until after 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, less than seven hours
until the new Legislature is due to be sworn in.
Sessions had been scheduled to end on Tuesday at
midnight but no objections were raised and the Senate
held votes throughout the evening that creeped its final
adjournment farther toward dawn.
After sending a final
day-and-a-half's worth of bills to Gov. Baker's desk
including accords on transportation infrastructure
borrowing and economic development and jobs, the Senate
adjourned sine die -- without any more sittings to
follow -- at 4:41 a.m.
In its Weekly Roundup the State House News
Service reported on Friday:
It was always going to be a long
night on Tuesday, with major economic development and
transportation financing legislation still up in the
air. But it's unlikely anyone had 4:34 a.m. in
their virtual office pool as the time the final gavel
would fall.
Not even five extra months to
finish their work could help lawmakers save themselves
from the last-minute rush, and though they went home
tired, they also went home having accomplished most of
the big ticket items on their to-do list.
I discussed our success with fending off
the attack on Proposition 2˝ with frequent
CLT ally Chris Carlozzi, executive director of the state chapter of
National Federation of Independent Business —
the members of which also inundated legislators and conference committee
members with calls, letters and e-mails opposing the stealth attack on
Prop 2˝. We agreed that the bevy of tax
hikes included in especially the House's as well as the Senate's
original versions or their respective transportation bond bills were
likely stripped from those by the conference committee to keep the
compromise bill clean and focused. In the end it rightfully
contained only transportation bonding issues — borrowing, allocating,
appropriating, and spending money for and on future transportation
projects. Expect the taxes initially included by both chambers'
original bills to arise again in the coming year.
Despite the Wuhan Chinese Virus pandemic
soon entering its second year, while many if not most state
legislators and state employees "work remotely" from their homes, having
never missed a pay check unlike so many others, The
Boston Herald reported on Wednesday ("Massachusetts’ $8.2B state
payroll, raises called a ‘sick’ trend during pandemic; State pay jumps
by $17M and six-figure earners top the charts"):
In a year that ushered in
staggering unemployment amid the economic collapse from
the coronavirus pandemic, the state’s payroll ballooned
more than $17 million to $8.2 billion in 2020, a Herald
analysis shows.
Officials blamed the payroll spike
on contractual increases negotiated with police,
teachers and other unions. Responding to the
COVID-19 crisis was also cited.
But Beacon Hill officials also
welcomed the new year with fat raises thanks in part to
a 2017 law that ties legislators’ pay to wages....
“Now’s the time for belt tightening
in government,” said the Pioneer Institutes’ Greg
Sullivan. “It’s a crisis situation for small
businesses. We can’t put all the burden on the
small business owner.”
Howie Carr noted on Wednesday in his Boston
Herald column ("2020 was a
fantastically prosperous year … for hacks"):
For public-sector America, also
known as the hackerama, 2020 was yet another
fantastically prosperous year. And most of them
got to “work” from home – wink wink, nudge nudge.
According to the latest numbers,
under the so-called leadership of Gov. Charlie Baker,
19,962 coat holders on the public payroll made over
$100,000 last year. There were 879 earning over
$200,000, and 116 making more than $300,000.
And behind those obscene salaries
comes the pension — 80% of the top three years if you’ve
got the years in, and you know they’ve all got the years
in to max out the kiss in the mail.
More rounds of criticism on the ridiculous
(I don't use "outrageous" anymore, because there is so much which is
that repetitive use of the word has stripped it of its power)
legislative pay bonanza will be noted below. There was lots of
reaction, especially in light of today's circumstances.
State House News Service reported on Thursday ("State Tax
Haul Rises Through December, But DOR Sees Descent Ahead; Collections
Higher Than Pre-Pandemic Levels"):
Over
the last six months of a pandemic that's led to wholesale changes in
consumer habits, business closures and job losses, Massachusetts
state government has collected $372 million more in taxes from
people and businesses than it did during the same six months of
pre-pandemic 2019.
The
Department of Revenue reported that December tax collections came in
at $2.842 billion, up by $230 million or 8.8 percent from the
December 2019 total. Halfway into fiscal 2021, the state has
collected approximately $14.306 billion from people and businesses.
That puts fiscal 2021 revenues $372 million or 2.7 percent ahead of
what was collected during the six months of fiscal 2020 that were
entirely unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic....
Massachusetts will also see billions in federal funds this fiscal
year, including about $1.3 billion for education aid as part of the
$900 billion pandemic relief and economic stimulus package Congress
passed late last month. President-elect Joe Biden has signaled
an interest in additional relief packages, including aid to state
and local governments, which could further benefit Massachusetts.
Well at least there's plenty of taxpayers'
money to fund all those generous state government employee pay raises
— and we know where it went. Worst is
that they all know there's always more where that came from
— from you and other taxpayers.
They'll be back for it soon enough.
Now here's a man-bites-dog story for
you!
The Boston Herald reported on Friday ("William
Galvin calling on Massachusetts Legislature for property tax relief"):
Secretary of State William Galvin is calling on the state
Legislature to offer relief to homeowners who are unable to pay
their property taxes on time, a deadline that is quickly approaching
in most cities and towns.
“With
so many people struggling financially right now, property tax
payments can be a hardship,” Galvin said in a statement.
Last
year, the Legislature allowed cities and towns to waive interest and
penalties on late property tax payments due to the hardship caused
by the pandemic. That relief expired on June 30.
“Now
that we are in a second wave of the pandemic, I think the time has
come to offer additional relief to those who are unemployed through
no fault of their own,” said Galvin, who is proposing the same type
of relief take effect again.
Galvin is also encouraging homeowners to take advantage of existing
abatement opportunities if they believe an assessment is too high.
“You
can challenge a tax bill if you believe that the assessed value is
too high in relation to similar properties in the neighborhood, or
that the classification is improper,” Galvin said....
Across the state, residential tax rates decreased on average in
2020, according to data from the Department of Revenue’s Division of
Local Services.
Bill Galvin's epiphany of concern for
property taxpayers reminds me of the concern expressed by candidate
Deval Patrick when he was running for governor, but quickly abandoned
once elected. Can Galvin be considering taking on Charlie Baker in
2022? If he is, watch for his fundraising efforts to begin ramping
up.
The Salem News reported on Saturday ("Baker
stuffs war chest with eye to 2022"):
Gov. Charlie Baker is fattening his
campaign coffers as speculation grows the popular
Republican may seek an unprecedented third term.
Baker reported raising $165,418
last month, according to his latest filings with the
state Office of Campaign and Political Finance. That's
his biggest fundraising haul in more than two years.
By comparison, Baker's campaign
account only reported about $900 in contributions during
the preceding month....
Political observers say Baker's
stratospheric popularity — his job approval numbers
remain among the highest of any governor — could ensure
him a long tenure.
The disgusting and tone-deaf legislative
pay grabs drew lots of ire and fire last week. Excerpts from a few
of the fusillades follow:
A Boston Herald editorial
Tuesday, January 5, 2021
Lawmakers should donate pay raises amid coronavirus pandemic
There’s a difference between doing the people’s business and giving
people the business.
Someone should explain this to the Massachusetts legislators who
intend to take the 6.46% raise on the table this year.
Our
lawmakers on Beacon Hill get a raise every two years — it’s written
into the Massachusetts Constitution that their pay correlate with
the state’s median household income. They voted a nice
increase for themselves in 2017, overriding Gov. Charlie Baker’s
veto, and got another 6% raise in 2019.
Each
of the state’s 200 senators and representatives are in line for a
$4,280 bump in their base salaries. They’ll also get a bump in
their expense accounts and stipends.
How
many people in the private sector have missed out on pay raises
because of company “belt-tightening,” even before the coronavirus
hit our shores?
In
past years, umbrage was (rightly) taken at the taxpayer burden
imposed by the pay hikes.
But
this year’s raises add insult to injury....
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
A new Legislature convenes and three pay hikes kick in. Only
in Massachusetts
Bay State taxpayers underwrite raises for politicians that
they can only dream about for themselves.
By Jeff Jacoby
If you are a Massachusetts resident
who works a minimum-wage job, your pay goes up this week
to $13.50 per hour, an increase of 75 cents.
If you are one of the state’s 1.2
million Social Security recipients, your benefits check
will be boosted by 1.3 percent this month. For the
average retiree, that will mean a monthly hike of about
$20.
If you are a private sector worker
in Greater Boston who gets an annual cost-of-living
adjustment based on the Consumer Price Index, your wages
may inch up by a slight 0.4 percent — the change in
prices locally over the past year, as determined by the
US Labor Department.
And if you are among the 6.7
percent of the state workforce that is currently
unemployed — you won’t get any paycheck at all, though
you may be eligible for temporary unemployment benefits.
But if you are a member of the
Massachusetts Legislature, you won’t have to settle for
such trifling (or nonexistent) gains in pay. The
salaries of Bay State legislators are going up by
thousands of dollars as a new session of the Legislature
commences and not one, not two, but three separate pay
raises kick in.
Again....
The Boston Herald
Saturday, January 9, 2021
Job #1 for Speaker Mariano: nix Legislature’s pay raise
By Peter Lucas
. . . The new pay raise for the 160
members of the House and 40 members of the Senate — who
have been working from home — is not only a bad look,
but also bad policy, coming at a time when people are
out of work while no legislator has missed a single
paycheck.
Who other than politicians can get
a pay raise in the middle of a pandemic that has wreaked
havoc with the working poor and everyone else? Who
else but legislators can also get an increase in
expenses and travel allowances during the COVID-19
lockdown? Nobody, that’s who.
The latest pay hike for the 2021
session raises the base pay for legislators from $66,250
to $70,530. This comes on top of the 5.9% raise
that was approved by Gov. Charlie Baker in 2019. . . .
However, the $70,530 new base pay
sum is misleading. Most legislators are paid more
than that....
More to the point, however, is that
House and Senate committee chairs, majority and minority
leaders, their assistants and just about everybody else
with a title is paid extra money as stipends.
Since the Democrats dominate the
Legislature, all committees are controlled by the
Democrats as are all the chairmanships. And all
the chairs are paid extra, starting at $30,000 for the
chairs of both the House and Senate Ways and Means
committees.
But Republican legislators, scarce
as they are on Beacon Hill, do not do badly either.
House Minority Leader Brad Jones of North Reading, who
is leader of some 30 Republicans in the House, receives
more than $50,000 in extra pay, bringing his salary well
over $100,000.
So does Rep. Bradford Hill of
Ipswich, the GOP assistant House minority leader.
Hill also received $50,000 in extra pay in the last
session of the Legislature.
If that is surprising, it is even
more startling in the Senate where there are now only
three Republicans — all “leaders” — in the 40-member
Democrat-controlled body even though there is no one to
lead. All make close to $100,000 or more.
They are Minority Leader Bruce Tarr of Gloucester and
Assistant Minority Leaders Ryan Fattman of Sutton and
Patrick O’Connor of Weymouth.
They all — Democrats, Republicans
and progressives — have turned public service into
private gain.
But not to worry. It was
announced last week that the minimum wage in 2021 — if
you have a job — will go from $12.75 an hour to $13.50,
a whopping increase of 75 cents. How thoughtful.
There's little I can or need to add to
those critiques.
The State House News Service
reported on Thursday ("Moving Out: Mass. Top Ten in 2020
Outbound Migration"):
A study by United Van Lines
found the most common reason for moving in or out of Massachusetts
was related to customers' jobs. [Courtesy]
More
people moved out of Massachusetts than relocated to the Bay State in
2020, with retirees and people seeking a change in lifestyle driving
the overall migration out of the state, according to a recent study
by a national moving company.
United Van Lines found Massachusetts to be one of the top 10 states
in the country that people were moving from as the COVID-19 pandemic
accelerated people's decisions to relocate and the years-long trend
of people moving south and west continued....
New
Jersey, New York, Illinois, Connecticut and California saw the
greatest percentage of movers leaving, with Massachusetts ranking
eighth....
United reported that 56.6 percent of its Massachusetts business was
from customers leaving the state, while 43.4 percent of moves were
people and family relocating here, primarily for work or family. The
company tracked 3,355 moves in and out of Massachusetts in 2020.
The
Boston metro area did not make United's list of Top 25 urban areas
for inbound or outbound migration, but the Worcester-Fitchburg-Leominster
area ranked 18th on the outbound list with 64 percent of movers
leaving the region on a United van.
Customers cited work as the most common reason for moving to
Massachusetts, with 40.4 percent of inbound moves related to a job,
followed by family at 30.6 percent, retirement at 12 percent and
lifestyle at 10.4 percent....
Of
those leaving Massachusetts, 35.2 percent of United customers
surveyed said it was because of work, while equal numbers of people
(24.2 percent) said they were leaving to retire or for family.
Another nearly 20 percent said they left for a change in
lifestyle....
Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island and New Hampshire all witnessed more
moves into the state than out, with the numbers almost split in New
Hampshire, while the two higher-cost states - Massachusetts and
Connecticut - experienced the reverse.
Zero Hedge Fund on
Saturday took a broader national overview of the migration
and exodus ("U-Haul Reveals 2020 Migration Trends As
Pandemic And Taxes Take Toll"):
A new
report has found that Tennessee posted the largest net gain of
U-Haul trucks than any other state in 2020, making it U-Haul's top
growth state for the first time.
Growth rates are determined by the net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks
entering a state versus leaving that state in a given year. U-Haul
keeps tabs on more than two million one-way U-Haul truck customer
transactions annually, allowing the company to observe migration
trends, according to the report published by U-Haul.
"Tennessee's influx of do-it-yourself movers during a turbulent year
marked by the coronavirus pandemic means that a state other than
Florida and Texas tops the growth rankings for the first time since
2015 when North Carolina led the way," the report said.
Texas
and Florida were the top two other destinations. For three
consecutive years, Texas had the largest net gain of one-way U-Haul
trucks before Florida displaced it for the number one spot last
year.
Before the pandemic, Americans fled liberal-run states and metro
areas because of high taxes to conservative states that were
business-friendly, such as Texas and Florida. The pandemic certainly
amplified the exodus....
On
the flip side, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, and
Oregon were the top five states with the most significant net loss
of U-Haul trucks....
We
have never seen such a sudden mass exodus away from major cities in
modern American history. U-Haul's report offers a unique insight
into migration trends that are overwhelmingly benefiting
conservative states while liberal ones plunge into socio-economic
turmoil.
Full List: States Ranked By Migration Growth
Chart linked above indicates previous year’s rankings in
parentheses.
Washington, D.C. is its own U-Haul market and is listed
among growth states for migration trends purposes.
Hawaii is not included since state-to-state truck
transactions are inapplicable.
Tennessee was ranked first for net
population, the most inbound arrivals from other states compared
to outbound migration to other states, followed by Texas (#2) and
Florida (#3).
Massachusetts was ranked at #47 for net
population, the fewest inbound arrivals from other states
compared to greater outbound migration to other states, followed
only by New Jersey (#48), Illinois (#49), and California (#50).
Even New York's vaunted exodus of former New Yorkers ranked it #42
— lower than Massachusetts.
(Kentucky was ranked #18, an improvement over last year's ranking of
#37.)
This is but a snapshot, primarily of low-
and middle-income residents on the move. I don't imagine many if
any of the wealthier avail themselves of loading U-Haul trucks and
trailers themselves when making their exodus to friendlier, more
welcoming states. Even I had a moving company haul my
belongings when I escaped — though I did
tow a small U-Haul trailer behind containing my office desk, chair, and
the entire computer system, which was all I had for ten days until the
movers finally arrived.
You might recall that the aforementioned
Secretary of State William Galvin was giddy over the population growth
due to "international immigration"
back in December, 2018:
Population growth in Massachusetts is outpacing that of other New
England states, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and Secretary
of State William Galvin is now predicting that the state should be
able to hold on to all nine seats in Congress with an accurate head
count in 2020.
New data released on Wednesday showed that the population in
Massachusetts grew by 38,903 people to 6.9 million between July 1,
2017 and July 1, 2018. The 0.6 percent growth rate equaled the
population growth in the country, and ranked Massachusetts 22nd
among all other states and first in New England.
Galvin said that while the state continues to lose residents to
other states, those loses are more than offset by international
immigration. "These numbers show how important it is that we ensure
every person in Massachusetts is counted in the 2020 Census, whether
or not they are United States citizens," Galvin said.
After the 2010 Census, Massachusetts lost one seat in Congress.
Galvin said the state should be able to avoid a repeat of that with
an accurate population count.
"More people moved out of Massachusetts
than relocated to the Bay State in 2020, with retirees and people
seeking a change in lifestyle driving the overall migration out of the
state, according to a recent study by a national moving company," the
News Service reported. A "change in lifestyle" covers escaping an
exorbitant cost-of-living, relentless high taxation, over-regulation,
political corruption, and a burgeoning nanny state where everything
that's not prohibited is mandatory, not to mention the weather among
other negatives. That sums up my motivation to escape; a "change of
lifestyle" for sure.
What Galvin seems to have overlooked is
that when population increases in other states (following last year's
national decennial census), that could add to those states' numbers of
congressional representatives — taking
those seats away from states losing, or not gaining, population.
The result could be Tennessee, Florida and Texas (all Crimson Red
states) gaining congressional representatives (and Electoral College
electors) while Massachusetts, California, Illinois, Maryland, and
Oregon (all Deep Blue states) lose congressional seats. The nation
can only hope.
|
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
|
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Full News Reports Follow
(excerpted above) |
|
State House
News Service
Wednesday, January 6, 2021 | 5:23 AM
Senate Session Summary - Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021
Adjourns Sine Die At 4:41 a.m. Wednesday
By Sam Doran
Ending a General Court whose course and operations were
altered by the pandemic, the Legislature kept its final
sessions of the biennium open until after 4:30 a.m.
Wednesday, less than seven hours until the new Legislature
is due to be sworn in. Sessions had been scheduled to end on
Tuesday at midnight but no objections were raised and the
Senate held votes throughout the evening that creeped its
final adjournment farther toward dawn.
After sending a final day-and-a-half's worth of bills to
Gov. Baker's desk including accords on transportation
infrastructure borrowing and economic development and jobs,
the Senate adjourned sine die -- without any more sittings
to follow -- at 4:41 a.m.
Also acted upon Tuesday (and early Wednesday) were measures
dealing with emergency room access, Quincy College degrees,
waterway pollution awareness, MBTA service cuts, and a
commission on the commonwealth's seal. Among the proposals
left unfinished, and pronounced dead at sine die, were a
bill from Gov. Baker to limit large hikes scheduled for 2021
in business unemployment taxes (H 5206), which the House
shelved in its Ways and Means Committee, and legislation to
address emergency action on FEMA flood insurance rate maps
(H 4720), which was stuck in the House Third Reading
Committee before adjournment.
The Senate gavels in at 11 a.m. Wednesday kicking off the
new General Court with an outdoor swearing-in ceremony for a
quorum of senators in Ashburton Park.
The Boston
Herald
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
Massachusetts’ $8.2B state payroll, raises called a ‘sick’
trend during pandemic
State pay jumps by $17M and six-figure earners top the
charts
By Erin Tiernan
In a year that ushered in staggering unemployment amid the
economic collapse from the coronavirus pandemic, the state’s
payroll ballooned more than $17 million to $8.2 billion in
2020, a Herald analysis shows.
Officials blamed the payroll spike on contractual increases
negotiated with police, teachers and other unions.
Responding to the COVID-19 crisis was also cited.
But Beacon Hill officials also welcomed the new year with
fat raises thanks in part to a 2017 law that ties
legislators’ pay to wages.
In all, a study of state comptroller payroll figures for all
of 2020 finalized this week shows top earners recorded
six-figure sums:
• Nearly 2,000
state employees earned $100,000 or more.
• 879 took home $200,000 and up.
• 116, $300,000 and beyond.
• 36, $400,00 and more.
• 13, $500,000 and above.
• 6, at $600,000 and up.
• 3, at $700,000 or more.
• 2 clocked in at $1 million and change.
In a year like no
other, the recovery from the pandemic will hit the private
sector hard if the high pay keeps up, fiscal watchdogs warn.
“Now’s the time for belt tightening in government,” said the
Pioneer Institutes’ Greg Sullivan. “It’s a crisis situation
for small businesses. We can’t put all the burden on the
small business owner.”
Massachusetts had the worst unemployment rate in the nation
at 16.1% in July. The state has climbed up since, but job
growth continues to slow after unprecedented losses,
statistics show.
Paul Diego Craney of Mass Fiscal Alliance said the high pay
today sends the wrong message.
“This is not the direction the state should be going in this
year,” he said Tuesday night. “How is it possible a state
can shut down and an economy can tank and two employees can
earn more than one million?”
He said anyone earning more than Gov. Charlie Baker —
$184,999 — should be looked at closely.
But the spending continues. The state’s 200 senators and
representatives saw their salaries jump 6.46% this week,
bringing their base pay up to $70,536.
A separate 4.89% boost to both expense accounts and stipends
for legislative leaders amounts to a lucrative payday
especially for elected officials, some of whom will get
raises north of $9,000 this year.
Constitutional officers are also entitled to a hefty raise,
though some have already declined.
State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg said she won’t take the
boost to her $189,000 salary noting, “with so many people
hurting, now is not the time to consider something like
this.”
Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito also declined
the 4.89% raise.
The payroll bumps come as state budget writers prepare to
craft another budget in the midst of an uncertain financial
future. Pandemic-era business shutdowns have sent state tax
revenues into free fall and led the state to rely heavily on
one-time funding sources — including the state’s rainy day
fund — to balance the current year budget.
Economists have warned the spending plan for the year that
begins on July 1 could put even more strain on the state’s
limited resources with continued uncertainty over when a
full return to economic activity will be possible.
The state has avoided layoffs until now. Baker must submit
his budget by the end of the month.
The Baker administration said the state’s total $8.2 billion
payroll includes the UMass system, independent agencies and
constitutional offices “outside of the control of the
executive branch.” And some of the highest paid are in the
UMass system.
“The administration has reduced the executive branch
headcount by nearly 2,100 employees since taking office, and
much of the payroll spending growth in 2020 was driven by
contractual increases and COVID-19 response efforts,” said
Patrick Marvin, administration and finance spokesman.
He added the fiscal ’21 budget “controls new spending and
does not raise taxes, while enabling significant investments
in the Commonwealth’s schools and small businesses.”
Some employees took early retirement and “900 people left
under the Voluntary Separation Incentive Program, 100 of
whom made over $100,000 a year,” Marvin said in an email to
the Herald.
Jim Lyons, head of the MassGOP, slammed lawmakers for not
setting the tone.
“People are out of work, families are struggling to put food
on the table, and these same Democrats who insist on further
shutting down our economy are giving themselves raises for
the third time in as many sessions,” Lyons said. “This
honestly makes me sick to my stomach.”
The Boston
Herald
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
2020 was a fantastically prosperous year … for hacks
By Howie Carr
You always learn something new when the annual state payroll
comes out and today we learn … Gerard Leone Jr., former
district attorney of Middlesex County.
Forgotten, but not gone — last year this hack grabbed
$291,200 as “general counsel” at the University of
Massachusetts.
He’s had his snout buried (for the second time) in the
public trough since 2017, but did anybody know it?
When he resigned as district attorney of the state’s largest
county in 2013, Leone went to a big downtown law firm, Nixon
Peabody. Much hoopla.
Not so much hoopla two years later, in 2015, when he fled
the white-shoe firm to become “vice president of people
development,” whatever that is, at Consigli Construction Co.
And no hoopla whatsoever in 2017 when Leone was snatched off
the waiver wire, I mean, recruited after a nationwide
search, by his fellow former Middlesex County coat holder
Marty Meehan, now the president of ZooMass.
If you look on the state comptroller’s payroll, Leone’s
annual rate is listed as $302,848 a year, so I guess in 2020
he did tighten his belt, so to speak, just like his boss
Marty, whose pay is listed on different state payrolls as
between $584,748 and $682,270 – but hey, who’s counting?
I mention this only because this latest payroll shows, once
again, that former Sen. John Edwards was right when he said
that there are “two Americas.”
Public-sector America and the Dreaded Private Sector (DPS).
For public-sector America, also known as the hackerama, 2020
was yet another fantastically prosperous year. And most of
them got to “work” from home – wink wink, nudge nudge.
According to the latest numbers, under the so-called
leadership of Gov. Charlie Baker, 19,962 coat holders on the
public payroll made over $100,000 last year. There were 879
earning over $200,000, and 116 making more than $300,000.
And behind those obscene salaries comes the pension — 80% of
the top three years if you’ve got the years in, and you know
they’ve all got the years in to max out the kiss in the
mail.
As Thomas Jefferson said more than 200 years ago of the
nascent federal bureaucracy: “Vacancies by death are few, by
resignation never.”
Because on those rare occasions when someone does decide to
leave, it seldom works out for the best. They often have to
come crawling back to the hackerama. Exhibit A: Gerry Leone.
As they were making these big bucks in 2020, most of the
state’s payroll Charlies were working “remotely,” as their
voicemail messages always say. Meanwhile, the DPS was
utterly ravaged by the insane, capricious dictates of
someone who never once missed either a paycheck or a meal.
That would be Charlie Baker, who’s making $200,355 a year.
The DPS got two months of the nation’s highest unemployment
rate, not to mention the continuing highest nursing home
death rate in the US and the third highest overall death
rate among the 50 states.
And yet Baker et al. aren’t just feeding at the trough,
they’re licking the plate.
Take UMass — please. The whole place was pretty much shut
down for the last 9 or 10 months of the year. (The football
coach, Walter Bell, only had four games this year — he now
has a 1-15 record over two years to justify his
$618,682.92-a-year salary.)
The 30 top-paying state jobs belong to UMass hirelings
before you get to the chief medical examiner, Mindy Hull, at
$395,624.90 a year. Then there are another 15 ZooMass
Minutepersons before the next non-academic – Steve Poftak,
the boss of the MBTA, at $345,322.81 a year.
Think about that one – according to their own statistics,
passengers on the T’s commuter rail lines have dropped by
90%. On the subways, the T is down 60-75 percent.
Those numbers are like … Massachusetts restaurants. But
Poftak hasn’t missed any paychecks, has he? When the T even
hinted at layoffs, denunciations and recriminations were
hurled indiscriminately. How dare they?
Speaking of which, it’s January. When do the promised
Massport layoffs begin? What are the chances of any of
Massport’s legions of six-figure hacks ever being separated
from the trough?
There are three chances of hack layoffs at Massport: Slim,
fat and none.
These salaries are almost enough to make you forget the pay
raises the hacks in the Legislature just scored. Almost.
After their latest raises, and increases in expenses, not to
mention their stipends, the least any state senator is
making is $103,846 a year.
That includes $70,537 salary, at least $17,044 for expenses
(formerly per diems, source of so many scandals) and a
minimum bonus of $16,245 for their positions in leadership.
Incidentally, 40 of 40 state senators are in “leadership”
positions. Every last one of them.
Hey, It beats working. It beats being vice president of
people development. Just ask Gerry Leone.
State House
News Service
Thursday, January 7, 2021
State Tax Haul Rises Through December, But DOR Sees Descent
Ahead
Collections Higher Than Pre-Pandemic Levels
By Colin A. Young
Over the last six months of a pandemic that's led to
wholesale changes in consumer habits, business closures and
job losses, Massachusetts state government has collected
$372 million more in taxes from people and businesses than
it did during the same six months of pre-pandemic 2019.
The Department of Revenue reported that December tax
collections came in at $2.842 billion, up by $230 million or
8.8 percent from the December 2019 total. Halfway into
fiscal 2021, the state has collected approximately $14.306
billion from people and businesses. That puts fiscal 2021
revenues $372 million or 2.7 percent ahead of what was
collected during the six months of fiscal 2020 that were
entirely unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Baker administration does not expect the cushion that's
been accumulated to last, however. The administration
expects that fiscal year 2021 tax collections will end up
3.9 percent below actual fiscal year 2020 collections and
DOR this week outlined how it expects that shift to
materialize.
If tax collections outperform the administration's
expectations, it could put the state in a significantly
better position for the fiscal 2022 budget. By the end of
next week, the administration and Joint Ways and Means
committees must agree on a consensus revenue estimate for
fiscal 2022, which begins July 1, and Gov. Charlie Baker
must propose a fiscal 2022 budget based on that projected
revenue base by Jan. 27.
Massachusetts will also see billions in federal funds this
fiscal year, including about $1.3 billion for education aid
as part of the $900 billion pandemic relief and economic
stimulus package Congress passed late last month.
President-elect Joe Biden has signaled an interest in
additional relief packages, including aid to state and local
governments, which could further benefit Massachusetts.
December's haul was fueled by increases in corporate and
business taxes (up $201 million or 51.7 percent from
December 2019), withholding (up $44 million or 3.4 percent),
and regular sales tax (up $26 million or 6.3 percent). Meals
tax (down $36 million or 36 percent) and "all other" tax
receipts (down $6 million or 2.9 percent) declined for the
month.
"The increase in withholding reflects increases in
unemployment insurance benefits and the increase in
corporate and business taxes is partly attributable to
one-time business restructuring events and timing factors
such as changes to corporate estimated payment installment
patterns," Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder said.
December is one of the more significant months for state tax
collections, DOR said, and typically accounts for about 9.5
percent of annual tax revenue in part because many corporate
taxpayers must make quarterly estimated payments.
Snyder said DOR will continue to "monitor revenue
collections closely in the coming months."
In conjunction with the announcement of December revenues,
DOR also released its monthly expectations for the rest of
fiscal 2021 based on the administration's revenue estimate
as upgraded in December. DOR has not been reporting how
collections so far in fiscal 2021 have compared to its
expectations and a DOR spokeswoman said the agency does not
have benchmarks for the first six months of fiscal 2021.
The new monthly benchmarks offer a bit of a hint as to when
DOR anticipates that the bottom will fall out between now
and the end of June.
DOR is expecting to collect $2.738 billion in January, which
would be $218 million less than the agency collected in
January 2020. The expectation of $1.486 billion in February
would be $29 million less than was collected in February
2020 and the $2.266 billion that DOR expects to receive in
March would be $393 million less than actual March 2020
collections.
If those benchmarks are met, it would mean that
Massachusetts would collect $640 million less over the next
three months than it did during the same period of time in
2020 and the $372 million revenue cushion budget managers
are currently sitting on would evaporate. The state would
instead be looking at a $268 million drop from 2020
collections.
Over the final three months of fiscal 2021, DOR is expecting
to collect $951 million less than it did during the same
three months of fiscal 2020. Those estimates put
Massachusetts on track for a drop of $1.219 billion from
actual fiscal 2020 tax collections, which is roughly in
keeping with the framework of the $45.9 billion fiscal year
2021 budget that Baker signed last month.
In recent years, specifically fiscal years 2016 and 2017,
Massachusetts saw tax collections crater in the second half
of the year. Stock market volatility cut into investment
profits resulting in lower than expected capital gains tax
collections over the second half of fiscal 2016. Then,
during fiscal 2017, budgeted fund tax revenues increased by
just $211 million, or 0.9 percent, from fiscal 2016, dragged
down by declines in capital gains and corporate tax
revenues.
Even as the COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest unfolded
around the country through 2020 and into 2021, the stock
market has generally been resilient. On Wednesday, the
Nasdaq Composite rose above 13,000 for the first time, and
the Dow Jones Industrial Average surpassed 31,000 and closed
at an all-time high.
For fiscal year 2022, the administration's forecast predicts
that tax collections will fall within a range of $27.83
billion to $30.61 billion, or between a 1 percent decrease
and an 8.8 percent increase.
State House
News Service
Friday, January 8, 2021
Weekly Roundup - Out with the Old, In with the Older
Recap and analysis of the week in state government
By Matt Murphy
All-nighters aren't just for college kids anymore.
Despite everyone's most fervent wishes, simply watching the
ball drop on New Year's Eve Thursday didn't end the madness
of 2020. And midnight wound up looking like an early bedtime
for the week that was about to unfold.
The first full week of 2021 started innocently enough.
On Sunday night, MassGOP Chairman Jim Lyons eked out a
victory by three votes over Rep. Shawn Dooley to maintain
control of the state party, and legislative negotiators
announced they had struck a deal on a climate change bill to
set a statewide target of net-zero emissions by 2050 and to
authorize even more offshore wind.
But by the end of the week, democracy was under attack, 12
more days of the Trump administration was being talked about
like too great a risk to take, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh was
checking Amtrak schedules to D.C., and the promise of the
COVID-19 vaccine was getting showered by the cold reality of
continued viral spread.
Welcome to 2021.
The Legislature came to work Monday and passed the climate
bill, set a special election date to replace former Speaker
Robert DeLeo on March 30 and went home around dinner time to
prepare for the last day of session.
It was always going to be a long night on Tuesday, with
major economic development and transportation financing
legislation still up in the air. But it's unlikely anyone
had 4:34 a.m. in their virtual office pool as the time the
final gavel would fall.
Not even five extra months to finish their work could help
lawmakers save themselves from the last-minute rush, and
though they went home tired, they also went home having
accomplished most of the big ticket items on their to-do
list.
The House and Senate managed to send to Gov. Charlie Baker a
$16.5 billion transportation bond bill that the governor
said was needed to access federal funding and get ready for
the spring construction season. They also agreed to a $626
million jobs bill full of grant and loan programs to help
small businesses, restaurants, artists and other industries
crushed by the pandemic.
The notable piece missing from the economic development bill
was a House-backed plan to legalize sports betting in
Massachusetts.
Gov. Baker supports the idea. He even filed his own bill
this session. But Speaker Ron Mariano said he didn't have a
dance partner in the Senate, where leaders would not
entertain the idea of tacking the gambling expansion onto
the jobs bill, or debate it separately.
"If we could, we'd have a deal," Mariano told Bloomberg
radio Tuesday evening. Mariano said he wants to come back to
the issue early this year.
By the time everyone's head hit the pillow, the Legislature
had also passed campus sexual assault prevention and craft
beer distribution bills, approved of a commission to examine
changing the state seal and sent Baker a bill intended to
reduce racial inequities in maternal health.
The one piece that pulled up lame before it got to the
finish line was a cap on unemployment insurance rate
increases in 2021, but there's still time for the
Legislature to do that before first quarter bills come due.
In fact, it might just give the new Legislature something to
vote on to start the new session.
The hardest thing to do Wednesday should have been getting
out of bed. But on a day when new and returning lawmakers
took their oaths to start a new session on Beacon Hill and
Senate President Karen Spilka and Mariano were reelected to
their leadership posts, riots stoked by the president of the
United States on Twitter erupted on Capitol Hill.
A mob, fueled by unproven claims of election fraud repeated
by the president and his allies, broke into the Capitol.
They were intent on disrupting the certification by Congress
of the Electoral College vote that would give
President-elect Joe Biden the victory.
But Congress returned to work that night and certified the
Electoral College vote at around 3:45 a.m.
The fact that Congress fulfilled its Constitutional
obligation despite the chaos of the day was the one bright
spot, according to Gov. Baker, who the next day said he was
sickened by what he watched on TV.
Baker, a Republican, joined the chorus of Democrats,
including every member of Congress from Massachusetts, in
calling for Trump to be removed from office. No more waiting
until Jan. 20 for President-elect Joe Biden to be
inaugurated. Let Vice President Mike Pence oversee the
transition, the governor said.
Trump's future hangs in the balance, but as he prepares to
leave Washington, Mayor Walsh is ready to move in.
People around City Hall and the mayor have been downplaying
the Walsh-to-Washington speculation for weeks, insisting
that the mayor was gearing up for reelection and maybe not
even interested in a Biden administration post.
Maybe that's exactly what people tell reporters to throw
them off the scent. Or maybe they didn't think it would
happen, at the end of the day. But it did.
Biden officially introduced Walsh as his nominee for labor
secretary on Friday, after joking a day earlier amid reports
that Walsh had been chosen that he was still looking for an
Irishman to round out his Cabinet.
Needless to say, Walsh's decision to trade the Charles for
the Potomac has completely upended the race for mayor. City
Council President Kim Janey is now preparing to become the
first Black woman mayor in the city's history, and
Councilors Michelle Wu and Andrea Campbell - who were
already running for mayor - are preparing for company on the
trail.
Janey will be watched closely for signals that she might get
in the race, while Councilor Annissa Essaibi George is now
taking a look. The off-cycle municipal election also means
that State House denizens could have a free run at the seat
if they want it, and the North End's Aaron Michlewitz, who
chaired the House Ways and Means Committee last session, is
kicking the tires, according to sources.
Reports also suggest that the South End's Rep. Jon Santiago
and others are also thinking about it.
While it will take some time for the mayoral chess game to
play out, COVID-19 is still here. Right now.
Gov. Baker this week announced that business restrictions
put in place on Dec. 26, including 25 percent capacity
limits in many businesses, would be extended at least two
weeks until Jan. 24, and new pool testing would be made
available to K-12 school students and personnel.
The administration is also ready to give hospitals facing
capacity constraints leeway from nurse staffing-level
mandates in ICUs to free up more beds. Hospitalizations are
up 145 percent since Thanksgiving.
Vaccines already deployed in hospitals and nursing homes
will become available to first responders beginning Monday,
when another week begins.
But until then, in the words of Speaker Mariano, who was
caught on a hot mic as he gaveled the first session of the
192nd General Court to a close, let's "get the hell outta
here."
STORY OF THE WEEK: Sometimes good things happen after 2 a.m.
The Boston
Herald
Friday, January 8, 2021
William Galvin calling on Massachusetts Legislature for
property tax relief
By Alexi Cohan
Secretary of State William Galvin is calling on the state
Legislature to offer relief to homeowners who are unable to
pay their property taxes on time, a deadline that is quickly
approaching in most cities and towns.
“With so many people struggling financially right now,
property tax payments can be a hardship,” Galvin said in a
statement.
Last year, the Legislature allowed cities and towns to waive
interest and penalties on late property tax payments due to
the hardship caused by the pandemic. That relief expired on
June 30.
“Now that we are in a second wave of the pandemic, I think
the time has come to offer additional relief to those who
are unemployed through no fault of their own,” said Galvin,
who is proposing the same type of relief take effect again.
Galvin is also encouraging homeowners to take advantage of
existing abatement opportunities if they believe an
assessment is too high.
“You can challenge a tax bill if you believe that the
assessed value is too high in relation to similar properties
in the neighborhood, or that the classification is
improper,” Galvin said.
Feb. 1 is the deadline for property tax payments in
two-thirds of the cities and towns in Massachusetts and also
the last day to file for an abatement.
Many Massachusetts residents are still struggling to make
ends meet due to unemployment or other financial hardships
caused by the pandemic, causing bills to pile up.
Eric Demas, CFO for the city of Everett, said many residents
are looking to take advantage of any type of relief that
becomes available.
“Everett has been disproportionately impacted given our
density and certainly any available tools that the
Legislature can give us to continue to provide additional
relief is greatly appreciated,” said Demas.
He said the city’s property tax and water and sewer
receivables have been increasing, showing that people are
struggling to make payments.
“The city is doing everything that we can to provide as much
relief we can recognizing the situation everyone is in,”
said Demas.
Demas said while property value in Everett is up, taxes went
down this year as levy limits were lowered.
Across the state, residential tax rates decreased on average
in 2020, according to data from the Department of Revenue’s
Division of Local Services.
A spokeswoman for Galvin said he is currently contacting
members of the Legislature about his proposal for relief.
The Boston
Herald
Tuesday, January 5, 2021
A Boston Herald editorial
Lawmakers should donate pay raises amid coronavirus pandemic
There’s a difference between doing the people’s business and
giving people the business.
Someone should explain this to the Massachusetts legislators
who intend to take the 6.46% raise on the table this year.
Our lawmakers on Beacon Hill get a raise every two years —
it’s written into the Massachusetts Constitution that their
pay correlate with the state’s median household income. They
voted a nice increase for themselves in 2017, overriding
Gov. Charlie Baker’s veto, and got another 6% raise in 2019.
Each of the state’s 200 senators and representatives are in
line for a $4,280 bump in their base salaries. They’ll also
get a bump in their expense accounts and stipends.
How many people in the private sector have missed out on pay
raises because of company “belt-tightening,” even before the
coronavirus hit our shores?
In past years, umbrage was (rightly) taken at the taxpayer
burden imposed by the pay hikes.
But this year’s raises add insult to injury.
In a pandemic that has cost hundreds of thousands of
Massachusetts jobs, with a jobless rate of 6.7% (as of
November), and that has shuttered businesses across the
state, legislators get more money.
But they don’t have to — lawmakers and other constitutional
officers can reject the raises.
According to a spokesperson, Gov. Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn
Polito will decline.
New Speaker of the House Ronald Mariano will accept the
raise — his pay packet climbs to more than $178,000 a year.
This while desperate families set their hopes on a stimulus
check.
State Rep. Mike Connolly, another raise-taker, said, “Cost
of living increases make sense for everyone in terms of
government benefits, Social Security and other programs.”
Here’s what seniors receiving Social Security will get for a
cost of living increase this year: 1.3%.
Members of the military are set to receive a 3% pay raise
this year, according to federalnewsnetwork.com. Business
Insider reports that base pay for an enlisted service member
in their first six months comes out to less than $20,000 per
year. Newly commissioned officers make about $38,250 a year.
It’s good to be a lawmaker in the Bay State.
Yes, we have coronavirus vaccines, and a return to normalcy
is on the horizon, but we are still struggling.
Food banks are seeing double-digit increases in demand for
free groceries.
Here’s a challenge to lawmakers opting for that pay hike
amid an economy-crushing pandemic: Donate the money to a
food bank, a homeless shelter or one of the many
organizations that are helping those in need. There’s no
shortage of want in Massachusetts — what a great way to show
solidarity with constituents, not just the high-earners, but
those who try to support a family on minimum wage jobs,
those who’ve seen tips disappear along with their restaurant
positions, those who have spent all their savings without a
new job in sight.
It’s taxpayer money that’s funding your pay raise — never
forget that.
David Tuerck, president of the Beacon Hill Institute, summed
up the situation succinctly: “It is utterly inappropriate
for any state government official to take a pay raise at
this time, considering we are still in the depths of this
COVID-19 crisis and considering the fact many that many
people have gone without pay for quite some time.”
Legislators, the ball is in your court.
The Boston
Globe
Wednesday, January 6, 2021
A new Legislature convenes and three pay hikes kick in. Only
in Massachusetts
Bay State taxpayers underwrite raises for politicians that
they can only dream about for themselves.
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist
If you are a Massachusetts resident who works a minimum-wage
job, your pay goes up this week to $13.50 per hour, an
increase of 75 cents.
If you are one of the state’s 1.2 million Social Security
recipients, your benefits check will be boosted by 1.3
percent this month. For the average retiree, that will mean
a monthly hike of about $20.
If you are a private sector worker in Greater Boston who
gets an annual cost-of-living adjustment based on the
Consumer Price Index, your wages may inch up by a slight 0.4
percent — the change in prices locally over the past year,
as determined by the US Labor Department.
And if you are among the 6.7 percent of the state workforce
that is currently unemployed — you won’t get any paycheck at
all, though you may be eligible for temporary unemployment
benefits.
But if you are a member of the Massachusetts Legislature,
you won’t have to settle for such trifling (or nonexistent)
gains in pay. The salaries of Bay State legislators are
going up by thousands of dollars as a new session of the
Legislature commences and not one, not two, but three
separate pay raises kick in.
Again.
Pay Raise No. 1 will enrich each senator and representative
by an additional $4,280 per year, raising their base salary
by 6.46 percent from the current $66,257. Under an amendment
to the Massachusetts Constitution, legislative salaries are
adjusted every two years to match the change in household
median income, as determined by the governor. The
Legislature placed that amendment on the ballot in 1998 and
successfully pitched it to voters as a guarantee that
lawmakers would never again vote to hoist their own
salaries.
But in Massachusetts, lawmakers don’t collect only a salary.
They also collect a generous “expense allowance” —
currently, $16,250 per year for those whose districts are
within 50 miles of the State House and $21,660 for all the
others. On top of that, every state senator and almost
two-thirds of state representatives collect hefty
“leadership stipends,” which augment their compensation by
at least 20 percent. For most taxpayers, getting that kind
of money for a job as undemanding as state legislator is
sheer fantasy. But when it comes to their own pockets,
Massachusetts lawmakers make fantasies come true.
In 2017, the Legislature passed a law automatically hiking
their expense allowances and leadership stipends in tandem
with state wages every two years — effectively guaranteeing
themselves a second and third pay raise at the start of each
new session. Even for Beacon Hill, it was a brazen ploy.
There was a public outcry, and Governor Charlie Baker vetoed
the measure. But the Legislature steamrolled his veto, with
the result that each two-year legislative session now begins
with multiple pay raises for House and Senate members. In
the 2021-22 session, Massachusetts lawmakers will be paid a
base salary of $70,537, plus an expense allowance of $22,729
($17,044 for those within 50 miles of Boston). In addition,
70 percent of legislators will receive yearly “leadership”
pay ranging from $17,039 to $90,876. No member will make
less than $87,581; some will collect as much as $178,457.
Virtually no other state pays its lawmakers so much money.
(California, New York, and Pennsylvania are the exceptions,
according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.)
If Beacon Hill were a model of legislative excellence, such
exorbitant compensation might be justifiable, but the
opposite is true. Most Massachusetts legislators have no
influence, and the handful who do conduct nearly all their
business in secret — indeed, our Legislature is one of the
least transparent in America. Year in, year out, the
Legislature blows off its deadline to pass a state budget.
Rarely is any legislative issue seriously debated in the
open. Bills approved in advance are typically gaveled to
passage in pro forma votes whose outcome is a forgone
conclusion.
In most of America, state lawmakers convene for just a few
weeks or months each year — long enough to hammer out a
budget, approve needed legislation, and adjourn. They know
better than to think of legislating as a full-time job
requiring bountiful salaries.
But not in Massachusetts. Here, growing their own pay is one
of the things legislators do really well, and taxpayers keep
underwriting raises that they can only dream about for
themselves.
The Boston
Herald
Saturday, January 9, 2021
Job #1 for Speaker Mariano: nix Legislature’s pay raise
By Peter Lucas
Newly elected House Speaker Ron Mariano’s first order of
business should be to rescind the pay raise the
Massachusetts Legislature just pocketed.
If the 74-year-old veteran legislator wants to set a
positive tone, he could call on members to forego the
unwarranted pay hike.
Not only would it be a bold leadership move, but it would
also show some empathy towards hundreds of thousands of
people who are out of work and struggling to put food on the
table and pay the rent as a result of the coronavirus
shutdown.
If legislators find it too technically complicated to return
the pay raise, they could donate the money to a nonprofit
that is providing food for the needy and the homeless. They
could figure it out.
The new pay raise for the 160 members of the House and 40
members of the Senate — who have been working from home — is
not only a bad look, but also bad policy, coming at a time
when people are out of work while no legislator has missed a
single paycheck.
Who other than politicians can get a pay raise in the middle
of a pandemic that has wreaked havoc with the working poor
and everyone else? Who else but legislators can also get an
increase in expenses and travel allowances during the
COVID-19 lockdown? Nobody, that’s who.
The latest pay hike for the 2021 session raises the base pay
for legislators from $66,250 to $70,530. This comes on top
of the 5.9% raise that was approved by Gov. Charlie Baker in
2019.
The salary of lawmakers is based on the median state
household income, but the governor has the authority to set
the exact amount. Baker last week ordered an increase of
6.46%.
However, the $70,530 new base pay sum is misleading. Most
legislators are paid more than that.
In 2017 the Legislature, over a Baker veto, approved special
legislation circumventing the regular pay scale adjustment
process to allow whopping increases in office and travel
expenses based on how far legislators commuted to the State
House.
Even though legislative staff is paid by the state, and
legislators are working from home during the pandemic, each
legislator is allowed up to $20,000 in expenses.
Leaders in the House and Senate, committee chairs and other
ranking members are paid additional sums of money in
“stipends.” Consequently, there is hardly a member of the
Legislature who is not paid more than the base salary. All
you need is a title.
For instance, both the Senate and House “pro tempores” Sen.
Marc Pacheco of Taunton and Rep. Patricia Haddad of Somerset
each have a $50,000 stipend to go along with their base
salary.
Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka under the raise
are paid $178,500, not including perks and expenses.
More to the point, however, is that House and Senate
committee chairs, majority and minority leaders, their
assistants and just about everybody else with a title is
paid extra money as stipends.
Since the Democrats dominate the Legislature, all committees
are controlled by the Democrats as are all the
chairmanships. And all the chairs are paid extra, starting
at $30,000 for the chairs of both the House and Senate Ways
and Means committees.
But Republican legislators, scarce as they are on Beacon
Hill, do not do badly either. House Minority Leader Brad
Jones of North Reading, who is leader of some 30 Republicans
in the House, receives more than $50,000 in extra pay,
bringing his salary well over $100,000.
So does Rep. Bradford Hill of Ipswich, the GOP assistant
House minority leader. Hill also received $50,000 in extra
pay in the last session of the Legislature.
If that is surprising, it is even more startling in the
Senate where there are now only three Republicans — all
“leaders” — in the 40-member Democrat-controlled body even
though there is no one to lead. All make close to $100,000
or more. They are Minority Leader Bruce Tarr of Gloucester
and Assistant Minority Leaders Ryan Fattman of Sutton and
Patrick O’Connor of Weymouth.
They all — Democrats, Republicans and progressives — have
turned public service into private gain.
But not to worry. It was announced last week that the
minimum wage in 2021 — if you have a job — will go from
$12.75 an hour to $13.50, a whopping increase of 75 cents.
How thoughtful.
The
Salem News
Saturday, January 9, 2021
Baker stuffs war chest with eye to 2022
By Christian M. Wade | Statehouse Reporter
Gov. Charlie Baker is fattening his campaign coffers as
speculation grows the popular Republican may seek an
unprecedented third term.
Baker reported raising $165,418 last month, according to his
latest filings with the state Office of Campaign and
Political Finance. That's his biggest fundraising haul in
more than two years.
By comparison, Baker's campaign account only reported about
$900 in contributions during the preceding month.
While Baker hasn't said he will seek a third term, he hasn't
ruled it out, and his campaign has been keeping its
fundraising on slow burn in the event that he decides to run
again in 2022.
To be sure, Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito already have a
sizable war chest at their disposal. The duo had more than
$2.5 million between their campaign accounts as of Jan. 4,
according to OCPF records.
Some of the money has amassed over the past year, but a
sizable chunk was leftover from previous campaigns.
Polito's contributions were even slightly higher than
Baker's in December, with the Shrewsbury Republican raking
in $165,944, according to campaign disclosures.
The Baker-Polito fundraising machine is well oiled and known
for shaking the state's biggest money trees, drumming up
more cash than any gubernatorial campaign in recent history.
During the 2018 campaign, Baker and Polito at one point had
more than $10 million combined in their campaign coffers.
Many of Baker's contributions in December came from usual
suspects — lawyers, lobbyists and real estate developers who
traditionally open up their checkbooks for the state's top
elected officials at the end of the year.
But he also picked up small donations from supporters like
Charles and Hilda Parrott, of Newburyport, who each chipped
in $50.
"I think he should seek a third term," said Charles Parrott,
a longtime Baker supporter. "I've been really pleased with
the job he's done over the past six years and don't see
anyone else at this point who could do as good a job."
There are no term limits for Massachusetts governors, and
while a handful in the past have served three terms, most
don't stick around longer than eight years.
Democrat Mike Dukakis is the most recent governor to serve
three terms but not consecutively. He was governor from
1975-79, and again from 1984-1991.
Leverett Saltonstall, a Republican, served three consecutive
terms from 1939-1945. But terms for governor were only two
years back then, so he was only in office six years.
Recent governors, including Republican Bill Weld and
Democrat Deval Patrick, have toyed with the idea of seeking
a third term but ultimately decided against it.
Political observers say Baker's stratospheric popularity —
his job approval numbers remain among the highest of any
governor — could ensure him a long tenure.
"Gov. Baker's prospects are very strong for a third term,"
said Jeff Berry, a political science professor at Tuft's
University. "He remains popular throughout the state. And
there's no indication that a major Democrat is going to step
forward at this time to contest him, so right now he's the
pavement."
— Christian M. Wade covers
the Massachusetts Statehouse for The Salem News and its
sister newspapers and websites.
A study by
United Van Lines found the most common reason for moving in
or out of Massachusetts
was related to customers' jobs. [Courtesy]
State House
News Service
Thursday, January 7, 2021
Moving Out: Mass. Top Ten in 2020 Outbound Migration
United Van Lines Data Measures Moves During Pandemic
By Matt Murphy
More people moved out of Massachusetts than relocated to the
Bay State in 2020, with retirees and people seeking a change
in lifestyle driving the overall migration out of the state,
according to a recent study by a national moving company.
United Van Lines found Massachusetts to be one of the top 10
states in the country that people were moving from as the
COVID-19 pandemic accelerated people's decisions to relocate
and the years-long trend of people moving south and west
continued.
Idaho topped United's survey for inbound moves, followed by
South Carolina, Oregon, South Dakota and Arizona as popular
destinations.
New Jersey, New York, Illinois, Connecticut and California
saw the greatest percentage of movers leaving, with
Massachusetts ranking eighth.
"United Van Lines' data makes it clear that migration to
western and southern states, a prevalent pattern for the
past several years, persisted in 2020," said Michael Stoll,
an economist and University of California, Los Angeles
professor, in a statement released by the company.
"However, we're seeing that the COVID-19 pandemic has
without a doubt accelerated broader moving trends, including
retirement driving top inbound regions as the Baby Boomer
generation continues to reach that next phase of life,"
Stoll said.
United reported that 56.6 percent of its Massachusetts
business was from customers leaving the state, while 43.4
percent of moves were people and family relocating here,
primarily for work or family. The company tracked 3,355
moves in and out of Massachusetts in 2020.
The Boston metro area did not make United's list of Top 25
urban areas for inbound or outbound migration, but the
Worcester-Fitchburg-Leominster area ranked 18th on the
outbound list with 64 percent of movers leaving the region
on a United van.
Customers cited work as the most common reason for moving to
Massachusetts, with 40.4 percent of inbound moves related to
a job, followed by family at 30.6 percent, retirement at 12
percent and lifestyle at 10.4 percent.
However, the survey doesn't necessarily reflect overall
population trends.
With the 2020 Census concluded, the U.S. Census Bureau
estimated in December that as of July 1 the state's
population had held steady in 2020 at close to 6.9 million
residents, down by about 1,300 people from its 2019
estimate. The full decennial Census count will not be
available until later in 2021.
Of those leaving Massachusetts, 35.2 percent of United
customers surveyed said it was because of work, while equal
numbers of people (24.2 percent) said they were leaving to
retire or for family. Another nearly 20 percent said they
left for a change in lifestyle.
Retirees moved in the biggest volume to Delaware, according
to the United Vans survey, followed by Florida and South
Carolina.
Minnesota was the most popular destination for people moving
for family, and movers decided Wyoming offered the best
change of pace for their lifestyle. Nebraska boasted the
highest percent of people moving in for jobs.
In New England, states saw different moving patterns over
the past year.
Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island and New Hampshire all witnessed
more moves into the state than out, with the numbers almost
split in New Hampshire, while the two higher-cost states -
Massachusetts and Connecticut - experienced the reverse.
Zero Hedge Fund
Saturday,
January 9, 2021
U-Haul Reveals 2020 Migration Trends As Pandemic And Taxes
Take Toll
by Tyler Durden
A new report has found that Tennessee posted the largest net
gain of U-Haul trucks than any other state in 2020, making
it U-Haul's top growth state for the first time.
Growth rates are determined by the net gain of one-way
U-Haul trucks entering a state versus leaving that state in
a given year. U-Haul keeps tabs on more than two million
one-way U-Haul truck customer transactions annually,
allowing the company to observe migration trends, according
to the report published by U-Haul.
"Tennessee's influx of do-it-yourself movers during a
turbulent year marked by the coronavirus pandemic means that
a state other than Florida and Texas tops the growth
rankings for the first time since 2015 when North Carolina
led the way," the report said.
Texas and Florida were the top two other destinations. For
three consecutive years, Texas had the largest net gain of
one-way U-Haul trucks before Florida displaced it for the
number one spot last year.
Before the pandemic, Americans fled liberal-run states and
metro areas because of high taxes to conservative states
that were business-friendly, such as Texas and Florida. The
pandemic certainly amplified the exodus.
Ohio, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina,
and Georgia made up the rest of the top ten states with a
net gain of one-way U-Haul trucks.
On the flip side, California, Illinois, Massachusetts,
Maryland, and Oregon were the top five states with the most
significant net loss of U-Haul trucks.
Jeff Porter, U-Haul Company of Nashville president, said his
company is "seeing a lot of people from California move (to
Tennessee) because they're attracted to our lifestyle."
Porter pointed out, "Tennessee has no income tax and is very
business-friendly. There are plenty of jobs. People and
companies are taking note."
He noted, "Nashville is ever-growing, and even the era of
COVID-19 isn't slowing that. We saw movement before the
virus hit, but I think the situation has pushed a lot more
people away from the West Coast to our state."
"Arrivals of one-way U-Haul trucks into Tennessee jumped
12%, while departures rose only 9% over 2019, with that
disparity catapulting it up the charts. Arrivals accounted
for 50.6% of all one-way U-Haul traffic in Tennessee, which
ranked No. 12 among growth states a year ago," the report
said.
"The best thing about Tennessee is the southern hospitality.
People are decent to one another," said Clay McQuade, U-Haul
Company of Knoxville president. "I believe the draw to
Tennessee is the rural atmosphere."
U-Haul migration trends are useful data to show how higher
taxes and the pandemic are shifting Americans from
liberal-run states to more friendly conservative states.
In July, we noted some people in Illinois waited nearly
three weeks for a U-Haul truck as the pandemic plus the
state's dire fiscal situation resulted in an exodus of
residents.
Compound high taxes, the pandemic, decimation of the local
economy, plus soaring violent crime, New Yorkers have been
fleeing the metro area by the tens of thousands.
"Long lines were seen outside of a number of U-Haul stations
in the neighborhood across Saturday and Sunday, with moving
vehicles lining residential streets and discarded furniture
stacked on sidewalks left by locals seeking pastures new,"
reported the Daily Mail.
We have never seen such a sudden mass exodus away from major
cities in modern American history. U-Haul's report offers a
unique insight into migration trends that are overwhelmingly
benefiting conservative states while liberal ones plunge
into socio-economic turmoil.
Full List: States Ranked By Migration Growth
Chart linked above indicates previous year’s rankings in
parentheses.
Washington, D.C. is its own U-Haul market and is listed
among growth states for migration trends purposes.
Hawaii is not included since state-to-state truck
transactions are inapplicable. |
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this
material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes
only. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
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