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CLT UPDATE
Sunday, August 1, 2021
"The Great Hack Heist
of 2021"
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to CLT's Commentary on the News
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Most Relevant News
Excerpts
(Full news reports follow Commentary)
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Public employees in the state who worked in-person
during the COVID-19 state of emergency would receive a
three-year bonus retirement credit under legislation
advocates pitched as a way to recognize the often-times
perilous tasks essential workers undertook during the
pandemic.
The bill (H
2808 /
S 1669), filed by Rep. Jonathan Zlotnik and Sens.
John Velis and Nick Collins, has amassed over 100
cosponsors in the Legislature and was a leading subject
of conversation at a Public Service Committee hearing
Wednesday afternoon....
Those staff members, [Scott Hennigan, a molecular
supervisor for the State Public Health Laboratory] said,
deserve the benefits included in the legislation. "While
most everybody else was sheltering in place at home, we
had to go to work. We had to face the threat of
infection," he said.
At the beginning of the pandemic, when the governor
declared a state of emergency and many businesses and
functions of life shut down, Zlotnik said residents
relied on public workers to continue to do their
jobs....
The bill is getting consideration at a time when many
are urging the Legislature to share the nearly $5
billion in American Rescue Act funds with various
interests, from essential health care workers to small
businesses that are facing big unemployment insurance
increases due to forced shutdowns.
And while there was an outpouring of support for the
bill in the first three and half hours of the hearing,
committee co-chair Rep. Ken Gordon questioned Zlotnik on
whether or not a financial or fiscal analysis had been
conducted relative to the cost that would be incurred if
the legislation was signed into law.
"The short answer is we don't have a final number as we
sit here today. We've begun to work on what I would say
[is] data collection to try and get some broad
estimates," Zlotnik said in response to Gordon's
questions. "The reality is with a proposal like this,
which is a bit different from your typical [early
retirement incentive program] that we've done many times
in the past, there's a lot more variables with this,
it's spread over a longer period of time, it affects
different people, and there's a lot of data that we
still need to gather."
State House News Service
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Retirement Credit Eyed to
Pay Back Essential Public Workers
More Than 100 Lawmakers Back Bill as Co-Sponsors
Critics say a measure to reward government workers in
Massachusetts for their service during the pandemic
could wind up costing billions of dollars and drain
state and local pension funds.
The bill, which has drawn broad support in the state
Legislature, would credit workers with three extra years
of service for their pensions when they retire if they
worked outside their home sometime between March 10 and
Dec. 31 of last year.
An aide to one of the lead sponsors, Sen. John Velis,
said he couldn't say yet how many workers would qualify
or how much the pension boost would cost. "This bill is
still in an early stage," said Gabriel Adams-Keane, the
senator's communications director and deputy legislative
director.
But Geoff Beckwith, executive director of the
Massachusetts Municipal Association, said the bill is
written so broadly that it would likely benefit a large
share of the more than 300,000 state and local workers
in Massachusetts, including some legislators.
"There is zero analysis to see how much this would
cost," Beckwith said. "There is 100% certainty that this
would be unaffordable."
Gregory Sullivan, research director for the Pioneer
Institute in Boston, estimated the change would likely
add billions of dollars to the state's pension costs
over time.
Sullivan said the exact benefit per worker would depend
on worker's salary, age, years in the system, and other
factors. But as an example, he calculated it would
likely increase University of Massachusetts system
president Marty Meehan's pension by nearly $800,000 over
his lifetime and guessed it could be worth tens of
thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars for most
other workers who qualify.
"I could understand a bonus being given to some
front-line public sector personnel in the thousands of
dollars each but not in the hundreds of thousands," said
Sullivan, a former state inspector general who now works
for the Pioneer Institute, a think tank that has raised
concerns about unfunded pension obligations in the past.
Sullivan warned the move could significantly increase
state and local pension liabilities, though he said
there weren't enough details to calculate the amount. As
of the beginning of 2019, the state's main pension fund
was 63.7% funded, while the Massachusetts teachers fund
was 51.7% funded, according to state data.
Still, more than half of state lawmakers have already
signed on to the bill, reflecting the broad desire to
help people who worked outside their homes during the
pandemic, potentially increasing their risk of catching
the coronavirus.
WBUR News
Thursday, July 22, 2021
Mass. Bill Would Boost Pensions For
Pandemic Government Workers
Critics Say It Would Cost Billions
A plan to serve up bonuses to public employees who
worked throughout the pandemic will wind up costing
taxpayers billions and further strain the state’s
already overburdened pension system, watchdogs warn.
The bill would allow workers to cash in on three extra
years of service for their pensions when they retire if
they worked — or volunteered to work — outside their
home anytime between March 10 and Dec. 31 of last year,
according to the legislation filed by state Rep.
Jonathan Zlotnik, D-Gardner, and Sen. John Velis,
D-Westfield. Sen. Nick Collins, D-Boston, filed a
companion bill in the Senate.
“Sponsors have openly stated that they do not know how
much it will cost. In my view is is outrageously
irresponsible to even consider bill like this without
knowing how much it will cost,” said Greg Sullivan,
research director for the Pioneer Institute and a former
state inspector general.
The bill is sponsored by more than 100 state
representatives and senators....
“This super expensive giveaway will be paid for on the
backs of regular working people,” Sullivan said.
Massachusetts has $43 billion in unfunded pension
obligations. State data show the system is 63% funded,
while the Massachusetts teachers fund was 51.7% funded
as of two years ago.
“This will lead to some outrageous bitter feelings from
people who work in retail stores, health-care workers in
the private industry who are all going to be paying
literally billions of dollars to give bonuses to public
employees,” Sullivan said.
The Boston Herald
Monday, July 26, 2021
Plan to boost pension payouts
for coronavirus workers
could cost Massachusetts ‘billions’
The bill, introduced by Gardner Democratic state Rep.
Jonathan Zlotnik, is officially named the COVID -19
Essential Employee Retirement Credit Bonus and "would
allow workers to cash in on three extra years of service
for their pensions when they retire if they worked — or
volunteered to work — outside their home anytime between
March 10 and Dec. 31 of last year," according to the
Boston Herald.
Rep. Zlotnik's legislation defines an "essential
employee" as "a person employed by the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts; its political subdivisions, state and
community colleges and universities under the board of
higher education and the University of Massachusetts."
Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons
denounced the proposal on Monday, calling it a "slap in
the face" to anyone who lost their job or their
livelihood due to COVID-19 emergency regulations.
"You have small businesses that got shut down, and now
you have legislators self-identifying as 'essential
workers' who work remotely 99.9 percent of the time
scheming to pad their already generous pensions," Lyons
said. "They consider themselves frontline workers. How
tone-deaf can they possibly be?"
MassGOP
Monday, July 26, 2021
News Release
Beacon Hill Dems' latest scheme:
Pension bonuses for lawmakers forced to "work" during
pandemic
Opposition is mounting on a bill that seeks to boost pension
payouts for public employees who went to work throughout the
pandemic at the expense of billions to taxpayers despite
widespread support from lawmakers on both sides of the
aisle.
The Pioneer Institute, a government watchdog, sounded the
alarm with a public statement that estimates the cost of the
“broadly” worded bill “would be in the billions of dollars.”
...
Calling the proposal “irresponsible,” Greg Sullivan, Pioneer
research director and former state inspector general, said
he’s “really surprised there hasn’t been more outrage.” ...
Critics say the bill defines “employee” as “a person
employed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts” including
“its political subdivisions” including lawmakers. It also
apparently applies to municipal employees, which Pioneer
said amounts to a “massive unfunded mandate.”
Administrators, accountants, techies, teachers, finance
officers, grant writers, trash collectors and all those paid
with public dollars are potentially in line for the benefit
— including state legislators.
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance spokesman Paul Diego Craney
echoed Pioneer’s concerns, saying lawmakers “are attempting
to boost some of their own pensions in a bill framed as
crediting essential workers that risked their health in the
earlier days of the pandemic.”
The bill has gained the signatures of more than 100
lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.
The Boston Herald
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Opposition mounts on bill to
boost pension payouts
for Massachusetts COVID public workers
Call it the Great Hack Heist of 2021.
This could be the biggest money grab ever by the
Massachusetts hackerama — and that’s saying something.
I refer to H. 2808, the bill that would enable the state’s
hundreds of thousands of payroll patriots, many of whom have
only rarely if ever gone to work for more than a year since
the Panic began, to grab an extra three years of pension
credit for enjoying their year-plus vacations with full pay.
In the Dreaded Private Sector, beginning in March 2020,
people were fired, left unemployed for months on end. They
got nothing, other than a daily lecture from the idiot
governor about their duties to take it and like it.
And if the people in the real world did get to keep their
jobs, guess what? They actually had to continue putting in
their 40 hours a week, stocking shelves, driving trucks,
fixing plumbing, etc.
No “telecommuting” for anyone who had to work with their
hands.
The hacks, on the other hand, didn’t have to show up at all,
or only occasionally. But now they are the ones who are
going to be rewarded by getting their pensions jacked up
even further.
As if their kisses in the mail weren’t already going to
dwarf anything in the private sector....
Covered are “all employees who have volunteered to work or
who have been required to work at their respective worksites
or any other worksite outside of their personal residence
during the COVID-19 state of emergency … on March 10, 2020
through Dec. 31, 2020.” ...
More significantly, what is the significance of March 10 —
the day of the official announcement of the alleged
“emergency.” Most of the workforce presumably went to their
jobs that morning before the announcement was made. It was
just another day at the office.
But the way the bill reads to me, anybody who showed up for
work on March 10 — a regular work day — now gets an
automatic three years extra credit toward their bloated
pensions.
The Boston schools, to cite one example, didn’t close until
March 15. Remember, no one even died of the virus in
Massachusetts until March 20.
And what’s the significance of Dec. 31? The “emergency” went
on until June 15.
More than half the Legislature’s 200 members have signed on
to this fiasco, including a number of Republicans. Did I
mention that legislators will also be eligible for this
unearned windfall?
Not to get too far into the weeds, but the formula for state
pensions is based on both age and years of “service.” Thus,
the bill allows the payroll Charlies the option of using
either “age or years of service or a combination thereof.”
A combination thereof! See if you can get that in a private
pension plan, however few even still exist.
What’s the state’s unfunded pension liability right now,
before this latest highway robbery? I believe it’s more than
40 billion dollars. No wonder they say they can’t afford a
sales tax holiday for the working classes. They’d prefer to
give the nonworking classes this lifetime holiday....
It’s almost as if this kind of grifting is engineered into
the hacks’ genetic code. Like the swallows returning to
Capistrano every spring, they just instinctively know how to
freeload.
Who’s going to pay for this latest crime against the
taxpayers, you ask. Got a mirror?
The Boston Herald
Thursday, July 29, 2021
Pucker up, pandemic pension kiss will leave
taxpayers feeling sick
By Howie Carr
A tax deduction for charitable donations that Massachusetts
voters approved in 2000 will not go into effect until at
least 2023 after the Senate voted Thursday to override Gov.
Charlie Baker's veto and postpone the tax break's
implementation.
The Senate's 34-6 vote, which came one day after the House
voted 124-35 in favor of the delay, pushes the start date
until Jan. 1, 2023 for the deduction designed to encourage
donations to non-profit organizations....
"While it is true that our fiscal situation has recently
improved, we are not out of the woods yet, and the
charitable deduction as currently designed may not be the
best use of our resources going forward," Senate Ways and
Means Committee Chair Michael Rodrigues said during
Thursday's session.
Voters approved the deduction in 2000 with 72 percent in
support, but it was only available for a single year before
lawmakers suspended it....
Baker and other Republicans criticized Democrats for the
vote, arguing the state's surging tax revenues and billions
in unspent federal aid eliminate the need for the additional
cushion.
"We shouldn't delay another year, not another year when
we're projecting billions of dollars in surplus and we have
non-profit organizations reporting the distress that they're
experiencing after the work that they have done that has
been so important to our collective response to the COVID-19
pandemic," Tarr, the Senate minority leader, said on the
floor.
State House News Service
Thursday, July 29, 2021
Senate Completes Override To
Delay Charitable Tax Break
Question 7 on the 2000 general election ballot in
Massachusetts asked voters if they wanted to allow
taxpayers who give to charity a state personal income
tax deduction for their charitable contributions. The
ballot question said: “A taxpayer could take a deduction
from any Part B income, including wages and salaries, of
an amount equal to his or her charitable contributions
for the year. The taxpayer would take the deduction
whether or not the taxpayer itemized deductions on his
or her federal income tax return.”
The measure passed with 72 percent voting in favor of it
while just 28 percent opposed.
On Wednesday and Thursday this past week, however, the
Massachusetts House of Representatives and the
Massachusetts Senate quashed it, taking votes to
override Governor Charlie Baker’s support for the
measure....
However, on Wednesday, July 27, the House voted 124-35
to override Baker in favor of postponing the measure.
All 30 Republicans voted against the measure while
nearly every Democrat supported it. Meanwhile, the
Senate voted 34-6 to override the veto. (It takes a
two-to-one supermajority in each chamber to override a
governor’s veto. The votes were not close.) ...
The charitable deduction is not the only tax cut that
Massachusetts state legislators have delayed for a long
time.
In 2000, the same year Massachusetts voters approved the
charitable deduction, state voters also approved a
decrease in the state income tax to 5 percent. (It was
5.9 percent at the time.) Some 59 percent supported
while 41 percent opposed.
But lawmakers decided that instead of an immediate cut
that the state income tax would drop gradually by tiny
increments — 0.05 percentage points per year — if
certain conditions were met. As a result, the income tax
didn’t fall to 5 percent until January 1, 2020 — or a
little more than 19 years after voters approved it.
The New Boston Post
Saturday, July 31, 2021
Massachusetts Lawmakers Delay 2000
Statewide Vote
On Charitable Tax Deductions Yet Again
Gov. Charlie Baker sat
down face-to-face with the House speaker and the Senate
president for the first time in over a year on Monday,
but had no more luck in person than he's had virtually
in trying to convince Democratic leaders that a
two-month sales tax holiday and rapid deployment of
federal aid are needed....
The governor said he made
a pitch to Beacon Hill's top two Democrats on his
stalled plan to spend $900 million of expected state
budget surplus on a sales tax holiday in August in
September, but it fell flat.
"Suffice it to say that I
think agree to disagree might be the best way to
describe their point of view," Baker said, when asked if
he lobbied the two Democrats standing by his side. "I
still think it's the right thing to do for the people of
Massachusetts. They worked hard. They generated a big
piece of that surplus. I think we should give some of it
back to them."
The state has a two-day
sales tax holiday scheduled for the weekend of Aug.
14-15, and it appears the longer tax holiday will die
without a debate on it in the Legislature.
"If you need shopping I'd
go on the weekend," Spilka told reporters after Monday's
meeting.
State House News Service
Monday, July 26, 2021
Baker, Dems Remain Apart on Tax
Holiday, ARPA Spending
In-Person Leadership Meeting Held At State House
Before the [summer recess] break, House and Senate leaders
dialed up roll call after roll call to override and reject
the governor's vetoes and amendments to the fiscal year 2022
budget, including one veto that would have allowed taxpayers
to again take a deduction on charitable donations....
Baker said he was "deeply disappointed" that House and
Senate Democrats opted to delay for another year the
implementation of the donations tax break voters approved in
2000. In 21 years, the benefit has been available to
taxpayers only once in 2001.
Democrats said the tax deduction, worth as much as $300
million annually, deserved further study and consideration.
But House Minority Leader Brad Jones said the decision to
delay should leave voters with no reason to trust Beacon
Hill next year when they're asked to approve a surtax on
millionaires with the promise that the money will be spent
on education and transportation.
"It doesn't mean no, just not now," said Rep. Mark Cusack,
House chair of the Committee on Revenue.
State House News Service
Friday, July 30, 2021
Weekly Roundup
Massachusetts is one of just three states, along with the
District of Columbia, still invested in launching the
cap-and-trade program knows as the Transportation and
Climate Initiative by 2023, though Connecticut and Rhode
Island have so far been unable to secure the legislative
approval required.
The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Foundation and David Chu,
vice president of the Connecticut Energy Marketers
Association, predicted Wednesday that Massachusetts would
face a shortage of 52 million gallons of fuel by 2025 in
order to keep on track to meet TCI's goal of a 30 percent
reduction in emissions by 2032.
Chu said that would require a significant decrease in travel
by Massachusetts residents, or the replacement of nearly
80,000 gas- and diesel-powered vehicles by 2025. That number
grows to 217,513 vehicles by 2026. His organization
represents gas stations and wholesale fuel distributors in
Connecticut.
Paul Craney, the spokesman for the MassFiscal Foundation and
a leading opponent of TCI, pointed to state data showing
that roughly 2,000 electric vehicles were sold last year,
when the need will actually be 2,000 per month.
"Clearly Massachusetts is not prepared for what is about to
happen if we continue with the TCI plan," Craney said.
State House News Service
Thursday, July 29, 2021
TCI Opponents Say Program Will
Cause Fuel Shortages
Critics say a regional plan to slash carbon emissions will
spur fuel shortages and long lines at the pump within two
years unless Bay Staters start trading in their gas-powered
cars for electric vehicles by the thousands.
“For TCI to achieve its environmental goals, it must limit
the supply of gasoline and diesel fuels into Massachusetts
which will result in higher costs and shortages. For the
average driver, it will look like either a very high gas tax
or no gas at the pump,” said Paul D. Craney, spokesman for
the Fiscal Alliance Foundation.
The cap-and-trade program championed by Gov. Charlie Baker
claims it will cut carbon emissions by 26% by 2032 by
capping the total pollution allowed from gasoline and
diesel-powered vehicles. Proceeds from a limited number of
permits purchased by companies who exceed their cap would
fund green transportation and climate-resilient
infrastructure.
The Boston Herald
Thursday, July 29, 2021
TCI critics warn program will spur
massive fuel shortages, long gas lines to come
Lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Baker wrapped up work in January
on a leftover from the last session: a law reducing carbon
emissions and further embracing renewable energy. Other than
that, just over two dozen mostly local bills have been
signed into law, and many bills still have not been aired at
public hearings seven months into the session.
The House and Senate, which continue to function mostly in
virtual mode, also remain deadlocked in disagreement over
public access to legislative testimony offered at hearings
and how much information people should get about how
legislators vote on the thousands of bills that are vetted
in joint legislative committees.
State House News Service
Friday, July 30, 2021
Advances - Week of Aug. 1, 2021
Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2021
INITIATIVE PETITION DEADLINE: A deadline arrives for those
hoping to bring changes to state law or the Massachusetts
constitution via 2022 or 2024 statewide votes. To have any
chance at getting their question onto the ballot in 2022,
backers must file the language of their initiative petition
and at least 10 signatures from certified registered voters
with Attorney General Maura Healey's office by the close of
business.
Healey's office will determine if the proposals are
constitutional, and the attorney general typically certifies
petitions by the first Wednesday in September.
Petitioners must then collect 80,239 voter signatures and
file them with local election officials by Nov. 17 and the
secretary of state by Dec. 1....
MassGOP Chair Jim Lyons told supporters in a July 15 email
newsletter that Republican activists are working to place
three questions on the 2022 ballot: one requiring voters to
present identification at polling places, another "keeping
critical race theory out of our public schools," and a third
that would require physicians to take "all reasonable steps"
to preserve the life of a child "born alive." ...
Voters will also be asked on the 2022 ballot whether to
implement a constitutional amendment imposing a 4 percent
surtax on personal income above $1 million, whose revenue
would be used for transportation and education, after
lawmakers advanced it in the necessary two straight
legislative sessions.
State House News Service
Friday, July 30, 2021
Advances - Week of Aug. 1,
2021
|
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
I can remember long ago
thinking that politics in Massachusetts and especially the
imperious Legislature couldn't get any worse. At one
time or another I'm sure we've all had similar thoughts. We
were wrong. For decades it has always gotten
worse, and I now expect it always will. When Barbara
Anderson was often asked how she'd become "so cynical"
toward government she always had a quick response:
"I've earned it." We all have.
The state's treasury is
bursting with historic excess revenue, $10 Billion worth:
Some $4-plus Billion in surplus tax revenue raked in over the
past year and over $5 Billion in federal "pandemic relief."
Still it is not enough to return any of it to those who
earned it and paid every cent of it: The taxpayers.
State House News Service
reported in Thursday ("Senate
Completes Override To Delay Charitable Tax Break"):
A tax deduction for charitable
donations that Massachusetts voters approved in 2000
will not go into effect until at least 2023 after the
Senate voted Thursday to override Gov. Charlie Baker's
veto and postpone the tax break's implementation.
The Senate's 34-6 vote, which came
one day after the House voted 124-35 in favor of the
delay, pushes the start date until Jan. 1, 2023 for the
deduction designed to encourage donations to non-profit
organizations....
"While it is true that our fiscal
situation has recently improved, we are not out of the
woods yet, and the charitable deduction as currently
designed may not be the best use of our resources going
forward," Senate Ways and Means Committee Chair Michael
Rodrigues said during Thursday's session.
Voters approved the deduction in
2000 with 72 percent in support, but it was only
available for a single year before lawmakers suspended
it....
Baker and other Republicans
criticized Democrats for the vote, arguing the state's
surging tax revenues and billions in unspent federal aid
eliminate the need for the additional cushion.
"We shouldn't delay another year,
not another year when we're projecting billions of
dollars in surplus and we have non-profit organizations
reporting the distress that they're experiencing after
the work that they have done that has been so important
to our collective response to the COVID-19 pandemic,"
Tarr, the Senate minority leader, said on the floor.
The New Boston Post yesterday reported ("Massachusetts
Lawmakers Delay 2000 Statewide Vote On Charitable Tax
Deductions Yet Again"):
Question 7 on the 2000 general
election ballot in Massachusetts asked voters if they
wanted to allow taxpayers who give to charity a state
personal income tax deduction for their charitable
contributions....
The measure passed with 72 percent
voting in favor of it while just 28 percent opposed.
On Wednesday and Thursday this past
week, however, the Massachusetts House of
Representatives and the Massachusetts Senate quashed it,
taking votes to override Governor Charlie Baker’s
support for the measure....
The charitable deduction is not the
only tax cut that Massachusetts state legislators have
delayed for a long time.
In 2000, the same year
Massachusetts voters approved the charitable deduction,
state voters also approved a decrease in the state
income tax to 5 percent. (It was 5.9 percent at the
time.) Some 59 percent supported while 41 percent
opposed.
But lawmakers decided that instead
of an immediate cut that the state income tax would drop
gradually by tiny increments — 0.05 percentage points
per year — if certain conditions were met. As a result,
the income tax didn’t fall to 5 percent until January 1,
2020 — or a little more than 19 years after voters
approved it.
2000 was the year imperious
legislators decided they'd had enough of uppity taxpayers
thinking they have any say on the Legislature's power to tax
oppressively, that their votes actually meant something. Two years later the
Beacon Hill cabal "froze" CLT's
ballot question's overwhelming results that ordered the
1989 "temporary" income tax hike finally rolled
back to 5% —
and the Legislature simultaneously "froze" the the
charitable deduction ballot question which also achieved
overwhelming voter support. Our income tax rollback
finally reached its targeted five percent just last year
— twenty years after the
voters' mandated it. Despite today's embarrassment of
riches overflowing the state's coffers, the charitable
deduction ballot question of twenty-one years ago is still
being ignored by most legislators, arrogantly giving
Massachusetts voters
the usual Beacon Hill Middle-Finger Salute.
Earlier in the week the State House News Service reported ("Baker,
Dems Remain Apart on Tax Holiday, ARPA Spending")
Gov.
Charlie Baker sat down face-to-face with the House
speaker and the Senate president for the first time in
over a year on Monday, but had no more luck in person
than he's had virtually in trying to convince Democratic
leaders that a two-month sales tax holiday and rapid
deployment of federal aid are needed....
The
governor said he made a pitch to Beacon Hill's top two
Democrats on his stalled plan to spend $900 million of
expected state budget surplus on a sales tax holiday in
August in September, but it fell flat.
"Suffice it to say that I think agree to disagree might
be the best way to describe their point of view," Baker
said, when asked if he lobbied the two Democrats
standing by his side. "I still think it's the right
thing to do for the people of Massachusetts. They worked
hard. They generated a big piece of that surplus. I
think we should give some of it back to them."
The
state has a two-day sales tax holiday scheduled for the
weekend of Aug. 14-15, and it appears the longer tax
holiday will die without a debate on it in the
Legislature.
"If
you need shopping I'd go on the weekend," Spilka told
reporters after Monday's meeting.
"'If you need shopping I'd
go on the weekend,' [Senate President Karen] Spilka told
reporters after Monday's meeting."
The Massachusetts Legislature
has installed its own Queen Marie Antoinette. When
told the peasants of France had no bread Marie Antoinette
reportedly whiffed, "Then let them eat cake." The
Queen's callous response was uttered soon before she and her
husband King Louis XVI were set upon by a mob of anarchists
during the French Revolution's "Reign of Terror" and
were
beheaded by guillotine.
But the magisterial Legislature
was not done sticking it to mere taxpayers, no, not yet.
They still had time on the clock before their "summer
recess" kicked in for the month of August into sometime in
September, perhaps longer.
On the way out the door for
their extended taxpayer-funded vacations, self-dealing legislators advocated
at a Public Service Committee
hearing on Wednesday for a House/Senate bill (H
2808 /
S 1669) that would increase their pensions and those of
all state and municipal government employees
by adding three years of "service" not performed.
"The bill has gained the
signatures of more than 100 lawmakers from both sides of the
aisle," The Boston Herald
reported on Tuesday, again
demonstrating that self-serving greed is not a one-party
fault, that taxpayers have few if any friends on Beacon Hill
when seats at the public trough are opened.
I'm disgusted with this
unmitigated, arrogant, shameless corruption
— even more angry and nauseated
than usual. Massachusetts government is only getting
worse by the day. There's been a fair amount of news
coverage of this blatant multi-billion dollar taxpayer
rip-off last week so I'll let you decide how much you want
to read about it, how much you want to sicken yourself.
It's being done to you —
not me — and it makes me sick
even while I won't be paying for it. I escaped
and have never been more justified for pulling that trigger
and fleeing when I did. (I have more to say about that
ultimate solution below.)
If you read nothing else, Howie
Carr's column ("Pucker up, pandemic pension
kiss will leave taxpayers feeling sick") in Thursday's
Boston Herald sums it up best. Here's an excerpt:
Call it the Great Hack Heist of
2021.
This could be the biggest money
grab ever by the Massachusetts hackerama — and that’s
saying something.
I refer to H. 2808, the bill that
would enable the state’s hundreds of thousands of
payroll patriots, many of whom have only rarely if ever
gone to work for more than a year since the Panic began,
to grab an extra three years of pension credit for
enjoying their year-plus vacations with full pay.
In the Dreaded Private Sector,
beginning in March 2020, people were fired, left
unemployed for months on end. They got nothing, other
than a daily lecture from the idiot governor about their
duties to take it and like it.
And if the people in the real world
did get to keep their jobs, guess what? They actually
had to continue putting in their 40 hours a week,
stocking shelves, driving trucks, fixing plumbing, etc.
No “telecommuting” for anyone who
had to work with their hands.
The hacks, on the other hand,
didn’t have to show up at all, or only occasionally. But
now they are the ones who are going to be rewarded by
getting their pensions jacked up even further.
As if their kisses in the mail
weren’t already going to dwarf anything in the private
sector....
Covered are “all employees who have
volunteered to work or who have been required to work at
their respective worksites or any other worksite outside
of their personal residence during the COVID-19 state of
emergency … on March 10, 2020 through Dec. 31, 2020.”
...
More significantly, what is the
significance of March 10 — the day of the official
announcement of the alleged “emergency.” Most of the
workforce presumably went to their jobs that morning
before the announcement was made. It was just another
day at the office.
But the way the bill reads to me,
anybody who showed up for work on March 10 — a regular
work day — now gets an automatic three years extra
credit toward their bloated pensions.
The Boston schools, to cite one
example, didn’t close until March 15. Remember, no one
even died of the virus in Massachusetts until March 20.
And what’s the significance of Dec.
31? The “emergency” went on until June 15.
More than half the Legislature’s
200 members have signed on to this fiasco, including a
number of Republicans. Did I mention that legislators
will also be eligible for this unearned windfall?
Not to get too far into the weeds,
but the formula for state pensions is based on both age
and years of “service.” Thus, the bill allows the
payroll Charlies the option of using either “age or
years of service or a combination thereof.”
A combination thereof! See if you
can get that in a private pension plan, however few even
still exist.
What’s the state’s unfunded pension
liability right now, before this latest highway robbery?
I believe it’s more than 40 billion dollars. No wonder
they say they can’t afford a sales tax holiday for the
working classes. They’d prefer to give the nonworking
classes this lifetime holiday....
It’s almost as if this kind of
grifting is engineered into the hacks’ genetic code.
Like the swallows returning to Capistrano every spring,
they just instinctively know how to freeload.
Who’s going to pay for this latest
crime against the taxpayers, you ask. Got a mirror?
The Ultimate Solution
In 2018, with steadily declining
financial support for Citizens for Limited Taxation even while it
was battling the Legislature's "Community
Benefit Districts" assault on Proposition 2½
(and ultimately won again),
the writing was on the wall. CLT could not continue.
There was simply not enough support, period.
In her
final days of life in 2016 I made a vow to Barbara Anderson,
my soul mate, that I would keep CLT going, especially to
defend against her greatest concern after her imminent
death: The erosion or loss of Proposition 2½ and its
effect on seniors. I promised to stay at it "for as
long as humanly possible." Two years later in 2018 I
had to face the reality that CLT couldn't go on at its
current decline of support for very much longer.
Without
the existence of CLT, its tax limitations, and with that vow
kept, there was no reason for me to remain in Massachusetts
— nor could I afford to if there was no CLT or Proposition
2½. Most of
my income, both salary and Social Security check, was going
just to pay my mortgage, property and other taxes just so I
could work some 100 hours a week 52 weeks a year to keep the
organization viable and everyone's taxes limited. It was time to plan my escape and
get on with my life, take it back.
I'd spent
the previous dozen years when I used to have spare time and
a life outside CLT restoring, upgrading, and cruising
my 22-foot sailboat, which Barbara had named "Chip Ahoy."
But I hadn't used it since the year before she passed away. I had
become
too busy doing my job and hers (and a year later, Chip
Faulkner's as well when he too died), literally working
around the clock non-stop. The sailboat had been
sitting idle alongside my house for three years, since her
health began to steadily deteriorate and I put sailing aside. It was time to
make the first necessary move in my escape plan: Sell
the beloved sailboat.
The old
saying goes "The two best days of a boat-owner's life is the day he
buys it — and the day he sells it." I can confirm that
truth, though accompanied by an understandable touch of
melancholy.
"Chip Ahoy" sold, left my place with its new owners in May,
2018
After finding and purchasing my new home in
Kentucky, upon return to Marblehead the moving project commenced
in earnest.
I decided to keep the 2001 Honda CRV that Barbara had left
to me (along with her cat); sold my 1999 Chevy Blazer with its snow plow and the
big Craftsman snowblower as I wouldn't need them where I was
going. Meanwhile the hard work began
— excavating over two decades of
accumulation, mostly CLT office records and filing cabinets,
retired old staff computers and other equipment, and just
many years of junk. I filled a huge dumpster over the next
month.
The full dumpster was removed in October, 2018
The day the dumpster was
taken away I had a POD container brought in and the boxing and
packing began, box by box packed into the POD. When the moving company arrived in
mid-November they transferred everything from the POD
into their moving truck along with all the household furniture
and remaining things that were coming along for the move.
Escaping Massachusetts —
leaving the abandoned "CLT Compound" behind.
That old saying about the two best days of a boatowner's
life is
true
for home ownership as well, I found.
Soon after my last election and
vote ever to be cast in
Massachusetts I closed on the sale of my Marblehead home on November
16, 2018. That afternoon, towing a small U-Haul
trailer that contained my entire computer system and all the critical
office equipment, my office desk and chair, my toolbox, a
sleeping bag and a few other
absolute necessities to get by until the movers arrived ten
days later, I escaped. I took one last look
back at my home for the past 22 years with all its great memories from
the end of the driveway as I drove out, then was on my way into my future,
I was actually escaping. What
an overwhelming feeling of liberation and relief
— free at last!
But I'd heard and kept hearing from so many
loyal CLT
members urging me to "don't abandon" them, telling
me that "you have
a computer and a phone and can do from wherever you are what
you've done for so long from Marblehead." I really
felt awful leaving so many longtime CLT members and
friends on their own, defenseless. I felt waves of
survivor-guilt, so bad that I finally agreed to give jumpstarting CLT
one last chance when I got settled into my new homestead, find
out if there was actually enough support to keep CLT going. If
there wasn't then my conscience would be clear
— I'd have given it every possible chance. The response was
sufficient enough to roll on. "As long as humanly
possible" apparently hadn't yet quite arrived. I was still
on the hook to my promise. I'm still undecided if that
is good or not, I wrestle with that question often.
I'm telling you this because
escape is possible. Your life does not need to be
lived The
Massachusetts Way. Relocating is not easy but it is definitely
doable, plodding along one step after another until you
finally reach liberation and economic security. The alternative, for me, was intolerable
— and unnecessary. I
think of those CLT members I left behind often during my
14-16 hour days at my desk, praying they find a way to pull
off their own escape. I am more convinced than ever
that the situation in Massachusetts will only deteriorate
more. There is nothing I can see that is going to stop
its momentum. Massachusetts politicians no longer fear
or respect the electorate, and unfortunately with good
reason.
I'm not alone. I hear
from many longtime CLT members who've left Massachusetts
— have relocated to New
Hampshire, North Carolina, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, New
Mexico, and Arizona to name a few better places. They
too all are thrilled to have made the jump
— a few still contribute to CLT
in appreciation of what it did for them for so long while
they were hostages. I am so happy when I hear from
them that they too escaped the oppressive craziness.
If every CLT member, even most or at least more, joined the diaspora and fled
the state I could retire in peace.
We can keep fighting together.
CLT has never been just its staff —
CLT's strength is its members. We can
go on if enough want CLT to continue and there is sufficient support.
I'm willing to keep up this decades-long battle along with
and for you and other
Massachusetts taxpayers if need be. The hours are ungodly, the
pay works out to less than minimum wage, but I'm still angry
at what's being done there, to you and others, and getting angrier by the day.
I suspect you are too. If I stopped reading and
learning so much about it daily, battling it every hour I'm
awake, I expect I'd
be a happier man. I'd have time to explore and find
a normal life beyond my desk and computer and
phone.
The ultimate, permanent
solution to Massachusetts oppression is to escape it, get to anywhere the incorrigible,
intransigent Massachusetts government, its corrupt politics
and insatiable politicians, hacks, and embedded special
interests can't reach and control at your expense.
Escaping to a lower cost-of-living location, almost
anywhere else in the country, is a bonus.
It can be accomplished, and once
settled into your own "sanctuary state" you'll wonder why you put
up with the abuse — and put off
the escape for so long.
|
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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State House News
Service
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
Retirement Credit Eyed to Pay Back Essential Public
Workers
More Than 100 Lawmakers Back Bill as Co-Sponsors
By Chris Van Buskirk
Public employees in the state who worked in-person
during the COVID-19 state of emergency would receive a
three-year bonus retirement credit under legislation
advocates pitched as a way to recognize the often-times
perilous tasks essential workers undertook during the
pandemic.
The bill
(H
2808 /
S 1669), filed
by Rep. Jonathan Zlotnik and Sens. John Velis and Nick
Collins, has amassed over 100 cosponsors in the
Legislature and was a leading subject of conversation at
a Public Service Committee hearing Wednesday afternoon.
At the start of the pandemic, the state was processing
COVID-19 test results before sending them off to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for official
confirmation. During that time, "we were the only show
in town," said Scott Hennigan, a molecular supervisor
for the State Public Health Laboratory.
"We were the COVID response," he said during the
hearing. "And all staff from all laboratories in the
building stepped up and came forward to go into hoods,
to do the paperwork, to work with the systems, the
computer systems, to get the results out the door within
a 24-hour period of time."
Those staff members, Hennigan said, deserve the benefits
included in the legislation. "While most everybody else
was sheltering in place at home, we had to go to work.
We had to face the threat of infection," he said.
At the beginning of the pandemic, when the governor
declared a state of emergency and many businesses and
functions of life shut down, Zlotnik said residents
relied on public workers to continue to do their jobs.
From corrections officers to public works employees and
first responders to information technology staff, the
Gardner Democrat said their work could not be done
remotely and was essential to the continued operation of
basic government functions.
"This was the time when these essential services were
most important, the people being asked to perform them
were most at risk coming into contact with members of
the public and with co-workers," Zlotnik said during the
hearing. "They continued to do their jobs, often
exhibiting flexibility and creativity and an effort to
ensure that those needs were met. It is in recognition
of that effort that we offer this bill."
The legislation directs the secretary of administration
and finance to identify all public employees who
volunteered or were required to work at job sites or
outside of their homes during the state of emergency.
The secretary would then work with departments and
subdivisions of state government to create a list of
those employees and provide it to the State Retirement
Board. The board would notify each employee who is
eligible for the credit, which would be available for
use at any time on or after the effective date of the
bill.
The bill is getting consideration at a time when many
are urging the Legislature to share the nearly $5
billion in American Rescue Act funds with various
interests, from essential health care workers to small
businesses that are facing big unemployment insurance
increases due to forced shutdowns.
And while there was an outpouring of support for the
bill in the first three and half hours of the hearing,
committee co-chair Rep. Ken Gordon questioned Zlotnik on
whether or not a financial or fiscal analysis had been
conducted relative to the cost that would be incurred if
the legislation was signed into law.
"The short answer is we don't have a final number as we
sit here today. We've begun to work on what I would say
[is] data collection to try and get some broad
estimates," Zlotnik said in response to Gordon's
questions. "The reality is with a proposal like this,
which is a bit different from your typical [early
retirement incentive program] that we've done many times
in the past, there's a lot more variables with this,
it's spread over a longer period of time, it affects
different people, and there's a lot of data that we
still need to gather."
Gordon, who said the policy behind the bill "is very
admirable," also questioned whether Zlotnik and other
filers would be open to considering placing a minimum
number of hours paid for work in an effort to further
define which public employees would be eligible for the
credit.
Zlotnik said he recognizes that many details associated
with the proposal still need to be contemplated.
"Speaking for myself and my lead sponsor, I think we're
prepared to be very flexible in working out those
details," he said. "The important part is that we
recognize those folks who made that action, and I think
that there probably will need to be some consideration,
like what you described."
Kevin Flanagan, a legislative agent for the
Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union, said
officers were faced with challenges during the pandemic
that they had never seen before. Staff frequently
contracted the virus after going into units they knew
were COVID positive, he said.
"Those staff members went in there to do their job like
they're trained to do, not knowing what the
ramifications were and a lot of times going home with
COVID and subjecting their family members to COVID," he
said. "... This retirement credit would be a
well-deserved sign of appreciation for all those that
faced this danger and put their safety aside so they
could maintain safety and security in our prison
system."
Critics say a measure to reward government workers in
Massachusetts for their service during the pandemic
could wind up costing billions of dollars and drain
state and local pension funds....
But Geoff Beckwith, executive director of the
Massachusetts Municipal Association, said the bill is
written so broadly that it would likely benefit a large
share of the more than 300,000 state and local workers
in Massachusetts, including some legislators.
"There is zero analysis to see how much this would
cost," Beckwith said. "There is 100% certainty that this
would be unaffordable."
Gregory Sullivan, research director for the Pioneer
Institute in Boston, estimated the change would likely
add billions of dollars to the state's pension costs
over time.
Sullivan said the exact benefit per worker would depend
on worker's salary, age, years in the system, and other
factors. But as an example, he calculated it would
likely increase University of Massachusetts system
president Marty Meehan's pension by nearly $800,000 over
his lifetime and guessed it could be worth tens of
thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars for most
other workers who qualify.
"I could understand a bonus being given to some
front-line public sector personnel in the thousands of
dollars each but not in the hundreds of thousands," said
Sullivan, a former state inspector general who now works
for the Pioneer Institute, a think tank that has raised
concerns about unfunded pension obligations in the past.
Sullivan warned the move could significantly increase
state and local pension liabilities, though he said
there weren't enough details to calculate the amount. As
of the beginning of 2019, the state's main pension fund
was 63.7% funded, while the Massachusetts teachers fund
was 51.7% funded, according to state data....
The bill has drawn support from a number of state and
local public employee unions, including the National
Association of Government Employees, Boston Firefighters
Local 718 and the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association.
A number of supporters praised the proposal at a hearing
Wednesday of the Joint Committee on Public Service.
George Noel, business manager of Office and Professional
Employees International Union, Local 6, testified at the
hearing that the bill would reward people who worked in
local courthouses, even when the offices were closed to
the public.
WBUR
News
Thursday, July 22, 2021
Mass. Bill Would Boost Pensions For Pandemic Government
Workers
Critics Say It Would Cost Billions
By Todd Wallack
Critics say a measure to reward government workers in
Massachusetts for their service during the pandemic
could wind up costing billions of dollars and drain
state and local pension funds.
The bill, which has drawn broad support in the state
Legislature, would credit workers with three extra years
of service for their pensions when they retire if they
worked outside their home sometime between March 10 and
Dec. 31 of last year.
An aide to one of the lead sponsors, Sen. John Velis,
said he couldn't say yet how many workers would qualify
or how much the pension boost would cost. "This bill is
still in an early stage," said Gabriel Adams-Keane, the
senator's communications director and deputy legislative
director.
But Geoff Beckwith, executive director of the
Massachusetts Municipal Association, said the bill is
written so broadly that it would likely benefit a large
share of the more than 300,000 state and local workers
in Massachusetts, including some legislators.
"There is zero analysis to see how much this would
cost," Beckwith said. "There is 100% certainty that this
would be unaffordable."
Gregory Sullivan, research director for the Pioneer
Institute in Boston, estimated the change would likely
add billions of dollars to the state's pension costs
over time.
Sullivan said the exact benefit per worker would depend
on worker's salary, age, years in the system, and other
factors. But as an example, he calculated it would
likely increase University of Massachusetts system
president Marty Meehan's pension by nearly $800,000 over
his lifetime and guessed it could be worth tens of
thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars for most
other workers who qualify.
"I could understand a bonus being given to some
front-line public sector personnel in the thousands of
dollars each but not in the hundreds of thousands," said
Sullivan, a former state inspector general who now works
for the Pioneer Institute, a think tank that has raised
concerns about unfunded pension obligations in the
past....
Still, more than half of state lawmakers have already
signed on to the bill, reflecting the broad desire to
help people who worked outside their homes during the
pandemic, potentially increasing their risk of catching
the coronavirus.
"This bill is all about recognizing the deep sacrifices
that our essential public workers made throughout the
pandemic to keep the rest of us safe," Velis, a
Westfield Democrat and one of the key sponsors, said in
a statement.
The bill has drawn support from a number of state and
local public employee unions, including the National
Association of Government Employees, Boston Firefighters
Local 718 and the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association.
A number of supporters praised the proposal at a hearing
Wednesday of the Joint Committee on Public Service.
George Noel, business manager of Office and Professional
Employees International Union, Local 6, testified at the
hearing that the bill would reward people who worked in
local courthouses, even when the offices were closed to
the public.
"These employees would receive recognition for the work
they did throughout the pandemic to keep government
services running," Noel said. "They put their health and
safety on the line, as well as that of their families."
Rep. Jonathan Zlotnik, D-Gardner, another lead sponsor
of the legislation, said his office will work with
colleagues to answer key questions about the bill, such
as how much it will cost and how it will affect state
pension obligations.
Zlotnik said it is safe to assume that the measure could
nudge some employees close to retirement age to leave
earlier, but couldn't say how many people might fall
into that category.
He testified Wednesday that the bill will reward
government workers who helped provide essential services
when almost everything else was shut down and people
knew little about COVID-19.
The Boston
Herald
Monday, July 26, 2021
Plan to boost pension payouts for coronavirus workers
could cost Massachusetts ‘billions’
By Erin Tiernan
A plan to serve up bonuses to public employees who
worked throughout the pandemic will wind up costing
taxpayers billions and further strain the state’s
already overburdened pension system, watchdogs warn.
The bill would allow workers to cash in on three extra
years of service for their pensions when they retire if
they worked — or volunteered to work — outside their
home anytime between March 10 and Dec. 31 of last year,
according to the legislation filed by state Rep.
Jonathan Zlotnik, D-Gardner, and Sen. John Velis,
D-Westfield. Sen. Nick Collins, D-Boston, filed a
companion bill in the Senate.
“Sponsors have openly stated that they do not know how
much it will cost. In my view is is outrageously
irresponsible to even consider bill like this without
knowing how much it will cost,” said Greg Sullivan,
research director for the Pioneer Institute and a former
state inspector general.
The bill is sponsored by more than 100 state
representatives and senators.
“By my estimate, it will cost the state billions,”
Sullivan continued, explaining it’s nearly impossible to
pin down the true numbers.
The bill directs the secretary of administration and
finance to identify all public employees who volunteered
or were required to work at job sites or outside of
their homes during the pandemic state of emergency.
Sullivan said that’s only one key factor in determining
the actual cost.
During a hearing last week, Zlotnik characterized the
bonus as recognition for police and corrections
officers, public works employees and others who kept
going to work as many stayed home.
“This was the time when these essential services were
most important, the people being asked to perform them
were most at risk coming into contact with members of
the public and with co-workers,” Zlotnik said during the
hearing. “They continued to do their jobs, often
exhibiting flexibility and creativity and an effort to
ensure that those needs were met. It is in recognition
of that effort that we offer this bill.”
Sullivan said he has “no objection” to rewarding those
who continued reporting for duty amid the pandemic but
said the bill could mean payouts well into the six
figures — and includes lawmakers themselves.
UMass President Marty Meehan, for example, would earn
another $750,000 through retirement, he said.
“This super expensive giveaway will be paid for on the
backs of regular working people,” Sullivan said.
Massachusetts has $43 billion in unfunded pension
obligations. State data show the system is 63% funded,
while the Massachusetts teachers fund was 51.7% funded
as of two years ago.
“This will lead to some outrageous bitter feelings from
people who work in retail stores, health-care workers in
the private industry who are all going to be paying
literally billions of dollars to give bonuses to public
employees,” Sullivan said.
MassGOP
Monday, July 26, 2021
News Release
Beacon Hill Dems' latest scheme:
Pension bonuses for lawmakers forced to "work" during
pandemic
Legislation filed by Beacon Hill Democrats seeks to add
pension bonuses to public employees who worked during
the COVID-19 pandemic, including lawmakers themselves.
The bill, introduced by Gardner Democratic state Rep.
Jonathan Zlotnik, is officially named the COVID -19
Essential Employee Retirement Credit Bonus and "would
allow workers to cash in on three extra years of service
for their pensions when they retire if they worked — or
volunteered to work — outside their home anytime between
March 10 and Dec. 31 of last year," according to the
Boston Herald.
Rep. Zlotnik's legislation defines an "essential
employee" as "a person employed by the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts; its political subdivisions, state and
community colleges and universities under the board of
higher education and the University of Massachusetts."
Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons
denounced the proposal on Monday, calling it a "slap in
the face" to anyone who lost their job or their
livelihood due to COVID-19 emergency regulations.
"You have small businesses that got shut down, and now
you have legislators self-identifying as 'essential
workers' who work remotely 99.9 percent of the time
scheming to pad their already generous pensions," Lyons
said. "They consider themselves frontline workers. How
tone-deaf can they possibly be?"
Lyons referenced the Legislature's apparent indifference
to the $7 billion in pandemic-driven unemployment claims
and refusal to use the billions of dollars received in
federal aid and tax revenue to plug the gap in the
state's unemployment fund.
Businesses, meanwhile, have seen their unemployment
insurance tax rates soar by more than twice the
pre-pandemic figure.
"Democrats like Rep. Zlotnik, who have never held a
private sector job in their lives, could not be more out
of touch if they tried," Lyons said. "We saw this before
with their personal pay raise package, and now once
again the Democratic leadership is trying to fool the
public by self-identifying as 'essential workers.'"
The Boston
Herald
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Opposition mounts on bill to boost pension payouts
for Massachusetts COVID public workers
By Erin Tiernan
Opposition is mounting on a bill that seeks to boost
pension payouts for public employees who went to work
throughout the pandemic at the expense of billions to
taxpayers despite widespread support from lawmakers on
both sides of the aisle.
The Pioneer Institute, a government watchdog, sounded
the alarm with a public statement that estimates the
cost of the “broadly” worded bill “would be in the
billions of dollars.”
The bill would let public workers cash in on three extra
years of service for their pensions when they retire if
they worked — or volunteered to work — outside their
home anytime between March 10 and Dec. 31 of last year,
according to the legislation filed by state Rep.
Jonathan Zlotnik, D-Gardner, and Sen. John Velis,
D-Westfield. Sen. Nick Collins, D-Boston, filed a
companion bill in the Senate.
But during a hearing last week, Zlotnik admitted, “We
don’t have a final number as we sit here today.”
Calling the proposal “irresponsible,” Greg Sullivan,
Pioneer research director and former state inspector
general, said he’s “really surprised there hasn’t been
more outrage.”
Zlotnik defended the bill saying his “intent with this
proposal is to explore possibilities for us to recognize
the contribution made by many public employees over the
last year, often in difficult conditions, and at the
beginning of the pandemic, without adequate PPE.”
In an email to the Herald, he said the bill is still
“very early in the process” and said cost would be a
“major determining factor” in any bonus payout to public
workers. Massachusetts pension funds are already
“woefully underfunded,” Pioneer points out.
Critics say the bill defines “employee” as “a person
employed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts” including
“its political subdivisions” including lawmakers. It
also apparently applies to municipal employees, which
Pioneer said amounts to a “massive unfunded mandate.”
Administrators, accountants, techies, teachers, finance
officers, grant writers, trash collectors and all those
paid with public dollars are potentially in line for the
benefit — including state legislators.
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance spokesman Paul Diego
Craney echoed Pioneer’s concerns, saying lawmakers “are
attempting to boost some of their own pensions in a bill
framed as crediting essential workers that risked their
health in the earlier days of the pandemic.”
The bill has gained the signatures of more than 100
lawmakers from both sides of the aisle.
Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons also
denounced the proposal on Monday, calling it a “slap in
the face” to anyone who lost their job or their
livelihood due to COVID-19 emergency regulations.
He criticized lawmakers for their lack of action on
unemployment insurance tax rate increases caused by the
pandemic with “legislators self-identifying as
‘essential workers’ who work remotely 99.9% of the time
scheming to pad their already generous pensions.”
“They consider themselves front-line workers. How
tone-deaf can they possibly be?” Lyons asked.
The Boston
Herald
Thursday, July 29, 2021
Pucker up, pandemic pension kiss will leave taxpayers
feeling sick
By Howie Carr
Call it the Great Hack Heist of 2021.
This could be the biggest money grab ever by the
Massachusetts hackerama — and that’s saying something.
I refer to H. 2808, the bill that would enable the
state’s hundreds of thousands of payroll patriots, many
of whom have only rarely if ever gone to work for more
than a year since the Panic began, to grab an extra
three years of pension credit for enjoying their
year-plus vacations with full pay.
In the Dreaded Private Sector, beginning in March 2020,
people were fired, left unemployed for months on end.
They got nothing, other than a daily lecture from the
idiot governor about their duties to take it and like
it.
And if the people in the real world did get to keep
their jobs, guess what? They actually had to continue
putting in their 40 hours a week, stocking shelves,
driving trucks, fixing plumbing, etc.
No “telecommuting” for anyone who had to work with their
hands.
The hacks, on the other hand, didn’t have to show up at
all, or only occasionally. But now they are the ones who
are going to be rewarded by getting their pensions
jacked up even further.
As if their kisses in the mail weren’t already going to
dwarf anything in the private sector.
This payroll patriot payoff is called, with
unintentional irony, “the “Essential Employee Retirement
Credit Bonus.”
Essential employees indeed. They were gone for a year
and nobody missed most of them, unless you had to renew
your driver’s license or file some necessary legal
documents.
The state and local workers are all quite essential,
right up to the moment the snow flurries begin drifting
down, in which case, they all take the next week off.
Covered are “all employees who have volunteered to work
or who have been required to work at their respective
worksites or any other worksite outside of their
personal residence during the COVID-19 state of
emergency … on March 10, 2020 through Dec. 31, 2020.”
Where to begin? How about with hacks “volunteering?”
Maybe to take a slide, or go on a doughnut or beer run,
but that’s about it.
More significantly, what is the significance of March 10
— the day of the official announcement of the alleged
“emergency.” Most of the workforce presumably went to
their jobs that morning before the announcement was
made. It was just another day at the office.
But the way the bill reads to me, anybody who showed up
for work on March 10 — a regular work day — now gets an
automatic three years extra credit toward their bloated
pensions.
The Boston schools, to cite one example, didn’t close
until March 15. Remember, no one even died of the virus
in Massachusetts until March 20.
And what’s the significance of Dec. 31? The “emergency”
went on until June 15.
More than half the Legislature’s 200 members have signed
on to this fiasco, including a number of Republicans.
Did I mention that legislators will also be eligible for
this unearned windfall?
Not to get too far into the weeds, but the formula for
state pensions is based on both age and years of
“service.” Thus, the bill allows the payroll Charlies
the option of using either “age or years of service or a
combination thereof.”
A combination thereof! See if you can get that in a
private pension plan, however few even still exist.
What’s the state’s unfunded pension liability right now,
before this latest highway robbery? I believe it’s more
than 40 billion dollars. No wonder they say they can’t
afford a sales tax holiday for the working classes.
They’d prefer to give the nonworking classes this
lifetime holiday.
Greg Sullivan, the former state rep and inspector
general who now works for the Pioneer Institute, did
some calculations on the projected pension increase for
lifetime coat holder Marty Meehan, now the
$660,000-a-year president of ZooMass.
Marty’s kiss from H. 2808? Almost another $800,000 over
the course of his lifetime. (And Marty was already
looking at 80% of 660K — more than a half-million a
year.)
Once again, here in the hackerama, history is repeating
itself. Back in the 1930s, there was a hack thing called
“snow buttons.” If there was a blizzard, in the cities
you could go to your local ward heeler to get a day’s
work shoveling out the roads, or the streetcar lines.
The local politician — Tip O’Neill in Cambridge, or
Edward “Knocko” McCormack or John E. Kerrigan in Southie
— would give out “snow buttons,” which you’d turn in for
$4 cash. Not much, but it was the Depression.
Decades later, some hack filed legislation similar to H.
2808. If you could prove you’d had any public employment
before 1940, you could get your entire state or city
pension contribution refunded and still collect your
full kiss in the mail.
In the 1970s, at least one wrinkly hack tried to grab a
refund of a lifetime of pension contributions for a
single pre-1940 $4 “snow button.” For days now, I’ve
been calling around, trying to find somebody who could
remember this ancient hack’s name. No luck.
The point is, 99% of the current hacks have no living
memory of snow buttons, yet they (or their unions) have
now recreated a perfect replica of it, only this new one
is going to cost a million times more money.
It’s almost as if this kind of grifting is engineered
into the hacks’ genetic code. Like the swallows
returning to Capistrano every spring, they just
instinctively know how to freeload.
Who’s going to pay for this latest crime against the
taxpayers, you ask. Got a mirror?
Listen to Howie Carr’s show every weekday on AM 680 WRKO
from 3 to 7 p.m.
State House News
Service
Thursday, July 29, 2021
Senate Completes Override To Delay Charitable Tax Break
By Chris Lisinski
A tax deduction for charitable donations that
Massachusetts voters approved in 2000 will not go into
effect until at least 2023 after the Senate voted
Thursday to override Gov. Charlie Baker's veto and
postpone the tax break's implementation.
The Senate's 34-6 vote, which came one day after the
House voted 124-35 in favor of the delay, pushes the
start date until Jan. 1, 2023 for the deduction designed
to encourage donations to non-profit organizations.
Sens. Diana DiZoglio of Methuen, Marc Pacheco of Taunton
and Walter Timilty of Milton, all Democrats, sided with
Baker and voted to allow the deduction to begin this
year, as did the chamber's three Republicans, Sens. Ryan
Fattman, Patrick O'Connor and Bruce Tarr.
After years of delays tied to various economic triggers,
the deduction was set to return to action in 2021, but
lawmakers have twice now postponed it. The deduction
would be worth an estimated $64 million in the current
budget and $300 million annually in subsequent years,
and Democrat legislative leaders said they did not want
to risk losing that state revenue amid the specter of a
COVID-19 resurgence.
"While it is true that our fiscal situation has recently
improved, we are not out of the woods yet, and the
charitable deduction as currently designed may not be
the best use of our resources going forward," Senate
Ways and Means Committee Chair Michael Rodrigues said
during Thursday's session.
Voters approved the deduction in 2000 with 72 percent in
support, but it was only available for a single year
before lawmakers suspended it. Non-profit leaders and
other supporters of the deduction hoped to see it return
in 2022 to spark a flurry of giving and buoy their
financial outlooks after significant strain during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Baker and other Republicans criticized Democrats for the
vote, arguing the state's surging tax revenues and
billions in unspent federal aid eliminate the need for
the additional cushion.
"We shouldn't delay another year, not another year when
we're projecting billions of dollars in surplus and we
have non-profit organizations reporting the distress
that they're experiencing after the work that they have
done that has been so important to our collective
response to the COVID-19 pandemic," Tarr, the Senate
minority leader, said on the floor.
The New Boston
Post
Saturday, July 31, 2021
Massachusetts Lawmakers Delay 2000 Statewide Vote
On Charitable Tax Deductions Yet Again
By Tom Joyce
The voters of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
overwhelmingly went for it in 2000.
It still hasn’t been enacted.
And the Democratic supermajority on Beacon Hill just
delayed it once again.
Question 7 on the 2000 general election ballot in
Massachusetts asked voters if they wanted to allow
taxpayers who give to charity a state personal income
tax deduction for their charitable contributions. The
ballot question said: “A taxpayer could take a deduction
from any Part B income, including wages and salaries, of
an amount equal to his or her charitable contributions
for the year. The taxpayer would take the deduction
whether or not the taxpayer itemized deductions on his
or her federal income tax return.”
The measure passed with 72 percent voting in favor of it
while just 28 percent opposed.
On Wednesday and Thursday this past week, however, the
Massachusetts House of Representatives and the
Massachusetts Senate quashed it, taking votes to
override Governor Charlie Baker’s support for the
measure.
On July 19, Governor Baker vetoed a portion of the state
budget bill for fiscal year 2022 (which began July 1) on
the grounds that the budget should include a deduction
for taxpayers for charitable contributions.
Massachusetts is getting significant funds from the
federal government in coronavirus stimulus, and the
governor noted that the state budget is well in the
black with no need to tap its rainy day fund.
“I am vetoing this section because it is unnecessary to
further delay the charitable tax deduction where the
Commonwealth’s fiscal situation has improved materially
in recent months, and the Commonwealth is on track to
close Fiscal Year 2021 with no transfer out of the
Stabilization Fund,” Baker wrote in his veto message of
July 19.
However, on Wednesday, July 27, the House voted 124-35
to override Baker in favor of postponing the measure.
All 30 Republicans voted against the measure while
nearly every Democrat supported it. Meanwhile, the
Senate voted 34-6 to override the veto. (It takes a
two-to-one supermajority in each chamber to override a
governor’s veto. The votes were not close.)
Three Senate Democrats joined their three Republican
colleagues in opposing the delay: state senators Marc
Pacheco (D-Taunton), Walter Timilty (D-Milton), and
Diana DiZoglio (D-Methuen).
In the House, state representatives Nika Elugardo
(D-Jamaica Plain), Christopher Markey (D-Dartmouth),
Joan Meschino (D-Hull), and David Robertson
(D-Tewksbury) voted against the delay, as did Susannah
Whipps (U-Athol), an independent who caucuses with the
Democrats.
Of the 42 U.S. states that have a state income tax, 11
don’t allow for a charitable deduction, according to
U.S. Charitable Gift Trust.
Massachusetts Republican Party chairman Jim Lyons
expressed frustration with the state Legislature’s
override vote in a press release on Thursday afternoon.
“There are few things that Massachusetts Democrats love
more than spending other people’s money and flouting the
will of the taxpaying voter,” Lyons said in the written
statement. “Their actions not only hurt Massachusetts
taxpayers, but also the local charities that stood over
the years to receive their donations. More than two
decades ago, voters approved charitable tax deductions,
but the Democrats will use any maneuver they can to
nullify the outcome of that vote.”
Lyons noted the delay is now in its third decade.
“The Democrats’ stubborn 21-year refusal to recognize
and accept the results of an election is a stain on the
commonwealth,” Lyons said.
Paul Craney, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal
Alliance, also criticized state legislators.
“In 2000, 75% of the voters of Massachusetts
overwhelmingly voted in support of a ballot question
that allows taxpayers to save a little money when they
make charitable contributions. 21 years later, and the
MA legislature has refused to enact the will of the
voters,” Craney told NewBostonPost in an email message
Thursday. “Yesterday and today, Speaker Ron Mariano and
Senate President Karen Spilka voted to once again reject
the will of the voters, which would only save taxpayers
a little extra money and help struggling charities.
These legislative leaders are so removed from reality,
they think they can do whatever they want.”
The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation projects that the
measure would decrease Bay Staters’ tax burden by $64
million per year if it were enacted.
It’s that loss in revenue that concerns some lawmakers
on Beacon Hill.
“While it is true that our fiscal situation has recently
improved, we are not out of the woods yet, and the
charitable deduction as currently designed may not be
the best use of our resources going forward,” said state
Senator Michael Rodrigues (D-Westport), chairman of the
Senate Ways and Means Committee, during Thursday’s
session, according to State House News Service.
While Lyons and Craney want the charity deduction now,
they have an ally on the other side of the aisle: The
Boston Globe‘s left-leaning editorial board.
“Many programs run by nonprofits that deal with domestic
violence, mental health, and substance abuse also found
greater support in this year’s budget,” the Globe
editorial board wrote on Thursday, July 22, about a week
before the override votes. “But nonprofits have always
depended on a combination of resources, and reinstating
the charitable deduction would help keep the private tap
flowing. The Legislature can do its part by letting the
governor’s well-timed veto of yet another year-long
delay stand.”
The charitable deduction is not the only tax cut that
Massachusetts state legislators have delayed for a long
time.
In 2000, the same year Massachusetts voters approved the
charitable deduction, state voters also approved a
decrease in the state income tax to 5 percent. (It was
5.9 percent at the time.) Some 59 percent supported
while 41 percent opposed.
But lawmakers decided that instead of an immediate cut
that the state income tax would drop gradually by tiny
increments — 0.05 percentage points per year — if
certain conditions were met. As a result, the income tax
didn’t fall to 5 percent until January 1, 2020 — or a
little more than 19 years after voters approved it.
The original bill stretching out the periodic income tax
reductions called for implementing the charitable
deduction after the income tax hit 5 percent. That means
the charitable deduction was on schedule to take effect
on January 1, 2021, as the Globe editorial points out.
However, lawmakers postponed the charitable deduction in
the state’s fiscal year 2021 budget and have now done so
once again for fiscal year 2022.
If it’s not delayed again, the charitable deduction will
take effect on January 1, 2023.
State House News
Service
Monday, July 26, 2021
Baker, Dems Remain Apart on Tax Holiday, ARPA Spending
In-Person Leadership Meeting Held At State House
By Matt Murphy
Gov. Charlie Baker sat down face-to-face with the House
speaker and the Senate president for the first time in
over a year on Monday, but had no more luck in person
than he's had virtually in trying to convince Democratic
leaders that a two-month sales tax holiday and rapid
deployment of federal aid are needed.
Baker, Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen
Spilka gathered in the Senate Reading Room for over an
hour, discussing Baker's push for more urgency to begin
spending American Rescue Plan Act funding, the recent
rise in COVID-19 infections, and mask-wearing for
children.
The governor said he made a pitch to Beacon Hill's top
two Democrats on his stalled plan to spend $900 million
of expected state budget surplus on a sales tax holiday
in August in September, but it fell flat.
"Suffice it to say that I think agree to disagree might
be the best way to describe their point of view," Baker
said, when asked if he lobbied the two Democrats
standing by his side. "I still think it's the right
thing to do for the people of Massachusetts. They worked
hard. They generated a big piece of that surplus. I
think we should give some of it back to them."
The state has a two-day sales tax holiday scheduled for
the weekend of Aug. 14-15, and it appears the longer tax
holiday will die without a debate on it in the
Legislature.
"If you need shopping I'd go on the weekend," Spilka
told reporters after Monday's meeting.
The meeting came almost a week after Baker testified
before multiple committees exploring how best to spend
nearly $5 billion in remaining ARPA funding controlled
by the state. The governor and members of his Cabinet
have been pushing for rapid deployment of $2.9 billion
for housing, environmental infrastructure and job
training investments, but legislative leaders have made
clear they prefer a more deliberative approach.
"I think it's going very well," Spilka said about an
ARPA process featuring a lengthy slate of public
hearings.
Rep. Aaron Michlewitz and Sen. Michael Rodrigues, the
chairs of the House and Senate Ways and Means
committees, announced Monday they planned to hold at
least five more hearings this year, including one on
Tuesday at 11 a.m. focused on housing, labor and
workforce development issues and four more after Labor
Day.
"The experts all talked about the wisdom in waiting, I
think, most of them, and the reasons to wait. We have
years," Spilka added, referring to some who testified
that adding stimulus to an overheated economy might lead
to inflation.
ARPA funds don't have to be allocated until 2024 or
spent until 2026, but Baker said he heard some of those
same experts testify that there were areas where money
could be used immediately and effectively.
The governor specifically mentioned housing projects
that will take years to be designed, permitted and
built, and he pointed to the stormwater runoff from the
heavy rains in July as a reason to act quickly to fund
new culverts and dams.
"I think some of this stuff needs to happen sooner
rather than later," Baker said.
During an interview on Baystate Business last Thursday,
Mariano was asked about the timing of spending ARPA
funds and told Bloomberg radio: "This federal money that
we have now, we have until 2024 to allocate it and we
have until 2026 to spend it. So I don't know where the
governor gets his sense of urgency from. I think that
it's better spent that we identify projects that are
important, that are based on need and shovel-ready
projects, and we get that from the [House] members who
know their districts better than anyone."
With COVID-19 cases on the rise and the State House
still not open to the public, the elected officials and
members of the media all wore mask to the press
conference held in a room adjacent to the Senate
chamber.
Baker said he and other governors are waiting from more
guidance from the Biden administration and the Centers
for Disease Control on whether to recommend the
resumption of mask-wearing, particularly in schools this
fall for children under 12. He plans to participate in a
call with the White House on Tuesday.
Mariano said he thought it made sense to wait for more
specific guidance from the CDC before deciding on masks
in schools, while Spilka said if the number of
infections continues to rise and the Delta variant
remains prevalent the state would "seriously need to
think about having children who have not been vaccinated
-- whether they be under 12 [and] not able to be
vaccinated yet or older but not vaccinated -- to wear a
mask."
A vaccine for children under 12 will not be ready until
at least the fall, according to experts, but Baker said
the state continues to try to vaccinate adults who have
not yet gotten their shots, and on Monday the state drew
the first winners of the VaxMillions Lottery.
Once a week for five weeks, VaxMillions will select one
entrant age 18 and older to win $1 million and one
entrant between the ages of 12 and 17 to win a $300,000
scholarship grant. Nearly 2 million vaccinated adults
and 134,885 residents ages 12 to 17 registered in time
for the first drawing, and Baker said the winners were
being vetted and would be announced on Thursday.
None of the three leaders discussed sport betting during
their post-meeting press conference, but after the House
last week approve legislation to legalizing betting on
college sports, Spilka told the News Service a bill may
come up in the Senate in the fall, though she did not
commit to making sure that happened.
Mariano has also said betting on college sports must be
included in any final package, while Spilka said she was
"not terribly fond of it, because I think it will change
thew way college does their sports."
"I think it will change the feeling. We'll see what
happens. Everything will be on the table, clearly, when
we discuss it," Spilka said.
Asked about President Joe Biden's nomination of Suffolk
County District Attorney Rachael Rollins to become the
next U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, Baker said he
reached out Monday morning to congratulate her.
The governor said his administration would set up a
process to choose Rollins's successor, should she be
confirmed, just as it has done with past vacancies, and
would be happy to talk with anyone Rollins recommends
for her job.
"We've got time to figure out what we do next," Baker
said, noting the U.S. Senate will be on recess until
September.
Baker's appointee would get to serve until the next
statewide election in 2022 when Rollins' term is set to
expire. The governor's administration has not always
agreed with Rollins' approach to the job, which has
favored seeking diversion or dismissal for many
low-level, non-violent crimes.
Baker said the qualities he would be looking for in a
replacement include "experience, intelligence and some
degree support from the community."
"That's generally been the way we've done this when
we've made these appointments," Baker said.
State House News
Service
Thursday, July 29, 2021
TCI Opponents Say Program Will Cause Fuel Shortages
By Matt Murphy
[Story Developing] Opponents of the regional effort to
wring carbon emission reductions from cars, trucks and
other forms of transportation predicted Thursday that
Massachusetts residents could face fuel shortages as
soon as 2025 unless the state can dramatically scale up
the transition to electric vehicles.
Massachusetts is one of just three states, along with
the District of Columbia, still invested in launching
the cap-and-trade program knows as the Transportation
and Climate Initiative by 2023, though Connecticut and
Rhode Island have so far been unable to secure the
legislative approval required.
The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Foundation and David
Chu, vice president of the Connecticut Energy Marketers
Association, predicted Wednesday that Massachusetts
would face a shortage of 52 million gallons of fuel by
2025 in order to keep on track to meet TCI's goal of a
30 percent reduction in emissions by 2032.
Chu said that would require a significant decrease in
travel by Massachusetts residents, or the replacement of
nearly 80,000 gas- and diesel-powered vehicles by 2025.
That number grows to 217,513 vehicles by 2026. His
organization represents gas stations and wholesale fuel
distributors in Connecticut.
Paul Craney, the spokesman for the MassFiscal Foundation
and a leading opponent of TCI, pointed to state data
showing that roughly 2,000 electric vehicles were sold
last year, when the need will actually be 2,000 per
month.
"Clearly Massachusetts is not prepared for what is about
to happen if we continue with the TCI plan," Craney
said.
Proponents of TCI, including the Baker administration,
argue the cap-and-trade program would generate hundreds
of millions of dollars for Massachusetts that could be
invested in clean energy programs that will help drive
down emissions.
Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Kathleen
Theoharides has said the state would look to invest in
electrification of public transit, charging corridors
for electric vehicles, more electric buses, ways to make
it easier to walk and bike, and telecommuting
infrastructure for more rural areas.
The Boston
Herald
Thursday, July 29, 2021
TCI critics warn program will spur massive fuel
shortages, long gas lines to come
By Erin Tiernan
Critics say a regional plan to slash carbon emissions
will spur fuel shortages and long lines at the pump
within two years unless Bay Staters start trading in
their gas-powered cars for electric vehicles by the
thousands.
“For TCI to achieve its environmental goals, it must
limit the supply of gasoline and diesel fuels into
Massachusetts which will result in higher costs and
shortages. For the average driver, it will look like
either a very high gas tax or no gas at the pump,” said
Paul D. Craney, spokesman for the Fiscal Alliance
Foundation.
The cap-and-trade program championed by Gov. Charlie
Baker claims it will cut carbon emissions by 26% by 2032
by capping the total pollution allowed from gasoline and
diesel-powered vehicles. Proceeds from a limited number
of permits purchased by companies who exceed their cap
would fund green transportation and climate-resilient
infrastructure.
It’s designed to speed up the transition from
fossil-fuel-reliant transportation to greener
alternatives like electric cars and buses.
To reach those goals, David Chu, vice president of the
Connecticut Energy Marketers Association, predicted
Massachusetts would have to reduce fuel usage by 52
million gallons by 2025. That translates to 80,000 fewer
gas-powered cars on the road — vehicles that will either
have to go electric or go without gas.
“Everyone knows about the shortages caused by COVID.
There were toilet paper, cleaning supplies, people
rushed to the stores, the shelves were empty, prices
spiked and people couldn’t find the product anymore.
That is the kind of thing we’re predicting for TCI if
the slack in the amount of fuel that can be sold isn’t
offset by increases in (electric vehicle) sales,” Chu
said.
In 2020, just 2,000 electric vehicles were sold in
Massachusetts, according to Mass Fiscal. To avoid gas
shortages by 2025, the state will need to be selling
2,000 each month beginning in July.
But Craney said it’s an expanding problem that will
leave drivers wanting more at the pump.
— Herald wire services
contributed to this report.
State House News
Service
Friday, July 30, 2021
Weekly Roundup - From Biogen To Provincetown
Recap and analysis of the week in state government
By Matt Murphy
It's the exact situation public health officials had
been hoping to avoid, after spending months begging
people to get vaccinated so that they could go back to
living life normally.
The backslide.
The spread of the Delta variant and new research into
breakthrough infections in Provincetown prompted the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue
updated guidance Tuesday recommending that even the
fully vaccinated resume wearing masks in indoor public
spaces in areas of "high" or "substantial" COVID-19
transmission.
In Massachusetts -- ground zero for the pandemic once
again -- that meant Cape Cod and the islands, as well as
all of Suffolk and Bristol counties.
"We're looking into it," Baker would say repeatedly
throughout the week, back in the position of being
grilled daily on whether he would order Massachusetts
residents to go back under cover of masks.
The push-and-pull only got stronger as the week wore on,
and finally on Friday the Department of Public Health
and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
issued new recommendations for vaccinated residents.
Masks are now being recommended by DPH in public indoor
spaces, though not necessarily at home, for both the
unvaccinated and the vaccinated who have weakened immune
systems or who live with someone unvaccinated or with
health conditions that put them at higher risk from the
virus. Education officials also advised that all
students grades K-6 wear masks indoors this fall, while
vaccinated students in grades 7 and up should be allowed
to go maskless. The unvaccinated, including staff in all
grades, students in grades 7 and above, and unvaccinated
visitors are being advised by health officials to mask
inside schools.
Baker's guidance seemed to split the difference between
people like Geoff Diehl, the former Republican lawmaker
running for governor, who urged against a return to mask
mandates and Rep. William Driscoll, co-chair of the
Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness
Management, who said Baker should give direction that
"meets or exceeds" the CDC's recommendations.
But for some in the Legislature, like Sen. Becca Rausch
and Rep. Mindy Domb, the guidance did not go nearly far
enough to protect students preparing to return to school
in a month.
All of this came as the Baker administration continued
to impress upon people that the best way to protect
yourself is by getting vaccinated.
Enter Darrell Washington, a 63-year-old Blue Cross Blue
Shield case worker from Weymouth.
Clad in a T-shirt, suit and sunglasses (indoors),
Washington became the first winner of the VaxMillions
sweepstakes, presented by the governor and Treasurer Deb
Goldberg with a giant check worth $1 million before
taxes simply because he rolled up his sleeve, got a
couple shots, and had his name drawn from a hat.
"I think that people should really just probably turn
off like a lot of people on TV, and just really ask
yourself, 'Is your child, is your spouse, if your
grandparents, are they worth you getting the
vaccination?'" Washington said.
The other winner of the first $300,000 college
scholarship was 15-year-old Chelsea High School
sophomore Daniela Maldonado, who said she got vaccinated
to help protect her community, and now sees Boston
University or the University of Massachusetts as
something within her grasp.
The next drawing takes place on Monday, by which point
lawmakers on Beacon Hill will be several days into their
summer recess.
Before the [summer recess] break, House and Senate
leaders dialed up roll call after roll call to override
and reject the governor's vetoes and amendments to the
fiscal year 2022 budget, including one veto that would
have allowed taxpayers to again take a deduction on
charitable donations.
The Legislature also extended simulcast and horse racing
laws for another year before they expired on Saturday,
and held a second hearing on how to spend American
Rescue Plan Act funds as they work to schedule four more
hearings after Labor Day.
Baker said he was "deeply disappointed" that House and
Senate Democrats opted to delay for another year the
implementation of the donations tax break voters
approved in 2000. In 21 years, the benefit has been
available to taxpayers only once in 2001.
Democrats said the tax deduction, worth as much as $300
million annually, deserved further study and
consideration. But House Minority Leader Brad Jones said
the decision to delay should leave voters with no reason
to trust Beacon Hill next year when they're asked to
approve a surtax on millionaires with the promise that
the money will be spent on education and transportation.
"It doesn't mean no, just not now," said Rep. Mark
Cusack, House chair of the Committee on Revenue.
Whether Baker will use the tax deduction as a campaign
issue remains to be seen because, of course, the
governor hasn't said whether he'll seek a third term.
But with Baker approaching the final year of his second
term in office and the worst (fingers crossed) of the
pandemic behind the administration, Public Safety
Secretary Tom Turco finally cashed in on the retirement
he's been planning since last year.
Turco agreed in December to stay on into 2021, but now
gives way to Undersecretary for Law Enforcement Terrence
Reidy, who the governor named acting secretary of public
safety on Friday.
While Reidy gained the acting title this week,
Transportation Secretary Jamey Tesler shed it when Baker
put him permanently in charge of the transportation
bureaucracy. The governor also signed a spending bill
that created a new MBTA oversight board and extended
voting-by-mail and early voting options through
mid-December to apply to upcoming municipal elections.
Baker never looked too far to find people to take over
for the short- or long-term at the departments of public
safety and transportation, but the scrutiny of who he
picks next to lead the Suffolk District Attorney's
office could be a different story -- unless Sen. Tom
Cotton gets his way.
President Joe Biden this week tapped Suffolk DA Rachael
Rollins to be the next U.S. attorney for Massachusetts,
which would put a criminal justice reformer in the
federal prosecutor's office and leave it to Baker to
name her successor until the 2022 election.
Baker congratulated Rollins and said he'd listen to
recommendations she might have as he looks for someone
with "experience, intelligence and some degree of
support from the community" to replace her.
The more immediate question, however, is can she get
confirmed with Cotton, an Arkansas Republican, vowing to
do what he can to block her nomination in the U.S.
Senate.
STORY OF THE WEEK: The choice used to be between a mask
and a vaccine. Now you might need both.
State House News
Service
Friday, July 30, 2021
Advances - Week of Aug. 1, 2021
The last remaining eviction moratorium is coming down on
Sunday, COVID-19 cases are going up despite widespread
vaccinations, and the Legislature is headed for summer
recess with one year remaining for formal sessions
before the 2022 election cycle.
Lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Baker wrapped up work in
January on a leftover from the last session: a law
reducing carbon emissions and further embracing
renewable energy. Other than that, just over two dozen
mostly local bills have been signed into law, and many
bills still have not been aired at public hearings seven
months into the session.
The House and Senate, which continue to function mostly
in virtual mode, also remain deadlocked in disagreement
over public access to legislative testimony offered at
hearings and how much information people should get
about how legislators vote on the thousands of bills
that are vetted in joint legislative committees.
That spat is quietly unfolding with the leader of the
House negotiating team, Majority Leader Claire Cronin of
Easton, poised to leave the Legislature soon to become
U.S. Ambassador to Ireland.
Next week anyone frustrated with the bills the
Legislature is not passing will have a chance to do
something about it. By Wednesday at 5 p.m., people with
initiative petition proposals that they would like to
advance to the 2022 ballot must file their proposed
language in order to have any shot at success.
Legislative leaders have sketched out a fall agenda that
will feature redistricting legislation and possibly
major voting reform and sports wagering bills.
They still have not said when they plan to begin
allocating about $4.8 billion in available federal
funds, and lawmakers at some point soon will need to
decide how to allocate a substantial fiscal 2021 budget
surplus.
On the political front and with more immediacy, the
field of candidates for mayor of Boston will be narrowed
to two in 47 days. Mayoral elections, where mail-in and
early voting are now an option thanks to a just-signed
bill, are the main focus this fall.
Looking ahead to 2022, Baker is either shortening the
time he'll spend as a candidate for reelection or the
time he'll spend as a lame duck governor. The governor
and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, along with three other
statewide officeholders, have not yet said if they plan
to run again.
Attorney General Maura Healey plans to announce in the
fall if she'll run for governor, a decision that could
hinge on Baker's decision. Treasurer Deb Goldberg, who
was close to running for Congress in 2020, hasn't
disclosed her political plans and Secretary of State
William Galvin has sounded like a reelection candidate
but has not made it official.
Storylines in Progress
Days after the federal eviction moratorium is set to
end, lawmakers will take testimony on eviction-related
bills on Tuesday ...
Living With COVID-19
On May 28, Gov. Charlie Baker declared COVID-19 "on the
run in a big way" with vaccinations rising, cases
falling and the state on track to lift its state of
emergency, which occurred on June 15. He also said that
"unless something very odd happens I would say that it
is pretty much over but ... I would put an asterisk on
anything that says it's over."
The Delta variant appears to be that asterisk as
infections are on the rise again, the government is
urging people to again mask up indoors under certain
circumstances, and people who have been vaccinated are
both getting the virus and spreading it. A major silver
lining: vaccines have reduced serious illnesses and
deaths. The big storylines on the horizon: efforts to
convince more unvaccinated people to change their minds,
progress toward potential approval for a vaccine for
those under age 12, and gearing up for returns to
in-person work and school with a virus landscape that
keeps shifting.
Saturday, July 31, 2021
EVICTION MORATORIUM LIFTS: A federal eviction moratorium
expires on Saturday, and with a congressional extension
still beyond reach, housing advocates warn that
Massachusetts and other states may face for a deluge of
housing removal cases.
President Joe Biden on Thursday asked Congress to keep
the temporary ban in place for another month, though
according to a New York Times report, any such attempt
could be blocked by a single dissenting vote in the
Senate.
The Baker administration has provided tenants and
landlords with about $280 million in rental assistance
since it allowed a similar moratorium at the state level
to expire in October, and Gov. Charlie Baker said Friday
he believes the eviction diversion effort has "worked
very well."
Housing justice activists continue to push for action in
Massachusetts on legislation that would impose a
temporary pause on evictions and foreclosures for a full
12 months following the state of emergency, which Baker
lifted on June 15. Democratic legislative leaders have
not made an effort to reimpose a state moratorium.
(Saturday, July 31)
Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2021
INITIATIVE PETITION
DEADLINE: A deadline arrives for those hoping to bring
changes to state law or the Massachusetts constitution
via 2022 or 2024 statewide votes. To have any chance at
getting their question onto the ballot in 2022, backers
must file the language of their initiative petition and
at least 10 signatures from certified registered voters
with Attorney General Maura Healey's office by the close
of business.
Healey's office will determine if the proposals are
constitutional, and the attorney general typically
certifies petitions by the first Wednesday in September.
Petitioners must then collect 80,239 voter signatures
and file them with local election officials by Nov. 17
and the secretary of state by Dec. 1.
Once officials validate that enough signatures have been
collected, an initiative petition goes to the
Legislature, who can enact it, propose an amended
version, or take no action. If the Legislature does not
act on the original version by May 4, 2022, petitioners
will need to collect another 13,374 signatures and
submit them to local elections officials by June 22,
2022.
Proposed laws that clear that full process successfully
will make the 2022 ballot, while proposed constitutional
amendments would not go before voters until 2024.
Healey's office on Friday listed four ballot initiatives
filed ahead of the deadline: a constitutional amendment
declaring that corporations are not people and
empowering state lawmakers to regulate political
spending; a law making it a felony "to target another's
ability to make a living due to postings on social media
and or other media platforms"; a ban on smoking in
multi-living housing units; and an overhaul of the
state's alcohol sale laws to allow more licenses for
beer and wine sales, limit how many can allow the sale
of all spirits, ban alcohol sales at self-checkouts, and
allow sellers to rely upon out-of-state IDs.
https://www.mass.gov/info-details/ballot-initiatives-filed-for-the-2022-biennial-statewide-election-proposed-laws-and-2024-biennial-statewide-election-proposed-constitutional-amendments
The alcohol question is backed by the Massachusetts
Package Store Association, whose executive director,
Robert Mellion, described it as an "olive branch" toward
Cumberland Farms and other food stores who have been
pushing to remove limits on how many alcohol licenses a
single retailer can hold. Cumberland Farms and the
company's allies withdrew a proposed ballot question in
June 2020, less than five months before it would have
gone before voters, and said they would seek an
initiative petition in 2022, but they have yet to
confirm if they will resurface the proposal or file a
new version.
MassGOP Chair Jim Lyons told supporters in a July 15
email newsletter that Republican activists are working
to place three questions on the 2022 ballot: one
requiring voters to present identification at polling
places, another "keeping critical race theory out of our
public schools," and a third that would require
physicians to take "all reasonable steps" to preserve
the life of a child "born alive."
Republican lawmakers unsuccessfully pushed last year to
include similar language in an abortion access law known
as the ROE Act.
Organizers have launched campaign finance accounts
already for the voter ID campaign and for the
abortion-related campaign, and the party said
representatives from those two committees filed their
paperwork with the AG's office Friday.
A coalition of gig-economy power players and other
business interest groups may also be weighing a ballot
question as it seeks to enshrine in state law that
drivers for app-based platforms such as Uber and Lyft
are independent contractors, not employees, while
extending some additional benefits to them.
Voters will also be asked on the 2022 ballot whether to
implement a constitutional amendment imposing a 4
percent surtax on personal income above $1 million,
whose revenue would be used for transportation and
education, after lawmakers advanced it in the necessary
two straight legislative sessions.
Healey's office advised campaigns that a representative
will be available to accept walk-in filings on the 20th
floor of One Ashburton Place in Boston until 5 p.m.
(Wednesday, 5 p.m.)
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