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Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945
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“Every Tax is a Pay Cut ... A Tax Cut is a Pay Raise”
47 years as “The Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers”
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their Institutional Memory — |
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CLT UPDATE
Sunday, February 21, 2021
"Taxes Are Not On Table," Except On
Victims
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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Want to buy an
electric truck?
The Commonwealth
of Massachusetts has set aside millions of dollars worth of
tax credits for you if you choose to do so. However, fiscal
conservatives have urged caution when it comes to the
program.
Massachusetts
Governor Charlie Baker’s administration announced via a
press release from the state Department of Energy Resources
earlier this week that the state will commit $10 million to
fund the purchase of electric trucks. It’s an expansion of
the Massachusetts Offers Rebates for Electric Vehicles
(known as MOR-EV) announced in June 2020.
The announcement
means that heavy-duty truck purchases bought on or after
February 16, 2021 will be eligible for a rebate. On the low
end, that rebate is worth $7,500. On the high end, it’s
worth $90,000 for tractor trailers. The press release states
that as time progresses, the value of the rebate will
decrease.
Supporters of
electricity-powered vehicles say government subsidies are
vital to get the industry up and running. Critics wonder if
the subsidies will ever end — and why they should be
necessary if the technology is financially viable.
Both Paul Craney
of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance and Chip Ford of
Citizens for Limited Taxation expressed some concerns
when it comes to the program.
Craney told
NewBostonPost that the Baker administration must be careful
that this program doesn’t turn into a handout for big
business.
“Generally
speaking, offering tax policy to reward good behavior should
be encouraged by state leaders but the state should be very
mindful that it should not become a discount for
international companies like Amazon and their fleet of
trucks,” Craney said in an email message.
Meanwhile, Ford
sees the whole ordeal as a waste of money.
“Over the past six
years of this program Massachusetts has doled out some $37.7
million in rebates for the purchase of 18,487
‘zero-emission’ vehicles,” Ford wrote via email. “It seems
the Baker administration has realized the only way it can
conceivably reach its optimistic goal of 300,000 such
vehicles within the next four years will be by giving them
away. That’s likely correct, but it’s taxpayers’ money Baker
is using for the bribes. This explains his administration’s
need for ever-increasing disguised taxes (e.g., his
Transportation & Climate Initiative) to ‘turn the screws’ on
motorists whose will they fail to break.”
As of 2019, the
average price of an electric car was about $42,000,
according to The Car Connection. The web site also noted
that, on average, pickup trucks cost $11,000 more than other
passenger vehicles.
The New Boston
Post
Thursday, February 18, 2021
Fiscal Conservatives Express Concerns Over
Massachusetts’s Electric Truck Rebate Program
House Speaker
Ronald Mariano pledged last weekend not to raise taxes on
Massachusetts residents — for now.
But the momentum
continues to build for boosting taxes on the state’s highest
earners.
Right now, “We
have no intention of raising taxes,” Mariano, a Quincy
Democrat, said Sunday on WCVB-TV’s “On the Record.”
That’s probably
because tax revenues to date have exceeded expectations;
January posted a $500 million beat beyond the Baker
administration’s forecast.
Mariano’s no
tax-hike pledge reflects the commitment the governor made
last month in his updated $45.6 billion fiscal 2022 budget,
which didn’t include any tax increases.
State Rep. James
O’Day posited the seemingly contradictory theory that since
many sectors of the state’s economy are struggling, more
taxes are in order.
But the Worcester
Democrat isn’t proposing any broad-based burden on
Massachusetts residents. He’s referring to the so-called
millionaires tax that will likely be on the state ballot in
2022....
Those 1-percenters
also constitute the entrepreneurial class that creates
businesses and provides thousands of jobs for Massachusetts
residents.
They may be
perceived as cash cows to be exploited by revenue-enhancing
Democrats, but they could just move to greener pastures if
pushed too far.
That’s happening
in other high-tax, overregulated states.
According to
Bankrate, Oracle and Hewlett Packard Enterprises have
announced plans to move their headquarters from California
to more business- and tax-friendly Texas.
And it’s no
coincidence that Texas is one of the top five states in
population gained from mid-2019 to mid-2020. The others are
Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona.
New Hampshire and
Maine are the only New England states that experienced a net
population gain in that timeframe.
We’re certain our
governor would rather see the state work its way out of any
economic hole than further tax the engines of that rebound.
And the welcome
mat has already been extended in New Hampshire and all those
Sun Belt states.
A Boston Herald editorial
Friday, February 19, 2021
No time to take exit ramp for Taxachusetts
People who
received unemployment compensation benefits since the
coronavirus pandemic began could owe as much $78 billion in
federal and state income taxes on those payments, according
to an independent tax-policy nonprofit.
As of Feb. 13,
states spent about $153 billion in regular unemployment
compensation payments, nearly all of it since the pandemic
began last year, while the federal government spent $441
billion to supplement those payments and expand and extend
eligibility, said Jared Walczak, vice president of state
projects for the Tax Foundation. That could generate $65
billion in federal income revenue and nearly $13 billion in
state income taxes, Walczak said.
In Massachusetts,
he said, estimated revenue from income taxation of
unemployment benefits could amount to $789.74 million on the
federal share and $330.69 million on the state share, for a
total of $1.12 billion in tax revenue.
“I do think it’s
ironic that the federal government is giving on the one hand
and subjecting it to a tax on the other,” said Eileen
McAnneny, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers
Foundation, a public-policy group dealing with state and
local fiscal, tax and economic policies.
“A lot of people
may not know that unemployment insurance is subject to tax,”
McAnneny said. “It would not be a good outcome if people
spent the money and not have enough to pay the tax on it and
be subject to interest and penalties. Educating people about
their tax liability up front would have been a good thing.”
...
Six states —
California, Montana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and
Wisconsin — exempt unemployment insurance from income
taxation, forgoing a total of about $2.3 billion in revenue,
Walczak said.
Alaska, Florida,
Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming
and New Hampshire — which only taxes interest and dividend
income — did not impose an individual income tax, he said.
The Boston Herald
Saturday, February 20, 2021
Beware of taxes on unemployment benefits
amid coronavirus pandemic, group says
The state of
Massachusetts may be poking a hole in the life raft that
many small employers used to remain afloat during the
pandemic by demanding state taxes be paid on Paycheck
Protection Program loans.
Consider the
financial hardships small businesses in every community
faced over the past year as so many stores, restaurants and
services were forced to close their doors by the state for
months and they had no incoming revenue.
Plain and simple,
it is wrong for the state to impose such a tax on PPP loans
when small business owners never would have needed one but
for the shutdown, and they took it to survive.
The business
owners were promised these federal loans would turn into
grants if the money was used to keep their employees on the
job and off unemployment, as well as cover rent and
utilities....
So, an independent
tax preparer, plumber, coffee shop, pet groomer or another
very small business owner, who was fighting to keep their
business from failing during their darkest hour and are
still financially fragile, will now need to send a portion
of their forgiven loan funds to the commonwealth in the form
of state taxes.
The Eagle-Tribune
Tuesday, February 9, 2021
Don't tax small businesses on Paycheck Protection loans
By Chris Carlozzi
As of the last
tally, $1.38 billion of the aid allocated to the Bay State
for expenses related to the COVID-19 public health emergency
had been spent, leaving $1.32 billion on the table,
according to state data.
A review of more
than $7 billion in federal aid received since the onset of
the pandemic where the Baker administration exercises
discretion over spending, revealed a similar pattern of
holding some money back.
“The
administration is playing it tight to the vest because many
problems — that could be very expensive to fix — are going
to be coming up this year,” said Greg Sullivan, research
director for government watchdog organization Pioneer
Institute.
Chief among them
is what will happen with MBTA ridership levels that have
plummeted to a fraction of prepandemic numbers, the cost of
higher education with lowering enrollment and most students
still off campus, and paying off an anticipated $4 billion
unemployment trust fund deficit, Sullivan said.
“What I think is
going on is that they’re very reluctant to run out of money
without being able to address some of these really
big-ticket items,” the former state inspector general
said....
“We need to stop
sitting on money,” state Rep. Mike Connolly, D-Cambridge,
said. “He was sitting on money for several months while we
engaged in a big debate (about) how to protect tenants from
eviction.”
State Sen. Diana
DiZoglio, D-Methuen, added: “The governor needs to start
allocating these resources immediately — not in the future
when it may be too late for small businesses presently on
the verge of closure — but now, when they need it to
survive.”
In December, Baker
began awarding grants through the state’s $668 million small
business relief program which leans heavily on CARES Act
funds — nearly nine months after it passed.
The Legislature
appears poised to take a more hands-on role in the
coronavirus response, forming a new Joint Committee on
COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management.
Another massive
stimulus package is poised to pass Congress this week. House
Ways and Means Chairman U.S. Rep. Richard Neal,
D-Massachusetts, last week said President Biden’s proposed
$1.9 trillion relief package last week predicted the state’s
share of those dollars would make it to Massachusetts by
mid-March.
The Boston Herald
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Lawmakers tell Charlie Baker ‘stop sitting’ on $1B-plus
coronavirus aid
The state’s
vaccine portal — vaxfinder.mass.gov — crashed this morning
as 1 million people newly eligible for shots clamored for
appointments in an embarrassment that had Gov. Charlie Baker
fuming.
“My hair’s on fire
about the whole thing. I can’t even begin to tell you how
pissed off I am and people are working really hard to get it
fixed,” Baker said during an appearance on GBH’s Boston
Public Radio.
A message stating,
“This application crashed,” and an image of an octopus and a
question mark greeted visitors amid the crush of people
attempting to find shots at Fenway Park, Gillette Stadium
and elsewhere.
For some, the
website would appear to briefly show scheduling
availability, only to crash again moments later — creating a
sense of deja vu from the technical glitches and fully
booked calendars that plagued signups for those 75 and older
just weeks ago....
Baker on Wednesday
announced roughly 70,000 new appointments would open up at 8
a.m. Thursday at the state’s four mass vaccination sites in
Springfield, Danvers, Boston and Foxboro, stressing,
“there’s no need to stay up all night” to search for one of
the coveted slots.
At the time Baker
said, “I think the website will be in good shape.” ...
In a tweet this
morning, Baker’s administration acknowledged the situation
confronting thousands of people trying, fruitlessly, to book
appointments.
Democrats were
quick to criticize Baker.
In a tweet amid
the fallout over the website crash, Sen. Joanne Comerford,
D-Northampton called the four-armed octopus image that
greeted residents on the crashed web page “an apt metaphor
for an incomplete @MassGovernor creature without enough
limbs to do its work.” ...
House chairman of
COVID-19 and Emergency Management and Preparedness Committee
Rep. William Driscoll, D-Milton, underscored the “deep need
for improved planning” in a tweet.
Driscoll added,
“The list of questions for the vaccine rollout oversight the
hearing we scheduled for next Thursday 2/25 gets longer by
the day.”
The committee on
Wednesday announced the series of oversight hearings on the
state’s “constantly changing and confusing vaccination roll
out,” citing growing anger and frustration of constituents.
The Boston Herald
Thursday, February 18, 2021
Charlie Baker furious over Massachusetts coronavirus vaccine
website crash:
‘My hair’s on fire!’
For most of the
past six years, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker has been
ranked as the most popular governor – or close to it - in
America. One Boston Globe headline referred to him as
“Teflon Charlie,” and CNN’s Chris Cillizza marveled at
Baker’s strong poll numbers - among Democrats.
Could the COVID-19
vaccine rollout end Baker’s popularity?
Criticism of Baker
mounted as national metrics showed Massachusetts lagging in
vaccine distribution, but then the numbers began to turn
more positive earlier this week. All that positive momentum
was wiped out on Thursday when the state’s website for
making vaccination appointments crashed and sputtered all
day long. Baker acknowledged that the crash was “awful” and
said he “is pissed off.” But for many, it was the last
straw.
The Globe reported
how unusual it was that Baker was facing backlash from all
corners of government. A February 16 letter to Baker from
the state’s entire congressional delegation minus US Rep.
Richard Neal, who wrote his own letter, expressed “serious
concerns” about vaccine distribution and urged Baker to
create a centralized pre-registration system to help people
make vaccine appointments.
Hospitals have
expressed frustration that Baker diverted vaccine doses away
from them and to mass vaccination sites, a step Baker said
he took to ensure speedier distribution....
Baker also took
criticism for taking doses from municipal vaccine sites to
send them to regional collaboratives and mass vaccination
sites. Attleboro Mayor Paul Heroux called that decision “an
absolute disaster,” a sentiment echoed by other municipal
leaders, including Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone.
The Democratic-led
Legislature – which has worked closely with Baker for years
- took the unusual step of announcing that it will hold an
oversight hearing related to vaccine distribution.
Even before
Thursday, people were poking fun at the fact that a software
engineer on maternity leave built a more user-friendly
vaccine appointment website than the Baker administration -
after which the administration improved its site.
CommonWealth
Magazine
Friday, February 19, 2021
Rocky vaccine rollout denting Baker’s popularity
The good news:
Massachusetts roughly doubled the population eligible for
COVID-19 vaccines.
The bad news:
Massachusetts roughly doubled the population eligible for
COVID-19 vaccines.
That comes with
the addition of people age 65 and over, residents and staff
of affordable and low-income housing for seniors, and those
with two or more health conditions that put them at higher
risk.
The state’s
expanding eligibility comes at the same time it’s also
focusing on high-capacity mass vaccination sites and
regional collaboratives to deliver the shots, a move Baker
administration officials believe will streamline the process
of immunizing as many people as possible.
But the road to
second-guessing is paved with good intentions, and we
believe the governor’s decision to double the sample size
for such a limited number of vaccines will exacerbate — not
ameliorate — the inoculation situation.
And that’s already
happened....
About 70,000
appointments at mass vaccine sites in Springfield, Danvers,
Boston and Foxboro became available around 8 a. m. Thursday
for the newly eligible populations and for those who
previously qualified for the shots.
But here’s the
rub. To the state’s already 1.1 million vaccine eligible,
the governor just added another 1 million with this
decision.
However, the
state’s receiving just over 100,000 vaccine doses a week
from the federal government, which means the demand
exponentially exceeds the current supply.
Which has
triggered, not mass vaccinations, but mass exasperation.
A Boston Herald editorial
Saturday, February 20, 2021
Administering a shot of mass frustration
With winter
weather disrupting life across the South and a storm headed
to Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker said Thursday he and
other governors have requested permission to send the
National Guard to Kentucky and Tennessee to pick up and
bring back the states' next batches of COVID-19 vaccine
doses.
"We may have some
real issues with supply delivery this week," Baker said in
remarks Thursday morning to the Greater Boston Chamber of
Commerce.
The governor's
warning came as southern parts of the country unaccustomed
to winter weather have been blasted by snow and ice in
recent days, potentially impacting the transport of vaccine
to states like Massachusetts.
Demand for new
doses crashed the state's appointment website Thursday
morning as the state opened up its vaccination program to
resident age 65 to 74 for the first time, and Baker said the
state routinely gets requests from providers for more than
four times its weekly allotment of about 110,000 doses,
which is set to increase next week to about 139,000 doses.
"We had been told
it would be a few days late based on some the issues around
weather in other parts of the country, but we got told last
night that we may see a significant delay in our next
shipments," Baker said.
State House News
Service
Friday, February 19, 2021
Baker May Send Guard South to Bring Vaccine to Mass.
Winter Storms Could Strand Critical Shipments
Gov. Charlie Baker
is expected to testify at the Legislature’s oversight
committee hearing next week on the state’s rocky coronavirus
vaccine rollout, the House chairman told the Herald.
“I’m happy that
the governor will be there and I hope we have a productive
hearing,” said state Rep. William Driscoll, D-Milton, the
House chairman of the new Joint COVID-19 and Emergency
Management and Preparedness Committee....
Lawmakers are also
seeking testimony from Health and Human Services Secretary
Marylou Sudders, though it was not immediately clear Friday
evening whether she would appear at the hearing.
Members of the
COVID-19 oversight committee cited their constituents’
growing anger and frustration with the state’s rocky vaccine
rollout when they announced the Feb. 25 hearing — putting
out their statement the day before website failures plagued
the opening of the next round of appointment signups.
The Boston Herald
Friday, February 19, 2021
Charlie Baker to testify on Massachusetts coronavirus
vaccine rollout
at Legislature’s oversight committee hearing
A four-legged
octopus with a question mark hanging over its head is
certainly not the image you want to see when you log on to
book an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccine.
But after months
of waiting for protection from the deadly coronavirus,
that's exactly what Baby Boomers found Thursday morning -- a
quizzical cephalopod and a message that read, "This
application crashed."
Gov. Charlie Baker
had announced just a day earlier that people 65 and older,
or with two or more underlying health conditions, including
asthma, could begin booking appointments. The signups would
start at 8 o'clock in the morning, he said. No need to stay
up all night.
It felt hopeful.
And then ...
"My hair's on fire
about the whole thing," Baker told GBH's Jim Braude and
Margery Eagan....
The concept of a
politically damaging website failure is one Baker should be
familiar with since he campaigned against Democrats on it in
2014 after the state botched its Health Connector launch.
This newest technology setback also came at a time when the
administration was in need of a win and trying to push the
narrative that its vaccine distribution performance had been
improving vis-à-vis other states.
Massachusetts now
ranks sixth in the country for first doses administered per
capita, according to the CDC. But that was cold comfort to
many lawmakers fielding calls from frustrated constituents
desperate to get an appointment for themselves, their
parents or a loved one....
Rep. William
Driscoll (D-Milton) was in the spotlight for the role he
will play next week in holding the Baker administration
accountable, but he also generated headlines by filing a
climate change mitigation bill that would invest [spend] $10
billion in infrastructure by 2030.
With former House
Speaker Robert DeLeo and his $1.3 billion "Green Works" bill
seemingly gone from the discussion, Driscoll is looking to
fill that void with a new plan that would extend carbon
pricing to emissions not currently taxed, such as those from
heating, and authorize $500 million in annual borrowing.
The Senate refused
to consider DeLeo's borrowing plan last session, and Senate
Democrats also ignored Gov. Baker's similar $1 billion bill
paid for with real estate transfer taxes. But the lack of
investment in climate resiliency was an issue Baker flagged
in his letter to the Legislature vetoing the climate
emission bill in January, and 2021 is a new year.
Speaking of the
climate bill, the Legislature has yet to take up the
governor's amendments, though Baker told the Greater Boston
Chamber of Commerce that he was hopeful about the direction
his dialogue with the House and Senate was moving.
And while he
waits, his administration announced it would use $10 million
to expand the state's electric vehicle rebate program to
cover pickups and other large trucks and vans. Putting more
electric vehicles on the road is a big part of Baker's
roadmap to get to net zero emissions by 2050.
State House News
Service
Friday, February 19, 2021
Weekly Roundup - Crashed and Burning
The U.S. House
plans to vote next week on a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief
and economic stimulus bill that includes $3.3 billion in
emergency education funding for the state and scores of
other economic lifelines.
The bill includes
nearly $2 billion for K-12 schools in Massachusetts, $525
million in emergency child care funding, and $825 million
for higher education institutions here, according to
Congresswoman Katherine Clark. Democrats will try to keep
the bill intact in the face of opposition from some
Republicans who say previous stimulus laws need to be given
more time to take effect and that the latest bill is not
targeted enough.
The week ahead,
which brings the one-year anniversary (Feb. 26-27) of the
superspreader Biogen conference at the Marriott Long Wharf
in Boston, will see mass vaccination sites open in Natick on
Monday and Dartmouth on Wednesday, adding more capacity as
the state leans on the Biden administration to further
increase the vaccine supply and other virus relief supports.
State House News
Service
Friday, February 19, 2021
Advances - Week of Feb. 21, 2021
Rest in peace,
Rush Limbaugh.
How do you thank a
guy for a million laughs, and so much more?
Like so many
millions of your fans, Rush, I will miss your daily
broadcasts.
But we all owe you
so much that I just want to thank you publicly for what
you’ve done for me, and for all of us.
Thank you for
absorbing more slings and arrows of outrageous fortune from
the Deep State than any other public figure in the last 30
years except for Donald J. Trump.
Thank you for the
first wholly Republican-controlled Congress in 40 years in
1994, which you were so responsible for that you were made
an honorary member of the House freshman class of 1995.
Thanks for saving
AM radio for a generation....
One of my
listeners, Jay from Chelsea, texted me yesterday afternoon:
“Forget Buddy
Holly and the Big Bopper, TODAY is the day the music died.”
Vaya con Dios,
Rush. Go with God.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
RIP Rush Limbaugh
By Howie Carr
Republicans and
conservatives in general are often the receiving end of
excoriation by Democrats and progressives, and Limbaugh
served as a lightning rod.
But Limbaugh’s
keynote address to the 2009 Conservative Political Action
Conference best summed up his take on the movement and his
personal philosophy:
“We see human
beings,” he said. “We don’t see groups. We don’t see
victims. We don’t see people we want to exploit. What we see
is potential. We do not look out across the country and see
the average American, the person that makes this country
work.”
“We do not see
that person with contempt. We don’t think that person
doesn’t have what it takes. We believe that person can be
the best he or she wants to be if certain things are just
removed from their path like onerous taxes, regulations and
too much government,” he continued. “We want this to be the
greatest country it can be, but we do understand, as people
created and endowed by our Creator, we’re all individuals.
We resist the effort to group us. We resist the effort to
make us feel that we’re all the same; that we’re no
different than anybody else. We’re all different.”
Rest in peace,
Rush.
A Boston Herald editorial
Thursday, February 18, 2021
When Rush spoke, millions listened
|
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
On Thursday The New Boston Post reported ("Fiscal
Conservatives Express Concerns Over Massachusetts’s Electric Truck
Rebate Program"):
Want to buy an electric truck?
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
has set aside millions of dollars worth of tax credits
for you if you choose to do so. However, fiscal
conservatives have urged caution when it comes to the
program.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie
Baker’s administration announced via a press release
from the state Department of Energy Resources earlier
this week that the state will commit $10 million to fund
the purchase of electric trucks. It’s an expansion of
the Massachusetts Offers Rebates for Electric Vehicles
(known as MOR-EV) announced in June 2020.
The announcement means that
heavy-duty truck purchases bought on or after February
16, 2021 will be eligible for a rebate. On the low end,
that rebate is worth $7,500. On the high end, it’s worth
$90,000 for tractor trailers. The press release states
that as time progresses, the value of the rebate will
decrease.
Supporters of electricity-powered
vehicles say government subsidies are vital to get the
industry up and running. Critics wonder if the subsidies
will ever end — and why they should be necessary if the
technology is financially viable.
Both Paul Craney of the
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance and Chip Ford of
Citizens for Limited Taxation expressed some
concerns when it comes to the program.
Craney told NewBostonPost that the
Baker administration must be careful that this program
doesn’t turn into a handout for big business.
“Generally speaking, offering tax
policy to reward good behavior should be encouraged by
state leaders but the state should be very mindful that
it should not become a discount for international
companies like Amazon and their fleet of trucks,” Craney
said in an email message.
Meanwhile, Ford sees the
whole ordeal as a waste of money.
“Over the past six years of this
program Massachusetts has doled out some $37.7 million
in rebates for the purchase of 18,487 ‘zero-emission’
vehicles,” Ford wrote via email. “It seems the
Baker administration has realized the only way it can
conceivably reach its optimistic goal of 300,000 such
vehicles within the next four years will be by giving
them away. That’s likely correct, but it’s
taxpayers’ money Baker is using for the bribes.
This explains his administration’s need for
ever-increasing disguised taxes (e.g., his
Transportation & Climate Initiative) to ‘turn the
screws’ on motorists whose will they fail to break.”
I don't think I need to add anything to
what I stated in my response.
The Boston Herald editorial on Friday ("No
time to take exit ramp for Taxachusetts") noted:
House
Speaker Ronald Mariano pledged last weekend not to raise taxes on
Massachusetts residents — for now.
But
the momentum continues to build for boosting taxes on the state’s
highest earners.
Right
now, “We have no intention of raising taxes,” Mariano, a Quincy
Democrat, said Sunday on WCVB-TV’s “On the Record.”
That’s probably because tax revenues to date have exceeded
expectations; January posted a $500 million beat beyond the Baker
administration’s forecast.
Mariano’s no tax-hike pledge reflects the commitment the governor
made last month in his updated $45.6 billion fiscal 2022 budget,
which didn’t include any tax increases.
State
Rep. James O’Day posited the seemingly contradictory theory that
since many sectors of the state’s economy are struggling, more taxes
are in order.
But
the Worcester Democrat isn’t proposing any broad-based burden on
Massachusetts residents. He’s referring to the so-called
millionaires tax that will likely be on the state ballot in 2022....
Those
1-percenters also constitute the entrepreneurial class that creates
businesses and provides thousands of jobs for Massachusetts
residents.
They
may be perceived as cash cows to be exploited by revenue-enhancing
Democrats, but they could just move to greener pastures if pushed
too far.
That’s happening in other high-tax, overregulated states.
According to Bankrate, Oracle and Hewlett Packard Enterprises have
announced plans to move their headquarters from California to more
business- and tax-friendly Texas.
And
it’s no coincidence that Texas is one of the top five states in
population gained from mid-2019 to mid-2020. The others are Florida,
North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona.
New
Hampshire and Maine are the only New England states that experienced
a net population gain in that timeframe.
We’re
certain our governor would rather see the state work its way out of
any economic hole than further tax the engines of that rebound.
And
the welcome mat has already been extended in New Hampshire and all
those Sun Belt states.
In last week's CLT Update
I wrote:
"Right now
taxes are not on the table" the new speaker said. "We have no
intention of raising taxes." That's better than him declaring tax
hikes are coming — but "right now" and "no intention" leaves a lot
of room to maneuver. Let's hope Speaker Mariano means and stands by
it. We'll now wait to see how long his statement remains
operational. Remember those 3,000-and-counting bills that have been
filed.
The Legislature doesn't need to raise new
taxes while it's teeing up the sixth incarnation of a graduated income
tax which it anticipates will rake in an additional $2 Billion annually
— until those wealthy targets pack up and
move out, should it be adopted by a majority of voters.
Then they'll come after everyone else
to make up for the shortfall of anticipated tax revenue and increased
spending when the wealthy are gone.
I'm hearing that more savants on Beacon
Hill are beginning to have doubts, even fear when considering whether
voters can and will be suckered this sixth time around by this
latest ploy to inflict a graduated income tax. That might reflect
last November's defeat of a similar proposed "Fair Tax" constitution
amendment in Illinois that went down in flames by a vote of 55% No
to 45% Yes — and Illinois even
promised all non-millionaires a tax cut if it was adopted (more
information here).
But here's another reason why the Democrat
legislative supermajority doesn't need to call for more taxes.
They're expecting to rake in tax revenue from pandemic lockdown
unemployment compensation benefits and Paycheck Protection Program loans
provided by the federal government.
The Boston Herald reported on Saturday ("Beware of taxes on
unemployment benefits amid coronavirus pandemic, group says"):
P eople
who received unemployment compensation benefits since
the coronavirus pandemic began could owe as much $78
billion in federal and state income taxes on those
payments, according to an independent tax-policy
nonprofit.
As of Feb. 13, states spent about
$153 billion in regular unemployment compensation
payments, nearly all of it since the pandemic began last
year, while the federal government spent $441 billion to
supplement those payments and expand and extend
eligibility, said Jared Walczak, vice president of state
projects for the Tax Foundation. That could generate $65
billion in federal income revenue and nearly $13 billion
in state income taxes, Walczak said.
In Massachusetts, he said,
estimated revenue from income taxation of unemployment
benefits could amount to $789.74 million on the federal
share and $330.69 million on the state share, for a
total of $1.12 billion in tax revenue.
“I do think it’s ironic that the
federal government is giving on the one hand and
subjecting it to a tax on the other,” said Eileen
McAnneny, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers
Foundation, a public-policy group dealing with state and
local fiscal, tax and economic policies.
“A lot of people may not know that
unemployment insurance is subject to tax,” McAnneny
said. “It would not be a good outcome if people spent
the money and not have enough to pay the tax on it and
be subject to interest and penalties. Educating people
about their tax liability up front would have been a
good thing.” ...
Six states — California, Montana,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin —
exempt unemployment insurance from income taxation,
forgoing a total of about $2.3 billion in revenue,
Walczak said.
Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South
Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, Wyoming and New
Hampshire — which only taxes interest and dividend
income — did not impose an individual income tax, he
said.
That's unconscionable enough, but I learned
earlier this week from Chris Carlozzi, state executive director of the
National Federation of Independent Business, that the state is also
plotting to reach deep into the pockets of the state's struggling small
business owners by taxing the loans provided by the federal
government — as if they haven't suffered
enough from the state's year of draconian business lockdowns and
near if not actual bankruptcies!
In a February 9 op-ed column in the
Lawrence Eagle-Tribune ("Don't
tax small businesses on Paycheck Protection loans") Chris wrote:
The state of Massachusetts may be
poking a hole in the life raft that many small employers
used to remain afloat during the pandemic by demanding
state taxes be paid on Paycheck Protection Program
loans.
Consider the financial hardships
small businesses in every community faced over the past
year as so many stores, restaurants and services were
forced to close their doors by the state for months and
they had no incoming revenue.
Plain and simple, it is wrong for
the state to impose such a tax on PPP loans when small
business owners never would have needed one but for the
shutdown, and they took it to survive.
You can find more information on the
state's intent to tax small business PPP loans and how to help fight it on
the
NFIB's website.
It's not as if the state is desperately
lacking in revenue. On Tuesday The Boston Herald reported
("Lawmakers tell Charlie Baker ‘stop sitting’ on $1B-plus coronavirus
aid"):
With just about
half of the state’s $2.7 billion CARES Act coronavirus cash still
unspent, lawmakers have a message for Gov. Charlie Baker: “Stop
sitting on money.”
As of the last
tally, $1.38 billion of the aid allocated to the Bay State for
expenses related to the COVID-19 public health emergency had been
spent, leaving $1.32 billion on the table, according to state data.
A review of more
than $7 billion in federal aid received since the onset of the
pandemic where the Baker administration exercises discretion over
spending, revealed a similar pattern of holding some money back.
And that's on top of the "unexpected" tax
revenue bonanza that's poured in despite the Wuhan China Virus and the
commonwealth's lockdown response. The State House News Service
reported on February 3 ("January
Tax Haul Far Surpasses Pre-Pandemic —
Receipts Receipts Rising, Not Falling as Forecast Predicted"):
January tax collections obliterated the Baker administration's
expectations, coming in almost a half-billion dollars above the
Department of Revenue's already-upgraded monthly benchmark and
helping to brighten the state's financial picture heading into a
fresh round of budget deliberations.
DOR
collected $3.347 billion from taxpayers last month, which is $392
million or 13.3 percent greater than what the state collected in
January 2020 and $429 million or 14.7 percent above DOR's benchmark
for the month, which had already been boosted by $180 million from
an earlier estimate....
January is the fourth-largest revenue month of the year for
Massachusetts, and tax collectors usually bring in a shade more than
10 percent of their annual haul during the month.
Now
seven months through fiscal year 2021, Massachusetts state
government has collected $764 million more in taxes from people and
businesses than it did during the same seven pre-pandemic months of
fiscal year 2020. The last month Massachusetts saw a year-over-year
decline in tax collections was September....
If collections come in
at exactly the DOR benchmarks from February through May, the state
would enter June having collected about $2.159 billion more than it
had collected to that point of fiscal year 2020.
Almost all the remaining news last week
concerned the disastrous pandemic vaccine roll-out chaos and Gov.
Baker's inexplicable screw-ups. I've included a lot of those
reports below, too many to comment on each but you likely know all about
it already. Massachusetts' bragging rights as a High Tech capital
took another slam with another completely useless, baffling, and utterly
frustrating website effort, much like the rollout of Obamacare.
It's as if Massachusetts state government simply can't do anything
right, especially the important things expected from government.
The situation plunged so much into chaos
that live on radio (WGBH) Baker seemed to lose it, told hosts Jim Braude
and Margery Eagan
“My hair’s on fire about the whole thing. I can’t even begin
to tell you how pissed off I am and people are working really hard to
get it fixed.”
One report that especially caught my
attention was from the State House News Service on Friday ("Baker May
Send Guard South to Bring Vaccine to Mass. —
Winter Storms Could Strand Critical Shipments"):
With winter
weather disrupting life across the South and a storm headed to
Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker said Thursday he and other
governors have requested permission to send the National Guard to
Kentucky and Tennessee to pick up and bring back the states' next
batches of COVID-19 vaccine doses.
"We may have some
real issues with supply delivery this week," Baker said in remarks
Thursday morning to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.
The governor's
warning came as southern parts of the country unaccustomed to winter
weather have been blasted by snow and ice in recent days,
potentially impacting the transport of vaccine to states like
Massachusetts. . . .
During a routine checkup with my doctor
here in Kentucky just short of two weeks ago she recommended that I get
the vaccine, gave me an instructions sheet to make arrangements.
When I got home I sent an e-mail on February 11, got a call back last
week with an appointment date, and will get it tomorrow morning.
Then I read that News Service report and it got me wondering how it
could be so easy here yet near impossible in Massachusetts.
Yeah, the weather is winter-bad everywhere
with this historic polar vortex, even here. I've seen more snow
here over the past week (all of 6"!) than the combined total over the
two-and-counting winters I've been here. Pfizer’s facility is
located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Moderna is based in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. What's the hold-up with Massachusetts getting its
supply, and why is Gov. Baker threatening to come to Kentucky and
Tennessee to retrieve the state's ration? So I looked into it.
There are two separate, unrelated problems.
According to a Reuters report back on December 12, 2020 ("U.S.
vaccine campaign launches with first shipments 'delivering hope' to
millions"):
Cargo planes and
trucks with the first U.S. shipments of coronavirus vaccine fanned
out from FedEx and UPS hubs in Tennessee and Kentucky on Sunday en
route to distribution points around the country, launching an
immunization project of unprecedented scope and complexity....
The inoculations,
seen as pivotal to ultimately halting a surging pandemic that is
claiming more than 2,400 U.S. lives a day, could begin as early as
Monday.
The first are
likely to be at vaccination sites closest to any of the 145 initial
shipment destinations nationwide, or those nearest the FedEx Corp or
United Parcel Service cargo centers that are relaying deliveries
from the factory.
Governor Andy
Beshear of Kentucky suggested the very first injections of the
vaccine will be given in his state, home to the UPS Worldport
sorting facility in Louisville - one of two distribution command
centers. The other is the FedEx air cargo hub in Memphis, Tennessee.
“We now believe
that the first individuals will be vaccinated here in the
commonwealth tomorrow morning. We are less than 24 hours away from
the beginning of the end of this virus,” Beshear wrote on Twitter on
Sunday....
The monumental
undertaking began early on Sunday with trucks carrying dry
ice-cooled packages of vaccine - which must be kept at sub-Arctic
temperatures - from Pfizer’s facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to UPS
and FedEx planes waiting at air fields in Lansing and Grand Rapids.
From there, the
delivery jets whisked the shipments to UPS and FedEx’s respective
cargo hubs in Louisville and Memphis, for distribution on planes and
trucks to the first 145 of 636 vaccine-staging areas across the
country. A second and third waves of vaccine shipments were due to
go out to the remaining sites on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Pfizer's problem is with delivery.
Moderna's problem is with production. On February 16 WCVB
TV-5 reported ("Moderna
says delays at vaccine contractor will be fixed 'in the near term'):
Moderna officials said
a New Jersey-based contractor, Catalent, has experienced some
unspecified issues that "recently delayed the release of some
doses," but the cause and scope of the problem were not specified.
Officials described Catalent as a fill and finish contractor for the
vaccine. "These delays are expected to be resolved in the near term
and are not expected to impact monthly delivery targets," Moderna
official wrote in a statement."
While Moderna is headquartered in
Cambridge, its "fill and finish" (production) contractor is based in
Somerset, New Jersey. I wonder if Moderna then ships to Kentucky
and Tennessee as well for eventual "relay" distribution?
If I had to wrestle with making an
appointment I doubt I'd have bothered. "If it ain't broke don't
fix it!" and I'm just fine. With all this chaos, I'm now having
second thoughts about submitting to the vaccine tomorrow!
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the
passing of Rush Limbaugh. Rush was a if not the giant of
conservatism, a lead defender of America and Americanism as we knew it
until "progressivisms" (Marxism) infected then metastasized throughout
the body politic.
The Boston Herald's editorial the day after
the news broke of his death ("When Rush spoke, millions listened")
noted:
Republicans
and conservatives in general are often the receiving end of
excoriation by Democrats and progressives, and Limbaugh served as a
lightning rod.
But Limbaugh’s keynote
address to the 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference best
summed up his take on the movement and his personal philosophy:
“We
see human beings,” he said. “We don’t see groups. We don’t see
victims. We don’t see people we want to exploit. What we see is
potential. We do not look out across the country and see the average
American, the person that makes this country work.”
“We
do not see that person with contempt. We don’t think that person
doesn’t have what it takes. We believe that person can be the best
he or she wants to be if certain things are just removed from their
path like onerous taxes, regulations and too much government,” he
continued. “We want this to be the greatest country it can be, but
we do understand, as people created and endowed by our Creator,
we’re all individuals. We resist the effort to group us. We resist
the effort to make us feel that we’re all the same; that we’re no
different than anybody else. We’re all different.”
Rest
in peace, Rush.
Howie Carr's eulogy on Wednesday ("RIP
Rush Limbaugh") covered it all:
Rest
in peace, Rush Limbaugh.
How
do you thank a guy for a million laughs, and so much more?
Like
so many millions of your fans, Rush, I will miss your daily
broadcasts.
But
we all owe you so much that I just want to thank you publicly for
what you’ve done for me, and for all of us.
Thank
you for absorbing more slings and arrows of outrageous fortune from
the Deep State than any other public figure in the last 30 years
except for Donald J. Trump.
Thank
you for the first wholly Republican-controlled Congress in 40 years
in 1994, which you were so responsible for that you were made an
honorary member of the House freshman class of 1995.
Thanks for saving AM radio for a generation....
One
of my listeners, Jay from Chelsea, texted me yesterday afternoon:
“Forget Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper, TODAY is the day the music
died.”
Vaya
con Dios, Rush. Go with God.
The Rush Limbaugh Show for me was
must-listen radio. He had a way of making me think of political
angles, bank shots, and undercurrents I'd never have considered,
subtleties and nuances behind a proposed policy or political direction
that slipped past most. Regardless of what I was doing, from noon
to 3:00 p.m. since the late-80s Rush was on my radio as his show
migrated from greater-Boston radio station to station, even if just in
the background as I worked. When Barbara and I drove cross-country
to visit friends and her extended family in Colorado back in 2002 we
were able to tune into Rush's program no matter where we were, state
after state. As his signal faded on one station we'd tune around
and pick it up on another barely missing a word as we drove all the way
across America. He was one of a kind, irreplaceable. Like so
many millions, I will miss him and his enlightening and entertaining
program. Nobody can replace what he did live 15 hours a week so
naturally.
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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Full News Reports Follow
(excerpted above) |
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The New Boston
Post
Thursday, February 18, 2021
Fiscal Conservatives Express Concerns Over
Massachusetts’s Electric Truck Rebate Program
By Tom Joyce
Want to buy an electric truck?
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has set aside millions of
dollars worth of tax credits for you if you choose to do so.
However, fiscal conservatives have urged caution when it
comes to the program.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s administration
announced via a press release from the state Department of
Energy Resources earlier this week that the state will
commit $10 million to fund the purchase of electric trucks.
It’s an expansion of the Massachusetts Offers Rebates for
Electric Vehicles (known as MOR-EV) announced in June 2020.
The announcement means that heavy-duty truck purchases
bought on or after February 16, 2021 will be eligible for a
rebate. On the low end, that rebate is worth $7,500. On the
high end, it’s worth $90,000 for tractor trailers. The press
release states that as time progresses, the value of the
rebate will decrease.
Supporters of electricity-powered vehicles say government
subsidies are vital to get the industry up and running.
Critics wonder if the subsidies will ever end — and why they
should be necessary if the technology is financially viable.
Both Paul Craney of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance and
Chip Ford of Citizens for Limited Taxation
expressed some concerns when it comes to the program.
Craney told NewBostonPost that the Baker administration must
be careful that this program doesn’t turn into a handout for
big business.
“Generally speaking, offering tax policy to reward good
behavior should be encouraged by state leaders but the state
should be very mindful that it should not become a discount
for international companies like Amazon and their fleet of
trucks,” Craney said in an email message.
Meanwhile, Ford sees the whole ordeal as a waste of
money.
“Over the past six years of this program Massachusetts has
doled out some $37.7 million in rebates for the purchase of
18,487 ‘zero-emission’ vehicles,” Ford wrote via email. “It
seems the Baker administration has realized the only way it
can conceivably reach its optimistic goal of 300,000 such
vehicles within the next four years will be by giving them
away. That’s likely correct, but it’s taxpayers’ money Baker
is using for the bribes. This explains his administration’s
need for ever-increasing disguised taxes (e.g., his
Transportation & Climate Initiative) to ‘turn the screws’ on
motorists whose will they fail to break.”
As of 2019, the average price of an electric car was about
$42,000, according to The Car Connection. The web site also
noted that, on average, pickup trucks cost $11,000 more than
other passenger vehicles.
When asked to comment on concerns that the credit is a
handout to the wealthy, the Massachusetts Department of
Energy Resources did not provide NewBostonPost with an
on-the-record comment on Wednesday afternoon.
The agency did provide more information about the program.
Among other things, it shows that the state offers rebates
for electric cars (not trucks) only on cars sold for less
than $50,000.
That includes “rebates of up to $2,500 for the purchase or
lease of battery electric vehicles and fuel-cell electric
vehicles and up to $1,500 for plug-in hybrid electric
vehicles,” according to the Department of Energy Resources’
web site.
Baker and Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito offered praise
for the program in the agency’s press release issued
Tuesday, February 16.
In it, Baker said it’s a key step towards reducing carbon
emissions in the state.
“The expansion of the successful MOR-EV program to include
trucks continues the progress we have made in the
Commonwealth to reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions and
make clean transportation more financially viable for
residents and businesses,” Baker said in the written
statement. “Our Administration continues to take action to
electrify Massachusetts’ transportation system to combat
climate change and meet our ambitious commitment to
achieving net zero emissions by 2050.”
Polito argued that the rebates will make electric trucks
more affordable to the average consumer.
“Including trucks in the MOR-EV program will offer residents
additional affordable clean transportation options and help
to lower air pollution across the Commonwealth,” Polito said
in the written statement. “Our Administration is committed
to ambitious emissions targets and today’s announcement
represents another step forward in our efforts as a state
towards a clean energy future.”
The Boston
Herald
Friday, February 19, 2021
A Boston Herald editorial
No time to take exit ramp for Taxachusetts
House Speaker Ronald Mariano pledged last weekend not to
raise taxes on Massachusetts residents — for now.
But the momentum continues to build for boosting taxes on
the state’s highest earners.
Right now, “We have no intention of raising taxes,” Mariano,
a Quincy Democrat, said Sunday on WCVB-TV’s “On the Record.”
That’s probably because tax revenues to date have exceeded
expectations; January posted a $500 million beat beyond the
Baker administration’s forecast.
Mariano’s no tax-hike pledge reflects the commitment the
governor made last month in his updated $45.6 billion fiscal
2022 budget, which didn’t include any tax increases.
State Rep. James O’Day posited the seemingly contradictory
theory that since many sectors of the state’s economy are
struggling, more taxes are in order.
But the Worcester Democrat isn’t proposing any broad-based
burden on Massachusetts residents. He’s referring to the
so-called millionaires tax that will likely be on the state
ballot in 2022.
“Look at the stock market, look at Wall Street — they’re
killing it while middle America, main street America is
definitely hurting,” said O’Day in the Herald this week. Of
course, billions of average Americans’ public and private
pension funds have also benefited from the market’s rise,
but that’s not germane to O’Day’s point.
That populist-sounding “fairshare” constitutionally required
amendment would place a question on the 2022 ballot that
seeks to impose a 4% surtax on income above $1 million.
Currently, every earner is taxed at the same flat rate, 5%.
Supporting lawmakers estimate it could generate an
additional $2 billion in annual revenues.
The measure passed by wide margins in a constitutional
convention in the last legislative session and will need to
do so again in the current session before going before
voters in November 2022.
But some Robin-Hood lawmakers might not wait until that
constitutional amendment quest runs its course.
State Rep. Mike Connolly could refile a measure that failed
in the last budget cycle to raise the tax rate on unearned
income such as dividends and long-term capital gains from 5%
to 9%.
The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center projected that
would generate an extra $465 million a year, but opponents
warn higher taxes could stifle the economy and drive high
earners out of the state.
That’s the same argument leveled against the millionaires’
tax, but those 1-percenters don’t engender much sympathy in
the Democrat-dominated Legislature.
Those 1-percenters also constitute the entrepreneurial class
that creates businesses and provides thousands of jobs for
Massachusetts residents.
They may be perceived as cash cows to be exploited by
revenue-enhancing Democrats, but they could just move to
greener pastures if pushed too far.
That’s happening in other high-tax, overregulated states.
According to Bankrate, Oracle and Hewlett Packard
Enterprises have announced plans to move their headquarters
from California to more business- and tax-friendly Texas.
And it’s no coincidence that Texas is one of the top five
states in population gained from mid-2019 to mid-2020. The
others are Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona.
New Hampshire and Maine are the only New England states that
experienced a net population gain in that timeframe.
We’re certain our governor would rather see the state work
its way out of any economic hole than further tax the
engines of that rebound.
And the welcome mat has already been extended in New
Hampshire and all those Sun Belt states.
The Boston
Herald
Saturday, February 20, 2021
Beware of taxes on unemployment benefits
amid coronavirus pandemic, group says
By Marie Szaniszlo
People who received unemployment compensation benefits since
the coronavirus pandemic began could owe as much $78 billion
in federal and state income taxes on those payments,
according to an independent tax-policy nonprofit.
As of Feb. 13, states spent about $153 billion in regular
unemployment compensation payments, nearly all of it since
the pandemic began last year, while the federal government
spent $441 billion to supplement those payments and expand
and extend eligibility, said Jared Walczak, vice president
of state projects for the Tax Foundation. That could
generate $65 billion in federal income revenue and nearly
$13 billion in state income taxes, Walczak said.
In Massachusetts, he said, estimated revenue from income
taxation of unemployment benefits could amount to $789.74
million on the federal share and $330.69 million on the
state share, for a total of $1.12 billion in tax revenue.
“I do think it’s ironic that the federal government is
giving on the one hand and subjecting it to a tax on the
other,” said Eileen McAnneny, president of the Massachusetts
Taxpayers Foundation, a public-policy group dealing with
state and local fiscal, tax and economic policies.
“A lot of people may not know that unemployment insurance is
subject to tax,” McAnneny said. “It would not be a good
outcome if people spent the money and not have enough to pay
the tax on it and be subject to interest and penalties.
Educating people about their tax liability up front would
have been a good thing.”
People who received unemployment compensation will be taxed
the same as they did when they worked, Walczak said.
Massachusetts does offer a withholding option — you can
elect to have the state take the taxes out for you — but it
doesn’t do so automatically.
The Department of Unemployment Assistance’s website makes
this clear on its website: “You’re responsible for paying
federal and state income taxes on the unemployment benefits
you receive. The Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA)
does not automatically withhold taxes, but you may request
that taxes be withheld from your weekly benefits when you
file your claim.”
Last year, the amount of taxes withheld in the state ranged
from a low of $4.42 million in January, just before the
pandemic took hold, to a high $109.01 million in May,
according to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue.
Six states — California, Montana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Virginia and Wisconsin — exempt unemployment insurance from
income taxation, forgoing a total of about $2.3 billion in
revenue, Walczak said.
Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas,
Washington, Wyoming and New Hampshire — which only taxes
interest and dividend income — did not impose an individual
income tax, he said.
Walczak estimated the other 35 states and the District of
Columbia could collect nearly $3.4 billion on state-funded
regular unemployment insurance and more than $9.3 billion on
federal benefits.
The
Eagle-Tribune
Tuesday, February 9, 2021
Don't tax small businesses on Paycheck Protection loans
By Chris Carlozzi
The state of Massachusetts may be poking a hole in the life
raft that many small employers used to remain afloat during
the pandemic by demanding state taxes be paid on Paycheck
Protection Program loans.
Consider the financial hardships small businesses in every
community faced over the past year as so many stores,
restaurants and services were forced to close their doors by
the state for months and they had no incoming revenue.
Plain and simple, it is wrong for the state to impose such a
tax on PPP loans when small business owners never would have
needed one but for the shutdown, and they took it to
survive.
The business owners were promised these federal loans would
turn into grants if the money was used to keep their
employees on the job and off unemployment, as well as cover
rent and utilities.
Many small businesses couldn’t access the loans for weeks
and they played second fiddle to large corporations who
gained access through big banks. Now they are surprised to
learn the state of Massachusetts, unlike the federal
government, wants to tax those forgiven loans.
After a financial and emotional roller coaster ride of
closing, reopening, rollbacks, capacity limits and
restrictions, small businesses that file their taxes as
pass-through entities will now be forced to pay state taxes
on their forgiven PPP loans.
And the higher costs come as these employers need every last
cent of that money to recover from the losses, keep their
businesses running and keep their workers employed.
The funds were designed to save small businesses and jobs,
and to prevent the permanent closure of the shops and
restaurants that make up Massachusetts’ Main Streets. They
were not supposed to be a funding mechanism to fill state
coffers with revenue.
What makes the situation even more perplexing is that under
existing state law, businesses filing as corporations will
not be required to pay state taxes on the PPP loans, which
is downright unfair.
So, an independent tax preparer, plumber, coffee shop, pet
groomer or another very small business owner, who was
fighting to keep their business from failing during their
darkest hour and are still financially fragile, will now
need to send a portion of their forgiven loan funds to the
commonwealth in the form of state taxes.
Massachusetts must take every step possible to make certain
as many small businesses as possible survive the pandemic,
so they once again provide jobs and assist with the state’s
economic recovery.
Fortunately, state Sen. Eric Lesser, Jason Lewis and Patrick
O’Connor filed a bill to reverse this wrong and make PPP
loans tax-free.
A bipartisan group of several dozen lawmakers is
co-sponsoring the legislation to help small businesses in
their districts.
But time is of the essence. The Massachusetts Legislature
must move quickly as tax season nears and small employers
still face economic hardships created by COVID-19.
I believe many people across the state who work for small
businesses or patronize them would agree: It’s only fair,
and it is the right thing to do.
— Christopher Carlozzi is
Massachusetts state director of the National Federation of
Independent Business, a small business association with over
5,000 members in the state.
The Boston
Herald
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Lawmakers tell Charlie Baker ‘stop sitting’ on $1B-plus
coronavirus aid
But Baker administration bracing for big bills to come
By Erin Tiernan
With just about half of the state’s $2.7 billion CARES Act
coronavirus cash still unspent, lawmakers have a message for
Gov. Charlie Baker: “Stop sitting on money.”
As of the last tally, $1.38 billion of the aid allocated to
the Bay State for expenses related to the COVID-19 public
health emergency had been spent, leaving $1.32 billion on
the table, according to state data.
A review of more than $7 billion in federal aid received
since the onset of the pandemic where the Baker
administration exercises discretion over spending, revealed
a similar pattern of holding some money back.
“The administration is playing it tight to the vest because
many problems — that could be very expensive to fix — are
going to be coming up this year,” said Greg Sullivan,
research director for government watchdog organization
Pioneer Institute.
Chief among them is what will happen with MBTA ridership
levels that have plummeted to a fraction of prepandemic
numbers, the cost of higher education with lowering
enrollment and most students still off campus, and paying
off an anticipated $4 billion unemployment trust fund
deficit, Sullivan said.
“What I think is going on is that they’re very reluctant to
run out of money without being able to address some of these
really big-ticket items,” the former state inspector general
said.
The state Department of Transportation has spent just $3.1
million of its $12 million allocation, even as the MBTA has
moved forward with systemwide service cuts, state data show.
The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has
spent just $96.3 million of its $265.7 million in aid.
A spokesman for the Executive Office for Administration and
Finance said all Coronavirus Relief Fund dollars received
have been “spent or committed” and said the administration
does not expect to return any of this federal money. A
spending deadline comes later this year. Of $44.4 million
earmarked for eviction and homelessness prevention, just
$4.8 million has been spent.
Lawmakers said it’s high time Baker starts loosening the
purse strings for federal aid promised to Massachusetts
residents.
“We need to stop sitting on money,” state Rep. Mike
Connolly, D-Cambridge, said. “He was sitting on money for
several months while we engaged in a big debate (about) how
to protect tenants from eviction.”
State Sen. Diana DiZoglio, D-Methuen, added: “The governor
needs to start allocating these resources immediately — not
in the future when it may be too late for small businesses
presently on the verge of closure — but now, when they need
it to survive.”
In December, Baker began awarding grants through the state’s
$668 million small business relief program which leans
heavily on CARES Act funds — nearly nine months after it
passed.
The Legislature appears poised to take a more hands-on role
in the coronavirus response, forming a new Joint Committee
on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management.
Another massive stimulus package is poised to pass Congress
this week. House Ways and Means Chairman U.S. Rep. Richard
Neal, D-Massachusetts, last week said President Biden’s
proposed $1.9 trillion relief package last week predicted
the state’s share of those dollars would make it to
Massachusetts by mid-March.
The Boston
Herald
Thursday, February 18, 2021
Charlie Baker furious over Massachusetts coronavirus vaccine
website crash:
‘My hair’s on fire!’
The state’s vaccine portal — vaxfinder.mass.gov — crashed
this morning as 1 million people newly eligible for shots
clamored for appointments in an embarrassment that had Gov.
Charlie Baker fuming.
“My hair’s on fire about the whole thing. I can’t even begin
to tell you how pissed off I am and people are working
really hard to get it fixed,” Baker said during an
appearance on GBH’s Boston Public Radio.
A message stating, “This application crashed,” and an image
of an octopus and a question mark greeted visitors amid the
crush of people attempting to find shots at Fenway Park,
Gillette Stadium and elsewhere.
For some, the website would appear to briefly show
scheduling availability, only to crash again moments later —
creating a sense of deja vu from the technical glitches and
fully booked calendars that plagued signups for those 75 and
older just weeks ago.
By 11:30 a.m. all appointments for mass vaccination sites in
Springfield, Danvers, Natick and Dartmouth were booked for
the next week, but Gov. Charlie Baker said 50,000 more
appointments would become available throughout the day on
Thursday as the website gets back online.
A COVID-19 Command Center spokeswoman blamed the technical
difficulties on “extremely high traffic” on the state
VaxFinder website and said, “we apologize for the website
challenges and are working to rectify these issues as soon
as possible.”
“Obviously the scenario work that we did didn’t adequately
prepare the site from when 8 o’clock rolled around,” Baker
said
Baker on Wednesday announced roughly 70,000 new appointments
would open up at 8 a.m. Thursday at the state’s four mass
vaccination sites in Springfield, Danvers, Boston and
Foxboro, stressing, “there’s no need to stay up all night”
to search for one of the coveted slots.
At the time Baker said, “I think the website will be in good
shape.”
Coronavirus vaccines on Thursday started going into the arms
of people 65 and older and those who have two or more
qualifying health conditions — an estimated pool of 1
million people.
In a tweet this morning, Baker’s administration acknowledged
the situation confronting thousands of people trying,
fruitlessly, to book appointments.
Democrats were quick to criticize Baker.
In a tweet amid the fallout over the website crash, Sen.
Joanne Comerford, D-Northampton called the four-armed
octopus image that greeted residents on the crashed web page
“an apt metaphor for an incomplete @MassGovernor creature
without enough limbs to do its work.”
Comerford is co-chairwoman of the Legislature’s new Joint
Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Management and
Preparedness.
Senate President Karen Spilka also weighed in.
“I am deeply disappointed that today so many Massachusetts
residents are feeling frustration and anger on a day when we
should be experiencing hope. I hear it and I feel it too,”
Spilka said in a statement.
“The Senate and House are holding a public, livestreamed
oversight hearing on Thursday, February 25 and we expect
answers from those responsible for this failure. The
Administration must deliver a better experience for our
residents, who have already dealt with so much anxiety and
disruption,” she said.
House Speaker Ronald Mariano said he was among the thousands
this morning frustrated as he was trying to schedule a shot.
“I was disappointed to experience difficulties with the
VaxFinder website. We all have the responsibility to get our
shots as soon as we can. I look forward to a productive
oversight hearing next week, where we’ll address problems
that delay the fair and accessible distribution of
vaccines,” he said.
Massachusetts Democratic Party Chair Gus Bickford said,
“It’s not just frustration that results from Baker’s total
incompetence, it’s fear and it’s a complete lack of
confidence in the Baker-Polito administration. Anything
short of a direct apology for this latest disaster is
another complete cop out from the Governor who has mastered
the art of dodging responsibility.”
House chairman of COVID-19 and Emergency Management and
Preparedness Committee Rep. William Driscoll, D-Milton,
underscored the “deep need for improved planning” in a
tweet.
Driscoll added, “The list of questions for the vaccine
rollout oversight the hearing we scheduled for next Thursday
2/25 gets longer by the day.”
The committee on Wednesday announced the series of oversight
hearings on the state’s “constantly changing and confusing
vaccination roll out,” citing growing anger and frustration
of constituents.
State Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, said, “I don’t understand
why the commonwealth, the Baker-Polito administration,
hasn’t been able to have a vendor or a contractor that can
handle this level of volume.
“I think it certainly indicates that the demand is
astronomical,” Cyr continued, adding that the crashing
website also reflects his concerns that only the “fittest,
most tech-savvy older adults” are gaining access to shots.
State Rep. Tami Gouveia, D-Acton, tweeted at 8:15 a.m., “The
massvax site crashed yesterday afternoon. It crashed already
this morning. There are more than a million people eligible
for vaccines. Some of these problems could’ve been avoided
if rolled out the program locally with a more thought-out
process. #managementfail”
State Rep. Steven Owens, D-Watertown, tweeted, “No surprise
they weren’t ready for a million people trying desperately
to get an appointment.”
Asked by reporters on Wednesday if the company’s website was
ready to handle the influx of newly eligible residents
seeking shots,, CIC Health spokesman Rodrigo Martinez said
the company’s “tech team is looking at that.”
CIC Health operates the mass vaccination sites a Gillette
Stadium and Fenway Park.
“Can I assure that technology doesn’t fail, no and by
definition, some technology fails. Are we doing everything
we can to make sure that is not the case? Sure,” he said.
“We have all the backups,” Martinez continued. “We’re doing
everything we can to be ready in these cases and hopefully
we’ve done a good enough job to make sure out CIC Health
website is working well.”
The company distanced itself from the technical difficulties
on Thursday in a statement posted to Twitter.
“While we don’t manage vaxfinder.mass.gov, we are are very
aware how this situation affects our guests. We are as
frustrated as you are,” the statement said.
CommonWealth
Magazine
Friday, February 19, 2021
Rocky vaccine rollout denting Baker’s popularity
By Shira Schoenberg
For most of the past six years, Republican Gov. Charlie
Baker has been ranked as the most popular governor – or
close to it - in America. One Boston Globe headline referred
to him as “Teflon Charlie,” and CNN’s Chris Cillizza
marveled at Baker’s strong poll numbers - among Democrats.
Could the COVID-19 vaccine rollout end Baker’s popularity?
Criticism of Baker mounted as national metrics showed
Massachusetts lagging in vaccine distribution, but then the
numbers began to turn more positive earlier this week. All
that positive momentum was wiped out on Thursday when the
state’s website for making vaccination appointments crashed
and sputtered all day long. Baker acknowledged that the
crash was “awful” and said he “is pissed off.” But for many,
it was the last straw.
The Globe reported how unusual it was that Baker was facing
backlash from all corners of government. A February 16
letter to Baker from the state’s entire congressional
delegation minus US Rep. Richard Neal, who wrote his own
letter, expressed “serious concerns” about vaccine
distribution and urged Baker to create a centralized
pre-registration system to help people make vaccine
appointments.
Hospitals have expressed frustration that Baker diverted
vaccine doses away from them and to mass vaccination sites,
a step Baker said he took to ensure speedier distribution.
Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat, said that
decision will increase racial disparities.
She wrote on Twitter that hospitals have been actively
reaching out to communities of color. “Turning off the
supply to our hospitals isn’t fair to the people
disproportionately hurt by COVID, stuck at home, without
computers, or someone to navigate websites or a ride to
Foxborough,” Healey wrote.
Baker also took criticism for taking doses from municipal
vaccine sites to send them to regional collaboratives and
mass vaccination sites. Attleboro Mayor Paul Heroux called
that decision “an absolute disaster,” a sentiment echoed by
other municipal leaders, including Somerville Mayor Joe
Curtatone.
The Democratic-led Legislature – which has worked closely
with Baker for years - took the unusual step of announcing
that it will hold an oversight hearing related to vaccine
distribution.
Even before Thursday, people were poking fun at the fact
that a software engineer on maternity leave built a more
user-friendly vaccine appointment website than the Baker
administration - after which the administration improved its
site.
On Thursday, after 1 million more people became eligible for
vaccines and the state’s website crashed, Democratic Senate
President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano said
they were “disappointed.” Democratic US Sen. Ed Markey
called it “unacceptable.”
Social media critics expressed extreme frustration. Some
reported spending hours trying to get an appointment.
Mental health expert John Grohol tweeted a photo of the
non-working web site with the tagline, “Massachusetts. Home
to MIT, Harvard, and world-class internet startups. This is
our vaccine appointment website at one point this morning.”
Tiffany Dowd, a social media influencer who advises the
luxury travel industry, got to the stage of selecting an
appointment time, with many appointments listed, but got a
message that none were available. “To say I am angry is an
understatement,” Dowd tweeted at the governor.
One person posted a gif of a dumpster fire.
Baker has pointed to the Berkshires as a model where a
regional vaccine collaborative has been effective. The
county has the state’s highest vaccination rate.
But Rep. Smitty Pignatelli, who represents the region, said
even there the rollout is hampered by a lack of
communication. He has no idea how many vaccines were
distributed in the Berkshires because the regional
collaborative was not told how many shots were distributed
at pharmacies or nursing homes – information the state has.
Pignatelli said the state should empower local communities,
noting that when the state website crashed, appointments
were available through the Berkshire Vaccine Collaborative’s
website. Pignatelli said Baker should not have launched the
website until it was foolproof. “I want him to be more than
pissed, I want him to hold people accountable,” Pignatelli
said.
Baker had a response ready when asked on GBH about the
criticism, saying the agony felt by many residents amid the
pandemic “makes any of the rockiness those of us in public
life had to deal with feel like nothing by comparison.”
The Boston
Herald
Saturday, February 20, 2021
A Boston Herald editorial
Administering a shot of mass frustration
The good news: Massachusetts roughly doubled the population
eligible for COVID-19 vaccines.
The bad news: Massachusetts roughly doubled the population
eligible for COVID-19 vaccines.
That comes with the addition of people age 65 and over,
residents and staff of affordable and low-income housing for
seniors, and those with two or more health conditions that
put them at higher risk.
The state’s expanding eligibility comes at the same time
it’s also focusing on high-capacity mass vaccination sites
and regional collaboratives to deliver the shots, a move
Baker administration officials believe will streamline the
process of immunizing as many people as possible.
But the road to second-guessing is paved with good
intentions, and we believe the governor’s decision to double
the sample size for such a limited number of vaccines will
exacerbate — not ameliorate — the inoculation situation.
And that’s already happened.
“We started with a very deliberate and very particular and
what I would describe as a very equitably framed process at
the beginning of this, but the big message we got from the
public was vaccinate, vaccinate,” the governor said at a
press conference Wednesday to announce the updated
eligibility list.
Administration officials cautioned it could take more than a
month for all the new groups to secure vaccine appointments,
urging continued patience because of the high demand that’s
outpacing the limited, but growing supply of shots from the
federal government.
That now seems like a colossal understatement.
About 70,000 appointments at mass vaccine sites in
Springfield, Danvers, Boston and Foxboro became available
around 8 a. m. Thursday for the newly eligible populations
and for those who previously qualified for the shots.
But here’s the rub. To the state’s already 1.1 million
vaccine eligible, the governor just added another 1 million
with this decision.
However, the state’s receiving just over 100,000 vaccine
doses a week from the federal government, which means the
demand exponentially exceeds the current supply.
Which has triggered, not mass vaccinations, but mass
exasperation.
Next week, Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou
Sudders said Massachusetts’ will see its weekly first-dose
supply increase to 139,000 from about 110,000 — still far
short of the shots necessary.
While the governor thought the state website “will be in
good shape” for the added traffic, that’s been anything but
the case.
Wednesday’s news sent people flooding to the state’s vaccine
booking portal — about an hour and a half after his
announcement, Baker said there had been 250,000 visits to
the site.
According to the Associated Press, the Massachusetts
coronavirus vaccine appointment portal crashed Thursday
morning due to the crush of so many more appointment
requests.
Left-out residents who went to vaxfinder.mass.gov received
an “application crashed” message, and were urged to try
again later.
That means people trying to take advantage of those mass
vaccination sites will likely now be forced to wait days for
an appointment.
Aside from a complete overhaul of his IT department, Baker’s
damned-if-he-does and damned-if-he-doesn’t position won’t
improve until the feds come close to meeting the state’s
vaccination needs.
State House
News Service
Friday, February 19, 2021
Baker May Send Guard South to Bring Vaccine to Mass.
Winter Storms Could Strand Critical Shipments
By Matt Murphy
With winter weather disrupting life across the South and a
storm headed to Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker said
Thursday he and other governors have requested permission to
send the National Guard to Kentucky and Tennessee to pick up
and bring back the states' next batches of COVID-19 vaccine
doses.
"We may have some real issues with supply delivery this
week," Baker said in remarks Thursday morning to the Greater
Boston Chamber of Commerce.
The governor's warning came as southern parts of the country
unaccustomed to winter weather have been blasted by snow and
ice in recent days, potentially impacting the transport of
vaccine to states like Massachusetts.
Demand for new doses crashed the state's appointment website
Thursday morning as the state opened up its vaccination
program to resident age 65 to 74 for the first time, and
Baker said the state routinely gets requests from providers
for more than four times its weekly allotment of about
110,000 doses, which is set to increase next week to about
139,000 doses.
"We had been told it would be a few days late based on some
the issues around weather in other parts of the country, but
we got told last night that we may see a significant delay
in our next shipments," Baker said.
While he did not address the morning's website failures,
Baker did say Massachusetts and other states had approached
the federal government about "taking this one into our own
hands" and sending the National Guard to pick up new vaccine
doses.
"We can't afford to go what will be almost a week without
getting any new doses from the feds and continue to maintain
the appointment schedules that people here expect and
anticipate we'll be able to maintain," Baker said.
Baker's speech to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce is
an annual event, but it took place virtually this year, with
Baker live in front of his computer in his State House
office.
The governor talked about the state's vaccine program and
the decisions he made to prioritize certain populations, the
positive trajectory of COVID-19 cases and his relationship
with Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, who is preparing to leave
City Hall to join the Biden administration.
"Who would have thought a Bill Weld Republican and labor
Democrat would have such a good working relationship, but in
some respects it's more than that. It is a really important
personal relationship for me," Baker said.
He also fielded a question about the appropriateness of
proceeding this spring with MCAS standardized testing for
students whose learning environments have been totally
upended over the past year. Baker said he agreed with
Education Commissioner Jeff Riley's approach of using it to
measure progress.
"I think that's a reasonable, appropriate and absolutely
necessary approach to try to gauge what's happened with kids
over the past year," Baker said.
The governor said the federal government had "put some
big-time money" into K-12 education, and was poised through
President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan to
make even more funding available for public schools.
Baker said he wold like to see Massachusetts use new money
on summer school, "acceleration academies" and other
opportunities for kids to help them catch up as COVID-19
cases decline with more vaccinations and more students able
to return to the classroom.
"If you don't do some kind of an assessment to figure out
where people are, it's going to be pretty hard to figure out
how to frame what it is you might want to make available to
them to help them catch up," Baker said.
The governor also spent a good amount of time talking about
his administration's focus on the "future of work," which he
teased during his annual State of the Commonwealth address
as a challenge that public policy leaders must get right.
Baker mentioned that some industries, like the hotel
industry, have been decimated through no fault of their own
by the pandemic, and it will be important to develop a game
plan for getting those business back on their feet.
The governor said the usual planning work done around job
creation and economic development focuses on what industries
will create the jobs of the future and how to train workers
for those careers.
"This one is more like, how are people going to work. Where
are they going to work, where are they going to live based
on how and where they can work," Baker said. "And the reason
this is such tough question to answer is because we're not
through the pandemic yet and there clearly has been a year's
worth of people thinking differently about how they do their
jobs."
For instance, Baker said some private sector executives have
told him they will have greatly different strategies for how
they spend on travel and entertainment, which would impact a
variety of sectors dependent on conventions and business
travel.
"I'm not saying it's going ot be easy to guess right on
this, because I'm not sure that it is, but I do think it
means at minimum we need to really kick the tires on a
variety of scenarios here to figure out what June, July,
August and September 2021, '22 and '23 are going to look
like when we get to the other side of this," Baker said.
The Boston
Herald
Friday, February 19, 2021
Charlie Baker to testify on Massachusetts coronavirus
vaccine rollout
at Legislature’s oversight committee hearing
By Lisa Kashinsky
Gov. Charlie Baker is expected to testify at the
Legislature’s oversight committee hearing next week on the
state’s rocky coronavirus vaccine rollout, the House
chairman told the Herald.
“I’m happy that the governor will be there and I hope we
have a productive hearing,” said state Rep. William
Driscoll, D-Milton, the House chairman of the new Joint
COVID-19 and Emergency Management and Preparedness
Committee.
Baker is expected to participate in the committee’s Feb. 25
hearing, though the exact timing is not yet clear.
Lawmakers are also seeking testimony from Health and Human
Services Secretary Marylou Sudders, though it was not
immediately clear Friday evening whether she would appear at
the hearing.
Members of the COVID-19 oversight committee cited their
constituents’ growing anger and frustration with the state’s
rocky vaccine rollout when they announced the Feb. 25
hearing — putting out their statement the day before website
failures plagued the opening of the next round of
appointment signups.
Driscoll said he plainly wants to know “why it seems like
Massachusetts is so unprepared for the vaccine rollout” and
plans to ask the governor about his administration’s
planning processes.
“There’s just been so many pivots and many of them seemed to
happen kind of overnight or with very little notice to the
public, to the organizations involved in terms of allocation
and administering the vaccine,” Driscoll said. “We want to
make sure things to a lot smoother from here on out, and
understand in terms of what the administration might be
dealing with that might not be as obvious to the Legislature
or the public.”
State House
News Service
Friday, February 19, 2021
Weekly Roundup - Crashed and Burning
Recap and analysis of the week in state government
By Matt Murphy
A four-legged octopus with a question mark hanging over its
head is certainly not the image you want to see when you log
on to book an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccine.
But after months of waiting for protection from the deadly
coronavirus, that's exactly what Baby Boomers found Thursday
morning -- a quizzical cephalopod and a message that read,
"This application crashed."
Gov. Charlie Baker had announced just a day earlier that
people 65 and older, or with two or more underlying health
conditions, including asthma, could begin booking
appointments. The signups would start at 8 o'clock in the
morning, he said. No need to stay up all night.
It felt hopeful. And then ...
"My hair's on fire about the whole thing," Baker told GBH's
Jim Braude and Margery Eagan.
Within a few hours, the site was back up and running, and
though still frustrating to users, 60,000 people were able
to book new appointments, the administration said Friday.
But not even his singed follicles and a mea culpa from the
state's Maryland technology vendor PrepMod could clean up
the fallout the governor was left with after another hiccup
in the state's rollercoaster rollout of the COVID-19
vaccine.
The concept of a politically damaging website failure is one
Baker should be familiar with since he campaigned against
Democrats on it in 2014 after the state botched its Health
Connector launch. This newest technology setback also came
at a time when the administration was in need of a win and
trying to push the narrative that its vaccine distribution
performance had been improving vis-à-vis other states.
Massachusetts now ranks sixth in the country for first doses
administered per capita, according to the CDC. But that was
cold comfort to many lawmakers fielding calls from
frustrated constituents desperate to get an appointment for
themselves, their parents or a loved one.
"We need the next few months to go a lot smoother," Rep.
William Driscoll said.
Driscoll, of Milton, and Sen. Jo Comerford, of Northampton,
were recently appointed by Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate
President Karen Spilka to chair the new Committee on
COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness. The oversight committee
didn't have to look far or wait long to find its first
subject.
Driscoll and Comerford will convene a hearing next Thursday
to explore what's gone right and wrong with the state's
vaccination program, and they've invited Baker himself to
take the hot seat.
The oversight role is not one the Legislature tries to play
often, and when it does it can sometimes be an uncomfortable
fit. But Baker is not the only one whose hair has been on
fire lately, and Mariano may have helped set the tone as he
went on the Sunday show circuit last weekend criticizing
Baker's vaccine program.
Not only did Mariano say he thought the companion policy
made little sense, but the former public school teacher said
teachers should be moved up the priority ladder. Teachers
happen to be in the next grouping.
The governor's office has not said if he will accept the
invitation to testify, but the committee has also asked
Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders and top
public health officials to appear.
Driscoll was in the spotlight for the role he will play next
week in holding the Baker administration accountable, but he
also generated headlines by filing a climate change
mitigation bill that would invest $10 billion in
infrastructure by 2030.
With former House Speaker Robert DeLeo and his $1.3 billion
"Green Works" bill seemingly gone from the discussion,
Driscoll is looking to fill that void with a new plan that
would extend carbon pricing to emissions not currently
taxed, such as those from heating, and authorize $500
million in annual borrowing.
The Senate refused to consider DeLeo's borrowing plan last
session, and Senate Democrats also ignored Gov. Baker's
similar $1 billion bill paid for with real estate transfer
taxes. But the lack of investment in climate resiliency was
an issue Baker flagged in his letter to the Legislature
vetoing the climate emission bill in January, and 2021 is a
new year.
Speaking of the climate bill, the Legislature has yet to
take up the governor's amendments, though Baker told the
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce that he was hopeful about
the direction his dialogue with the House and Senate was
moving.
And while he waits, his administration announced it would
use $10 million to expand the state's electric vehicle
rebate program to cover pickups and other large trucks and
vans. Putting more electric vehicles on the road is a big
part of Baker's roadmap to get to net zero emissions by
2050.
Baker also told the Chamber that he thought it was
"appropriate" and "absolutely necessary" that MCAS exams,
even modified tests, be given to students this spring.
The governor's comments came as a collection of education
and civil rights groups, including the two major teachers
unions, wrote to lawmakers pleading for them to push the
Department of Education to seek a federal waiver to cancel
the tests this spring.
Baker didn't seem at all open to the idea, describing the
exams as necessary to get a sense of if and how far students
had fallen behind over the last year.
Pointing to the substantial amount of money for K-12
education that would be headed to Massachusetts if President
Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan passed, Baker said he'd
like some of that money to be put toward summer school and
programs to help students make up for lost school time. And
that would be harder to do if educators don't know where
students must catch up.
As for that stimulus plan. U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan's office
said this week that Massachusetts stands to receive $8.275
billion in direct state and local relief funding from the
White House package, including $4.5 billion for state
government and the balance going to cities and towns.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Vaccine progress becomes a setback, but
only temporarily, as residents 65 and older begin signing
up.
State House
News Service
Friday, February 19, 2021
Advances - Week of Feb. 21, 2021
The U.S. House plans to vote next week on a $1.9 trillion
COVID-19 relief and economic stimulus bill that includes
$3.3 billion in emergency education funding for the state
and scores of other economic lifelines.
The bill includes nearly $2 billion for K-12 schools in
Massachusetts, $525 million in emergency child care funding,
and $825 million for higher education institutions here,
according to Congresswoman Katherine Clark. Democrats will
try to keep the bill intact in the face of opposition from
some Republicans who say previous stimulus laws need to be
given more time to take effect and that the latest bill is
not targeted enough.
The week ahead, which brings the one-year anniversary (Feb.
26-27) of the superspreader Biogen conference at the
Marriott Long Wharf in Boston, will see mass vaccination
sites open in Natick on Monday and Dartmouth on Wednesday,
adding more capacity as the state leans on the Biden
administration to further increase the vaccine supply and
other virus relief supports.
Baker administration officials on Thursday are scheduled to
testify before lawmakers on their vaccine rollout and their
plans for the coming phases. Baker has stood by his approach
of vaccinating higher risk individuals first, but his
critics say the governor didn't prepare well enough for the
massive effort and confusion over changing plans, technology
lapses and implementation problems has left many people in
Massachusetts frustrated and angry.
-- STORYLINES IN PROGRESS ... Legislative committees now
have their members and Friday's bill-filing deadline means
they are free to get organized and begin scheduling public
hearings on bills.
The first fiscal 2022 budget hearing is March 2. Look for
more budget hearings to be scheduled soon.
Lawmakers face another pandemic challenge at the dawn of
hearing season: ensuring public access to hearings and
legislative testimony, in lieu of the interactions and
opportunities afforded by traditional in-person hearings.
Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Kimberly Budd and Trial
Court Chief Justice Paula Carey plan a virtual listening
session to discuss confronting racism in the courts.
With Boston Mayor Marty Walsh still awaiting a U.S. Senate
confirmation vote, it's not clear whether he will step down
before March 5 and whether a home rule petition canceling a
required special election will even need passage.
After lawmakers were quick to reapprove a bill vetoed by
Gov. Baker last session, negotiations between lawmakers and
the administration appear to be continuing on Baker's
climate and emissions bill amendments.
The Boston
Herald
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
RIP Rush Limbaugh
By Howie Carr
Rest in peace, Rush Limbaugh.
How do you thank a guy for a million laughs, and so much
more?
Like so many millions of your fans, Rush, I will miss your
daily broadcasts.
But we all owe you so much that I just want to thank you
publicly for what you’ve done for me, and for all of us.
Thank you for absorbing more slings and arrows of outrageous
fortune from the Deep State than any other public figure in
the last 30 years except for Donald J. Trump.
Thank you for the first wholly Republican-controlled
Congress in 40 years in 1994, which you were so responsible
for that you were made an honorary member of the House
freshman class of 1995.
Thanks for saving AM radio for a generation.
Thank you for stoically enduring the boycotts, the drug
problem, the hearing loss, the woke mobs (remember ESPN?)
and the political persecutions like New York’s attempt to
make you pay income taxes long after you moved to sunny
South Florida.
Thank you for never taking yourself too seriously.
Thanks for being the absolute best lead-in any other radio
talk-show host could have ever dreamed of having.
Thank you for all the great nicknames from old Top 40 songs,
including for local Massachusetts politicians Mike Dukakis
(“Nowhere Man”), Ted Kennedy (“The Philanderer”) and Barney
Frank (“My Boy Lollipop”).
I remember first hearing about Rush in the late 1980s. Then
WHDH, which was at the time AM 850, began running him on
tape delays, on Saturday afternoons.
I couldn’t believe what Rush was doing on radio – he was
Jerry Williams for the next generation, Jerry Williams on
steroids.
No wonder Don Imus hated you so much, Rush.
Thank you for teaching all of us other hosts how to properly
utilize sound cuts, even before the digital era, when it
became so easy to pull up audio clips.
Thank you Rush, despite how ultimately disappointing the
George W. Bush presidency turned out to be, for working so
hard to spare us what have been the unimaginably worse
presidencies of Al Gore and John Forbes Kerry.
Thank you for decades of deflating the insufferably bloated
egos of TV network “news” anchors and reporters.
Thank for those unforgettable shorthand descriptions of,
say, John Kerry (“who, you may not have heard, served in
Vietnam”), not to mention such memorable phrases as “the
drive-by media,” “talent on loan from God,” and “random acts
of journalism.”
Thanks for your unfailingly good humor, and the fact that
you were “up” every afternoon at noon, no matter how you may
have felt inside.
Thanks for reminding us, every afternoon at 12:07, just how
great a song “My City Was Gone” by the Pretenders is.
Thank you for reminding us every day that you don’t need a
fancy academic pedigree, or even a college degree, to
succeed, not to mention be the smartest guy in the room.
Thank you for being, as you used to say, America’s
anchorman, not to mention providing show prep for the rest
of the media.
Thank you for your occasionally brutal honesty, such as when
you said that you hoped the new president Obama would fail —
because you understood that if he succeeded in what he
wanted to do, the American people would pay a terrible
price.
Thanks for every once in a while reading from one of my
columns, or playing a cut of me from my show — it didn’t
always make my day, Rush, it made my week.
Thank you for driving President Bill Clinton so crazy that
one morning on Air Force One, speaking to the morning hosts
on KMOX, the blowtorch station in Rush’s home state of
Missouri, he whined and said something like, “It’s so hard
to compete against a guy like Limbaugh who has three hours a
day.”
In other words, Clinton was complaining that a journeyman
radio guy had a bigger bully pulpit than the president of
the United States.
Thank you for giving me, and a hundred others, brand-new
careers, that I might add paid so much better than
newspapers or spinning 45’s on a dying Top 40 station.
One of my listeners, Jay from Chelsea, texted me yesterday
afternoon:
“Forget Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper, TODAY is the day the
music died.”
Vaya con Dios, Rush. Go with God.
The Boston
Herald
Thursday, February 18, 2021
A Boston Herald editorial
When Rush spoke, millions listened
Rush Limbaugh was no centrist.
The talk radio icon, who died Wednesday at age 70, was an
unabashed conservative, an often polarizing figure lambasted
by he left.
He was brash, often incendiary, and unafraid to support
patriotism and American principles. He gave a bullhorn to
the conservative voice.
And people listened.
As Fox News reported, Limbaugh would reminisce each Aug. 1
about his first radio program and how the show had grown. On
Aug. 1, 2017, Mike from Plymouth Meeting, Pa., called in to
offer with his own memory of that first show.
“I caught you on your very first broadcast on (WABC) radio
station AM 770. My wife and I were on our way to the Jersey
Shore. I heard you talking, and I said to my wife, “What did
he say his name was?” Mike recalled. “And she said, ‘I think
he said Rush.’ And I said, ‘Man, I don’t know who he is, but
I sure like what he’s saying. He’s saying what I’m
thinking,’ and I’ve been listening ever since.”
Limbaugh spoke to people who often felt unheard in a society
hewing ever more to the left.
After the 1992 election, Limbaugh received a letter from
President Ronald Reagan urging him to keep up the fight for
conservatism.
“Now that I’ve retired from active politics. I don’t mind
that you have become the Number One voice for conservatism
in our Country,” Reagan wrote, as chronicled by David
Remnick in the Washington Post. “I know the liberals call
you the most dangerous man in America, but don’t worry about
it, they used to say the same thing about me. Keep up the
good work. America needs to hear ‘the way things ought to
be.'” the 40th president added, playing on one of Limbaugh’s
book titles.
Republican lawmakers noted Limbaugh’s legacy in paving the
way for other conservative media personalities, The Hill
reported.
“Rush Limbaugh was an American icon who brought conservatism
into the mainstream — and our country is a better place
because of his profound voice. He leaves behind an
incredible legacy. Please join me in praying for his
family,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise said on Twitter.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a founding member of the House
Freedom Caucus, called Limbaugh the “greatest radio host of
all time.”
“Rush Limbaugh was an icon, patriot, and American hero. No
one fought harder for freedom and liberty,” he tweeted.
Republicans and conservatives in general are often the
receiving end of excoriation by Democrats and progressives,
and Limbaugh served as a lightning rod.
But Limbaugh’s keynote address to the 2009 Conservative
Political Action Conference best summed up his take on the
movement and his personal philosophy:
“We see human beings,” he said. “We don’t see groups. We
don’t see victims. We don’t see people we want to exploit.
What we see is potential. We do not look out across the
country and see the average American, the person that makes
this country work.”
“We do not see that person with contempt. We don’t think
that person doesn’t have what it takes. We believe that
person can be the best he or she wants to be if certain
things are just removed from their path like onerous taxes,
regulations and too much government,” he continued. “We want
this to be the greatest country it can be, but we do
understand, as people created and endowed by our Creator,
we’re all individuals. We resist the effort to group us. We
resist the effort to make us feel that we’re all the same;
that we’re no different than anybody else. We’re all
different.”
Rest in peace, Rush.
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