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Post Office Box 1147
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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”
— and
their Institutional Memory — |
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CLT UPDATE
Sunday, May 16, 2021
State Senate Launches Its $47.6
Billion Budget
Jump directly
to CLT's Commentary on the News
|
Most Relevant News Excerpts
(Full news reports follow Commentary)
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A carbon-copy version of the so-called millionaire surtax
which the House surfaced on Monday was filed "really to
cover our rear ends," the lead House sponsor said,
professing uncertainty as to why it was placed on the formal
calendar for the Constitutional Convention that kicks off
this week.
Rep. Jim O'Day told the News Service that he is hoping to
vote on the proposed surtax on household incomes over $1
million, which advocates have estimated could collect more
than $2 billion from Massachusetts millionaires, in
"mid-summer, early fall" ...
O'Day filed a duplicate version of the income surtax
amendment, which the House added to the convention calendar
Monday morning. Since that version is appearing before the
convention for the first time, it is subject to amendment.
The non-amendable version approved last session (S 5) will
automatically appear as the first item on the calendar.
The West Boylston Democrat said he was not entirely sure
about the intention behind the "dual track" of putting both
copies on the agenda, but said he filed the new version (H
86) out of an abundance of caution.
"There was some discussion on whether or not any bill had to
be filed [in the new session]. But to make certain that we
didn't in any way leave ourselves in a position where we
couldn't move forward with this ... is why we ended up with
my filing it ... really to cover our rear ends, and not
filing something on the Senate side," O'Day said....
The state revenue landscape has soared since the amendment
was first drawn up, and federal Rescue Act money is now on
the way to bolster state spending in areas like education
and transportation - the two realms the surtax is designed
to boost.
The secondary version of the proposal, with its ability to
be amended, could possibly be seen as a backup by
legislative leadership if the carried-over version hits a
snag or if support flags.
"I don't believe that any of us who are dealing with this
issue would have any interest in having anything amended to
this bill," O'Day said.
State House News Service
Monday, May 10, 2021
House Adds Amendable Income Surtax Duplicate to ConCon
Agenda
A new Constitutional Convention got underway on Beacon Hill
Wednesday and will serve as the forum for debate on a
proposed amendment to implement a 4 percent surtax on
household incomes above $1 million.
The convention recessed just after 1 p.m. until Wednesday,
June 9, the next possible date for consideration of the
amendment, which supporters hope to place on the 2022
statewide ballot.
In a statement on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Senate
President Karen Spilka, who presides at the convention,
reiterated her support for the amendment and said lawmakers
were working "on scheduling a future date this year to take
up the proposal."
Proponents say the measure will ensure that the state's
wealthiest households pay their "fair share" toward public
services and plan to invest roughly $2 billion in education
and transportation. Opponents say passage of the measure
will send wealth and capital to lower cost states and assert
that introduction of a graduated income tax structure could
eventually lead to tax increases for people in other income
brackets.
State House News Service
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Constitutional Convention Recesses Until June 9
The Massachusetts Legislature is looking for more money to
waste on foolishness, and they have a plan to get it. It's
referred to as the "millionaire tax." The tax was passed by
lawmakers several years ago but booted by the Massachusetts
Supreme Judicial Court, which said that all incomes must be
taxed equally under the law.
But those greedy little buggers up on Beacon Hill are not
going to be deterred that easily. They decided to attempt to
change the Commonwealth's constitution, the world's oldest
functioning constitution, written by John Adams back in
1780, to get their way....
In other words, you get to vote to change the world's oldest
functioning constitution next year in order to sock it to
those dirty millionaires. The blood would be on your hands
when businesses flee the state as they've done in other
states where this has been tried.
Lawmakers have launched an ad blitz to convince you that the
wealthy are the bad guys. To be successful is to be punished
and treated unfairly. It's class warfare, us against the
rich. How bourgeoisie?
The truth of the matter is that the "millionaire tax" is
actually a graduated income tax that no doubt will become
the "thousandaire tax" when they run out of money again.
Massachusetts voters have traditionally rejected the concept
of a graduated income tax in the past and should again.
This is nothing more than smoke and mirrors to deceive you
into paying higher taxes. Tell the bastards to reduce
spending and not to change Adam's constitution in order to
siphon more money out of your pockets.
WBSM AM-1420 (New Bedford)
May 7, 2021
Massachusetts Lawmakers Prepare For Class Warfare on Rich
By Barry Richard
Senate Democrats rolled out their $47.6 billion fiscal year
2022 state budget proposal on Tuesday, proposing an annual
spending plan that reforms taxes for pass-through companies,
overhauls the film tax credit program, and expands support
for lower-income residents in the wake of the pandemic's
devastation....
The Senate Ways and Means Committee's budget (S 3) calls for
increasing state spending by $1.2 billion, or about 2.6
percent, above the fiscal year that ends June 30. Its bottom
line -- which will likely grow through the amendment process
-- is $1.8 billion higher than the bill Gov. Charlie Baker
proposed in January and $64 million below the bill the House
approved last month.
Like their House counterparts, Senate Democrats did not
include in their budget any of the $4.5 billion
Massachusetts will receive from the American Rescue Plan.
The U.S. Treasury published guidelines Monday on how states
can use those funds, and Senate Ways and Means Committee
Chair Michael Rodrigues said his panel has not yet "had the
time to dig into that."
Also mirroring the House, the Senate built its budget on the
assumption that Massachusetts will collect $30.12 billion in
taxes in fiscal 2022, the so-called "consensus revenue"
figure on which the Legislature and Baker administration
agreed in January.
Since then, monthly tax receipts have surged well above
expectations. If May and June collections hit their
projected marks exactly, the state will wind up hauling in
about $800 million more in fiscal 2021 than legislative
budget-writers anticipate collecting in fiscal 2022.
Rodrigues said Tuesday that the decision to mark up the
revenue base could fall to the private House-Senate
conference committee that will negotiate a compromise
spending bill.
"We do not unilaterally bump up consensus revenue figures --
as the name implies, it's a consensus, so it could be
discussed in the conference committee," Rodrigues said. "We
are experiencing very robust revenues. We are excited about
that, and we are hoping that would have significant positive
impacts on how much we're going to draw down from our
(stabilization) fund. There's always more to come when it
comes to budgets, but we'll work collaboratively with our
friends in the House."
The Senate's budget bill calls for a maximum withdrawal from
the state's "rainy day" stabilization fund of $1.55 billion,
$50 million less than Baker proposed and $325 million less
than the House proposed....
The Senate budget does not call for any broad-based tax
increases on individuals, though it does propose a handful
of new revenue sources not considered by the House, such as
authorization of debit card lottery payments that Rodrigues
estimated could bring in $30 million....
The Senate Ways and Means Committee voted Tuesday to advance
the spending bill with a favorable recommendation.
Republican Sens. Patrick O'Connor of Weymouth and Ryan
Fattman of Sutton voted in favor of it, while Senate
Minority Leader Bruce Tarr opted not to vote.
"This is going to be a really good way that we can end the
direct response to COVID and really start to build upon the
recovery," O'Connor, the panel's ranking minority leader,
said during the committee's virtual hearing. "I appreciate
all the work that has gone into this, and I look forward to
the next few weeks as we continue to add more priorities as
we continue to go through the budget process."
The Senate plans to begin debate on its budget on Tuesday,
May 25. Amendments are due by 2 p.m. on Friday.
State House News Service
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Senate’s $47.6 Bil Budget Draws $1.55 Bil From Savings
Revenue Upgrade May Be Dealt With In Conference
Massachusetts Senate leaders on Tuesday unveiled the
contours of a $47.6 billion budget proposal that would boost
spending by $1.2 billion over the current year and funnel
hundreds of millions of more dollars to local schools,
without any broad-based tax increases.
The chamber will debate changes to the bill on May 25, after
which Senate and House leaders will have to reconcile
differences between their proposals before sending a final
product to Governor Charlie Baker for the fiscal year
starting July 1....
Both the Senate and the House did not bake in any of the
nearly $8 billion in direct federal aid state and local
governments are expected to receive through the American
Rescue Plan, the massive, $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill
that President Biden signed into law three months ago.
But the Senate is calling for a far smaller withdrawal from
the state’s own emergency savings account than the House,
which had allowed for the state to take up to $1.88 billion
from what’s known as the stabilization or rainy day fund.
The Senate, instead, allows for $1.55 billion.
To make up the difference, the Senate plan leans on some tax
changes, including those outlined above, and more money from
expected federal reimbursements. (Both chambers are again
seeking to delay allowing residents to claim a charitable
deduction on their state tax returns, saving the state $64
million.)
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Senate unveils a $48b budget plan,
one that would tighten state’s film tax credit, increase aid
to schools
Monday, May 17, 2021
TAX DAY RALLY: Reps. Utyterhoeven and Connolly,
Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steve Tolman and
Massachusetts Teachers Association President Merrie Najimy
are among the speakers at a Tax Day rally calling for "a
budget that represents the needs of the people and the
planet, not the profits of wealthy individuals and
corporations."
Participating groups include Massachusetts Peace Action, 350
Massachusetts, Massachusetts Alliance of HUD Tenants,
Massachusetts Poor People's Campaign, Massachusetts Teachers
Association, Veterans for Peace/ Smedley Butler Brigade, Our
Revolution Massachusetts, Cambridge Residents Alliance, and
the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security.
Mass. Peace Action's Brian Garvey serves as emcee. (Monday,
12 p.m., outside the Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. Federal
Building, 10 Causeway St., Boston)
State House News Service
Friday, May 14, 2021
Advances - Week of May 16, 2021
The state’s unemployment benefits and the fed’s weekly $300
jobless bonus checks until Labor Day are giving laid-off
workers a “whole lot of incentive to spend the summer at the
beach,” business leaders lamented.
But former Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, now the U.S. Labor
secretary, on Tuesday said there’s “way too much
conversation” about the $300 “deterring people from going
back to work, which I don’t agree with.”
He added: “I just don’t see it. Most Americans would rather
be working,” he told reporters on a conference call....
The government reported last week that just 266,000 jobs
were added in April, while U.S. employers posted a record
number of available jobs in March.
The number of openings will likely add fuel to a political
dispute about whether the extra $300 in weekly federal
unemployment aid — on top of a state payment — is
discouraging those out of work from seeking new jobs.
“We have employers who just tried to hire back past
employees who were laid off, and they turned down the job
because there’s a whole lot of incentive to spend the summer
at the beach,” said Jon Hurst of the Retailers Association
of Massachusetts. “They’re happy at the beach, and they’re
happy taking benefits until Labor Day.”
Understaffed stores, restaurants and travel venues face a
“real tough road ahead” to serve customers returning this
summer, he added.
“There’s no question it’s time to be innovative,” Hurst
said, noting that some states are using the federal money as
a back-to-work incentive. “We have to get innovative, and we
need to reinstitute the work-search requirement and start
enforcing it.” ...
[U.S. Labor Secretary Marty] Walsh said businesses in some
cases might have to increase salaries to bring workers back.
“That’s something that people should expect and ask for,”
Walsh said of higher wages, adding, “I think that workers
are looking for more money, and I think that there’s nothing
wrong with that.”
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
$300 unemployment benefit: Massachusetts businesses face
labor shortage
as laid-off workers ‘happy taking benefits until Labor Day’
Marty Walsh said he doesn’t agree that the $300 is deterring
people from working
Business groups are urging the state to restore a
work-search requirement for people collecting unemployment
benefits, arguing that stricter rules are needed to get more
workers back on the job.
Gov. Charlie Baker relaxed the rules last year amid a wave
of layoffs and unemployment claims fueled by
government-mandated business closures in response to the
pandemic.
While Baker has outlined plans to fully reopen the state's
economy over the next several months, he has yet to bring
back the work-search requirement, even as neighboring states
have taken similar steps.
Business leaders say they are struggling to fill vacancies.
They point to a lack of incentives to get off unemployment
benefits as a main reason.
Business leaders say they are struggling to fill vacancies.
They point to a lack of incentives to get off unemployment
benefits as a main reason.
"As the summer months approach, businesses are going to
struggle to fill vacancies and meet consumer demand," said
Chris Carlozzi, state director of the National Federation of
Independent Businesses.
A recent National Federation of Independent Business report
showed about 44% of small-business owners nationwide
reported not being able to fill job openings last month,
Carlozzi said.
The numbers are likely higher in Massachusetts, he added.
The governors of other New England states, including Maine,
Rhode Island and New Hampshire, have brought back work
search requirements in recent weeks as officials try to coax
more people back into the workplace.
Massachusetts paid out nearly $6 billion in jobless benefits
last year as hundreds of thousands of workers were
sidelined. A deluge of claims forced the Baker
administration to borrow more than $2.2 billion from the
federal government to continue paying benefits....
Employers have complained that generous benefits give some
laid-off workers more income from the weekly payments than
they normally make on the job, making it much harder to
bring those people back to work.
Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of
Massachusetts, said his group is also pushing for a return
of the work-search requirement, but he points out that it
"isn't a silver bullet" for improving the pandemic-battered
labor market.
"We have the most generous unemployment benefits in the
nation and one of the lowest bars to qualify for them," he
said. "That's the root of the problem."
The Salem News
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Baker urged to restore rules for jobless benefits
Gov. Charlie Baker signaled he wouldn’t join a growing
number of Republican-led states that have moved to cancel
the federal government’s $300 boost in weekly unemployment
benefits.
The governor said Wednesday his focus is to “aggressively
reopen our economy and create the jobs for people and then
let people find their way back to work.”
Speaking at a Moderna lab in Norwood, Baker added,
“Massachusetts, as we all know, is a very high-cost state
and the majority of people who were most profoundly impacted
by the pandemic and by some of the rules that we put into
place were what I would refer to as working people.”
Baker’s remarks come amid an outcry from employers over a
shortage of workers and as the unemployment rate remains
more than double what it was at the outset of the
coronavirus pandemic.
Job openings, meanwhile, rose nearly 8%, to 8.1 million in
March, the most on record dating back to December 2000, the
Labor Department reported Tuesday.
Business industry groups nationally and locally have upped
the pressure on officials to incentivize a return to work as
thousands continue to make more on unemployment than when
earning wages.
Red states joined ranks with Montana, Arkansas and South
Carolina, where governors last week moved to cancel the
extra benefits early, citing concerns people were choosing
not to go back to work. States choosing to ax the benefits
include Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, North
Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Wyoming.
The added unemployment benefits extended by the federal
government are slated to expire in September.
The Boston Herald
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Charlie Baker signals no plans to drop $300 bonus weekly
unemployment checks
Replenishing unemployment trust funds to pre-pandemic levels
is one of a host of allowable uses for the latest round of
federal relief funds, according to new U.S. Treasury
guidelines.
The Treasury on Monday adopted a final interim rule
outlining different ways state and local governments can use
their fiscal recovery funds from the federal spending
package known as the American Rescue Plan Act, and published
a fact sheet offering details. The funding objectives appear
to offer wide latitude and include supporting COVID-19
response efforts, replacing lost public sector revenue,
supporting economic stabilization of households and
businesses, and addressing systemic public health and
economic challenges.
Allowable uses include COVID-19 mitigation efforts;
assistance to households for food, rent, mortgage payments
or utilities; unemployment trust fund deposits; loans or
grants to help small businesses and non-profits; behavioral
health care services; water, broadband and sewer
infrastructure investments; premium pay for essential
workers, and more.
Some business groups and state lawmakers have been calling
for Massachusetts to use ARPA funds to provide relief to
business facing higher unemployment insurance costs because
of a spike in solvency assessment rates.
States and Washington, D.C. are receiving a total $195.3
billion, along with $65.1 billion for counties, $45.6
billion for metropolitan cities, and $19.5 billion for
non-entitlement units of local government. The allocation
for Massachusetts is $5.286 billion.
"States that have experienced a net increase in the
unemployment rate of more than 2 percentage points from
February 2020 to the latest available data as of the date of
certification will receive their full allocation of funds in
a single payment; other states will receive funds in two
equal tranches," the Treasury said.
The most recent monthly unemployment rate for Massachusetts
was 6.8 percent as of March, up four points from its
February 2020 level and well below its pandemic peak of 16.4
percent.
State House News Service
Monday, May 10, 2021
Treasury Guidance Offers Wide Latitude for ARPA Funds
A federally guided shift in how Massachusetts distributed
the burden of unemployment costs led to higher-than-expected
bills this spring for many businesses, and the step also
spared industries hardest hit during the pandemic from being
"clobbered" with taxes, Labor and Workforce Development
Secretary Rosalin Acosta said Friday.
In the first virtual meeting of a new commission created to
study potential reforms to the state's unemployment system,
Acosta outlined the massive toll the COVID-19 outbreak --
and the government-ordered closures and shifts in consumer
behavior it prompted -- took on workers.
Acosta confirmed during Friday's meeting that states are
empowered to deploy stimulus funding through the American
Rescue Plan to replenish unemployment insurance trust funds.
She did not say, though, if the Baker administration plans
to do so or whether it would use federal dollars to mitigate
the sticker shock that many businesses face from an
unexpected spike in the solvency fund assessment section of
their unemployment taxes....
Like states across the country, Massachusetts faced an
"unprecedented year" in 2020, Acosta said. The state paid
about $22 billion in unemployment benefits to roughly 1
million claimants. About $5.9 billion of that came from the
Massachusetts UI trust fund, Acosta said, while the rest was
paid using federal dollars through several pandemic-related
programs.
State House News Service
Friday, May 14, 2021
No Plan Yet, But Acosta Says ARPA Use Okay for UI Fund
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker said Wednesday that his
fellow Republican, Representative Liz Cheney, was
“absolutely right” that the presidential election was not
stolen.
“I made very clear that I felt the election process that
took place back in November was fair, and that President Joe
Biden won the election. And, on those issues, I believe Liz
Cheney is absolutely right,” said Baker.
Cheney has condemned Donald Trump’s false claim that the
election was stolen. Her refusal to stay quiet about Trump’s
election lies prompted House Republicans on Wednesday to
purge her from their leadership ranks, where she served as
House Conference Chair, the party’s third-ranking House
official.
Cheney has called her decision to publicly battle the
twice-impeached ex-president a matter of principle, warning
that allowing him to falsely claim that the election was
stolen amounted to an attack on democracy and is destructive
to the GOP and its values.
Trump’s stranglehold on the party has prompted some
Republicans to threaten to form a third party. A letter with
a number of prominent GOP signers is being prepared for
release this week.
Baker said Wednesday he hadn’t been approached about the
letter and he continued to believe in what he considered
Republican values.
“I’ve been a Republican since I was 20 years old. And I
continue to believe in what I consider to be sort of the
core values of the party,” he said at a media briefing.
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Backing Liz Cheney, Charlie Baker reiterates the
presidential election was not stolen
|
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
With the Legislature's
constitution convention on the near horizon and the graduated income tax
(aka, "Millionaires Tax" or "Fair Share Amendment") expected to be voted
upon soon, its House sponsor,
Rep. Jim O'Day (D-West Boylston) decided to "really to cover
our rear ends" by filing another version as back-up. The State
House News Service on Monday reported ("House Adds Amendable Income
Surtax Duplicate to ConCon Agenda"):
A carbon-copy version of the
so-called millionaire surtax which the House surfaced on
Monday was filed "really to cover our rear ends," the
lead House sponsor said, professing uncertainty as to
why it was placed on the formal calendar for the
Constitutional Convention that kicks off this week.
Rep. Jim O'Day told the News
Service that he is hoping to vote on the proposed surtax
on household incomes over $1 million, which advocates
have estimated could collect more than $2 billion from
Massachusetts millionaires, in "mid-summer, early fall"
...
O'Day filed a duplicate version of
the income surtax amendment, which the House added to
the convention calendar Monday morning. Since that
version is appearing before the convention for the first
time, it is subject to amendment. The non-amendable
version approved last session (S 5) will automatically
appear as the first item on the calendar.
The West Boylston Democrat said he
was not entirely sure about the intention behind the
"dual track" of putting both copies on the agenda, but
said he filed the new version (H 86) out of an abundance
of caution.
"There was some discussion on
whether or not any bill had to be filed [in the new
session]. But to make certain that we didn't in any way
leave ourselves in a position where we couldn't move
forward with this ... is why we ended up with my filing
it ... really to cover our rear ends, and not filing
something on the Senate side," O'Day said....
The state revenue landscape has
soared since the amendment was first drawn up, and
federal Rescue Act money is now on the way to bolster
state spending in areas like education and
transportation - the two realms the surtax is designed
to boost.
The secondary version of the
proposal, with its ability to be amended, could possibly
be seen as a backup by legislative leadership if the
carried-over version hits a snag or if support flags.
"I don't believe that any of us who
are dealing with this issue would have any interest in
having anything amended to this bill," O'Day said.
O'Day is covering all
the bases — and his backside
— though he doesn't sound quite clear
exactly why. The Takers are a determined mob covering every
possible angle to grab more of other people's money. One thing
they're not taking is any chances.
The anticipated
Constitutional Convention sputtered on Wednesday and recessed without
taking any votes. The
State House News Service reported("Constitutional Convention
Recesses Until June 9"):
A new Constitutional Convention got underway on
Beacon Hill Wednesday and will serve as the forum for debate on a
proposed amendment to implement a 4 percent surtax on household
incomes above $1 million.
The convention recessed just after 1 p.m. until
Wednesday, June 9, the next possible date for consideration of the
amendment, which supporters hope to place on the 2022 statewide
ballot.
In a statement on Tuesday, a spokesperson for
Senate President Karen Spilka, who presides at the convention,
reiterated her support for the amendment and said lawmakers were
working "on scheduling a future date this year to take up the
proposal."
New Bedford's WBSM AM-1420 talk show host
Barry Richard captured The Takers' effort smartly in
his column on May 7 ("Massachusetts Lawmakers Prepare
For Class Warfare on Rich"):
The Massachusetts Legislature is
looking for more money to waste on foolishness, and they
have a plan to get it. It's referred to as the
"millionaire tax." The tax was passed by lawmakers
several years ago but booted by the Massachusetts
Supreme Judicial Court ...
But those greedy little buggers up
on Beacon Hill are not going to be deterred that easily.
They decided to attempt to change the Commonwealth's
constitution, the world's oldest functioning
constitution, written by John Adams back in 1780, to get
their way....
In other words, you get to vote to
change the world's oldest functioning constitution next
year in order to sock it to those dirty millionaires.
The blood would be on your hands when businesses flee
the state as they've done in other states where this has
been tried....
The truth of the matter is that the
"millionaire tax" is actually a graduated income tax
that no doubt will become the "thousandaire tax" when
they run out of money again. Massachusetts voters have
traditionally rejected the concept of a graduated income
tax in the past and should again.
This is nothing more than smoke and
mirrors to deceive you into paying higher taxes. Tell
the bastards to reduce spending and not to change Adam's
constitution in order to siphon more money out of your
pockets.
The State House News Service on Tuesday reported:
("Senate’s $47.6 Bil Budget Draws $1.55 Bil From Savings;
Revenue Upgrade May Be Dealt With In Conference"):
Senate Democrats rolled out their $47.6 billion
fiscal year 2022 state budget proposal on Tuesday, proposing an
annual spending plan that reforms taxes for pass-through companies,
overhauls the film tax credit program, and expands support for
lower-income residents in the wake of the pandemic's devastation....
The Senate Ways and Means Committee's budget (S
3) calls for increasing state spending by $1.2 billion, or about 2.6
percent, above the fiscal year that ends June 30. Its bottom line --
which will likely grow through the amendment process -- is $1.8
billion higher than the bill Gov. Charlie Baker proposed in January
and $64 million below the bill the House approved last month.
Like their House counterparts, Senate Democrats
did not include in their budget any of the $4.5 billion
Massachusetts will receive from the American Rescue Plan. The U.S.
Treasury published guidelines Monday on how states can use those
funds, and Senate Ways and Means Committee Chair Michael Rodrigues
said his panel has not yet "had the time to dig into that."
Also mirroring the House, the Senate built its
budget on the assumption that Massachusetts will collect $30.12
billion in taxes in fiscal 2022, the so-called "consensus revenue"
figure on which the Legislature and Baker administration agreed in
January.
Since then, monthly tax receipts have surged
well above expectations. If May and June collections hit their
projected marks exactly, the state will wind up hauling in about
$800 million more in fiscal 2021 than legislative budget-writers
anticipate collecting in fiscal 2022....
The Senate budget does not call for any
broad-based tax increases on individuals, though it does propose a
handful of new revenue sources not considered by the House, such as
authorization of debit card lottery payments that Rodrigues
estimated could bring in $30 million....
The Senate Ways and Means Committee voted
Tuesday to advance the spending bill with a favorable
recommendation. Republican Sens. Patrick O'Connor of Weymouth and
Ryan Fattman of Sutton voted in favor of it, while Senate Minority
Leader Bruce Tarr opted not to vote....
The Senate plans to begin debate on its budget
on Tuesday, May 25. Amendments are due by 2 p.m. on Friday.
I'm using two shocking paragraphs from
the next fund-raising letter now in progress to put
into perspective the forthcoming almost $48 Billion state budget that's
now under discussion on Beacon Hill. After doing the research and
math then putting my findings together yesterday they're too alarming to
not repeat here as well.
Here's an excerpt from the
letter most reading this will soon receive:
"State spending certainly has
ballooned over the years. The FY2017 budget adopted just
four years ago was $38.9 billion; the FY2011 budget passed just
ten years ago was $27.6 billion; a decade before that the FY2001
budget was $21.4 billion.
"When adjusted for inflation that
$21.4 billion FY2001 state budget in today’s dollars is
equivalent to $32.6 billion. This proposed FY2022 budget
will increase the coming fiscal year’s state spending by some
$15 billion in real dollars over the past twenty-one
years — a spending increase of 146%."
As we keep saying,
"More Is Never Enough" (MINE) and never will be, until The Takers
have it all.
And their troops of
usual suspects are swarming. In its
"Advances - Week of May 16, 2021" the State House News
Service reported on Friday:
Monday, May 17, 2021
TAX DAY RALLY: Reps. Utyterhoeven
and Connolly, Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steve
Tolman and Massachusetts Teachers Association President
Merrie Najimy are among the speakers at a Tax Day rally
calling for "a budget that represents the needs of the
people and the planet, not the profits of wealthy
individuals and corporations."
Participating groups include
Massachusetts Peace Action, 350 Massachusetts,
Massachusetts Alliance of HUD Tenants, Massachusetts
Poor People's Campaign, Massachusetts Teachers
Association, Veterans for Peace/ Smedley Butler Brigade,
Our Revolution Massachusetts, Cambridge Residents
Alliance, and the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and
Common Security. Mass. Peace Action's Brian Garvey
serves as emcee. (Monday, 12 p.m., outside the Thomas P.
O'Neill, Jr. Federal Building, 10 Causeway St., Boston)
The expanded
unemployment benefits vs. worker shortage contradiction continues to
drag down the pandemic "economic recovery."
The Boston Herald reported on Wednesday ("$300 unemployment
benefit: Massachusetts businesses face labor shortage as laid-off
workers ‘happy taking benefits until Labor Day’"):
The state’s
unemployment benefits and the fed’s weekly $300 jobless bonus checks
until Labor Day are giving laid-off workers a “whole lot of
incentive to spend the summer at the beach,” business leaders
lamented.
But former Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, now the
U.S. Labor secretary, on Tuesday said there’s “way too much
conversation” about the $300 “deterring people from going back to
work, which I don’t agree with.”
He added: “I just don’t see it. Most Americans
would rather be working,” he told reporters on a conference call....
The government reported last week that just
266,000 jobs were added in April, while U.S. employers posted a
record number of available jobs in March.
The number of openings will likely add fuel to
a political dispute about whether the extra $300 in weekly federal
unemployment aid — on top of a state payment — is discouraging those
out of work from seeking new jobs.
“We have employers who just tried to hire back
past employees who were laid off, and they turned down the job
because there’s a whole lot of incentive to spend the summer at the
beach,” said Jon Hurst of the Retailers Association of
Massachusetts. “They’re happy at the beach, and they’re happy taking
benefits until Labor Day.”
Understaffed stores, restaurants and travel
venues face a “real tough road ahead” to serve customers returning
this summer, he added.
“There’s no question it’s time to be
innovative,” Hurst said, noting that some states are using the
federal money as a back-to-work incentive. “We have to get
innovative, and we need to reinstitute the work-search requirement
and start enforcing it.” ...
[U.S. Labor Secretary Marty] Walsh said
businesses in some cases might have to increase salaries to bring
workers back.
“That’s something that people should expect and
ask for,” Walsh said of higher wages, adding, “I think that workers
are looking for more money, and I think that there’s nothing wrong
with that.”
The Salem News reported on Thursday ("Baker urged to restore
rules for jobless benefits"):
Business groups are urging the
state to restore a work-search requirement for people
collecting unemployment benefits, arguing that stricter
rules are needed to get more workers back on the job.
Gov. Charlie Baker relaxed the
rules last year amid a wave of layoffs and unemployment
claims fueled by government-mandated business closures
in response to the pandemic.
While Baker has outlined plans to
fully reopen the state's economy over the next several
months, he has yet to bring back the work-search
requirement, even as neighboring states have taken
similar steps.
Business leaders say they are
struggling to fill vacancies. They point to a lack of
incentives to get off unemployment benefits as a main
reason.
Business leaders say they are
struggling to fill vacancies. They point to a lack of
incentives to get off unemployment benefits as a main
reason.
"As the summer months approach,
businesses are going to struggle to fill vacancies and
meet consumer demand," said Chris Carlozzi, state
director of the National Federation of Independent
Businesses.
A recent National Federation of
Independent Business report showed about 44% of
small-business owners nationwide reported not being able
to fill job openings last month, Carlozzi said.
The numbers are likely higher in
Massachusetts, he added.
The governors of other New England
states, including Maine, Rhode Island and New Hampshire,
have brought back work search requirements in recent
weeks as officials try to coax more people back into the
workplace.
Massachusetts paid out nearly $6
billion in jobless benefits last year as hundreds of
thousands of workers were sidelined. A deluge of claims
forced the Baker administration to borrow more than $2.2
billion from the federal government to continue paying
benefits....
Employers have complained that
generous benefits give some laid-off workers more income
from the weekly payments than they normally make on the
job, making it much harder to bring those people back to
work.
Jon Hurst, president of the
Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said his group
is also pushing for a return of the work-search
requirement, but he points out that it "isn't a silver
bullet" for improving the pandemic-battered labor
market.
"We have the most generous
unemployment benefits in the nation and one of the
lowest bars to qualify for them," he said. "That's the
root of the problem."
That's the obvious
problem. The obvious solution is being ignored.
The Boston Herald reported on Thursday ("Charlie Baker
signals no plans to drop $300 bonus weekly unemployment checks"):
Gov. Charlie Baker signaled he
wouldn’t join a growing number of Republican-led states
that have moved to cancel the federal government’s $300
boost in weekly unemployment benefits.
The governor said Wednesday his
focus is to “aggressively reopen our economy and create
the jobs for people and then let people find their way
back to work.”
Speaking at a Moderna lab in
Norwood, Baker added, “Massachusetts, as we all know, is
a very high-cost state and the majority of people who
were most profoundly impacted by the pandemic and by
some of the rules that we put into place were what I
would refer to as working people.”
Baker’s remarks come amid an outcry
from employers over a shortage of workers and as the
unemployment rate remains more than double what it was
at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Job openings, meanwhile, rose
nearly 8%, to 8.1 million in March, the most on record
dating back to December 2000, the Labor Department
reported Tuesday.
Business industry groups nationally
and locally have upped the pressure on officials to
incentivize a return to work as thousands continue to
make more on unemployment than when earning wages.
Red states joined ranks with
Montana, Arkansas and South Carolina, where governors
last week moved to cancel the extra benefits early,
citing concerns people were choosing not to go back to
work. States choosing to ax the benefits include
Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, North
Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Wyoming.
The added unemployment benefits
extended by the federal government are slated to expire
in September.
They used to say "If
you're not part of the solution then you're part of the problem."
It's clear which camp Gov. Baker favors.
Some good news arrived
which seems to allow states to use federal relief funds to replenish
state unemployment expenditures.
The News Service reported on Monday ("Treasury Guidance
Offers Wide Latitude for ARPA Funds"):
Replenishing unemployment trust
funds to pre-pandemic levels is one of a host of
allowable uses for the latest round of federal relief
funds, according to new U.S. Treasury guidelines.
The Treasury on Monday adopted a
final interim rule outlining different ways state and
local governments can use their fiscal recovery funds
from the federal spending package known as the American
Rescue Plan Act, and published a fact sheet offering
details. The funding objectives appear to offer wide
latitude and include supporting COVID-19 response
efforts, replacing lost public sector revenue,
supporting economic stabilization of households and
businesses, and addressing systemic public health and
economic challenges.
Allowable uses include COVID-19
mitigation efforts; assistance to households for food,
rent, mortgage payments or utilities; unemployment trust
fund deposits; loans or grants to help small businesses
and non-profits; behavioral health care services; water,
broadband and sewer infrastructure investments; premium
pay for essential workers, and more.
Some business groups and state
lawmakers have been calling for Massachusetts to use
ARPA funds to provide relief to business facing higher
unemployment insurance costs because of a spike in
solvency assessment rates....
The most recent monthly
unemployment rate for Massachusetts was 6.8 percent as
of March, up four points from its February 2020 level
and well below its pandemic peak of 16.4 percent.
On Friday the State House News Service followed up with a
report ("No Plan Yet, But Acosta Says ARPA Use Okay for UI
Fund"):
A federally guided shift in how Massachusetts
distributed the burden of unemployment costs led to
higher-than-expected bills this spring for many businesses, and the
step also spared industries hardest hit during the pandemic from
being "clobbered" with taxes, [Baker administration] Labor and
Workforce Development Secretary Rosalin Acosta said Friday.
In the first virtual meeting of a new
commission created to study potential reforms to the state's
unemployment system, Acosta outlined the massive toll the COVID-19
outbreak -- and the government-ordered closures and shifts in
consumer behavior it prompted -- took on workers.
Acosta confirmed during Friday's meeting that
states are empowered to deploy stimulus funding through the American
Rescue Plan to replenish unemployment insurance trust funds. She did
not say, though, if the Baker administration plans to do so or
whether it would use federal dollars to mitigate the sticker shock
that many businesses face from an unexpected spike in the solvency
fund assessment section of their unemployment taxes....
Like states across the country, Massachusetts
faced an "unprecedented year" in 2020, Acosta said. The state paid
about $22 billion in unemployment benefits to roughly 1 million
claimants. About $5.9 billion of that came from the Massachusetts UI
trust fund, Acosta said, while the rest was paid using federal
dollars through several pandemic-related programs.
Secretary Rosalin
Acosta "did not say, though, if the Baker administration plans to do so
or whether it would use federal dollars to mitigate the sticker shock
that many businesses face from an unexpected spike in the solvency fund
assessment section of their unemployment taxes"?
Why didn't she?
I have to believe those business that haven't completely collapsed due
to the yearlong and continuing Baker Lockdown would like to know, and
sooner rather than later.
Speaking of Gov.
Charlie Baker, how far can he distance himself from Republicans and get
away with calling himself one? He's apparently determined to find
and cross that line.
On Monday the
Republican caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives
voted to remove Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) as third-most powerful
House Republican.
The Boston Globe reported on Charlie Baker's reaction on
Wednesday ("Backing Liz Cheney, Charlie Baker reiterates the
presidential election was not stolen"):
Massachusetts Governor Charlie
Baker said Wednesday that his fellow Republican,
Representative Liz Cheney, was “absolutely right” that
the presidential election was not stolen.
“I made very clear that I felt the
election process that took place back in November was
fair, and that President Joe Biden won the election.
And, on those issues, I believe Liz Cheney is absolutely
right,” said Baker.
Cheney has condemned Donald Trump’s
false claim that the election was stolen. Her refusal to
stay quiet about Trump’s election lies prompted House
Republicans on Wednesday to purge her from their
leadership ranks, where she served as House Conference
Chair, the party’s third-ranking House official.
Cheney has called her decision to
publicly battle the twice-impeached ex-president a
matter of principle, warning that allowing him to
falsely claim that the election was stolen amounted to
an attack on democracy and is destructive to the GOP and
its values.
Trump’s stranglehold on the party
has prompted some Republicans to threaten to form a
third party. A letter with a number of prominent GOP
signers is being prepared for release this week.
Baker said Wednesday he hadn’t been
approached about the letter and he continued to believe
in what he considered Republican values.
“I’ve been a Republican since I was
20 years old. And I continue to believe in what I
consider to be sort of the core values of the party,” he
said at a media briefing.
The Boston Globe always
appreciates a "good" Republican like Baker, with "good" Republican
values.
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Full News Reports Follow
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State House News Service
Monday, May 10, 2021
House Adds Amendable Income Surtax Duplicate to ConCon
Agenda
By Sam Doran
A carbon-copy version of the so-called millionaire surtax
which the House surfaced on Monday was filed "really to
cover our rear ends," the lead House sponsor said,
professing uncertainty as to why it was placed on the formal
calendar for the Constitutional Convention that kicks off
this week.
Rep. Jim O'Day told the News Service that he is hoping to
vote on the proposed surtax on household incomes over $1
million, which advocates have estimated could collect more
than $2 billion from Massachusetts millionaires, in
"mid-summer, early fall" and he is hoping to learn more
about the timeline on Wednesday.
Plans for Wednesday's Constitutional Convention were
unavailable Monday from the office of Senate President Karen
Spilka, who presides at the convention.
O'Day filed a duplicate version of the income surtax
amendment, which the House added to the convention calendar
Monday morning. Since that version is appearing before the
convention for the first time, it is subject to amendment.
The non-amendable version approved last session (S 5) will
automatically appear as the first item on the calendar.
The West Boylston Democrat said he was not entirely sure
about the intention behind the "dual track" of putting both
copies on the agenda, but said he filed the new version (H
86) out of an abundance of caution.
"There was some discussion on whether or not any bill had to
be filed [in the new session]. But to make certain that we
didn't in any way leave ourselves in a position where we
couldn't move forward with this ... is why we ended up with
my filing it ... really to cover our rear ends, and not
filing something on the Senate side," O'Day said.
The proposal passed 147-48 in 2019, and the same proposal
must receive at least 101 votes this session to advance to
the ballot in 2022. New House Speaker Ron Mariano was among
the minority of Democrats who voted against the measure when
a previous iteration came to the floor in 2017. He then
voted for the amendment in 2019, when it was revived by
lawmakers after the previous proposal was derailed by a
legal challenge.
The state revenue landscape has soared since the amendment
was first drawn up, and federal Rescue Act money is now on
the way to bolster state spending in areas like education
and transportation - the two realms the surtax is designed
to boost.
The secondary version of the proposal, with its ability to
be amended, could possibly be seen as a backup by
legislative leadership if the carried-over version hits a
snag or if support flags.
"I don't believe that any of us who are dealing with this
issue would have any interest in having anything amended to
this bill," O'Day said.
State House News Service
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Constitutional Convention Recesses Until June 9
By Michael P. Norton
A new Constitutional Convention got underway on Beacon Hill
Wednesday and will serve as the forum for debate on a
proposed amendment to implement a 4 percent surtax on
household incomes above $1 million.
The convention recessed just after 1 p.m. until Wednesday,
June 9, the next possible date for consideration of the
amendment, which supporters hope to place on the 2022
statewide ballot.
In a statement on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Senate
President Karen Spilka, who presides at the convention,
reiterated her support for the amendment and said lawmakers
were working "on scheduling a future date this year to take
up the proposal."
Proponents say the measure will ensure that the state's
wealthiest households pay their "fair share" toward public
services and plan to invest roughly $2 billion in education
and transportation. Opponents say passage of the measure
will send wealth and capital to lower cost states and assert
that introduction of a graduated income tax structure could
eventually lead to tax increases for people in other income
brackets.
WBSM AM-1420 (New Bedford)
May 7, 2021
Massachusetts Lawmakers Prepare For Class Warfare on Rich
By Barry Richard
The Massachusetts Legislature is looking for more money to
waste on foolishness, and they have a plan to get it. It's
referred to as the "millionaire tax." The tax was passed by
lawmakers several years ago but booted by the Massachusetts
Supreme Judicial Court, which said that all incomes must be
taxed equally under the law.
But those greedy little buggers up on Beacon Hill are not
going to be deterred that easily. They decided to attempt to
change the Commonwealth's constitution, the world's oldest
functioning constitution, written by John Adams back in
1780, to get their way.
The Democrat-controlled legislature has proposed and
approved a four percent surtax on households earning a
million dollars or more. They have to vote in the
affirmative again this fall before the question can appear
on the state ballot next year.
In other words, you get to vote to change the world's oldest
functioning constitution next year in order to sock it to
those dirty millionaires. The blood would be on your hands
when businesses flee the state as they've done in other
states where this has been tried.
Lawmakers have launched an ad blitz to convince you that the
wealthy are the bad guys. To be successful is to be punished
and treated unfairly. It's class warfare, us against the
rich. How bourgeoisie?
The truth of the matter is that the "millionaire tax" is
actually a graduated income tax that no doubt will become
the "thousandaire tax" when they run out of money again.
Massachusetts voters have traditionally rejected the concept
of a graduated income tax in the past and should again.
This is nothing more than smoke and mirrors to deceive you
into paying higher taxes. Tell the bastards to reduce
spending and not to change Adam's constitution in order to
siphon more money out of your pockets.
— Barry Richard is the host
of The Barry Richard Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford.
State House News Service
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Senate’s $47.6 Bil Budget Draws $1.55 Bil From Savings
Revenue Upgrade May Be Dealt With In Conference
By Chris Lisinski
Senate Democrats rolled out their $47.6 billion fiscal year
2022 state budget proposal on Tuesday, proposing an annual
spending plan that reforms taxes for pass-through companies,
overhauls the film tax credit program, and expands support
for lower-income residents in the wake of the pandemic's
devastation.
The budget bill teed up for debate later this month aims to
repair economic damage wrought during the COVID-19 pandemic
without factoring in the billions in federal aid set to flow
to Massachusetts or the state's recently robust tax
receipts.
Senate President Karen Spilka said the budget bill "seeks to
put us on a stable fiscal footing and build a more inclusive
and resilient commonwealth for all of us."
"If the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic aftershocks have
frayed the fabric of our commonwealth, this budget takes on
the important but sometimes invisible work of stitching that
fabric back together," Spilka told reporters during a
briefing.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee's budget (S 3) calls for
increasing state spending by $1.2 billion, or about 2.6
percent, above the fiscal year that ends June 30. Its bottom
line -- which will likely grow through the amendment process
-- is $1.8 billion higher than the bill Gov. Charlie Baker
proposed in January and $64 million below the bill the House
approved last month.
Like their House counterparts, Senate Democrats did not
include in their budget any of the $4.5 billion
Massachusetts will receive from the American Rescue Plan.
The U.S. Treasury published guidelines Monday on how states
can use those funds, and Senate Ways and Means Committee
Chair Michael Rodrigues said his panel has not yet "had the
time to dig into that."
Also mirroring the House, the Senate built its budget on the
assumption that Massachusetts will collect $30.12 billion in
taxes in fiscal 2022, the so-called "consensus revenue"
figure on which the Legislature and Baker administration
agreed in January.
Since then, monthly tax receipts have surged well above
expectations. If May and June collections hit their
projected marks exactly, the state will wind up hauling in
about $800 million more in fiscal 2021 than legislative
budget-writers anticipate collecting in fiscal 2022.
Rodrigues said Tuesday that the decision to mark up the
revenue base could fall to the private House-Senate
conference committee that will negotiate a compromise
spending bill.
"We do not unilaterally bump up consensus revenue figures --
as the name implies, it's a consensus, so it could be
discussed in the conference committee," Rodrigues said. "We
are experiencing very robust revenues. We are excited about
that, and we are hoping that would have significant positive
impacts on how much we're going to draw down from our
(stabilization) fund. There's always more to come when it
comes to budgets, but we'll work collaboratively with our
friends in the House."
The Senate's budget bill calls for a maximum withdrawal from
the state's "rainy day" stabilization fund of $1.55 billion,
$50 million less than Baker proposed and $325 million less
than the House proposed.
Rodrigues said that drawdown would leave the fund, which had
a balance of $3.52 billion before the pandemic and will also
be used to cover spending this fiscal year, with more than
$1.15 billion.
The Senate budget does not call for any broad-based tax
increases on individuals, though it does propose a handful
of new revenue sources not considered by the House, such as
authorization of debit card lottery payments that Rodrigues
estimated could bring in $30 million.
Both the Senate and Baker included the cashless lottery
proposal in their fiscal 2022 spending bills after
unsuccessfully pushing for it in prior budgets.
Another Senate proposal would reform state and local taxes,
or SALT, for pass-through entities. Rodrigues said Senate
Democrats modified language on the topic that Baker included
in his budget to make it "revenue-positive" for
Massachusetts.
"Basically what this does is it allows those individuals who
work through what's called pass-through entities, corporate
partnerships, certain LLCs, that choose to have the income
flow not from the entity, but through individual tax filers,
to allow the entity to pay the state income tax for those
individuals so that the entity can take a tax deduction off
their federal income tax," Rodrigues said.
The change, he said, would net $90 million in revenue for
Massachusetts while saving those tax filers $1.18 billion at
the federal level.
The Senate's budget relies on some updated revenue
projections that helped inform its smaller proposed
withdrawal from the rainy day fund, Rodrigues said. Because
the federal government extended the public health emergency
through December 2021, the Senate estimated a $35 million
increase in Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, or FMAP,
reimbursements. Rodrigues also cited increases in projected
lottery revenue and abandoned property returns.
"We dug deeper into non-traditional tax revenue to find
other revenues to offset some of the use of the
stabilization fund," he said.
Legislative leaders agreed during the lead-up to budget
season to boost Chapter 70 aid to school districts by $219.6
million, an increase from the $197.7 million Baker proposed,
and both the House and Senate bills reflect that decision.
Both budgets would implement one-sixth of the 2019 school
finance reform known as the Student Opportunity Act in an
effort to put it back on track after the pandemic disrupted
its seven-year implementation timeline.
Senators also followed their House counterparts in proposing
a $40 million reserve fund to assist school districts whose
enrollment estimates -- and therefore state aid projections
-- were affected by COVID-19.
Tension could emerge between the branches over the state's
film tax credit, a controversial program to incentivize film
and television production in Massachusetts that is set to
expire at the end of 2022.
The Senate budget would push the sunset date to Jan. 1, 2027
while overhauling the credit itself.
To qualify for the credit, a production company must spend
at 50 percent of its filming budget or conduct at least 50
percent of its principal photography days in Massachusetts.
The Senate bill would increase that threshold to 75 percent,
plus cap salaries or compensation eligible for the credit at
$1 million and eliminate transferability of credits.
Rodrigues, who in 2017 clashed with House Speaker Ronald
Mariano about the film tax credit, said Tuesday that the
credits cost Massachusetts $60 million to $80 million per
year.
"The critique of the existing film tax credit is too much of
the money, the tax credits and the benefits of the tax
credit, go to out-of-state individuals and out-of-state
companies," Rodrigues said. "We want to see more of the
benefit be realized by Massachusetts residents and
Massachusetts companies."
Proposed reforms are based on recommendations from the Tax
Expenditure Review Commission, Rodrigues said, adding that
many of the tax credits are transferred to larger financial
institutions seeking to reduce their tax liability in
Massachusetts.
"We've heard loud and clear from the Department of Revenue
that transferable tax credits are an administrative
nightmare to track," Rodrigues said.
During its April budget debate, the House unanimously
approved an amendment that enshrines the film tax credit
permanently by eliminating the sunset date. Mariano, who is
in his first term as speaker, said the vote sends "a clear
message to the film industry that we are open for long-term
commitments and the economic benefits they bring to
Massachusetts."
Both Spilka and Rodrigues highlighted their budget's focus
on mental and behavioral health, senior care, and combating
poverty, all areas thrust into greater scrutiny during the
public health crisis and ensuing recession.
A $16.3 million proposal in the bill would convert a child
care and dependent tax deduction into a refundable credit,
which Rodrigues said would offer an average credit of $190
to about 85,000 low-income families.
The bill would also increase benefits offered through the
Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC)
and Emergency Assistance to Elderly, Disabled and Children (EAEDC)
programs by 20 percent over their December 2020 levels and
eliminate the asset limits for both programs, adding $43
million in total costs.
Among its investments, the Senate budget creates a new $6
million grant program to address student social and
emotional learning initiatives and directs $1 million to
launch a pilot program for universal mental health
screenings in schools.
It also proposes $571.2 million in funding for the UMass
system, $321.7 million for community colleges, $298.1
million for state universities, $27 million to increase
nursing facility rates, $15 million to allow rate add-ons at
facilities where at least 75 percent of residents have their
care paid for by Medicaid, $15 million for a grant program
aimed at communities disproportionately impacted by poverty
and the criminal justice system, and $150 million for the
Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program.
Two notable pieces of Baker's budget bill do not feature in
either the House or Senate budget bill: a plan to penalize
pharmaceutical companies for excessively increasing drug
prices, and revenue from sports betting, which remains
illegal in Massachusetts amid ongoing debate.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee voted Tuesday to advance
the spending bill with a favorable recommendation.
Republican Sens. Patrick O'Connor of Weymouth and Ryan
Fattman of Sutton voted in favor of it, while Senate
Minority Leader Bruce Tarr opted not to vote.
"This is going to be a really good way that we can end the
direct response to COVID and really start to build upon the
recovery," O'Connor, the panel's ranking minority leader,
said during the committee's virtual hearing. "I appreciate
all the work that has gone into this, and I look forward to
the next few weeks as we continue to add more priorities as
we continue to go through the budget process."
The Senate plans to begin debate on its budget on Tuesday,
May 25. Amendments are due by 2 p.m. on Friday.
The Boston Globe
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Senate unveils a $48b budget plan,
one that would tighten state’s film tax credit, increase aid
to schools
By Matt Stout
Massachusetts Senate leaders on Tuesday unveiled the
contours of a $47.6 billion budget proposal that would boost
spending by $1.2 billion over the current year and funnel
hundreds of millions of more dollars to local schools,
without any broad-based tax increases.
The chamber will debate changes to the bill on May 25, after
which Senate and House leaders will have to reconcile
differences between their proposals before sending a final
product to Governor Charlie Baker for the fiscal year
starting July 1.
Here are some notable details in the Senate’s package:
Film credit targeted
The proposal avoids any hikes to the broad-based taxes the
state’s budget is built upon — including the income tax and
sales tax. But it would tweak the edges of the state’s tax
code, most notably with a series of proposed changes meant
to tighten the controversial film tax credit program,
putting the chamber at odds with the House, which voted last
month to permanently extend the credit during its own budget
debate.
By contrast, the Senate plan would extend the credit only to
2027, four years after it’s slated to expire. It also would
cap those salaries eligible to be covered by the credit at
$1 million, and, in a major change, end the ability of
production companies to transfer the credit — in other
words, sell it to other entities, including insurance
companies, corporations, or even individuals, said Senator
Michael J. Rodrigues, the chamber’s budget chairman.
“We’ve heard loud and clear from the Department of Revenue
that transferable tax credits are an administrative
nightmare,” said Rodrigues, a Westport Democrat and a
longtime critic of the film tax credit. Production
companies, however, would still be allowed to refund the
credit under the Senate’s proposed changes, he said.
Currently, the film tax program includes a 25 percent
payroll credit for any project that spends more than $50,000
in the state. Productions that spend more than half their
total budget in Massachusetts — or film at least half the
time in the state — are also eligible for a 25 percent
production credit and a sales tax exemption.
The Senate plan would also increase that threshold to
qualify, by requiring productions to spend 75 percent of
their budget, or 75 percent of their filming days, in
Massachusetts.
“We recognize that there is a benefit to the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts by having a robust film and movie industry,”
Rodrigues said, adding the state pays out $60 million to $80
million a year in credits. “We have to make sure . . . that
that return on investment is maximized for those paying the
bills — the taxpayers of the Commonwealth.”
The proposal could be a sticking point in negotiations in
the House, where leaders have embraced the tax credit
program and for years have resisted making changes that,
they argue, could hurt Massachusetts’ chances to draw
productions to the state.
The Massachusetts Production Coalition, which represents
workers and businesses in the state’s film industry, pushed
back against the Senate’s proposals, arguing Tuesday that
they “would effectively kill the program” and deter feature
films, TV shows, and streaming series from filming here.
Episodic series, such as “Castle Rock,” a Hulu series based
on the stories of Stephen King, have begun to draw millions
in tax credits, but they also offer more consistent,
long-term jobs locally, which industry officials have sought
for years. According to one industry-backed analysis,
“Castle Rock” alone created more than 1,000 jobs in
Massachusetts during its first season.
The coalition also criticized the Senate plan to extend the
program 2027, saying it would do little to give the
stability it’s sought from policy makers. “A four-year
extension would merely leave the industry in an extended
period of limbo,” said Andrew Farnitano, a group spokesman.
Other tax changes
The Senate plan also proposes changes to a tax deduction
low-income families can take for child and dependent care by
converting it to a refundable tax credit — a move Rodrigues
said would allow more families to take advantage of it.
Senate officials estimate that 85,000 families would be
eligible for the newly reworked tax credit, at an average of
$190 per tax filer. It would cost the state roughly $16.3
million.
The spending plan also adopts a version of a tax change
Governor Charlie Baker proposed, by allowing pass-through
entities — such as partnerships or certain limited liability
companies — to pay the state income tax instead of members
of the pass-through paying individually. That would allow
the entity to take a tax deduction off its federal income
tax, according to Rodrigues, who said the change will net
the state $90 million in new tax revenue.
Education
Similar to the House’s, the Senate’s proposal would increase
direct local aid to school districts by $220 million next
fiscal year, pushing it to $5.5 billion. The boost is part
of an effort to begin funding the Student Opportunity Act,
the sweeping law signed in 2019 that promised to pour $1.5
billion in extra money into Massachusetts schools by 2027.
The budget plan also includes a $40 million reserve for
schools where districts saw their student headcount drop
during the pandemic, mirroring a provision also passed by
the House.
Federal and savings funds
Both the Senate and the House did not bake in any of the
nearly $8 billion in direct federal aid state and local
governments are expected to receive through the American
Rescue Plan, the massive, $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill
that President Biden signed into law three months ago.
But the Senate is calling for a far smaller withdrawal from
the state’s own emergency savings account than the House,
which had allowed for the state to take up to $1.88 billion
from what’s known as the stabilization or rainy day fund.
The Senate, instead, allows for $1.55 billion.
To make up the difference, the Senate plan leans on some tax
changes, including those outlined above, and more money from
expected federal reimbursements. (Both chambers are again
seeking to delay allowing residents to claim a charitable
deduction on their state tax returns, saving the state $64
million.)
“We dug deeper into nontraditional tax revenue . . . offset
some of the use of the stabilization fund,” Rodrigues said.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
$300 unemployment benefit: Massachusetts businesses face
labor shortage
as laid-off workers ‘happy taking benefits until Labor Day’
Marty Walsh said he doesn’t agree that the $300 is deterring
people from working
By Rick Sobey
The state’s unemployment benefits and the fed’s weekly $300
jobless bonus checks until Labor Day are giving laid-off
workers a “whole lot of incentive to spend the summer at the
beach,” business leaders lamented.
But former Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, now the U.S. Labor
secretary, on Tuesday said there’s “way too much
conversation” about the $300 “deterring people from going
back to work, which I don’t agree with.”
He added: “I just don’t see it. Most Americans would rather
be working,” he told reporters on a conference call.
“I actually don’t think what we’re hearing is necessarily
100% accurate,” he said of the $300 narrative, noting he
doesn’t dispute that certain types of businesses are having
a tough time finding workers. “I think there’s more than one
narrative going on here.”
The government reported last week that just 266,000 jobs
were added in April, while U.S. employers posted a record
number of available jobs in March.
The number of openings will likely add fuel to a political
dispute about whether the extra $300 in weekly federal
unemployment aid — on top of a state payment — is
discouraging those out of work from seeking new jobs.
“We have employers who just tried to hire back past
employees who were laid off, and they turned down the job
because there’s a whole lot of incentive to spend the summer
at the beach,” said Jon Hurst of the Retailers Association
of Massachusetts. “They’re happy at the beach, and they’re
happy taking benefits until Labor Day.”
Understaffed stores, restaurants and travel venues face a
“real tough road ahead” to serve customers returning this
summer, he added.
“There’s no question it’s time to be innovative,” Hurst
said, noting that some states are using the federal money as
a back-to-work incentive. “We have to get innovative, and we
need to reinstitute the work-search requirement and start
enforcing it.”
Some hospitality businesses in Massachusetts are offering a
$1,000 signing bonus, said Steve Clark, vice president of
government affairs at the Massachusetts Restaurant
Association.
“We absolutely have a labor shortage, and the $300 I believe
is definitely a contributing factor,” he said. “There are
other factors as well. Some people decided they didn’t want
to be in the restaurant industry anymore, and pursued other
jobs.”
He said it’s important to show people that the hospitality
industry can lead to higher-paying management jobs.
Walsh said businesses in some cases might have to increase
salaries to bring workers back.
“That’s something that people should expect and ask for,”
Walsh said of higher wages, adding, “I think that workers
are looking for more money, and I think that there’s nothing
wrong with that.”
— Herald wire services
contributed to this report.
The Salem News
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Baker urged to restore rules for jobless benefits
By Christian M. Wade, Statehouse Reporter
Business groups are urging the state to restore a
work-search requirement for people collecting unemployment
benefits, arguing that stricter rules are needed to get more
workers back on the job.
Gov. Charlie Baker relaxed the rules last year amid a wave
of layoffs and unemployment claims fueled by
government-mandated business closures in response to the
pandemic.
While Baker has outlined plans to fully reopen the state's
economy over the next several months, he has yet to bring
back the work-search requirement, even as neighboring states
have taken similar steps.
Business leaders say they are struggling to fill vacancies.
They point to a lack of incentives to get off unemployment
benefits as a main reason.
"As the summer months approach, businesses are going to
struggle to fill vacancies and meet consumer demand," said
Chris Carlozzi, state director of the National Federation of
Independent Businesses.
A recent National Federation of Independent Business report
showed about 44% of small-business owners nationwide
reported not being able to fill job openings last month,
Carlozzi said.
The numbers are likely higher in Massachusetts, he added.
The governors of other New England states, including Maine,
Rhode Island and New Hampshire, have brought back work
search requirements in recent weeks as officials try to coax
more people back into the workplace.
Massachusetts paid out nearly $6 billion in jobless benefits
last year as hundreds of thousands of workers were
sidelined. A deluge of claims forced the Baker
administration to borrow more than $2.2 billion from the
federal government to continue paying benefits.
Massachusetts' labor market has been gradually improving as
the state eases COVID-19 restrictions and takes steps to
allow more businesses to reopen.
The state's unemployment rate dropped slightly to 6.8% in
March, after adding more than 12,800 jobs.
Last week, Massachusetts reported 11,483 new applications
for state jobless benefits were filed for the week that
ended May 1 — a decline of 3,600 claims from the previous
week.
Meanwhile, another 1,400 workers applied for Pandemic
Unemployment Assistance, a federally backed program that
covers workers who don't qualify for state benefits. That's
about 180 fewer than the prior week, the agency said.
Jobless workers in Massachusetts and elsewhere have been
buoyed by a $1.9 trillion relief bill, signed by President
Joe Biden in March, that extended federal jobless programs
until September. Those include a $300 per week federal
benefit.
Employers have complained that generous benefits give some
laid-off workers more income from the weekly payments than
they normally make on the job, making it much harder to
bring those people back to work.
Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of
Massachusetts, said his group is also pushing for a return
of the work-search requirement, but he points out that it
"isn't a silver bullet" for improving the pandemic-battered
labor market.
"We have the most generous unemployment benefits in the
nation and one of the lowest bars to qualify for them," he
said. "That's the root of the problem."
— Christian M. Wade covers
the Massachusetts Statehouse for The Salem News and its
sister newspapers and websites.
The Boston Herald
Thursday, May 13, 2021
Charlie Baker signals no plans to drop $300 bonus weekly
unemployment checks
By Erin Tiernan
Gov. Charlie Baker signaled he wouldn’t join a growing
number of Republican-led states that have moved to cancel
the federal government’s $300 boost in weekly unemployment
benefits.
The governor said Wednesday his focus is to “aggressively
reopen our economy and create the jobs for people and then
let people find their way back to work.”
Speaking at a Moderna lab in Norwood, Baker added,
“Massachusetts, as we all know, is a very high-cost state
and the majority of people who were most profoundly impacted
by the pandemic and by some of the rules that we put into
place were what I would refer to as working people.”
Baker’s remarks come amid an outcry from employers over a
shortage of workers and as the unemployment rate remains
more than double what it was at the outset of the
coronavirus pandemic.
Job openings, meanwhile, rose nearly 8%, to 8.1 million in
March, the most on record dating back to December 2000, the
Labor Department reported Tuesday.
Business industry groups nationally and locally have upped
the pressure on officials to incentivize a return to work as
thousands continue to make more on unemployment than when
earning wages.
Red states joined ranks with Montana, Arkansas and South
Carolina, where governors last week moved to cancel the
extra benefits early, citing concerns people were choosing
not to go back to work. States choosing to ax the benefits
include Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, North
Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, and Wyoming.
The added unemployment benefits extended by the federal
government are slated to expire in September.
State House News Service
Monday, May 10, 2021
Treasury Guidance Offers Wide Latitude for ARPA Funds
By Katie Lannan
Replenishing unemployment trust funds to pre-pandemic levels
is one of a host of allowable uses for the latest round of
federal relief funds, according to new U.S. Treasury
guidelines.
The Treasury on Monday adopted a final interim rule
outlining different ways state and local governments can use
their fiscal recovery funds from the federal spending
package known as the American Rescue Plan Act, and published
a fact sheet offering details. The funding objectives appear
to offer wide latitude and include supporting COVID-19
response efforts, replacing lost public sector revenue,
supporting economic stabilization of households and
businesses, and addressing systemic public health and
economic challenges.
Allowable uses include COVID-19 mitigation efforts;
assistance to households for food, rent, mortgage payments
or utilities; unemployment trust fund deposits; loans or
grants to help small businesses and non-profits; behavioral
health care services; water, broadband and sewer
infrastructure investments; premium pay for essential
workers, and more.
Some business groups and state lawmakers have been calling
for Massachusetts to use ARPA funds to provide relief to
business facing higher unemployment insurance costs because
of a spike in solvency assessment rates.
States and Washington, D.C. are receiving a total $195.3
billion, along with $65.1 billion for counties, $45.6
billion for metropolitan cities, and $19.5 billion for
non-entitlement units of local government. The allocation
for Massachusetts is $5.286 billion.
"States that have experienced a net increase in the
unemployment rate of more than 2 percentage points from
February 2020 to the latest available data as of the date of
certification will receive their full allocation of funds in
a single payment; other states will receive funds in two
equal tranches," the Treasury said.
The most recent monthly unemployment rate for Massachusetts
was 6.8 percent as of March, up four points from its
February 2020 level and well below its pandemic peak of 16.4
percent.
State House News Service
Friday, May 14, 2021
No Plan Yet, But Acosta Says ARPA Use Okay for UI Fund
By Chris Lisinski
A federally guided shift in how Massachusetts distributed
the burden of unemployment costs led to higher-than-expected
bills this spring for many businesses, and the step also
spared industries hardest hit during the pandemic from being
"clobbered" with taxes, Labor and Workforce Development
Secretary Rosalin Acosta said Friday.
In the first virtual meeting of a new commission created to
study potential reforms to the state's unemployment system,
Acosta outlined the massive toll the COVID-19 outbreak --
and the government-ordered closures and shifts in consumer
behavior it prompted -- took on workers.
Acosta confirmed during Friday's meeting that states are
empowered to deploy stimulus funding through the American
Rescue Plan to replenish unemployment insurance trust funds.
She did not say, though, if the Baker administration plans
to do so or whether it would use federal dollars to mitigate
the sticker shock that many businesses face from an
unexpected spike in the solvency fund assessment section of
their unemployment taxes.
Employers that lay off significant numbers of workers
typically receive a higher experience rating, requiring them
to pay more into the jobless system. The U.S. Department of
Labor told states not to apply those penalties for
pandemic-related losses, leaving them instead to spread the
costs out across all industries through the solvency fund
assessment.
"If those rates had not been socialized, you would've had
certain industries that would've been clobbered because they
had the highest layoffs," Acosta said. "Instead of affecting
one industry or two industries or three industries
disproportionately, the Department of Labor in Washington
encouraged us to socialize those rates into a solvency
account so that the effects of COVID would not be felt by
particular industries."
Like states across the country, Massachusetts faced an
"unprecedented year" in 2020, Acosta said. The state paid
about $22 billion in unemployment benefits to roughly 1
million claimants. About $5.9 billion of that came from the
Massachusetts UI trust fund, Acosta said, while the rest was
paid using federal dollars through several pandemic-related
programs.
The commission, created in a bill Gov. Charlie Baker signed
in April, will hold its next meeting on Friday, June 4, when
it expects to hear a presentation about unemployment systems
in other states. It faces a deadline of Dec. 15, 2021 to
report findings and recommendations about reforming the
state's unemployment system to keep it solvent in the
long-term.
State House News Service
Friday, May 14, 2021
Advances - Week of May 16, 2021
Massachusetts heads into the weekend with mixed mask
messaging from the state and federal governments and Gov.
Charlie Baker telling residents to "stay safe" while he
works on updates to the state's reopening plans, which are
expected early next week.
Along with vaccines, masks have been the main method of
defending against COVID-19. But on Thursday the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention said fully vaccinated
Americans no longer need to wear a mask outdoors or indoors
in most cases. The new guidelines apply to being in a crowd
outdoors or among unvaccinated individuals, though the
government is still recommending masks when traveling on
buses, trains and planes. Baker's initial response was to
call the announcement "great news" but to leave the state's
mask order in place. However, he is clearly assembling a
more concerted reaction to the CDC's big announcement.
The governor's Aug. 1 full reopening date has come under
fire from critics as too far off and non-compliance with
mask-wearing is increasingly evident around Massachusetts,
although many by now have also grown accustomed to masking
up in stores, schools and more crowded venues.
Massachusetts is among the leading states with its
vaccination efforts and the millions who have largely
complied with public health precautions and mask orders over
the past year-plus are awaiting word on whether Baker will
squarely piggyback on the CDC guidance, or perhaps impose
his own conditions as he has often done.
Public officials have been offering incentives to vaccinate
more people and the CDC's guidance represents another lure,
with the government extending a huge social carrot and
telling people it is safe to return to most pre-pandemic
activities without masks and distancing but only if you are
vaccinated. What's less clear but also important and
consequential is the lack of ways to know if people are
being truthful about their vaccination status.
The governor's planned announcement on masks and reopening
changes will kick off a week during which the Senate Ways
and Means Committee will work over hundreds of amendments to
the fiscal 2022 budget that is marked for debate beginning
on Tuesday, May 25 ...
Lawmakers forge deeper into public-hearing season, even
though House and Senate Democrats still haven't agreed to a
common set of transparency measures governing access to
legislative testimony and publication of committee votes.
The legislative hearing dockets include bills dealing with
voting access and election reforms, higher education funding
and the idea of "free" college, animal abuse, and the
unemployment benefits system ...
The wait continues for a promised remedy to rising
unemployment system costs facing businesses who have been
clamoring for the state to use federal aid to soften the
blow of unemployment trust fund solvency rate assessment
increases ...
Candidates in the wide open race for mayor of Boston have
until 5 p.m. Tuesday to get their nomination signatures in.
The preliminary election that will whittle the field to two
contenders is four months from today ....
And after last year's tax-filing deadline was pushed to
July, this year it falls on Monday, May 17, for both federal
and state tax filers ...
Monday, May 17, 2021
TAX DAY RALLY: Reps. Utyterhoeven and Connolly,
Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steve Tolman and
Massachusetts Teachers Association President Merrie Najimy
are among the speakers at a Tax Day rally calling for "a
budget that represents the needs of the people and the
planet, not the profits of wealthy individuals and
corporations."
Participating groups include Massachusetts Peace Action, 350
Massachusetts, Massachusetts Alliance of HUD Tenants,
Massachusetts Poor People's Campaign, Massachusetts Teachers
Association, Veterans for Peace/ Smedley Butler Brigade, Our
Revolution Massachusetts, Cambridge Residents Alliance, and
the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security.
Mass. Peace Action's Brian Garvey serves as emcee. (Monday,
12 p.m., outside the Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. Federal
Building, 10 Causeway St., Boston)
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, May 12, 2021
Backing Liz Cheney, Charlie Baker reiterates the
presidential election was not stolen
By Martin Finucane
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker said Wednesday that his
fellow Republican, Representative Liz Cheney, was
“absolutely right” that the presidential election was not
stolen.
“I made very clear that I felt the election process that
took place back in November was fair, and that President Joe
Biden won the election. And, on those issues, I believe Liz
Cheney is absolutely right,” said Baker.
Cheney has condemned Donald Trump’s false claim that the
election was stolen. Her refusal to stay quiet about Trump’s
election lies prompted House Republicans on Wednesday to
purge her from their leadership ranks, where she served as
House Conference Chair, the party’s third-ranking House
official.
Cheney has called her decision to publicly battle the
twice-impeached ex-president a matter of principle, warning
that allowing him to falsely claim that the election was
stolen amounted to an attack on democracy and is destructive
to the GOP and its values.
Trump’s stranglehold on the party has prompted some
Republicans to threaten to form a third party. A letter with
a number of prominent GOP signers is being prepared for
release this week.
Baker said Wednesday he hadn’t been approached about the
letter and he continued to believe in what he considered
Republican values.
“I’ve been a Republican since I was 20 years old. And I
continue to believe in what I consider to be sort of the
core values of the party,” he said at a media briefing.
“I’ve had my differences, as everybody knows, with plenty of
folks in the party over the course of the time that I’ve
been in public life. But I’m a big believer in what the
party fundamentally stands for, based on what I believe it
stands for,” he said.
He also expressed a wish for bipartisan cooperation at the
federal level, saying governors are not as partisan.
“I think in many ways, one of the things I like about
playing this role as governor, is the fact that most
governors will pick up the phone when you call them and help
you try to solve whatever problem it is you’re trying to
solve and vice versa. Because we have a lot of commonality
on that. And I think, in some ways, it’s something I wish
there was a lot more of at the federal level,” he said.
— Material from Globe wire
services was used in this report.
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