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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, April 18, 2021
A Massachusetts Irony-of-Ironies
Jump directly
to CLT's Commentary on the News
|
Most Relevant News Excerpts
(Full news reports follow Commentary)
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With some Massachusetts businesses facing sudden and sharp
unemployment tax increases just weeks after implementation
of a new law aimed at limiting their costs, a top lawmaker
wants Gov. Charlie Baker to intervene with a legislative
fix.
Sen. Patricia Jehlen, co-chair of the Legislature's Labor
and Workforce Development Committee, said Monday that she
was surprised -- as were many small businesses and industry
groups -- to hear reports about employers who now face
greater-than-anticipated unemployment contributions because
of an unexpected jump in the solvency fund assessment.
In an interview with the News Service, Jehlen said she is
concerned the fifteenfold jump in the solvency assessment
rate might offset the benefits from the wide-ranging
legislation Baker signed April 1 aimed at stabilizing the
state's unemployment system and relieving pressure on
businesses....
The state's unemployment insurance trust fund has been
overwhelmed by the unprecedented surge in joblessness during
the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing the state to turn to federal
loans to keep benefits flowing.
Without action, the rates that businesses pay to fund
unemployment benefits would have jumped from schedule E to
schedule G, carrying a roughly 60 percent average increase
in the per-employee cost....
In a Retailers Association email on Friday, the group wrote,
"The assessment, which normally pays certain socialized
system costs like dependency allowances and claims from
businesses that have closed, is now being utilized to cover
COVID-related layoffs in a socialized, non-experience rated
manner."
Arguing for the use of recovery funds to address the
problem, retailers said assessment costs are "primarily the
result of state and federal government decisions to enhance
and expand UI benefits and shut down private business
operations during the pandemic" and "it is only fair that
government take on a shared responsibility in this manner."
State House News Service
Monday April 12, 2021
Biz Groups Feel Blindsided by New UI System Costs
Labor Chair Surprised by Size of Solvency Assessment Hike
A growing chorus of lawmakers is pushing to direct federal
stimulus funding toward the state's unemployment benefits
system to soften the blow of an unexpected surge in required
contributions from employers, and House Speaker Ronald
Mariano wants an explanation from the Baker administration.
House Minority Leader Brad Jones and Senate Minority Leader
Bruce Tarr are circulating a letter on Tuesday to Democratic
leadership and Gov. Charlie Baker, urging them to use some
of the billions in aid from Washington to replenish the
state's unemployment insurance trust fund.
Dipping into the pool of federal dollars, the lawmakers
said, would relieve pressure on employers who were hit with
much larger quarterly unemployment tax bills than they
expected due to a fifteenfold increase in the solvency fund
assessment rate.
"We are urging you to follow the lead of Maryland and other
states by dedicating a portion of the federal COVID-19
relief aid Massachusetts is receiving through the American
Rescue Plan Act or other available and relevant federal
funds to replenish the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund,"
lawmakers wrote in their letter. "Doing so will remove the
financial burden from employers who are already struggling
to survive, which in turn will help protect jobs and
contribute to a strong post-pandemic economic recovery." ...
Baker signed legislation earlier this month designed to
limit the cost increases on employers who fund the
joblessness system by freezing the rate schedule, but the
bill's drafters only targeted part of the complex formula
that determines those taxes.
Because of the multibillion-dollar deficit forecast for the
unemployment fund for the next few years, a section of the
contribution system that lawmakers did not touch known as
the solvency assessment rate jumped from 0.58 percent in
2020 to 9.23 percent in 2021. That translates to thousands
of dollars more in charges on many businesses.
Few, if any, concerns were raised publicly about the
solvency assessment during debate on the wide-ranging
unemployment and tax relief bill that Baker -- who filed an
original version of the proposal late last year -- signed on
April 1.
Jones told the News Service that he only learned of the
problem when businesses began receiving quarterly tax bills
this month.
"I think if we had gotten (the legislation) done earlier
this session, we might have had a better idea that these
bills were going to be as large as they were," Jones said.
"Instead of getting it in February and saying this is due in
2.5 months, we're getting it in April and it's due in 2.5
weeks."
As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, 49 lawmakers -- nearly a quarter of
the Legislature -- had signed the letter, including both
Democrats and Republicans, according to Jones's office.
Jones and Tarr plan to continue seeking signatories until 5
p.m....
Business leaders told Baker that the decision forces
employers "to foot the bill for government decisions before
and during the pandemic," pointing to mandatory closures and
public health restrictions that impacted their operations.
State House News Service
Tuesday, April 12, 2021
Lawmakers: Use Fed Funds to Address UI “Sticker Shock”
New System Woes Surface After Passage of UI Bill
By most accounts, the redistricting process 10 years ago was
a huge success. The district maps produced by legislative
leaders avoided challenges in federal court for the first
time in decades and most stakeholders walked away feeling
heard.
Despite losing a Congressional seat, the Legislature created
double the number of majority-minority districts in the
Massachusetts House and established the newly drawn U.S.
House district now held by U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley - the
first Black woman to represent the state in Congress.
But with activists clamoring to do more to increase minority
representation on Beacon Hill, House and Senate leaders on
Wednesday set about trying to recreate that bonhomie as they
held the first of more than a dozen hearings being planned
over the next six to seven months.
The Special Joint Committee on Redistricting led by Senate
President Pro Tempore William Brownsberger, of Belmont, and
Assistant House Majority Leader Michael Moran, of Boston,
will redraw the political boundaries that will shape
elections and the faces of state politics for the next
decade....
Unlike 10 years ago, the committee lacks some vital
information - a count of how many people live in
Massachusetts and where. The U.S. Census Bureau has delayed
the finalization of the 2020 nationwide population count by
six months, telling states the population data will be
available by September 30.
But as they wait for the federal government to provide that
data by the fall, the committee is not waiting to begin
thinking about how they will approach the task of redrawing
political boundaries for nine Congressional seats, 40 Senate
districts, 160 House districts and eight Governor's Council
districts....
Beth Huang, director of the Massachusetts Voter Table, said
the 2020 Census will likely show that Massachusetts has
gained 5 percent population, growing to more than 6.8
million residents due to immigration. But she said many
regions have lost population, which will lead to shifts in
political district boundaries....
Eva Millona, president of Massachusetts Immigrant and
Refugee Advocacy Coalition, requested that the committee
prioritize holding hearings in so-called "Gateway" cities
that tend to have higher concentrations of minority and
immigrant populations, as well as in Boston and rural
communities.
She also asked that closed captioning be used to break
through language barriers.
"We faced immense challenges in ensuring that the 2020
Census count included immigrant communities in the midst of
a pandemic, both viral and political, that continues to
unfold," Millona said. "We must apply lessons from our
Census work to the redistricting process, particularly the
importance of meeting immigrant communities where they are
with multilingual, culturally competent outreach and
education."
State House News Service
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Lawmakers Wade Into Redistricting Without Key Data
Hearing Emphasizes Open Process, Commitment to Diversity
The thousands of bills state lawmakers filed to kick off
this two-year session began landing before joint committees
for review this week, while rules that will govern how those
panels deliberate remain up in the air.
Bills that have been lingering on House and Senate dockets
since a Feb. 19 filing deadline have now been assigned
numbers. Most were sent to committees on Wednesday....
In all, more than 6,000 bills are now before joint
committees, ranging in number from the 29 before the
Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development Committee to the
Judiciary Committee's 739....
Questions around public access to written testimony,
disclosure of committee members' votes on bills and how much
advance notice must be provided before a hearing remain
unsettled, with the House and Senate versions of a joint
rules package subject to private conference committee
negotiations.
Ahead of a Friday deadline, amendments to the House Ways and
Means budget (H 4000) have also started appearing on the
Legislature's website.
State House News Service
Thursday, April 15, 2021
Committees on Beacon Hill Finally Getting Their Bills
Budget season is underway on Beacon Hill -- House lawmakers
and aides are churning out amendments and preparing for
debate later this month, reporters are scouring the House's
fiscal year 2022 proposal (H
4000) for the newsy nuggets not highlighted by budget
writers, and advocacy groups are making their thoughts known
and hoping to shape the final product.
Within minutes of the House budget being released Wednesday,
people and groups weighed in with likes, dislikes and
analysis of the $47.65 billion spending plan. Some focused
on the bill as a whole while others zoomed in on specific
line items important to them.
Here's a sampling of what's being said about the House
budget plan:
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation: ... The HWM budget
increases the draw on the Rainy Fund and uses a large
reversion assumption to help balance the budget; both of
these strategies are problematic if they are included in the
final FY 2022 conference report. Both the House and Senate
may view these resources as short-term placeholders as we
await clarity on federal guidance on the ARP and further tax
collection information, but starting the next fiscal year
with a strategy to rebuild reserves and reduce the
structural deficit is vital for the state to sustainably
emerge from this crisis." ...
Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center: "Massachusetts
remains in the midst of a health and economic crisis that
the House Ways and Means (HWM) budget proposal does not
fully address.... There are billions in federal aid
coming to Massachusetts, and the Legislature has said it
will wait until June to consider how to spend these funds at
a time when the need is now. We must ensure the state is
spending its dollars in ways that most benefit our
communities that are struggling to make ends meet. The
Legislature should allow for a transparent process that
includes the community to ensure that the money goes to
where the need is greatest."
State House News Service
Thursday, April 15, 2021
House Budget Generates Mix of Reactions
Approaches to Education, Inequality, Rainy Day Fund
Scrutinized
The digital waiting room for the state's vaccine-booking
website -- one of the improvements made after its February
crash under high traffic -- is likely to fill up again on
Monday, as Massachusetts drops its eligibility restrictions
and allows anyone age 16 and older who lives, works or
studies here the chance to book an appointment. If they can
find one.
If not, there's always New Hampshire. The Granite State, no
longer subject to a mask mandate after Friday, will on
Monday allow out-of-staters to get vaccines there, too.
Baker indicated this week he's not yet thinking about
relaxing his mask order, saying the timing of such a move
would ultimately depend on federal guidance (and so far, the
feds have discouraged dropping mask orders), vaccination
pace and the spread of coronavirus variants....
The House's first budget draft under Speaker Ronald Mariano
has a higher bottom line than Baker's bill, boosting
spending over this year by 2.6 percent instead of the cut
the governor recommended. It also has a bigger draw from the
state's rainy-day fund, and accounts for large MassHealth
obligations not captured in the governor's budget.
Not featured in the House Ways and Means budget? The roughly
$4.5 billion in state fiscal relief expected from the
American Rescue Plan. With the state anticipating the rules
for spending that money to land sometime next month, Mariano
said the House would rather wait and handle that in a
separate bill.
In the meantime, House lawmakers have more than a thousand
ideas of how the fiscal 2022 budget could be improved.
Amendments filed ahead of Friday's deadline range from
policy matters (to name a couple: a proposal from Rep. Jay
Livingstone that would allow MassHealth applicants to
simultaneously apply for nutrition benefits, and one from
Rep. Nicholas Boldyga that would limit the governor's
emergency powers, including capping emergency orders that
"infringe constitutional rights" at 30 days' length unless
extended legislatively) to local earmarks (a new wooden
shingle roof for Wakefield's Hawthorne House, cleanup after
a gypsy moth infestation in Hampden, a footbridge over
Bedford's Elm Brook....) to the Beacon Hill-centric
(cost-of-living pay increases for legislative staffers and
the return of Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli's somewhat
tongue-in-cheek pitch to require an annual training for reps
on how to properly mute their phone)....
Another issue that could be subject to legislative action in
the short term is one that seemed like it'd been already
handled: unemployment insurance relief for businesses.
A bill Baker signed on April 1 eased the UI rate hikes
facing businesses, replacing a roughly 60 percent average
increase with an 18.5 percent one. But costs spiked for many
employers anyway, as one component of their UI payments,
known as a solvency assessment, jumped from a rate of 0.58
percent in 2020 to 9.23 percent in 2021.
The National Federation of Independent Business said the
higher solvency rate was enough to wipe out savings some of
its members had expected from the new law, and joined with
other business groups to ask the Baker administration to
step in with federal stimulus funding.
On Thursday, the Department of Unemployment Assistance told
employers that their first quarter payments would be due
June 1 instead of April 30, promising more information later
on the solvency rate. The delay will give Beacon Hill time
to figure out how to respond to a situation that surprised
some lawmakers as much as it did business owners.
State House News Service
Friday, April 16, 2021
Weekly Roundup - Things That Go Bump
STORYLINES IN PROGRESS: ... The state on Thursday granted a
one-month extension in the due date for first quarter
unemployment insurance premiums, giving the Legislature and
Gov. Charlie Baker some time to address a spike in solvency
assessments that was not addressed in a UI reform law signed
by Baker on April 1 ...
A paid COVID-19 leave program that was supposed to be an
emergency law remains hung up over unresolved differences
between the Legislature and Baker ...
One hundred days into the new two-year session, thousands of
bills have finally been assigned numbers and referred to
committees. However, legislators are still trying to find
common ground on joint rules that will dictate the levels of
transparency associated with committee votes and access to
public testimony at a time when in-person hearings are not
being held but virtual options have the potential to open
access to testimony in ways that have been adopted in other
states ...
State House News Service
Friday, April 16, 2021
Advances - Week of April 18, 2021
|
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
The State House News Service reported last Monday ("Biz
Groups Feel Blindsided by New UI System Costs; Labor Chair
Surprised by Size of Solvency Assessment Hike"):
With some Massachusetts businesses facing
sudden and sharp unemployment tax increases just weeks after
implementation of a new law aimed at limiting their costs, a top
lawmaker wants Gov. Charlie Baker to intervene with a legislative
fix.
Sen. Patricia Jehlen, co-chair of the
Legislature's Labor and Workforce Development Committee, said Monday
that she was surprised -- as were many small businesses and industry
groups -- to hear reports about employers who now face
greater-than-anticipated unemployment contributions because of an
unexpected jump in the solvency fund assessment.
In an interview with the News Service, Jehlen
said she is concerned the fifteenfold jump in the solvency
assessment rate might offset the benefits from the wide-ranging
legislation Baker signed April 1 aimed at stabilizing the state's
unemployment system and relieving pressure on businesses....
The state's unemployment insurance trust fund
has been overwhelmed by the unprecedented surge in joblessness
during the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing the state to turn to federal
loans to keep benefits flowing.
Without action, the rates that businesses pay
to fund unemployment benefits would have jumped from schedule E to
schedule G, carrying a roughly 60 percent average increase in the
per-employee cost....
In a Retailers Association email on Friday, the
group wrote, "The assessment, which normally pays certain socialized
system costs like dependency allowances and claims from businesses
that have closed, is now being utilized to cover COVID-related
layoffs in a socialized, non-experience rated manner."
Arguing for the use of recovery funds to
address the problem, retailers said assessment costs are "primarily
the result of state and federal government decisions to enhance and
expand UI benefits and shut down private business operations during
the pandemic" and "it is only fair that government take on a shared
responsibility in this manner."
"Business leaders told Baker that the decision forces
employers 'to foot the bill for government decisions before and during
the pandemic,' pointing to mandatory closures and public health
restrictions that impacted their operations," the News Service added in
its follow-up report on Tuesday, "Lawmakers: Use Fed Funds to Address UI
'Sticker Shock'".
The state and federal
governments imperiously locked down businesses and the entire economy
for most of a year causing historic levels of unemployment and the
permanent loss of many businesses now gone under, forcing all their
employees onto unemployment for a chance at survival. Nonetheless
the state now wants to further penalize those businesses that
somehow managed to survive, punish them even more for what the
government imposed upon them. Massachusetts has or will soon
receive a total of $111 Billion in cash from the federal
government out of thin air for pandemic relief, yet still they want to
trample small business under their boots.
State House News Service reported on Thursday ("Committees
on Beacon Hill Finally Getting Their Bills"):
The thousands of bills state lawmakers filed to
kick off this two-year session began landing before joint committees
for review this week, while rules that will govern how those panels
deliberate remain up in the air.
Bills that have been lingering on House and
Senate dockets since a Feb. 19 filing deadline have now been
assigned numbers. Most were sent to committees on Wednesday....
In all, more than 6,000 bills are now before
joint committees, ranging in number from the 29 before the Tourism,
Arts and Cultural Development Committee to the Judiciary Committee's
739....
Questions around public access to written
testimony, disclosure of committee members' votes on bills and how
much advance notice must be provided before a hearing remain
unsettled, with the House and Senate versions of a joint rules
package subject to private conference committee negotiations.
Ahead of a Friday deadline, amendments to the
House Ways and Means budget (H 4000) have also started appearing on
the Legislature's website.
I'm still
struggling to
plow through those 6,000-plus bills to discover where this year's
stealth attack on Proposition 2½ is buried.
Please appreciate that these bills, along with being obtuse in the
extreme, referring back to other chapters and sections of Mass. General
Laws, each runs for multitudes of pages. I haven't unearthed this
year's sneak attack yet — but have little doubt it's going to be there,
somewhere.
You may recall in 2018 one was buried in
a
transportation bill, another was concealed deep within the massive
economic development bill; it was buried in the huge
education reform funding bill in 2019, and; last year it was quietly
secreted deep within the $17 Billion
transportation bond bill.
The State House News Service reported on Wednesday
("Lawmakers Wade Into Redistricting Without Key Data; Hearing Emphasizes
Open Process, Commitment to Diversity"):
By most accounts, the redistricting
process 10 years ago was a huge success. The district
maps produced by legislative leaders avoided challenges
in federal court for the first time in decades and most
stakeholders walked away feeling heard.
Despite losing a Congressional
seat, the Legislature created double the number of
majority-minority districts in the Massachusetts House
and established the newly drawn U.S. House district now
held by U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley - the first Black
woman to represent the state in Congress.
But with activists clamoring to do
more to increase minority representation on Beacon Hill,
House and Senate leaders on Wednesday set about trying
to recreate that bonhomie as they held the first of more
than a dozen hearings being planned over the next six to
seven months.
The Special Joint Committee on
Redistricting led by Senate President Pro Tempore
William Brownsberger, of Belmont, and Assistant House
Majority Leader Michael Moran, of Boston, will redraw
the political boundaries that will shape elections and
the faces of state politics for the next decade....
Unlike 10 years ago, the committee
lacks some vital information - a count of how many
people live in Massachusetts and where. The U.S. Census
Bureau has delayed the finalization of the 2020
nationwide population count by six months, telling
states the population data will be available by
September 30.
But as they wait for the federal
government to provide that data by the fall, the
committee is not waiting to begin thinking about how
they will approach the task of redrawing political
boundaries for nine Congressional seats, 40 Senate
districts, 160 House districts and eight Governor's
Council districts....
Beth Huang, director of the
Massachusetts Voter Table, said the 2020 Census will
likely show that Massachusetts has gained 5 percent
population, growing to more than 6.8 million residents
due to immigration. But she said many regions have lost
population, which will lead to shifts in political
district boundaries....
Eva Millona, president of
Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition,
requested that the committee prioritize holding hearings
in so-called "Gateway" cities that tend to have higher
concentrations of minority and immigrant populations, as
well as in Boston and rural communities.
She also asked that closed
captioning be used to break through language barriers.
"We faced immense challenges in
ensuring that the 2020 Census count included immigrant
communities in the midst of a pandemic, both viral and
political, that continues to unfold," Millona said. "We
must apply lessons from our Census work to the
redistricting process, particularly the importance of
meeting immigrant communities where they are with
multilingual, culturally competent outreach and
education."
Rumors have it that Massachusetts may lose one congressional seat (and
one electoral college vote) after the census redistricting, dropping the
state down to eight members of Congress for the 2022 election — and
won't that be a musical chairs scramble to behold. (This
last happened following the 2010 census, dropping the state from 10 to 9
congressional seats.) U.S. Congressman Bill Keating's 9th
Congressional District seems to be the most exposed to the chopping
block for elimination and merger with another or others should the state
be reduced to eight districts.
This would explain why Secretary of State Bill
Galvin has been so giddy that although productive, taxpaying
citizens are bailing out of the state in numbers, those expatriates are
being more than replaced by the mass influx of "international
immigrants," but Galvin's scrambling to challenge any loss of
population.
On Thursday the House Ways and Means Committee released its fiscal year
2022
$47.65 billion budget
recommendation. The
State House News Service reported ("House Budget Generates Mix of
Reactions; Approaches to Education, Inequality, Rainy Day Fund
Scrutinized"):
Budget season is underway on Beacon
Hill -- House lawmakers and aides are churning out
amendments and preparing for debate later this month,
reporters are scouring the House's fiscal year 2022
proposal (H
4000) for the newsy nuggets not highlighted by
budget writers, and advocacy groups are making their
thoughts known and hoping to shape the final product.
Within minutes of the House budget
being released Wednesday, people and groups weighed in
with likes, dislikes and analysis of the $47.65 billion
spending plan. Some focused on the bill as a whole while
others zoomed in on specific line items important to
them.
Here's a sampling of what's being
said about the House budget plan:
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation:
... The HWM budget increases the draw on the Rainy Fund
and uses a large reversion assumption to help balance
the budget; both of these strategies are problematic if
they are included in the final FY 2022 conference
report. Both the House and Senate may view these
resources as short-term placeholders as we await clarity
on federal guidance on the ARP and further tax
collection information, but starting the next fiscal
year with a strategy to rebuild reserves and reduce the
structural deficit is vital for the state to sustainably
emerge from this crisis." ...
Massachusetts Budget and Policy
Center: "Massachusetts remains in the midst of a health
and economic crisis that the House Ways and Means (HWM)
budget proposal does not fully address.... There
are billions in federal aid coming to Massachusetts, and
the Legislature has said it will wait until June to
consider how to spend these funds at a time when the
need is now. We must ensure the state is spending its
dollars in ways that most benefit our communities that
are struggling to make ends meet. The Legislature should
allow for a transparent process that includes the
community to ensure that the money goes to where the
need is greatest."
The House W&M Committee's proposed $47.65 budget is $1.65 Billion more
than the belated budget of $46 Billion passed and adopted last November
for this fiscal year (that began last July!). It is $2 Billion
more than Gov. Baker filed in January for FY2022 of $45.6 Billion.
I've gone over the "outside sections" of the House's just-released
version. Outside sections are where the tricks are often buried.
The only thing that stuck out was another redirection of the tobacco
settlement's billions into the state pension funds:
H-4000 - Fiscal Year 2022 Budget Recommendations
(Outside Sections)
Page 245, Section 30
Lines 594-608 -- (a) Notwithstanding any general or special law
to the contrary, the unexpended balances in items 0699-0015 and
0699-9100 of section 2 shall be deposited into the State Retiree
Benefits Trust Fund established in section 24 of chapter 32A of
the General Laws before the certification of the fiscal year
2022 consolidated net surplus under section 5C of chapter 29 of
the General Laws. The amount deposited shall be an amount equal
to 10 per cent of all payments received by the commonwealth in
fiscal year 2022 under the master settlement agreement in
Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Philip Morris, Inc. et al.,
Middlesex Superior Court, No. 95-7378; provided, however, that
if in fiscal year 2022 the unexpended balances of said items
0699-0015 and 0699-9100 of said section 2 are less than 10 per
cent of all payments received by the commonwealth in fiscal year
2022 under the master settlement agreement payments, an amount
equal to the difference shall be transferred to the State
Retiree Benefits Trust Fund from payments received by the
commonwealth under the master settlement agreement.
(b) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary,
the payment percentage set forth in section 152 of chapter 68 of
the acts of 2011 shall not apply in fiscal year 2022.
If you're a longtime
CLT member you might recall
our
battle back in 1999-2000 to have that so-called "reimbursement"
returned to the taxpayers in the form of a tax reduction, or at least a
reduction of the 1989 "temporary" income tax rate hike. We warned
that otherwise it would be squandered. Diverting it to the state
pensions funds is a dilemma: One way or the other, taxpayers are
liable for those extravagant "government worker" pensions. When
the pension funds run dry it'll be taxpayers who'll be impoverished to
replenish them. You know retired government employees won't be
hurt.
A
Massachusetts Irony-of-Ironies
State House News
Service reported on Friday in its "Advances - Week of April 18, 2021":
Monday, April 19, 2021
PATRIOTS' DAY: For the second year
in a row, the local Minute Men are keeping their powder dry as the
pandemic precludes the large-scale, in-person historical
reenactments that normally draw thousands of spectators to Middlesex
County and give a springtime boost to local businesses.
Patriots' Day this year falls on April 19, the
date in 1775 when the first shots of the Revolutionary War were
fired around dawn on Lexington Common, touching off an eight-year
war for American independence from Great Britain.
The 250th anniversary, or sestercentennial, of
that first military engagement is just four years away, and the
Legislature's attention is again turning to preparations for the
historic occasion that also has potential to be a boon to the Bay
State economy. An outside section in the House Ways and Means budget
(Section 47) would establish a special commission on the 250th
anniversary of the American Revolution, to be led by the chairs of
the Tourism Committee and featuring representatives from numerous
cultural, historical, and trade groups.
Last session, Sen. Collins filed a bill to seat
such a commission, but after nearly two years of shuttling through
the legislative process, it died on the final night of session this
January after achieving engrossment in the Senate and enactment in
the House. Rep. Ciccolo of Lexington has filed a budget amendment
(875) that would add a member to the proposed panel who would be
appointed by the Select Board chair in Lexington, the town where the
first shot rang out on that April morning.
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
GUN VIOLENCE PRESS CONFERENCE:
State lawmakers join the Stop Handgun Violence group and parents of
mass shooting victims to unveil new legislation that would ban the
manufacture of guns that are forbidden from use in Massachusetts
such as assault weapons.
Democrat Reps. Marjorie Decker of Cambridge and
Frank Moran of Lawrence plan to file the bill before the virtual
press conference, according to organizers, where they will be joined
by Stop Handgun Violence Founder John Rosenthal, Manny and Patricia
Oliver, whose son died in a shooting at Parkland High School in
Florida, and Sandy and Lonnie Philips, whose daughter died in a
shooting at the Aurora Theater in Colorado.
Supporters say that although Massachusetts has
had a ban on the use of assault-style weapons since 2004, many guns
of that type are still manufactured in the Bay State and sold
elsewhere. During the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary
campaign, eventual Democratic nominee Jay Gonzalez called for
Springfield-based Smith & Wesson to halt the manufacture of assault
weapons. The company reported that it sold more than 600,000 guns
and accessories last quarter, more than twice its sales from one
year ago, according to a WBUR report on Friday.
During
my speech
on Boston Common on May 17, 1999 organized by the Gun Owners'
Action League to "Rally for Our Rights," in part I noted:
. . . The then-very recent American Revolution
was not launched just over taxation without representation.
The spark that ignited it was the King's minions coming to take away
colonists' guns.
On April 18, 1773, General Thomas Gage ordered
Lt. Colonel Francis Smith and his 10th Regiment Foot to march to
Lexington and Concord with the following command:
"Having received Intelligence, that a
Quantity of Ammunition, Provisions, Artillery, Tents and small
Arms, have
been collected at Concord, for the Avowed Purpose of
raising and supporting a Rebellion against His Majesty, you will
March with the Corps of Grenadiers and Light Infantry, put under
your Command, with the utmost expedition and Secrecy to Concord,
where you will seize and destroy all Artillery, Ammunition,
Provisions, Tents, Small Arms, and all Military Stores whatever.
..."
They were met and routed at the Concord bridge
by armed citizens. "The Shot Heard 'Round the World" was in
fact the first salvo in the battle against gun control.
Suppose the Second Amendment instead read:
"A well educated electorate, being necessary to the security of a
free state, the right of the people to keep and read books shall not
be infringed."
Do you suppose there would now be any debate
over what the framers meant? . . .
Where else but
Massachusetts can Patriot's Day, celebrating "The
Shot Heard Round The World" — be followed
the very next day by a press conference attempting to accomplish
what King George III and the largest army and navy in the world
couldn't:
"State lawmakers join
the Stop Handgun Violence group and parents of mass shooting victims
to unveil new legislation that would ban the manufacture of guns
that are forbidden from use in Massachusetts such as assault
weapons."
It starkly demonstrates how the self-styled monarchy of Massachusetts
has completely lost touch with the American Way. They see a
celebration of the start of the American Revolution as merely a quaint
tourist attraction, "a boon to the Bay State economy."
Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn" provided posterity with the
immortal phrase "The Shot Heard Round The World" in 1837, which is
engraved on the pedestal base of
the Concord Minuteman monument. In turn that Concord Minuteman
statue at my behest became
the logo for Citizens for Limited Taxation in 1996 when my
organization, Freedom First, merged with CLT (and officially became
Citizens for Limited Taxation & Government).
|
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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Full News Reports Follow
(excerpted above) |
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State House News Service
Monday April 12, 2021
Biz Groups Feel Blindsided by New UI System Costs
Labor Chair Surprised by Size of Solvency Assessment Hike
By Chris Lisinski
With some Massachusetts businesses facing sudden and sharp
unemployment tax increases just weeks after implementation
of a new law aimed at limiting their costs, a top lawmaker
wants Gov. Charlie Baker to intervene with a legislative
fix.
Sen. Patricia Jehlen, co-chair of the Legislature's Labor
and Workforce Development Committee, said Monday that she
was surprised -- as were many small businesses and industry
groups -- to hear reports about employers who now face
greater-than-anticipated unemployment contributions because
of an unexpected jump in the solvency fund assessment.
In an interview with the News Service, Jehlen said she is
concerned the fifteenfold jump in the solvency assessment
rate might offset the benefits from the wide-ranging
legislation Baker signed April 1 aimed at stabilizing the
state's unemployment system and relieving pressure on
businesses.
"We did not hear anything, ever, from the governor, whose
administration runs the UI system and has much deeper
experience for many years with that system, and we assume
knew that this would happen," Jehlen told the News Service.
"It was a surprise to us, and it was a disappointment that
it was not covered."
"It will have to be addressed. If it's addressed, it will
require legislation, so we hope that he will quickly send us
something that would remedy this problem," she continued.
The state's unemployment insurance trust fund has been
overwhelmed by the unprecedented surge in joblessness during
the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing the state to turn to federal
loans to keep benefits flowing.
Without action, the rates that businesses pay to fund
unemployment benefits would have jumped from schedule E to
schedule G, carrying a roughly 60 percent average increase
in the per-employee cost.
Baker, who had been pushing to freeze the rate schedule
since December, signed a bill on April 1 keeping the current
rate schedule in place for two years, limiting the increases
to a more modest 18.5 percent. The legislation also
authorized tax breaks for businesses and workers, $7 billion
in borrowing to pay back and replace federal loans that have
kept the UI fund afloat, and an additional surcharge on
businesses to cover interest payments on the federal loan.
Many business groups applauded those changes, but late last
week, they started to voice concerns about another factor in
the fees they pay to fund the unemployment system: a part of
the unemployment payments they need to make known as a
solvency assessment jumped from a rate of 0.58 percent in
2020 to 9.23 percent in 2021.
As a result, costs spiked for many employers.
Suzanne Murphy, CEO of Springfield's Unemployment Tax
Control Associates, told MassLive last week that the change
effectively doubled her overall employer contribution rate.
Bob Luz, president of the Massachusetts Restaurant
Association, said a small catering company on Cape Cod saw a
$15,000 annual increase in unemployment taxes due to the
solvency assessment jump.
"This sort of surprised everybody," Luz said. "It's almost
like it was the fine print."
Christopher Carlozzi, state director for the National
Federation of Independent Business, said some NFIB members
are finding any savings they expected to realize thanks to
the rate schedule freeze to be "totally overridden" by the
higher solvency rate.
"It does seem like there was some neglect on the regulators
side to not red flag that the solvency assessment was going
to become such a big portion of the bill," Carlozzi told the
News Service.
NFIB, the Mass. Restaurant Association, the Retailers
Association of Massachusetts and other business groups
signed a letter to Baker on Friday imploring the
administration to redirect federal stimulus funding from the
CARES Act or American Rescue Plan toward the unemployment
system to reduce the burden on businesses.
The Baker administration did not comment on the record in
response to the letter. An offical who spoke only on
background said the administration is examining the issue
and that the Department of Unemployment Assistance does not
have discretion to set the solvency rate because it is
computed according to statute.
Asked about that comment, Jehlen replied that the rate
schedule that lawmakers froze is also a function of state
law.
"That's in statute, too, and we fixed that because they
asked us to. They filed legislation twice, and they did not
include the solvency. We will have to do it," she said.
In a Retailers Association email on Friday, the group wrote,
"The assessment, which normally pays certain socialized
system costs like dependency allowances and claims from
businesses that have closed, is now being utilized to cover
COVID-related layoffs in a socialized, non-experience rated
manner."
Arguing for the use of recovery funds to address the
problem, retailers said assessment costs are "primarily the
result of state and federal government decisions to enhance
and expand UI benefits and shut down private business
operations during the pandemic" and "it is only fair that
government take on a shared responsibility in this manner."
Jehlen did not say specifically what kind of legislative fix
she wants to see. Federal funding could play a partial role,
she said, but she cautioned against leaning too heavily on
that option.
"We are ready and willing to talk about this and figure out
a solution," she said. "But we need some leadership from the
governor."
Her House counterpart, Rep. Josh Cutler of Duxbury, did not
explicitly call for legislation. In a statement, he also
said he has heard concerns from businesses "about steeper
than expected increases in the solvency fund rates" and that
lawmakers are "actively reviewing those concerns."
State House News Service
Tuesday, April 12, 2021
Lawmakers: Use Fed Funds to Address UI “Sticker Shock”
New System Woes Surface After Passage of UI Bill
By Chris Lisinski
A growing chorus of lawmakers is pushing to direct federal
stimulus funding toward the state's unemployment benefits
system to soften the blow of an unexpected surge in required
contributions from employers, and House Speaker Ronald
Mariano wants an explanation from the Baker administration.
House Minority Leader Brad Jones and Senate Minority Leader
Bruce Tarr are circulating a letter on Tuesday to Democratic
leadership and Gov. Charlie Baker, urging them to use some
of the billions in aid from Washington to replenish the
state's unemployment insurance trust fund.
Dipping into the pool of federal dollars, the lawmakers
said, would relieve pressure on employers who were hit with
much larger quarterly unemployment tax bills than they
expected due to a fifteenfold increase in the solvency fund
assessment rate.
"We are urging you to follow the lead of Maryland and other
states by dedicating a portion of the federal COVID-19
relief aid Massachusetts is receiving through the American
Rescue Plan Act or other available and relevant federal
funds to replenish the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund,"
lawmakers wrote in their letter. "Doing so will remove the
financial burden from employers who are already struggling
to survive, which in turn will help protect jobs and
contribute to a strong post-pandemic economic recovery."
The assessment rate sticker shock surfaced after the
Legislature and the Baker administration spent weeks
drafting and passing a bill to ease and extend the cost
impacts on businesses of unprecedented jobless claims.
In a statement to the News Service, a Mariano spokesperson
said the speaker "shares his colleagues' concerns about the
significant increase in solvency fund rates."
"He was surprised the Administration did not factor the
assessment calculation and forecast the magnitude of the
increase in the recent amendments proposed," Mariano's
office said. "The Legislature has acted swiftly to address
the UI system and provide relief to businesses. We are
reviewing this issue and awaiting information from the
Administration, including a cost estimate. We hope to have
the necessary information soon."
Baker signed legislation earlier this month designed to
limit the cost increases on employers who fund the
joblessness system by freezing the rate schedule, but the
bill's drafters only targeted part of the complex formula
that determines those taxes.
Because of the multibillion-dollar deficit forecast for the
unemployment fund for the next few years, a section of the
contribution system that lawmakers did not touch known as
the solvency assessment rate jumped from 0.58 percent in
2020 to 9.23 percent in 2021. That translates to thousands
of dollars more in charges on many businesses.
Few, if any, concerns were raised publicly about the
solvency assessment during debate on the wide-ranging
unemployment and tax relief bill that Baker -- who filed an
original version of the proposal late last year -- signed on
April 1.
Jones told the News Service that he only learned of the
problem when businesses began receiving quarterly tax bills
this month.
"I think if we had gotten (the legislation) done earlier
this session, we might have had a better idea that these
bills were going to be as large as they were," Jones said.
"Instead of getting it in February and saying this is due in
2.5 months, we're getting it in April and it's due in 2.5
weeks."
As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, 49 lawmakers -- nearly a quarter of
the Legislature -- had signed the letter, including both
Democrats and Republicans, according to Jones's office.
Jones and Tarr plan to continue seeking signatories until 5
p.m.
Their request for use of federal funding mirrors what a
coalition of major business groups said in their own letter
to Baker last week.
In Maryland, Gov. Larry Hogan and legislative leaders agreed
to use $1.1 billion of the $3.9 billion the state received
from Washington to stabilize their unemployment system and
limit taxes on businesses in 2022 and 2023, according to an
Associated Press report.
The legislation Baker signed freezes the rate schedule,
which limits some of the cost increases businesses were set
to face, and authorizes $7 billion in borrowing to help
steady the unemployment system, but it did not deploy any
federal funding directly to the UI fund.
Business leaders told Baker that the decision forces
employers "to foot the bill for government decisions before
and during the pandemic," pointing to mandatory closures and
public health restrictions that impacted their operations.
The Baker administration did not respond to News Service
inquiries on Tuesday.
Asked if he believed the administration or Legislature
missed a warning sign about the solvency assessment increase
when it was debating the UI bill, Jones replied that he is
"surprised we didn't hear anything from some of these bigger
entities."
"Everybody can point a finger in a different direction,"
Jones said. "We have to deal with the fact that we're where
we're at now and we have to deal with the situation that
exists on the ground."
"The sticker shock surprised a lot of people, including the
Senate," Senate President Karen Spilka said Tuesday about
the solvency fund increase.
Spilka said it was too soon to say whether there might be
interest in using federal relief funds to offset the
increase, though senators intend to talk to federal
government officials about how those funds can be used.
"At this point I think we are still in an
information-gathering mode, but I realize the hardship this
places on many businesses," Spilka said.
— Matt Murphy contributed
reporting
State House News Service
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Lawmakers Wade Into Redistricting Without Key Data
Hearing Emphasizes Open Process, Commitment to Diversity
By Matt Murphy
By most accounts, the redistricting process 10 years ago was
a huge success. The district maps produced by legislative
leaders avoided challenges in federal court for the first
time in decades and most stakeholders walked away feeling
heard.
Despite losing a Congressional seat, the Legislature created
double the number of majority-minority districts in the
Massachusetts House and established the newly drawn U.S.
House district now held by U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley - the
first Black woman to represent the state in Congress.
But with activists clamoring to do more to increase minority
representation on Beacon Hill, House and Senate leaders on
Wednesday set about trying to recreate that bonhomie as they
held the first of more than a dozen hearings being planned
over the next six to seven months.
The Special Joint Committee on Redistricting led by Senate
President Pro Tempore William Brownsberger, of Belmont, and
Assistant House Majority Leader Michael Moran, of Boston,
will redraw the political boundaries that will shape
elections and the faces of state politics for the next
decade.
Moran is a veteran of the process, having sat in the same
position in 2011 opposite former Senate President Stanley
Rosenberg. "If I had a walk-up song it would probably be
Shalamar, 'Second Time Around,'" Moran joked on Wednesday.
Unlike 10 years ago, the committee lacks some vital
information - a count of how many people live in
Massachusetts and where. The U.S. Census Bureau has delayed
the finalization of the 2020 nationwide population count by
six months, telling states the population data will be
available by September 30.
But as they wait for the federal government to provide that
data by the fall, the committee is not waiting to begin
thinking about how they will approach the task of redrawing
political boundaries for nine Congressional seats, 40 Senate
districts, 160 House districts and eight Governor's Council
districts.
Moran said the committee's intention is to hold hearings in
each of the state's nine Congressional districts, as well as
a "close-out" hearing, before the end of August. After the
maps are released and a public comment period, the committee
will then hold at least two more hearings to gather
feedback.
"This is a very weighty committee with a lot of people on
this committee that serve in House and Senate leadership,"
Moran said. "The Senate president and the speaker have been
very very good and clear that they would like to see as open
and transparent a process as possible."
The process started Wednesday with testimony from
representatives of various organizations comprising what is
being called the Drawing Democracy Coalition. The
coalition's goal, leaders said, is a statewide redistricting
effort that reflects the diversity of the growing population
in Massachusetts and empowers communities of color to elect
candidates of their choice.
Beth Huang, director of the Massachusetts Voter Table, said
the 2020 Census will likely show that Massachusetts has
gained 5 percent population, growing to more than 6.8
million residents due to immigration. But she said many
regions have lost population, which will lead to shifts in
political district boundaries.
"We're looking for a statewide map that keeps our
communities of interest whole and supports majority-minority
or majority BIPOC districts where people of color make up a
majority of residents of the district," Huang said.
Rahsaan Hall, director of the racial justice program for the
ACLU of Massachusetts, said he was excited and even "a
little giddy" about the diverse racial, ethnic and
geographic makeup of the committee.
"It's important for voters of color to be able to elect
candidates of their choice," Hall said.
To engage the public in the process, Moran and Brownsberger
said the committee launched a website Wednesday that
explains the redistricting process, shares relevant court
decisions and current maps and makes a tool available for
individuals and groups to try drawing their own districts
and submit the maps to the committee.
"My greatest hope is that we can have a hearing and
redistricting process over the next six or seven months that
goes as smoothly as what you did in 2010," Brownsberger
said. The committee did not discuss whether they would need
to move deadlines for city and towns to redraw precincts, or
residency requirements for the 2022 elections that may be
impacted by the lateness of the Census data.
Eva Millona, president of Massachusetts Immigrant and
Refugee Advocacy Coalition, requested that the committee
prioritize holding hearings in so-called "Gateway" cities
that tend to have higher concentrations of minority and
immigrant populations, as well as in Boston and rural
communities.
She also asked that closed captioning be used to break
through language barriers.
"We faced immense challenges in ensuring that the 2020
Census count included immigrant communities in the midst of
a pandemic, both viral and political, that continues to
unfold," Millona said. "We must apply lessons from our
Census work to the redistricting process, particularly the
importance of meeting immigrant communities where they are
with multilingual, culturally competent outreach and
education."
Wilmot said the members of the Drawing Democracy Coalition
are interested in seeing the committee produce maps, to the
extent possible, that keep communities of interest, as well
as racial and language minorities together without "going
overboard with packing."
Coalition leaders also said the committee should try to
maintain municipal boundaries when possible.
Lawyers for Civil Rights recently commissioned a study that
suggested at least five state House of Representatives
districts and one Senate district have gone from being
mostly white to majority-minority over the past 10 years.
There are currently 20 majority-minority House districts and
three Senate districts, though only nine of the 20
majority-minority districts in the House are represented by
a minority.
"We may draw it but it might not come," Moran said.
Roberto Jimenez Rivera, a member of the Chelsea School
Committee and an organizer with the Boston Teachers Union,
said there is a difference between a district having
residents of color and voters of color. Rivera and Hall said
the committee should not just look at the racial and ethnic
makeup of the population in a given district, but also
citizen voting age data and the tendency of those groups to
vote and vote as a bloc.
Isabel Gonzales Webster, executive director of Worcester
Interfaith, said the state's second largest city is a prime
example of how district boundaries can impact
representation.
Despite a growing minority population and school district
with 70 percent students of color, Webster said the city has
never had a person of color represent Worcester on Beacon
Hill. Of the city's five House districts and two Senate
districts, only three districts are contained entirely
within Worcester.
"This way of drawing our city makes it hard to have senators
and representatives of color," Webster said. "We have a huge
problem in Worcester and that is why there is huge mistrust
and apathy among communities of color with our government."
Moran noted that in 2011 the 15th Worcester District was
created as a majority-minority district, but he committed to
revisiting the data to see if that district can be
strengthened 10 years later or if new ones could be created.
"There was only one opportunity to draw a majority minority
district in Worcester and we did it," he said.
Subsequently, there was an open race in that district won by
Rep. Mary Keefe.
"The person that won wasn't a minority, but we did
everything we could do to have them have their voices heard
in that district. They just happened to choose someone who
wasn't a minority," Moran said.
Lawrence Rep. Frank Moran, who was first elected in 2012,
credited redistricting with him sitting where he does now as
a member of House leadership. "There's no way that a person
of color like me could have been elected were it not for
redistricting," Moran said.
Wilmot said that the 2011 effort won Massachusetts an "A"
grade from the Center for Public Integrity, and she
expressed confidence that the state could earn a similar
grade this time around, despite the challenges presented by
COVID-19 and the late data from the federal government.
"May it be so," Brownsberger said. "That is our goal."
State House News Service
Thursday, April 15, 2021
Committees on Beacon Hill Finally Getting Their Bills
By Katie Lannan
The thousands of bills state lawmakers filed to kick off
this two-year session began landing before joint committees
for review this week, while rules that will govern how those
panels deliberate remain up in the air.
Bills that have been lingering on House and Senate dockets
since a Feb. 19 filing deadline have now been assigned
numbers. Most were sent to committees on Wednesday.
The Legislature pushed this year's deadline from its
traditional third Friday in January, and the House is
allowing more time for co-sponsoring bills. Instead of the
usual seven-day window to sign on to legislation after the
deadline, representatives can sign onto a bill until it is
first reported out of committee, which is how the Senate
generally approaches co-sponsorship.
In all, more than 6,000 bills are now before joint
committees, ranging in number from the 29 before the
Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development Committee to the
Judiciary Committee's 739.
"Delighted that the #MAleg Joint Com. on #PublicHealth will
hear *366* bills this session," Sen. Jo Comerford, the
co-chair of the Public Health Committee, tweeted Wednesday.
"From health equity to climate to quality of care to local
public health, we are awash in fabulous bills. Can't wait to
tackle w/ @MarjorieDecker + team."
The Public Service Committee kicks off its hearing cycle
Tuesday, by collecting written testimony on four local
bills. The State House has been closed to the public for
more than a year, and committees last year substituted
traditional in-person hearings with a mix of
videoconferences and solicitation of written testimony.
Questions around public access to written testimony,
disclosure of committee members' votes on bills and how much
advance notice must be provided before a hearing remain
unsettled, with the House and Senate versions of a joint
rules package subject to private conference committee
negotiations.
Ahead of a Friday deadline, amendments to the House Ways and
Means budget (H 4000) have also started appearing on the
Legislature's website.
State House News Service
Thursday, April 15, 2021
House Budget Generates Mix of Reactions
Approaches to Education, Inequality, Rainy Day Fund
Scrutinized
By Colin A. Young
Budget season is underway on Beacon Hill -- House lawmakers
and aides are churning out amendments and preparing for
debate later this month, reporters are scouring the House's
fiscal year 2022 proposal (H 4000) for the newsy nuggets not
highlighted by budget writers, and advocacy groups are
making their thoughts known and hoping to shape the final
product.
Within minutes of the House budget being released Wednesday,
people and groups weighed in with likes, dislikes and
analysis of the $47.65 billion spending plan. Some focused
on the bill as a whole while others zoomed in on specific
line items important to them.
Here's a sampling of what's being said about the House
budget plan:
Analysis
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation: The business-backed
group released a 13-page analysis of the House's bill
Wednesday, diving into the fine details of the spending
plan. The organization concluded:
"The HWM budget responds well to three important elements of
a changing fiscal landscape. First, the budget does not make
use of ARP [American Rescue Plan] funding to balance the
budget or support unsustainable spending. Second, the budget
avoids unilaterally adjusting next year's tax estimates.
Finally, the HWM budget appropriately accounts for projected
MassHealth spending needs given the extension of the federal
Public Health Emergency. In each of these areas, the
decisions made in the HWM budget are consistent with a
fiscal approach that has served the state well since the
start of the pandemic.
The HWM budget increases the draw on the Rainy Fund and uses
a large reversion assumption to help balance the budget;
both of these strategies are problematic if they are
included in the final FY 2022 conference report. Both the
House and Senate may view these resources as short-term
placeholders as we await clarity on federal guidance on the
ARP and further tax collection information, but starting the
next fiscal year with a strategy to rebuild reserves and
reduce the structural deficit is vital for the state to
sustainably emerge from this crisis."
Marie-Frances Rivera, president of the Massachusetts Budget
and Policy Center: "Massachusetts remains in the midst of a
health and economic crisis that the House Ways and Means (HWM)
budget proposal does not fully address. The HWM Fiscal Year
(FY) 2022 budget lacks a vision for how the Commonwealth
plans to make sustainable investments over time after
billions in COVID-19 federal relief runs out. The pandemic
and recession have laid bare the inequalities that exist in
our state, and this budget is not doing nearly enough to
begin building racial and economic equity. ...
There are billions in federal aid coming to Massachusetts,
and the Legislature has said it will wait until June to
consider how to spend these funds at a time when the need is
now. We must ensure the state is spending its dollars in
ways that most benefit our communities that are struggling
to make ends meet. The Legislature should allow for a
transparent process that includes the community to ensure
that the money goes to where the need is greatest."
Education
Massachusetts Teachers Association President Merrie Najimy:
"The House budget released today does a better job than
Governor Charlie Baker's fiscal 2021-2022 spending proposal
in terms of hitting the targets set forth by the Student
Opportunity Act, but still leaves our students in pre-K-12
schools vulnerable to underfunding because of inadequate
accounting of enrollment. It is important that the final
budget provide one-sixth of the full investment called for
by the Student Opportunity Act, as the House has done.
At the same time, the House budget fails to begin the
reinvestment in public higher education that is desperately
needed and is called for in the Cherish Act. The essentially
level-funded budgeting for public higher education is
inadequate for addressing major issues such as student debt
and pay equity and benefits for adjunct faculty.
With so many students of color and students from working
families dropping out of public colleges and universities
during the pandemic, our Commonwealth faces a growing
crisis. Investing in public higher education is vital to
knock down the financial barriers confronting students
trying to enter our colleges and universities -- and for
ensuring that the staff and programs are in place to support
student success."
Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance Executive Director
Vatsady Sivongxay: "As Massachusetts receives historic
levels of federal aid, there is no excuse for failing to
fully fund the K-12 Student Opportunity Act, and also
failing to support vulnerable students amid the crisis in
public higher education enrollment.
During the pandemic, many K-12 school districts experienced
temporary dips in enrollment, but those students are widely
expected to return to the classroom this fall. At the same
time, enrollment of Black and Latinx students in our
community colleges has fallen by 28 percent as many students
struggle to pay for tuition, housing, childcare, food and
other necessities.
Rather than basing K-12 funding on pre-pandemic enrollment
figures, the House budget undercounts the number of students
expected to attend school in September, and then creates an
inadequate pool of money for districts to address this
undercount. The result will be thousands of students across
the state in classrooms without the resources needed to
support them."
Environment
Jen Benson of the Alliance for Business Leadership and Amber
Hewett of the National Wildlife Federation, co-chairs of the
Massachusetts State Committee of New England for Offshore
Wind: "We applaud Speaker Mariano and Chairman Michlewitz
for the inclusion of Sections 5 and 33, aiming to commit $10
million to a fund within the Massachusetts Clean Energy
Center for job-training programs for offshore wind project
construction. Responsibly developed offshore wind power
offers immense environmental and economic benefits to the
Commonwealth. Of course, the details matter, and one of
those critical details is ensuring that the local workforce
has access to the thousands of high-quality jobs offshore
wind development will create. Investing in training is a
mark of the foresight this moment demands."
Casey Bowers of the Environmental League of Massachusetts
and the Green Budget Coalition: "The Green Budget Coalition
applauds Chairman Michlewitz for the strong environmental
budget again this cycle. We appreciate the House's on-going
support of critical Green Budget priorities that protect the
environment, public health, and jobs across the
Commonwealth. At a time when we’re asking more of our
agencies to address climate change, these much-needed
increases will help safeguard us all."
Miscellaneous
Bethann Steiner, public affairs director for Mass Cultural
Council: "Simply put, we can only say THANK YOU to Speaker
Ron Mariano, House Ways & Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz,
Tourism, Arts & Cultural Development Chair Carole Fiola, and
all the House Members who support the power of culture and
embraced our request to support the Agency's programming and
services with an investment of $20 million in FY22. Today's
investment by the House Ways & Means Committee represents
the highest level of funding proposed for Mass Cultural
Council, and by extension, the cultural sector, by the state
in decades. It is cause for celebration and gratitude, and
an acknowledgement of the important role the cultural sector
will play as we move towards economic recovery post-COVID.
...
Each year the Commonwealth's major investment into the
cultural sector is made through Mass Cultural Council during
the annual state budget process. To alleviate the
devastating economic impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic
across the cultural sector, the Agency recently unveiled the
Power of Culture Advocacy Campaign, which calls for robust
public investments made in 2021-2022 through budget
spending, bond authorizations, and bills to stabilize,
rebuild, and provide COVID relief to the cultural sector.
Today's recommendation by the House Committee on Ways &
Means is a major endorsement of our campaign."
Lynne Parker, executive director of the Massachusetts Legal
Assistance Corporation: "We are extremely grateful to House
Speaker Ronald Mariano and House Ways and Means Chair Aaron
Michlewitz for their leadership in providing critical
increased funding for civil legal aid, an essential service
that safeguards vulnerable people at risk of losing their
housing, income, benefits, and other necessary protections."
The House budget proposes $35 million to fund civil legal
aid through the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation,
an increase of $6 million over the current budget.
"COVID-19 has not just threatened the lives and livelihood
of the most vulnerable people in our communities. In many
cases it has also limited their ability to reach out for
civil legal aid protections and use the technology necessary
to participate in remote court proceedings. Legal aid
organizations have been engaged and innovative in responding
to this urgent need."
Kevin Smith, president of the Home Care Aide Council and
Patricia Kelleher, executive director of the Home Care
Alliance of Massachusetts: "We are grateful to House Speaker
Ron Mariano and House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron
Michlewitz for including over $27 million in funding to
support the vital services provided by our home care
workforce in the House Ways and Means budget ... The House
investment elevates and recognizes the dedicated home care
aides who have worked tirelessly throughout the COVID-19
pandemic. This investment in our essential home care
workforce makes sense, saves lives, provides jobs and will
yield savings for the Commonwealth by keeping our seniors
safe and healthy at home and in the community."
State House News Service
Friday, April 16, 2021
Weekly Roundup - Things That Go Bump
Recap and analysis of the week in state government
By Katie Lannan
With at least one COVID-19 shot in the arms of more than
half of Massachusetts adults and almost two months elapsed
since that four-legged orange octopus heralded a website
fail, it's been a while since Gov. Charlie Baker and Health
and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders have had to
return to their go-to adjectives for hiccups in the state's
vaccine rollout: "lumpy" and "bumpy."
This week, it was the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention's turn.
"Our partners will be working to reschedule people who have
the J&J vaccine appointments in the days ahead," Dr. Anne
Schuchat, principal deputy director of the CDC, said
Tuesday. "This may be a bit bumpy. We want to make sure that
we're getting the word out to the public and to our
providers."
Federal officials' Tuesday recommendation that use of the
Johnson & Johnson vaccines be suspended while they review
extremely rare but serious post-vaccine cases of a blood
clotting condition -- reported among six U.S. women, out of
more than 6.8 million people nationwide to receive that shot
-- definitely counts as a speed bump.
It's one that Baker projects Massachusetts can cruise over
with minimal disruption, since most of the state's doses
come from Moderna and Pfizer.
The CDC and Food and Drug Administration, like state
officials and health care leaders, stressed that vaccines
are effective and people should keep getting their shots.
The pause, they said, indicates the vaccine monitoring
process works and is taken seriously.
"I would take the J&J if it had been available, and I would
still take it," said Baker, who received his first Pfizer
shot last week at the Hynes Convention Center.
That's no surprise to anyone who's heard him talk up the J&J
shot over the past several months. Baker has often described
the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which relies on a single dose
and less stringent storage requirements, as a vehicle to
boost capacity in Massachusetts, get shots to
harder-to-reach populations and speed up the overall
vaccination process.
"I feel like I'm waiting for Godot," the governor said in
February, as he kept vigil for the FDA's eventual emergency
use authorization of the J&J vaccine. And now it's a waiting
game again, to see what emerges from the CDC review.
The digital waiting room for the state's vaccine-booking
website -- one of the improvements made after its February
crash under high traffic -- is likely to fill up again on
Monday, as Massachusetts drops its eligibility restrictions
and allows anyone age 16 and older who lives, works or
studies here the chance to book an appointment. If they can
find one.
If not, there's always New Hampshire. The Granite State, no
longer subject to a mask mandate after Friday, will on
Monday allow out-of-staters to get vaccines there, too.
Baker indicated this week he's not yet thinking about
relaxing his mask order, saying the timing of such a move
would ultimately depend on federal guidance (and so far, the
feds have discouraged dropping mask orders), vaccination
pace and the spread of coronavirus variants.
Dr. Bronwyn MacInnis, director of pathogen genomic
surveillance in the Infectious Disease and Microbiome
Program at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, told
lawmakers Tuesday that only about 1.4 percent of positive
COVID-19 cases in the state undergo genetic sequencing to
determine if they were caused by a viral variant, below the
5 percent she said should be sequenced to identify emerging
threats.
The Broad Institute, which has also been a major player in
COVID-19 testing efforts, aims to be sequencing 4,000
samples per week by the end of April, up from this week's
roughly 1,000.
By that point, state representatives should have wrapped up
work on their version of the fiscal 2022 budget. In a return
to the traditional budget-development timeline after the
pandemic threw everything off-kilter last year, that $47.65
billion bill is set to hit the floor after next week's
school vacation.
"I think the timing might be the only normal thing," Senate
President Karen Spilka told the Greater Boston Chamber of
Commerce, in an event where she proposed a "moonshot" to
create an intergenerational care system to support the
family members, particularly women, who care for loved ones
of all ages.
Speaking of school vacation, this year's April break will
come as more and more students and teachers are returning to
the classrooms -- and as the numbers of new COVID-19 cases
districts report to the state each week are also elevated.
Last week, 1,279 new cases were logged among students and
staff, topping the previous record of 1,045 cases the final
week in March.
Statewide, school enrollment numbers dipped significantly
this pandemic-disrupted year, and the question of how many
students will return to the rolls in the fall -- and how
that variable should be considered in per-student funding
formulas -- lingers over budget deliberations.
The House Ways and Means Committee's plan, in keeping with
an agreement with their Senate counterparts, proposes a $40
million reserve fund to offset adverse enrollment impacts.
The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center says that
approach will create more work for administrators already
stretched thin, and could disadvantage schools most in need
of funding, depending on its criteria.
The House's first budget draft under Speaker Ronald Mariano
has a higher bottom line than Baker's bill, boosting
spending over this year by 2.6 percent instead of the cut
the governor recommended. It also has a bigger draw from the
state's rainy-day fund, and accounts for large MassHealth
obligations not captured in the governor's budget.
Not featured in the House Ways and Means budget? The roughly
$4.5 billion in state fiscal relief expected from the
American Rescue Plan. With the state anticipating the rules
for spending that money to land sometime next month, Mariano
said the House would rather wait and handle that in a
separate bill.
In the meantime, House lawmakers have more than a thousand
ideas of how the fiscal 2022 budget could be improved.
Amendments filed ahead of Friday's deadline range from
policy matters (to name a couple: a proposal from Rep. Jay
Livingstone that would allow MassHealth applicants to
simultaneously apply for nutrition benefits, and one from
Rep. Nicholas Boldyga that would limit the governor's
emergency powers, including capping emergency orders that
"infringe constitutional rights" at 30 days' length unless
extended legislatively) to local earmarks (a new wooden
shingle roof for Wakefield's Hawthorne House, cleanup after
a gypsy moth infestation in Hampden, a footbridge over
Bedford's Elm Brook....) to the Beacon Hill-centric
(cost-of-living pay increases for legislative staffers and
the return of Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli's somewhat
tongue-in-cheek pitch to require an annual training for reps
on how to properly mute their phone).
Seemingly without any muting/un-muting snafus, the 160
members of the House -- back at full strength after Winthrop
Rep. Jeffrey Turco's swearing-in last week -- convened over
conference call and in the chamber on Wednesday to
unanimously pass a $400 million borrowing bill for
construction of a new Holyoke Soldiers' Home.
Working under a time crunch in hopes of securing a federal
grant, the Senate intends to soon follow suit. A week ago,
legislative leaders described that branch's timeline for
action as "in the coming weeks."
Another issue that could be subject to legislative action in
the short term is one that seemed like it'd been already
handled: unemployment insurance relief for businesses.
A bill Baker signed on April 1 eased the UI rate hikes
facing businesses, replacing a roughly 60 percent average
increase with an 18.5 percent one. But costs spiked for many
employers anyway, as one component of their UI payments,
known as a solvency assessment, jumped from a rate of 0.58
percent in 2020 to 9.23 percent in 2021.
The National Federation of Independent Business said the
higher solvency rate was enough to wipe out savings some of
its members had expected from the new law, and joined with
other business groups to ask the Baker administration to
step in with federal stimulus funding.
On Thursday, the Department of Unemployment Assistance told
employers that their first quarter payments would be due
June 1 instead of April 30, promising more information later
on the solvency rate. The delay will give Beacon Hill time
to figure out how to respond to a situation that surprised
some lawmakers as much as it did business owners.
The former Woburn City Clerk started a new job this week.
William Campbell found himself face-to-face with Secretary
of State William Galvin once again on Monday, when Galvin
swore him in as the new director of the Office of Campaign
and Political Finance. Campbell challenged Galvin in 2010,
taking in about half as many votes as the longtime
incumbent.
Meanwhile, Cannabis Control Commission member Jennifer
Flanagan, a former lawmaker, is leaving her state job
behind, four months before her term is set to end. The CCC
described Flanagan's upcoming departure, planned for the end
of this month, as "ending a 25-year career of public
service."
STORY OF THE WEEK: Budget season begins in earnest with the
release of the House Ways and Means Committee's $47.6
billion bill.
State House News Service
Friday, April 16, 2021
Advances - Week of April 18, 2021
Less than four months after the first shots were
administered in Massachusetts, restrictions on COVID-19
vaccine access will be fully lifted on Monday, with the
exception of age since a vaccine is still not available for
those 15 and under. The expanded eligibility to anyone 16 or
older comes at a time when virus transmission among young
people remains a public health concern even as more adults
across Massachusetts get immunized and look forward with
more optimism than they had a year ago.
It also arrives during a week when public schools are not in
session due to April vacation. Lawmakers slow down their
activity in sync with those school vacations, giving the
House Ways and Means Committee time to scrub the more than a
thousand of budget amendments filed ahead of the April 26
start of "budget week."
The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will
be in session on Tuesday, with plans to take up important
matters pertaining to the MCAS exam, accountability
determinations, a new world languages curriculum framework,
and improved access to vocational schools in Massachusetts.
STORYLINES IN PROGRESS: ... The state on Thursday granted a
one-month extension in the due date for first quarter
unemployment insurance premiums, giving the Legislature and
Gov. Charlie Baker some time to address a spike in solvency
assessments that was not addressed in a UI reform law signed
by Baker on April 1 ...
A paid COVID-19 leave program that was supposed to be an
emergency law remains hung up over unresolved differences
between the Legislature and Baker ...
One hundred days into the new two-year session, thousands of
bills have finally been assigned numbers and referred to
committees. However, legislators are still trying to find
common ground on joint rules that will dictate the levels of
transparency associated with committee votes and access to
public testimony at a time when in-person hearings are not
being held but virtual options have the potential to open
access to testimony in ways that have been adopted in other
states ...
VACCINE ELIGIBILITY OPENS WIDELY: With the arrival of
Patriots' Day, Massachusetts will lift all remaining
restrictions on vaccine eligibility and allow any adults who
are still waiting four months into the rollout to access
appointments. About 3.1 million Bay State residents had
received at least one vaccine dose through Thursday, meaning
that more than 2.4 million adults in Massachusetts still
have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 heading into the
final phase of the rollout.
It remains unclear how many will ultimately opt against
seeking a shot, but the sudden influx of more people into
the existing pool of those vying for appointments will again
expose the limited supply of COVID-19 vaccines, particularly
with Johnson & Johnson doses still on pause to allow for a
federal review. Gov. Baker said residents who become
eligible Monday "should expect it may take several weeks to
book an appointment."
At the Hynes Convention Center mass vaccination site, Monday
also kicks off "Red Sox Week," when 20,000 appointments will
be set aside for residents of the 20 hardest-hit cities and
towns that feature significant populations of color. Groups
including the Red Sox Foundation are working to reach out to
residents in those communities and book their appointments
at the Hynes, and the site will boost Spanish-speaking staff
and signage. The week running through April 25 will also
feature "Red Sox-themed attractions" such as a selfie
station, Red Sox trophies, a raffle for tickets to a game,
and socially distanced visits with Wally the Green
Monster....
Monday, April 19, 2021
PATRIOTS' DAY: For the second year in a row,
the local Minute Men are keeping their powder dry as the
pandemic precludes the large-scale, in-person historical
reenactments that normally draw thousands of spectators to
Middlesex County and give a springtime boost to local
businesses.
Patriots' Day this year falls on April 19, the date in 1775
when the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired
around dawn on Lexington Common, touching off an eight-year
war for American independence from Great Britain.
The 250th anniversary, or sestercentennial, of that first
military engagement is just four years away, and the
Legislature's attention is again turning to preparations for
the historic occasion that also has potential to be a boon
to the Bay State economy. An outside section in the House
Ways and Means budget (Section 47) would establish a special
commission on the 250th anniversary of the American
Revolution, to be led by the chairs of the Tourism Committee
and featuring representatives from numerous cultural,
historical, and trade groups.
Last session, Sen. Collins filed a bill to seat such a
commission, but after nearly two years of shuttling through
the legislative process, it died on the final night of
session this January after achieving engrossment in the
Senate and enactment in the House. Rep. Ciccolo of Lexington
has filed a budget amendment (875) that would add a member
to the proposed panel who would be appointed by the Select
Board chair in Lexington, the town where the first shot rang
out on that April morning.
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
GUN VIOLENCE PRESS CONFERENCE: State lawmakers
join the Stop Handgun Violence group and parents of mass
shooting victims to unveil new legislation that would ban
the manufacture of guns that are forbidden from use in
Massachusetts such as assault weapons.
Democrat Reps. Marjorie Decker of Cambridge and Frank Moran
of Lawrence plan to file the bill before the virtual press
conference, according to organizers, where they will be
joined by Stop Handgun Violence Founder John Rosenthal,
Manny and Patricia Oliver, whose son died in a shooting at
Parkland High School in Florida, and Sandy and Lonnie
Philips, whose daughter died in a shooting at the Aurora
Theater in Colorado.
Supporters say that although Massachusetts has had a ban on
the use of assault-style weapons since 2004, many guns of
that type are still manufactured in the Bay State and sold
elsewhere. During the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial primary
campaign, eventual Democratic nominee Jay Gonzalez called
for Springfield-based Smith & Wesson to halt the manufacture
of assault weapons. The company reported that it sold more
than 600,000 guns and accessories last quarter, more than
twice its sales from one year ago, according to a WBUR
report on Friday.
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