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Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945
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“Every Tax is a Pay Cut ... A Tax Cut is a Pay Raise”
47 years as “The Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers”
— and
their Institutional Memory — |
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CLT UPDATE
Monday, December 20, 2021
A Dysfunctional
Legislature With Egg On Its Face
Jump directly
to CLT's Commentary on the News
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Most Relevant News
Excerpts
(Full news reports follow Commentary)
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The House gave initial
approval to a bill that would allow cities and towns
to create a water bank or sewer bank to offset the
cost of new and upgraded water infrastructure
projects [H-2152].
Communities would also be allowed to assess a fee on
the project developer to offset the cost of the
projects....
"I'm always concerned,
even suspect, when the open-ended term 'may collect
a reasonable fee' appears in a bill,” said Chip
Ford, executive director of Citizens for
Limited Taxation. “What may be reasonable to one
may not be to another. What is the basis for this
proposed 'reasonable fee' and how is that
calculated, by whom, based on what?"
Beacon
Hill Roll Call
December 13-17, 2021
Allow Cities and Towns to Establish
a Water Bank or Sewer Bank (H-2152)
By Bob Katzen
Gov. Charlie Baker on
Monday signed into law a $4 billion spending bill,
while vetoing several commissions that he worried
would slow down the process of distributing the
money.
“The pandemic has had a
significant impact on Massachusetts workers,
families, communities, and businesses for nearly two
years, and today’s signing directs billions of
dollars in relief toward those hardest hit across
the Commonwealth,” Baker said in a statement. “While
this package falls far short of the investment I
called for to address the housing shortage, the
important investments included in this bill will
help to accelerate Massachusetts’ economic recovery
and provide long-lasting benefits to infrastructure,
healthcare, education systems, and small
businesses.” While Baker had proposed spending $1
billion on housing, the final bill spends around
$600 million.
The massive spending
bill incorporates up to $2.55 billion in spending
from the federal American Rescue Plan Act and $1.45
billion in state surplus, with huge amounts of money
going toward housing, health care, workforce
development, infrastructure, and education to help
the state recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. It
includes $500 million for the unemployment insurance
trust fund, which paid out large sums in benefits
during the COVID pandemic.
The governor signed
into law virtually all the spending portions of the
bill, including more than $300 million in local
earmarks. The sections he vetoed or returned with
amendments were primarily focused on administration
and oversight....
Overall, Baker made
only a small number of changes. He vetoed language
in seven other line items which he said would slow
down the distribution of funds. He eliminated
required reports related to homeownership
assistance, affordable housing preservation,
agricultural-related grants, and an HVAC grant
program in public schools. He also rejected a line
that would increase a cap on conservation-related
grants....
What ability lawmakers
have to override Baker’s veto is complicated this
year. It takes a two-thirds roll call vote of
members to override a gubernatorial veto. Lawmakers
are scheduled to only meet in informal sessions
through the end of the year, during which they
cannot take roll call votes. Budget bills, unlike
other bills, expire at the end of the first year of
the two-year legislative session, which will be
midnight January 4, 2022.
If Baker returned a
section with an amendment, lawmakers can vote on
amendments during informal sessions. In areas that
Baker vetoed, an aide to the governor has said Baker
believes the items will expire January 4, unless
lawmakers vote to suspend their own rules. But House
and Senate aides have said the Legislature does not
agree that the bill dies at the end of the first
year, since its appropriations are not tied to a
particular fiscal year. They are operating under the
assumption that lawmakers can return in January to
override Baker’s vetoes.
Commonwealth Magazine
Monday, December 13, 2021
Baker signs $4b ARPA bill with
slight tweaks
Accepts earmarks, vetoes red tape provisions
When the state
Legislature hopefully gives the green light to the
egg bill in an informal session by the end of the
year, the yolk will still be on Massachusetts
taxpayers.
While the House and
Senate have already voted in favor of changes to a
2016 voter-approved law setting more humane
conditions for egg-laying hens, a six-member
conference committee has not reached agreement on a
handful of details in the bill.
The committee’s had the
bill since mid-October....
This legislation
shouldn’t be a sprint to the finish, and Gov. Baker
shouldn’t have to flash the lights and announce last
call....
And then there’s
Massachusetts.
This year so far, the
Legislature filed 13,454 bills — we’re second in the
country after New York.
We enacted 55.
In terms of percentage
of bills passed to number introduced, that’s 0.41%.
Dead last in the
country....
But the Massachusetts
taxpayer still foots the bill for all those
legislative salaries and committee stipends and
robust pensions.
Last-minute voting,
holding up bills despite voter support and a
last-in-the-nation standing for enacting legislation
— this is very “Beacon Hill-esque.”
And that’s not a good
thing.
A Boston
Herald editorial
Friday, December 17, 2021
Glacial Legislature now sprints
to make deadline
Lawmakers gaveled out
for the weekend without a deal to update the law
governing treatment of hens and pigs that produce
eggs and pork, and Attorney General Maura Healey is
poised to enforce the new law in just more than two
weeks if legislative compromise remains out of
reach.
A six-member conference
committee still has not reached an agreement since
being tasked in October with resolving differences
in the House and Senate bills (H 4194 / S 2481) to
make changes to a 2016 voter law, and talks did not
produce an accord before both branches adjourned
Thursday.
The soonest that the
Legislature will be able to send a bill to Gov.
Charlie Baker is Monday, 12 days before the
scheduled start of new limits on animal enclosures
that industry leaders say could make eggs and pork
products exceedingly hard to find because they would
be non-compliant.
With some shoppers
already stockpiling eggs and bacon, Baker said
Thursday that he has spoken to House Speaker Ronald
Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka to stress
the urgency of the issue.
"The estimates that are
out there is that first of all, for most people, you
just won't be able to access eggs at all and if you
can, it's anticipated the price point on those will
be up 40 percent or more," Baker told reporters
after a State House event. "That just won't be an
issue for people in the stores, that'll be an issue
for restaurants and for other food establishments.
If you think about how hard life has been for
everybody who pays their bills based on their work
in restaurants, I think the last thing we should do
is make it even more complicated for them." ...
The Humane Farming
Association sued Healey in January, alleging that
she disregarded her legal obligation in the
voter-approved law to promulgate the new regulations
by Jan. 1, 2020.
Healey's office said
the AG initially waited to begin drafting
regulations because of the chance that lawmakers
could update the statute amid changes in the
industry. A spokesperson said the attorney general
and HFA eventually agreed to stay the group's
complaint pending completion of the regulatory
process.
The Legislature never
acted on her request last session, which also
gestured at ongoing shifts in the industry now
driving concerns about an imminent shortage in eggs
and pork products....
Baker said he remains
hopeful that lawmakers can overcome their
differences and send him a compromise by the end of
December to avert upheaval.
"Both the speaker and
the Senate President told me they get the fact that
this is an important issue and one that they need to
resolve," he said. "I'm hoping and anticipating that
I'll be signing legislation on this by the end of
the year."
State
House News Service
Thursday, December 16, 2021
Egg, Pork Concerns
Linger As Lawmakers Break Without Deal
House and Senate
negotiators announced Sunday night that they reached
consensus on legislation making key changes to a
2016 voter-approved animal welfare law set to take
effect in the new year, a step that should stave off
looming shortages of eggs and pork products.
Sen. Jason Lewis and
Rep. Carolyn Dykema, who chaired a six-person
conference committee convened in October to design
an accord, said in a joint statement they found
agreement on "compromise language to ensure a stable
and affordable egg and pork supply in the
Commonwealth that honors the will of the voters."
...
Lawmakers could accept
the compromise legislation and send it to Gov.
Charlie Baker as soon as Monday, when both branches
are in session.
The measure will need
to earn unanimous support because the House and
Senate are meeting in informal sessions, where a
single objection can stall any bill, during their
holiday season recess.
State
House News Service
Sunday, December 19, 2021
Negotiators Say Accord Ensures
Stable Egg, Pork Supply
Deal On Animal Welfare Law May Quickly Move To Baker
From a messaging
standpoint, there's something fitting about the new
COVID-19 variant sounding like a villain from
Transformers. Because omicron is changing the game.
The state hit the
one-year mark this week from the day the first dose
of COVID-19 vaccine went into an arm, and since then
more than 5 million people have been fully
vaccinated, and another 1.7 million have been
boosted. And yet, cases are surging.
Top doctors warned that
omicron has the potential to fuel a major spike in
new cases as December turns into January, including
breakthroughs, but expressed optimism that vaccines
will still be effective in preventing serious
illness.
"We should probably
separate the concept of case rates and
hospitalization and death rates because we might be
in a situation where there's discordance between
those," said Dr. Dan Barouch, director of Beth
Israel Deaconess Medical Center's Center for
Virology & Vaccine Research.
Not exactly the "new
normal" people might have had in mind....
Gov. Charlie Baker said
people should be wearing masks, but he's not at the
point where he wants to mandate it statewide, to the
frustration of mask advocates and some lawmakers
like Sen. Jo Comerford who called the governor's
position "irresponsible." ...
Thursday's oversight
hearing wasn't all glum news, though. [Massachusetts
Health and Hospital Association CEO Steve Walsh]
said the hundreds of millions of dollars in ARPA
funding set aside for distressed hospitals would
make a "tremendous difference" for providers looking
to staff up on nurses and rebound from two long
years of the pandemic.
That funding became
finalized on Monday when Gov. Baker signed the bulk
of the ARPA and fiscal 2021 surplus spending bill
that contained $4 billion for health care, housing,
infrastructure, economic development and local
public health.
The governor, however,
vetoed some sections of the bill that he said would
delay his ability to move the money out the door to
its intended targets. This "red tape," as he called
it, included the 28-member advisory panel that was
supposed to help his administration craft a plan for
$500 million in bonus pay for low-income essential
workers who were on the job during the state of
emergency.
Given how the
Legislature wrested control over the allocation of
the ARPA funding from the governor at the start of
the process, there's almost something karmic about
Baker seizing control of the bonus-pay fund now. If
the Legislature doesn't override the veto in
January, Baker said he's confident checks will be in
the mail before the March 31 deadline.
Speaking of deadlines,
the Dec. 15 expiration date of COVID-19 voting
reforms such as voting-by-mail came and went this
week without action in the Legislature. That was
pretty much expected given how House Speaker Ron
Mariano has stated that no elections on the calendar
will be affected in the coming months by the lapse,
though Secretary of State William Galvin pointed to
a few local races that will....
The more pressing issue
as lawmakers enter Christmas week is striking a deal
to reform the 2016 animal cruelty ballot law that
sets cage standards for egg-laying hens and pigs.
Without adjustments to the law, eggs and pork
products could become scarce in the new year as
producers fall out of compliance with Massachusetts
laws, which have become an outlier nationwide.
The House and Senate
are in agreement on adjustments for hen confinement,
but haven't been able to agree on whether to delay
the rules for pigs. And the egg timer is winding
down.
"Everyone is already
paying too much at the grocery store and not
addressing this egg supply issue will further drive
up costs. I urge lawmakers to reach consensus soon
before these rules go into effect in January," Baker
tweeted.
State
House News Service
Friday, December 17, 2021
Weekly Roundup - Evasive
Maneuvers
Legislators on Tuesday
take the first steps in their fiscal 2023 budget
journey but there's a more pressing matter on Beacon
Hill's frontburner that dates back to 2016 and might
affect what's on your breakfast plate in two weeks.
The Legislature has had nearly five years to come up
with changes to a voter law governing more humane
standards for the treatment of hens and pigs that
produce eggs and pork products, but they haven't
come to an agreement.
Analysts say the food
staples are on a course to start being wiped from
the shelves in the new year if the voter law kicks
in as scheduled on Jan. 1, rendering most current
products non-compliant with the 2016 law....
The fiscal 2023 budget
process launches on Tuesday. Before Gov. Charlie
Baker files his last annual spending plan in
January, economic forecasters who completely failed
to predict how strong the state's tax collections
would be during the pandemic will return to offer
their new forecasts.
The annual revenue
forecasting hearing arrives at a time when inflation
is at historically high levels and the economy is
running hot enough that interest rate hikes are back
on the table.
Legislative Democrats
are pushing to amend the Constitution next year to
allow a significant new income tax on the
highest-earning households, but revenues have so far
not been a problem during the pandemic as the state
economy and tax collections have remained solid and
one-time federal funds have poured in.
State
House News Service
Friday, December 17, 2021
Advances - Week of Dec. 19, 2021
The state is dead last
again — this time with unemployment insurance tax
rates paid by businesses giving the old
“Taxachusetts” label new life.
This means businesses —
small and large — face the highest unemployment
insurance tax when they let an employee go. It also
could scare away others from setting up shop here,
experts say.
Massachusetts once had
the highest unemployment rate, at 16.1%, in July of
last year. It’s now edged back to 5.4% — still low,
but not as bad as California’s 6.9% mark.
Now the UI insurance is
a big factor.
The highest
Massachusetts rate, 18.55%, is tops in the country
by far, with Maryland placing a distant second with
a maximum rate of 13.5%, the D.C.-based Tax
Foundation reports.
“The Tax Foundation
report shows that under the current leadership at
the State House, Massachusetts is not just
disadvantaged compared to New Hampshire and other
New England states, but we are now sitting dead last
in the entire country for how our state treats
businesses on the UI tax,” said Paul Diego Craney,
spokesman for the Mass Fiscal Alliance....
An employee laid off or
let go for just about any reason can collect
unemployment with the past employer picking up the
UI tab....
Also, weekly maximum
benefit amounts, claims volumes, and taxable wage
base vary state-to-state. For example, Maryland’s
maximum weekly benefit rate is $430 whereas
Massachusetts’ is $974, 126.5% higher than Maryland.
This summer, Gov.
Charlie Baker also proposed spending $1 billion of
the Commonwealth’s surplus tax revenue to stabilize
the UI Trust Fund, a priority of the employer
community. The Legislature ultimately included $500
million for the UI Trust Fund in the final ARPA
bill.
The
Boston Herald
Friday, December 17, 2021
Soaring unemployment insurance
fees
giving old ‘Taxachusetts’ label a comeback
By Joe Dwinell
“The Tax Foundation
report shows that under the current leadership at
the Statehouse, Massachusetts is not just
disadvantaged compared to New Hampshire and other
New England states, but we are now sitting dead last
in the entire country for how our state treats
businesses on the unemployment insurance tax.”
—
Paul Craney, spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal
Alliance on a report that the Bay State’s maximum
18.55 percent tax rate is the highest rate in the
entire nation.
Beacon
Hill Roll Call
December 13-17, 2021
Quotable Quotes
By Bob Katzen
Eric P. Lesser, a
four-term state senator and Obama White House alum,
is seriously weighing a run for lieutenant governor
next year, according to people who’ve spoken with
the Longmeadow Democrat.
The potential entrance
of Lesser, 36, would expand an already crowded
Democratic field in the race to be the No. 2
official in state government and running mate for
the party’s gubernatorial nominee in 2022. Lesser
has been discussing a would-be campaign with allies
and party insiders in recent days, and is “gauging
reactions to the idea,” said David Axelrod, a former
senior adviser and strategist for Barack Obama....
First elected in 2014,
Lesser has cut a growing profile in the Senate,
where he has chaired the Legislature’s committee on
economic development and helped shepherd a sweeping
economic stimulus and housing package into law early
this year and a $1 billion package in 2018....
“He has a track record
on economic development, which to me is a central
issue,” said Steve Grossman, the former state
treasurer and gubernatorial candidate with whom
Lesser has discussed a potential campaign. Grossman,
a former chairman for the Democratic National
Committee, said he would back Lesser should he enter
the race.
The
Boston Globe
Wednesday, December 8, 2021
Eric Lesser, a state senator and
Obama alum,
is considering campaign for lieutenant governor
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Merry Christmas, Happy New
Year, and Happy Holidays to all. Another year is about to
close out, pushing Citizens for Limited Taxation into its 48th
year as "The Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers
— and their Institutional Memory" if we make it through just
another two weeks.
As you know my schedule
and life was disrupted since last Saturday due to a too-close call
with a devastating tornado here in Bowling Green, KY. My relatively minor disruption
miraculously paled in comparison to that of nearby neighbors only a few
blocks away, about a quarter-mile from my house where the tornado's
path turned everything in its track to rubble. Since the power
and an internet connection were restored I've been scrambling to
catch up with that lost time, but at least I have an unscathed house
with a roof over my head to work from.
In catching up from being
otherwise distracted it appears I didn't miss anything that happened
on Beacon Hill of any consequence. Nothing much happened,
which overall pretty much sums up the 2021 session for "The Best Legislature
Money Can Buy."
Legislators can't get
anything across a finish line and done —
and I suppose that's good news for taxpayers —
but they keep proposing more and more bills that hopefully won't get
passed into law either. It seems just filing more and more
crazier and crazier bills somehow justifies "full-time" legislators'
obscene compensation and pensions at taxpayers' expense.
One such bill was brought
to my attention late last week,
H-2152, "An Act
providing for the establishment of sustainable water resource
funds." This is another of those
attempts becoming increasingly popular with legislators to pick more
pockets to raise additional revenue to provide something state
government historically has provided using general revenue that now
is being redirected and squandered on new "priorities."
I was called and asked by Beacon Hill Roll Call
to read it over and provide my reaction:
"I'm always concerned,
even suspect, when the open-ended term 'may collect
a reasonable fee' appears in a bill,” said Chip
Ford, executive director of Citizens for
Limited Taxation. “What may be reasonable to one
may not be to another. What is the basis for this
proposed 'reasonable fee' and how is that
calculated, by whom, based on what?"
We're not alone in
noticing this expansive trend that's becoming more embedded by the
day. In its
editorial on Friday ("Glacial
Legislature now sprints to make deadline") The Boston Herald
noted:
When the state Legislature
hopefully gives the green light to the egg bill
in an informal session by the end of the year,
the yolk will still be on Massachusetts
taxpayers.
While the House and Senate
have already voted in favor of changes to a 2016
voter-approved law setting more humane
conditions for egg-laying hens, a six-member
conference committee has not reached agreement
on a handful of details in the bill.
The committee’s had the
bill since mid-October....
This legislation shouldn’t
be a sprint to the finish, and Gov. Baker
shouldn’t have to flash the lights and announce
last call....
And then there’s
Massachusetts.
This year so far, the
Legislature filed 13,454 bills — we’re second in
the country after New York.
We enacted 55.
In terms of percentage of
bills passed to number introduced, that’s 0.41%.
Dead last in the
country....
But the Massachusetts
taxpayer still foots the bill for all those
legislative salaries and committee stipends and
robust pensions.
Last-minute voting, holding
up bills despite voter support and a
last-in-the-nation standing for enacting
legislation — this is very “Beacon Hill-esque.”
And that’s not a good
thing.
Even Gov. Baker recognizes
the sloth and indifference demonstrated by the Legislature.
Commonwealth Magazine reported last Monday ("Baker signs $4b ARPA bill with
slight tweaks —
Accepts earmarks, vetoes red tape provisions"):
Gov. Charlie Baker on
Monday signed into law a $4 billion spending bill,
while vetoing several commissions that he worried
would slow down the process of distributing the
money....
The governor signed
into law virtually all the spending portions of the
bill, including more than $300 million in local
earmarks. The sections he vetoed or returned with
amendments were primarily focused on administration
and oversight....
Overall, Baker made
only a small number of changes. He vetoed language
in seven other line items which he said would slow
down the distribution of funds. He eliminated
required reports related to homeownership
assistance, affordable housing preservation,
agricultural-related grants, and an HVAC grant
program in public schools. He also rejected a line
that would increase a cap on conservation-related
grants....
What ability lawmakers
have to override Baker’s veto is complicated this
year. It takes a two-thirds roll call vote of
members to override a gubernatorial veto. Lawmakers
are scheduled to only meet in informal sessions
through the end of the year, during which they
cannot take roll call votes. Budget bills, unlike
other bills, expire at the end of the first year of
the two-year legislative session, which will be
midnight January 4, 2022.
The State House News Service in its
Weekly Roundup on Friday noted:
. . . The
governor, however, vetoed some sections of the bill that he said
would delay his ability to move the money out the door to its
intended targets. This "red tape," as he called it, included the
28-member advisory panel that was supposed to help his
administration craft a plan for $500 million in bonus pay for
low-income essential workers who were on the job during the
state of emergency.
Given how the
Legislature wrested control over the allocation of the ARPA
funding from the governor at the start of the process, there's
almost something karmic about Baker seizing control of the
bonus-pay fund now....
Because this CLT Update
has been delayed I can report that the Legislature seems to finally
have gotten around to saving everyone's bacon
— and eggs — in its typical
eleventh-hour high-wire deadline performance. In breaking news
the State House News is reporting:
Branches Agree To Animal
Welfare Law Changes
[Coverage Developing] The
House and Senate on Monday backed a compromise
to overhaul a voter-approved animal welfare law
as the lead Senate negotiator declared the delay
of pork industry regulations is a one-time deal.
With the threat of egg and
pork product shortages looming in the new year,
the House and Senate both accepted a conference
committee report (S 2603) changing key sections
of a law voters approved in 2016 before it takes
effect Jan. 1.
The measure could reach
Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday after each branch
takes additional procedural votes.
Both the House and Senate
had previously agreed to changes to key
components of the egg-laying hen section of the
law to align it with changes in industry
practices that have become common since 2016,
but they were split over whether to postpone the
start of a ban on the sale of pork products from
cruelly confined pigs.
Sen. Jason Lewis said the
trio of Senate conferees "very reluctantly
agreed" to a seven-and-a-half month delay, down
from the full year the House originally
approved.
"I want the pork industry
to know in no uncertain terms that there will be
no further extensions for them in
Massachusetts," Lewis said Monday from the
Senate floor. "They must come into compliance
with Massachusetts law, overwhelmingly approved
by our voters back in 2016, if they wish to
continue selling their products to our
consumers." —
Chris Lisinski
In its
Advances - Week of Dec. 19, 2021
the State House News Service reported on Friday:
. . . The
fiscal 2023 budget process launches on Tuesday. Before Gov.
Charlie Baker files his last annual spending plan in January,
economic forecasters who completely failed to predict how strong
the state's tax collections would be during the pandemic will
return to offer their new forecasts.
The annual
revenue forecasting hearing arrives at a time when inflation is
at historically high levels and the economy is running hot
enough that interest rate hikes are back on the table.
Legislative
Democrats are pushing to amend the Constitution next year to
allow a significant new income tax on the highest-earning
households, but revenues have so far not been a problem during
the pandemic as the state economy and tax collections have
remained solid and one-time federal funds have poured in....
This annual
dog-and-pony show is notable only in the number of
times the economist "experts" have been wrong.
The only suspense to come out of this hearing will
be, by how much will they be wrong this time?
This will become the infamous new "benchmark" upon
which the next fiscal year's budget will be based
— their best guess of
total revenue estimated to be collected from all
sources in the coming fiscal year beginning next
July. You can see how far off this "benchmark"
was last year in the
latest Department of Revenue News Release last
month:
. . . FY2022
year-to-date collections totaled approximately $13.612 billion,
which is $2.145 billion or 18.7% more than collections in the
same period of FY2021, and $914 million or 7.2% more than
year-to-date benchmark....
Along with the number of bills filed
that actually become law (see above), Massachusetts holds another
record of being dead last of any state in the nation.
The Boston Herald's Joe Dwinell reported on Friday
("Soaring unemployment insurance fees giving old
‘Taxachusetts’ label a comeback"):
The state is
dead last again — this time with unemployment insurance tax
rates paid by businesses giving the old “Taxachusetts” label new
life.
This means
businesses — small and large — face the highest unemployment
insurance tax when they let an employee go. It also could scare
away others from setting up shop here, experts say....
Now the UI
insurance is a big factor.
The highest
Massachusetts rate, 18.55%, is tops in the country by far, with
Maryland placing a distant second with a maximum rate of 13.5%,
the D.C.-based Tax Foundation reports.
“The Tax
Foundation report shows that under the current leadership at the
State House, Massachusetts is not just disadvantaged compared to
New Hampshire and other New England states, but we are now
sitting dead last in the entire country for how our state treats
businesses on the UI tax,” said Paul Diego Craney, spokesman for
the Mass Fiscal Alliance....
An employee
laid off or let go for just about any reason can collect
unemployment with the past employer picking up the UI tab....
Also, weekly
maximum benefit amounts, claims volumes, and taxable wage base
vary state-to-state. For example, Maryland’s maximum weekly
benefit rate is $430 whereas Massachusetts’ is $974, 126.5%
higher than Maryland.
This summer,
Gov. Charlie Baker also proposed spending $1 billion of the
Commonwealth’s surplus tax revenue to stabilize the UI Trust
Fund, a priority of the employer community. The Legislature
ultimately included $500 million for the UI Trust Fund in the
final ARPA bill.
In a case of Good News
— Bad News —
Best News, The Boston Globe has reported that
state Senator Eric Lesser (D-Longmeadow) may run for lieutenant
governor. Lesser has been the
leading attack dog trying to take down Proposition 2½
for years. The Good News is that if he runs for Lt. Gov. he'll
need to give up his senate seat. The Bad News is, he might win
and actually become the next lieutenant governor. The Best
News is Lesser might give up his senate seat to run for Lt. Gov.
— and lose!
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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Beacon Hill Roll
Call
Volume 46 - Report No. 51
December 13-17, 2021
Allow Cities and Towns to Establish a Water Bank or Sewer
Bank (H-2152)
By Bob Katzen
The House gave initial approval to a bill that would allow
cities and towns to create a water bank or sewer bank to
offset the cost of new and upgraded water infrastructure
projects. Communities would also be allowed to assess a fee
on the project developer to offset the cost of the projects.
“When a new business or development joins an existing
municipal system or water district, the cost burden of
installation, connection and expansion of related wastewater
and stormwater resources falls on the supplier, rather than
the developer,” said sponsor Rep. Carolyn Dykema
(D-Holliston). “This legislation would allow municipalities
or water authorities to assess a reasonable, proportionate
fee which would then be designated for direct and ancillary
water costs, ensuring that cities and towns are easily able
to accommodate growth.”
“Well-functioning water infrastructure is critical to public
health, economic growth and environmental protection,"
continued Dykema. "This legislation will give cities and
towns another tool to help fund the increasing cost of
maintaining their crucial water systems.”
"I'm always concerned, even suspect, when the open-ended
term 'may collect a reasonable fee' appears in a bill,” said
Chip Ford, executive director of Citizens for
Limited Taxation. “What may be reasonable to one may not
be to another. What is the basis for this proposed
'reasonable fee'and how is that calculated, by whom, based
on what?"
Commonwealth
Magazine
Monday, December 13, 2021
Baker signs $4b ARPA bill with slight tweaks
Accepts earmarks, vetoes red tape provisions
By Shira Schoenberg
Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday signed into law a $4 billion
spending bill, while vetoing several commissions that he
worried would slow down the process of distributing the
money.
“The pandemic has had a significant impact on Massachusetts
workers, families, communities, and businesses for nearly
two years, and today’s signing directs billions of dollars
in relief toward those hardest hit across the Commonwealth,”
Baker said in a statement. “While this package falls far
short of the investment I called for to address the housing
shortage, the important investments included in this bill
will help to accelerate Massachusetts’ economic recovery and
provide long-lasting benefits to infrastructure, healthcare,
education systems, and small businesses.” While Baker had
proposed spending $1 billion on housing, the final bill
spends around $600 million.
The massive spending bill incorporates up to $2.55 billion
in spending from the federal American Rescue Plan Act and
$1.45 billion in state surplus, with huge amounts of money
going toward housing, health care, workforce development,
infrastructure, and education to help the state recover from
the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes $500 million for the
unemployment insurance trust fund, which paid out large sums
in benefits during the COVID pandemic.
The governor signed into law virtually all the spending
portions of the bill, including more than $300 million in
local earmarks. The sections he vetoed or returned with
amendments were primarily focused on administration and
oversight.
Lawmakers passed a $500 million premium pay program for
low-income essential workers who worked in person during the
pandemic. Baker agreed to spend the money but vetoed a
section that would have established a 28-member advisory
panel to make recommendations on designing the program.
Baker wrote in his veto letter that under the language of
the bill, no one is empowered to call the first meeting of
the panel, no chairs are named, and no deadlines apply to
the panel. Yet the Office of Administration and Finance is
required to design the program and pay eligible recipients
by March 31, 2022. Baker wrote that he wants his
administration to have the flexibility to design the program
and begin distributing the money, and the panel “is
virtually guaranteed to significantly hinder disbursement of
the funds.”
House Speaker Ron Mariano said in a statement that it is
important to note that Baker also vetoed the March 31
deadline for the pandemic pay program. “We have requested a
timeline from the Administration on when they would be able
to get the money out to essential workers so we can make an
informed decision,” Mariano said.
Baker similarly returned with an amendment a section that
would have created a $198 million Behavioral Health Trust
Fund with a 20-member advisory commission to administer it
and use the money to identify and address barriers to
obtaining behavioral health care. Baker wrote in his
amendment that he supports the creation of the trust fund
and its goals, including a focus on workforce development.
But, as drafted, the bill would create a “lengthy,
bureaucratic process” that would delay the delivery of
funding, he said.
Baker said he would support a commission that is advisory,
rather than requiring its recommendations be part of an
appropriations process, and it should include the
commissioners of public health and mental health. Baker did
allow the full $400 million for behavioral health care
spending in the bill to become law, but the transfer to the
proposed behavioral health trust fund may be stuck in limbo
until lawmakers act on his amendment.
Overall, Baker made only a small number of changes. He
vetoed language in seven other line items which he said
would slow down the distribution of funds. He eliminated
required reports related to homeownership assistance,
affordable housing preservation, agricultural-related
grants, and an HVAC grant program in public schools. He also
rejected a line that would increase a cap on
conservation-related grants.
An aide to Senate President Karen Spilka said she is still
reviewing Baker’s filings. But Spilka said in a statement
that she is particularly proud of the $400 million
allocation for mental and behavioral health care. “The
nearly $4 billion in investments the Legislature has made
with this round of American Rescue Plan Act and Fiscal Year
2021 surplus funds will support the Commonwealth’s recovery
and ensure we do not go back to normal but ‘back to
better,’” Spilka said. “These funds help provide a path
towards an equitable recovery that benefits residents,
businesses, and communities through transformational
investments in public health, health care, housing,
workforce development, and climate preparedness.”
Mariano said the House will be discussing what Baker sent
back with the Senate.
What ability lawmakers have to override Baker’s veto is
complicated this year. It takes a two-thirds roll call vote
of members to override a gubernatorial veto. Lawmakers are
scheduled to only meet in informal sessions through the end
of the year, during which they cannot take roll call votes.
Budget bills, unlike other bills, expire at the end of the
first year of the two-year legislative session, which will
be midnight January 4, 2022.
If Baker returned a section with an amendment, lawmakers can
vote on amendments during informal sessions. In areas that
Baker vetoed, an aide to the governor has said Baker
believes the items will expire January 4, unless lawmakers
vote to suspend their own rules. But House and Senate aides
have said the Legislature does not agree that the bill dies
at the end of the first year, since its appropriations are
not tied to a particular fiscal year. They are operating
under the assumption that lawmakers can return in January to
override Baker’s vetoes.
The Boston
Herald
Friday, December 17, 2021
A Boston Herald editorial
Glacial Legislature now sprints to make deadline
When the state Legislature hopefully gives the green light
to the egg bill in an informal session by the end of the
year, the yolk will still be on Massachusetts taxpayers.
While the House and Senate have already voted in favor of
changes to a 2016 voter-approved law setting more humane
conditions for egg-laying hens, a six-member conference
committee has not reached agreement on a handful of details
in the bill.
The committee’s had the bill since mid-October.
As the Herald reported, sales of eggs produced by hens in
smaller enclosures — regardless of whether they are in
Massachusetts or from another state — will be prohibited
here when the new regulations start. Voila — shortages and
sticker shock.
This legislation shouldn’t be a sprint to the finish, and
Gov. Baker shouldn’t have to flash the lights and announce
last call.
“Everyone is already paying too much at the grocery store
and not addressing this egg supply issue will further drive
up costs,” Baker tweeted Wednesday.
“I urge lawmakers to reach consensus soon before these rules
go into effect in January.”
“It’s Beacon Hill-esque,” Sen. Ryan Fattman, one of two
senators at Thursday’s session told the State House News
Service. “This needs to get done. And I don’t think it’s on
most people’s radars. So all of a sudden, you go into
January, and people — who are already paying more for just
about everything — either are going to be unable to find
eggs, or they’re going to be dramatically more expensive.
That’s an everyday-person issue. We need to fix it.”
It is Beacon Hill-esque — and that’s the problem. The
golden-domed glacier across from the Boston Common is known
for its stunning lack of speed.
Baker filed a sports betting bill in 2019, and again this
year. It keeps withering on the state Senate vine. As
neighboring states rake in sports betting revenue, Senate
President Karen Spilka said the Senate Ways and Means
Committee “is looking at it.”
Why rush?
According to FiscalNote analysis, more than 150,000 bills
were introduced in legislative sessions in statehouses
across the country as of Sept. 22. Among those, almost
33,000 were enacted. This works out to a legislative
effectiveness rate of 21% for all state legislatures
combined, with roughly 1 in 5 bills introduced enacted into
law. In contrast, lawmakers in the U.S. Congress introduced
roughly 13,000 pieces of legislation, of which approximately
317 were enacted during the same time period in 2021. The
conclusion: State legislatures were about 19% more effective
than Congress by the ratio of bills introduced versus bills
enacted.
And then there’s Massachusetts.
This year so far, the Legislature filed 13,454 bills — we’re
second in the country after New York.
We enacted 55.
In terms of percentage of bills passed to number introduced,
that’s 0.41%.
Dead last in the country.
And it’s not like those 13,399 bills that didn’t make it
were drek — so many wander into a committee and are never
seen again until someone revives it in another session.
But the Massachusetts taxpayer still foots the bill for all
those legislative salaries and committee stipends and robust
pensions.
Last-minute voting, holding up bills despite voter support
and a last-in-the-nation standing for enacting legislation —
this is very “Beacon Hill-esque.”
And that’s not a good thing.
State House News
Service
Thursday, December 16, 2021
Egg, Pork Concerns Linger As Lawmakers Break Without Deal
Enforcement Agency Would Change Under Pending Proposals
By Chris Lisinski
Lawmakers gaveled out for the weekend without a deal to
update the law governing treatment of hens and pigs that
produce eggs and pork, and Attorney General Maura Healey is
poised to enforce the new law in just more than two weeks if
legislative compromise remains out of reach.
A six-member conference committee still has not reached an
agreement since being tasked in October with resolving
differences in the House and Senate bills (H 4194 / S 2481)
to make changes to a 2016 voter law, and talks did not
produce an accord before both branches adjourned Thursday.
The soonest that the Legislature will be able to send a bill
to Gov. Charlie Baker is Monday, 12 days before the
scheduled start of new limits on animal enclosures that
industry leaders say could make eggs and pork products
exceedingly hard to find because they would be
non-compliant.
With some shoppers already stockpiling eggs and bacon, Baker
said Thursday that he has spoken to House Speaker Ronald
Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka to stress the
urgency of the issue.
"The estimates that are out there is that first of all, for
most people, you just won't be able to access eggs at all
and if you can, it's anticipated the price point on those
will be up 40 percent or more," Baker told reporters after a
State House event. "That just won't be an issue for people
in the stores, that'll be an issue for restaurants and for
other food establishments. If you think about how hard life
has been for everybody who pays their bills based on their
work in restaurants, I think the last thing we should do is
make it even more complicated for them."
Healey's office published final regulations on Oct. 1
outlining enforcement of the animal welfare standards law
that voters approved in 2016. Confining an animal in a cruel
manner in violation of the new standards carries a $1,000
fine per violation, as does selling any shell egg, whole
veal meat or whole pork meat produced by an animal held
cruelly.
The law is scheduled to effect Jan. 1, 2022, but if Beacon
Hill fails to complete a fix by then, restaurants and stores
will not immediately need to pull products from their menus
and shelves on that day to comply.
Healey's regulations include a grace period that will
effectively allow any product in the chain of production
before Jan. 1 to be sold after that date. Businesses would
be unable to roll out newly produced eggs, veal and pork
from animals that are cruelly confined under the
voter-approved law.
By putting regulations on the books, Healey's office has
signaled it is ready to begin enforcing the voter law even
though the designated enforcement agency might change under
the pending bills.
In a December 2019 letter to lawmakers, First Assistant
Attorney General Mary Strother said the AG is "not the best
suited government office to lead the regulatory effort" and
asked the Legislature to instead task the Massachusetts
Department of Agricultural Resources with crafting
regulations.
The Humane Farming Association sued Healey in January,
alleging that she disregarded her legal obligation in the
voter-approved law to promulgate the new regulations by Jan.
1, 2020.
Healey's office said the AG initially waited to begin
drafting regulations because of the chance that lawmakers
could update the statute amid changes in the industry. A
spokesperson said the attorney general and HFA eventually
agreed to stay the group's complaint pending completion of
the regulatory process.
The Legislature never acted on her request last session,
which also gestured at ongoing shifts in the industry now
driving concerns about an imminent shortage in eggs and pork
products.
Both versions of the legislation now in play would shift
responsibility to MDAR. The House bill declares that MDAR
"shall enforce the provisions of this act and may refer
violations of this act for enforcement to the attorney
general," and the Senate bill says MDAR "shall, with the
advice and consent of the attorney general, promulgate rules
and regulations for the implementation of this act
concerning the respective authority of the department and
attorney general."
Healey continues to support moving regulatory authority to
MDAR and the broader push to update Massachusetts animal
welfare standards reflected in the pending legislation.
"Uniform standards are already in place in other states and,
in reliance upon them, producers have already made
significant changes to the way they house and raise their
livestock," she wrote to lawmakers in May, adding that
concerns raised about the state's impending law "are valid,
but can only be addressed through legislation, not
regulation."
Under the Massachusetts voter law, pigs cannot be held in
enclosures that prevent them from lying down, standing up,
fully extending their limbs or turning around freely, and
egg-laying hens must be given at least 1.5 square feet of
floor space per bird.
Since voters took to the polls to endorse those limits, the
egg industry and animal rights advocates have coalesced
around the use of aviary systems that stack birds
vertically, which allow for more humane treatment and use a
smaller footprint.
Industry leaders warn that because of that shift, very few
egg producers would be in compliance if the law kicks in
without amendment to reduce the minimum amount of space per
bird. New England Brown Egg Council President Bill Bell
estimated "over 90 percent" of the eggs sold in
Massachusetts would not be legal for sale under the law
that's about to take effect.
The Senate in June approved legislation reducing the space
standards to one square foot of space per bird in aviaries
that allow vertical movement, and the House approved a
similar version in October.
Lawmakers have been unable to agree, however, on whether to
include House-backed language delaying the start date of a
ban on the sale of pork meat from cruelly confined animals,
from Jan. 1, 2022 to Jan. 1, 2023.
Rep. Carolyn Dykema, a Holliston Democrat who co-chairs the
conference committee, said during House debate that fewer
than 4 percent of pork suppliers are in compliance,
threatening to upend supply of products to restaurants and
stores.
Dykema's fellow House conferees are Democrat Rep. Dan Cahill
of Lynn and Republican Rep. Norman Orrall of Lakeville. Sen.
Jason Lewis, a Winchester Democrat, is the Senate's top
negotiator alongside Democrat Sen. Becca Rausch of Needham
and Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr.
Baker said he remains hopeful that lawmakers can overcome
their differences and send him a compromise by the end of
December to avert upheaval.
"Both the speaker and the Senate President told me they get
the fact that this is an important issue and one that they
need to resolve," he said. "I'm hoping and anticipating that
I'll be signing legislation on this by the end of the year."
State House News
Service
Sunday, December 19, 2021
Negotiators Say Accord Ensures Stable Egg, Pork Supply
Deal On Animal Welfare Law May Quickly Move To Baker
By Chris Lisinski
House and Senate negotiators announced Sunday night that
they reached consensus on legislation making key changes to
a 2016 voter-approved animal welfare law set to take effect
in the new year, a step that should stave off looming
shortages of eggs and pork products.
Sen. Jason Lewis and Rep. Carolyn Dykema, who chaired a
six-person conference committee convened in October to
design an accord, said in a joint statement they found
agreement on "compromise language to ensure a stable and
affordable egg and pork supply in the Commonwealth that
honors the will of the voters."
"The conference report has been filed with the goal of
enacting it as soon as possible," they said in a statement
released just after 6 p.m. "We want to thank our fellow
conferees for their hard work, Leadership in both chambers
for their commitment and guidance, our colleagues in the
House and Senate for their assistance, and the earnest
engagement and shared determination of industry and animal
advocates to get this done."
Both branches this year approved legislation to update the
impending standards for egg-laying hens voters approved in a
2016 initiative petition. Industry leaders warned that
production practices around the country have shifted since
passage of the voter law and that the vast majority of eggs
would no longer be valid for sale in Massachusetts without
action to change the law, which takes effect Jan. 1.
The compromise would allow "multi-tiered aviaries,
partially-slatted cage-free housing systems or any other
cage-free housing system that provides hens with unfettered
access to vertical space" to provide one square foot of
floor space per hen, according to the conference committee
report (S 2603). Industry experts say that amount of space
with aviary systems is now the norm rather than the 1.5
square feet of floor space per hen required in the
voter-approved law.
Although the original bills (H 4194 / S 2481) sailed through
both branches easily, the House and Senate were split over
whether to additionally delay by one year the Jan. 1, 2022
start of a ban on the sale of pork meat from cruelly
confined animals. Dykema had similarly cautioned that most
pork suppliers would not be in compliance with the law,
threatening supplies to stores and restaurants.
The compromise delays the effective start date of the ban on
pork products from cruelly confined animals by eight and a
half months to Aug. 15. It also shifts responsibility for
promulgating regulations and enforcing the new standards - a
critical part of the proposed law - from the attorney
general's office to the state Department of Agricultural
Resources, who would consult with the AG.
Lawmakers could accept the compromise legislation and send
it to Gov. Charlie Baker as soon as Monday, when both
branches are in session.
The measure will need to earn unanimous support because the
House and Senate are meeting in informal sessions, where a
single objection can stall any bill, during their holiday
season recess.
State House News
Service
Friday, December 17, 2021
Weekly Roundup - Evasive Maneuvers
Recap and analysis of the week in state government
By Matt Murphy
From a messaging standpoint, there's something fitting about
the new COVID-19 variant sounding like a villain from
Transformers. Because omicron is changing the game.
The state hit the one-year mark this week from the day the
first dose of COVID-19 vaccine went into an arm, and since
then more than 5 million people have been fully vaccinated,
and another 1.7 million have been boosted. And yet, cases
are surging.
Top doctors warned that omicron has the potential to fuel a
major spike in new cases as December turns into January,
including breakthroughs, but expressed optimism that
vaccines will still be effective in preventing serious
illness.
"We should probably separate the concept of case rates and
hospitalization and death rates because we might be in a
situation where there's discordance between those," said Dr.
Dan Barouch, director of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center's Center for Virology & Vaccine Research.
Not exactly the "new normal" people might have had in mind.
Those same doctors, including Massachusetts Medical Society
President Dr. Carole Allen and Dr. Nahid Bhadelia, founding
director of Boston University's Center for Emerging
Infectious Diseases Policy and Research, said adding layers
of protection at this point makes sense, even for the
vaccinated. And that includes a return to universal indoor
masking in public spaces.
Gov. Charlie Baker said people should be wearing masks, but
he's not at the point where he wants to mandate it
statewide, to the frustration of mask advocates and some
lawmakers like Sen. Jo Comerford who called the governor's
position "irresponsible."
Comerford helped lead a Joint Committee on COVID-19 and
Emergency Preparedness and Management oversight hearing
where no one from the Baker administration made themselves
available for questions. In addition to the threat of
omicron, Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association CEO
Steve Walsh said increased COVID-19 cases and staffing
shortages are stretching hospital capacities thinner than
ever.
Education Commissioner Jeff Riley pointed at omicron as the
reason he wants to wait before deciding whether to extend
the school mask mandate beyond Jan. 15, and the National
Association of Government Employees wrote to Baker asking
him to let state employees return to remote work in all
possible cases.
Baker may be resisting a return to mask mandates so far, but
the governor announced on Monday that the state had spent
$10 million to purchase 2.1 million at-home rapid tests, and
would be distributing those to 102 of the lowest-income
communities in the state. His team is also negotiating a
bulk purchasing agreement with rapid test manufacturers to
allow all cities and towns to purchase tests for residents
to acquire at prices "as cheap as possible."
Thursday's oversight hearing wasn't all glum news, though.
Walsh said the hundreds of millions of dollars in ARPA
funding set aside for distressed hospitals would make a
"tremendous difference" for providers looking to staff up on
nurses and rebound from two long years of the pandemic.
That funding became finalized on Monday when Gov. Baker
signed the bulk of the ARPA and fiscal 2021 surplus spending
bill that contained $4 billion for health care, housing,
infrastructure, economic development and local public
health.
The governor, however, vetoed some sections of the bill that
he said would delay his ability to move the money out the
door to its intended targets. This "red tape," as he called
it, included the 28-member advisory panel that was supposed
to help his administration craft a plan for $500 million in
bonus pay for low-income essential workers who were on the
job during the state of emergency.
Given how the Legislature wrested control over the
allocation of the ARPA funding from the governor at the
start of the process, there's almost something karmic about
Baker seizing control of the bonus-pay fund now. If the
Legislature doesn't override the veto in January, Baker said
he's confident checks will be in the mail before the March
31 deadline.
Speaking of deadlines, the Dec. 15 expiration date of
COVID-19 voting reforms such as voting-by-mail came and went
this week without action in the Legislature. That was pretty
much expected given how House Speaker Ron Mariano has stated
that no elections on the calendar will be affected in the
coming months by the lapse, though Secretary of State
William Galvin pointed to a few local races that will.
Boston City Councilor Lydia Edwards' big primary win in the
First Suffolk and Middlesex District sets her up to be the
first person elected in 2022 without voting-by mail, but she
also faces no opposition on the ballot. The East Boston
Democrat bested Revere's Anthony D'Ambrosio in Tuesday's
special primary, putting her in position to become the first
Black woman to serve in the Senate since Linda Forry
resigned in 2018.
The more pressing issue as lawmakers enter Christmas week is
striking a deal to reform the 2016 animal cruelty ballot law
that sets cage standards for egg-laying hens and pigs.
Without adjustments to the law, eggs and pork products could
become scarce in the new year as producers fall out of
compliance with Massachusetts laws, which have become an
outlier nationwide.
The House and Senate are in agreement on adjustments for hen
confinement, but haven't been able to agree on whether to
delay the rules for pigs. And the egg timer is winding down.
"Everyone is already paying too much at the grocery store
and not addressing this egg supply issue will further drive
up costs. I urge lawmakers to reach consensus soon before
these rules go into effect in January," Baker tweeted.
Enforcement of the new farm animal confinement law would
fall to Attorney General Maura Healey, though she's looking
to unload that responsibility on the Department of
Agriculture Resources. Maybe she has other things on her
mind?
Healey kept quiet for another week about her political
ambitions, but her office did appeal a Superior Court
judge's dismissal of the criminal charges she brought
against two former Holyoke Soldiers' Home officials for
their role in the COVID-19 outbreak at the veterans'
facility at the start of the pandemic.
STORY OF THE WEEK: All we didn't want for Christmas was
another COVID-19 surge. And yet here it is.
State House News
Service
Friday, December 17, 2021
Advances - Week of Dec. 19, 2021
By Michael P. Norton
Legislators on Tuesday take the first steps in their fiscal
2023 budget journey but there's a more pressing matter on
Beacon Hill's frontburner that dates back to 2016 and might
affect what's on your breakfast plate in two weeks. The
Legislature has had nearly five years to come up with
changes to a voter law governing more humane standards for
the treatment of hens and pigs that produce eggs and pork
products, but they haven't come to an agreement.
Analysts say the food staples are on a course to start being
wiped from the shelves in the new year if the voter law
kicks in as scheduled on Jan. 1, rendering most current
products non-compliant with the 2016 law.
Rep. Carolyn Dykema of Holliston and Sen. Jason Lewis of
Winchester are leading closed conference committee talks on
bills that have cleared the Senate and House (S 2481 / H
4194) and that, if approved, could avert the consumer crisis
and launch a Department of Agricultural Resources regulatory
process that will go a long way towards determining how and
whether out-of-state pork manufacturers produce products
that meet Massachusetts-only animal welfare standards.
The voter law would have Attorney General Maura Healey
handle regulation but Healey's office doesn't want to take
on that responsibility. Healey herself has her own political
plans on her mind, and her fall timeline for a decision on
whether to run for governor officially runs out of runway on
Monday since the winter solstice is Tuesday, which brings
the longest night of the year.
The fiscal 2023 budget process launches on Tuesday. Before
Gov. Charlie Baker files his last annual spending plan in
January, economic forecasters who completely failed to
predict how strong the state's tax collections would be
during the pandemic will return to offer their new
forecasts.
The annual revenue forecasting hearing arrives at a time
when inflation is at historically high levels and the
economy is running hot enough that interest rate hikes are
back on the table.
Legislative Democrats are pushing to amend the Constitution
next year to allow a significant new income tax on the
highest-earning households, but revenues have so far not
been a problem during the pandemic as the state economy and
tax collections have remained solid and one-time federal
funds have poured in.
-- GUESSING AT GROWTH: Each December, the lawmakers and
executive branch officials who most closely monitor state
financial activity get together with outside experts to
collectively gaze into a crystal ball and take a stab at
forecasting how state tax collections will fare in the
fiscal year that is still more than six months away from
starting.
This year's annual consensus revenue hearing is planned for
Tuesday morning. Even without the unknowns and uncertainty
that have come with the first global pandemic in a century,
predicting tax collections was a challenging proposition and
the initial estimates have proven to be well off the mark in
recent years.
"As a noted New York economist, Yogi Berra, once said, 'It's
tough to make predictions, especially about the future,'"
Administration and Finance Secretary Michael Heffernan said
at a consensus revenue hearing for fiscal year 2019.
For example, after fiscal year 2018 estimates had to be
revised downward, the administration and lawmakers predicted
$27.594 billion in tax revenue for fiscal year 2019. The
state ended up collecting more than $29.69 billion that
year.
For fiscal year 2020, the second half of which was disrupted
by the unforeseen COVID-19 pandemic, the initial
pre-pandemic estimate was for $29.299 billion in tax revenue
and actual collections totaled about $29.609 billion. Fiscal
year 2021 tax collections of $34.137 billion well exceeded
the estimate of $31.15 billion.
Five months into fiscal year 2022, tax collections are
trending more than $2 billion ahead of fiscal 2021
collections through the same amount of time and are more
than $900 million ahead of consensus revenue expectations to
this point in the year.
At one point early in the pandemic, some state budget
watchers predicted that tax revenues could end up as much as
$8 billion short of expectations. Instead, Massachusetts
generated a surplus of about $5 billion for state coffers in
fiscal year 2021 and has been able to boost the state's
Stabilization Fund. That reserve account is now projected to
hit a new record high of roughly $6 billion by the end of
fiscal year 2022.
"Despite fluctuating revenue numbers, we have not only been
able to keep our budget picture strong, but we have also
made historic investments into areas that need it most,"
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Aaron Michlewitz
said.
After the hearing, the Joint Ways and Means Committee and
Heffernan will work up an agreed-upon tax revenue forecast
for fiscal year 2023. They have until Jan. 15 to arrive at
that number and the figure will become a revenue-side anchor
in Gov. Baker's January budget filing, and the House and
Senate spending bills that will follow in the spring. --
Colin A. Young
Storylines in Progress: ... Gov. Charlie Baker is already
hearing calls to reinstate public health measures to control
the growing spread of COVID-19 and those calls are likely to
only grow louder next week if the current surge in
infections expands further,
... It's not too early to be thinking about the biennial
bill-reporting date, which falls early this session. While
legislative committees are still just getting around to
holding public hearings on bills filed way back at the start
of the two-year session, with corporate tax and board
diversity bills among those on next week's docket, the
deadline for joint committees to make decisions about bills
is 47 days away. This session's Joint Rule 10 Day is Feb. 2.
... While it focuses its attention on finding more bus
drivers, the MBTA on Monday also plans to forge ahead with
bus service cuts that the agency says are attributable to a
lack of drivers.
... The wait continues for the newly confirmed Rachael
Rollins to switch to her new job as U.S. attorney for
Massachusetts and for Gov. Charlie Baker to announce his
choice to succeed her, on an interim basis, as Suffolk
County district attorney. Reps. Claire Cronin of Easton and
Maria Robinson of Framingham also continue to await word of
when they will be cleared to leave the Legislature and take
on the posts they've been nominated for.
... The Baker administration attached immediacy this week to
the need to get premium pay bonus checks out to frontline
pandemic workers but has yet to outline its plan to get the
money to the people and news on that front could come
anytime.
Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021
JOINT WAYS AND MEANS - CONSENSUS REVENUE HEARING:
Administration and Finance Secretary Heffernan, House Ways
and Means Chairman Michlewitz and Senate Ways and Means
Chairman Rodrigues invite economists and budget experts to
testify on what they expect to see in fiscal year 2023 from
state tax collections. The annual consensus tax revenue
hearing will be conducted mostly virtually again this year
due to the ongoing pandemic.
The hearing will inform the development of fiscal 2023 tax
revenue estimate agreement, likely later this month or by
mid-January, that will be used for budget-writing purposes
over the first half of 2022.
Aside from Department of Revenue Commissioner Snyder, the
list of people testifying includes Treasurer Goldberg, Mass.
Lottery Executive Director Michael Sweeney, Public
Employment Retirement Administration Commission Executive
Director John Parsons, Mass. Taxpayers Foundation President
Eileen McAnneny, Beacon Hill Institute President David
Tuerck, Northeastern University economist Alan
Clayton-Matthews, Michael Goodman from UMass Dartmouth and
Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts Executive Director
Evan Horowitz. (Tuesday, 10 a.m.)
Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2021
REVENUE COMMITTEE: Revenue Committee holds public hearing on
a slate of corporate tax bills, including several sponsored
by Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, a candidate for governor in 2022.
Topics include closing loopholes, board diversity, creating
"progressive revenue," inventory and telecommunications
taxes, corporate tax information, the rural jobs act, taxing
natural gas infrastructure, and a tax on excessive executive
compensation. (Wednesday, 10 a.m.)
The Boston
Herald
Friday, December 17, 2021
Soaring unemployment insurance fees
giving old ‘Taxachusetts’ label a comeback
By Joe Dwinell
The state is dead last again — this time with unemployment
insurance tax rates paid by businesses giving the old
“Taxachusetts” label new life.
This means businesses — small and large — face the highest
unemployment insurance tax when they let an employee go. It
also could scare away others from setting up shop here,
experts say.
Massachusetts once had the highest unemployment rate, at
16.1%, in July of last year. It’s now edged back to 5.4% —
still low, but not as bad as California’s 6.9% mark.
Now the UI insurance is a big factor.
The highest Massachusetts rate, 18.55%, is tops in the
country by far, with Maryland placing a distant second with
a maximum rate of 13.5%, the D.C.-based Tax Foundation
reports.
“The Tax Foundation report shows that under the current
leadership at the State House, Massachusetts is not just
disadvantaged compared to New Hampshire and other New
England states, but we are now sitting dead last in the
entire country for how our state treats businesses on the UI
tax,” said Paul Diego Craney, spokesman for the Mass Fiscal
Alliance.
The author of the report for the non-partisan Tax Foundation
tells the Herald such a high rate can “paralyze employers”
who will be on the hook for any employee they let go as the
nation crawls out of the pandemic. That fear factor can slow
hiring.
“This high rate shifts the burden on employers — especially
those willing to take a risk on an employee,” said Jared
Walczak, one of the authors of the Tax Foundation report.
An employee laid off or let go for just about any reason can
collect unemployment with the past employer picking up the
UI tab.
Coupled with the millionaires’ tax on the 2022 ballot,
Craney says we’re back to the old days of “Taxachusetts.”
As the Herald reported late last month, the Baker
administration still doesn’t know how much money it will
ultimately borrow to cover the cost of pandemic-era claims
on the Bay State’s unemployment system.
The administration does argue that while 18.55% is the
highest rate on the highest rate schedule, 14.37% is the
highest maximum UI rate in recent history.
Also, weekly maximum benefit amounts, claims volumes, and
taxable wage base vary state-to-state. For example,
Maryland’s maximum weekly benefit rate is $430 whereas
Massachusetts’ is $974, 126.5% higher than Maryland.
This summer, Gov. Charlie Baker also proposed spending $1
billion of the Commonwealth’s surplus tax revenue to
stabilize the UI Trust Fund, a priority of the employer
community. The Legislature ultimately included $500 million
for the UI Trust Fund in the final ARPA bill.
The Boston
Globe
Wednesday, December 8, 2021
Eric Lesser, a state senator and Obama alum,
is considering campaign for lieutenant governor
By Matt Stout
Eric P. Lesser, a four-term state senator and Obama White
House alum, is seriously weighing a run for lieutenant
governor next year, according to people who’ve spoken with
the Longmeadow Democrat.
The potential entrance of Lesser, 36, would expand an
already crowded Democratic field in the race to be the No. 2
official in state government and running mate for the
party’s gubernatorial nominee in 2022. Lesser has been
discussing a would-be campaign with allies and party
insiders in recent days, and is “gauging reactions to the
idea,” said David Axelrod, a former senior adviser and
strategist for Barack Obama.
“He’s had eight good years in the state Senate, and I think
he’s eager to look for, or at least consider, leveraging
more influence on the issues he cares about,” said Axelrod,
for whom Lesser served as special assistant at the White
House. “That platform is attractive, and Eric is a guy who’s
always made the most of everything he’s ever done. A job
like that with someone like him could be really impactful.”
Lesser declined to comment Wednesday.
The lieutenant governor’s field already includes three
declared candidates: state Representative Tami Gouveia, a
two-term Democrat from Acton; state Senator Adam G. Hinds, a
three-term Democrat from Pittsfield; and Bret Bero, a
Democrat who is a Boston businessman and Babson College
lecturer.
Dan Koh, chief of staff at the Labor Department under
Secretary Martin J. Walsh, is also seriously considering
running for lieutenant governor in the Democratic primary, a
person with knowledge of his plans told the Globe last week.
The seat is open in 2022 after Governor Charlie Baker and
Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito announced that neither
would seek reelection next year.
The lieutenant governor’s race could also be shaped by a
still unsettled gubernatorial primary. State Senator Sonia
Chang-Díaz, former state senator Ben Downing, and Harvard
professor Danielle Allen have all announced campaigns,
though after Baker’s announcement last week, Democrats are
awaiting other potential entrants.
Attorney General Maura Healey has been considering a
gubernatorial campaign for months, and could make a decision
shortly. Walsh was also taking a look at the race in the
wake of Baker’s decision, two people familiar with his
thinking told the Globe last week.
First elected in 2014, Lesser has cut a growing profile in
the Senate, where he has chaired the Legislature’s committee
on economic development and helped shepherd a sweeping
economic stimulus and housing package into law early this
year and a $1 billion package in 2018.
He’s also pushed a bill that would pay people $10,000 to
relocate to Western Massachusetts and work from home, and
has been at the center of talks over several years in the
Legislature of whether to legalize sports betting. Lesser
has, at times, also been a vocal critic of Baker,
challenging the Republican administration’s estimates on
“east-west” rail service between Boston and Springfield or
on failures within the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
“He has a track record on economic development, which to me
is a central issue,” said Steve Grossman, the former state
treasurer and gubernatorial candidate with whom Lesser has
discussed a potential campaign. Grossman, a former chairman
for the Democratic National Committee, said he would back
Lesser should he enter the race.
“A race like lieutenant governor, which is down ballot, may
not get a lot of attention from the public. But it will get
attention from activists,” Grossman said. “Getting in at
this point will give him a good solid runway to build a
grass-roots team, to build an organization, and to build a
strong message of economic revitalization.”
The role of lieutenant governor has few formal
responsibilities and often serves to bolster the agenda of
the governor. Politically, a nominee, while elected
separately in a primary, is viewed as a person who could
bring balance to a gubernatorial ticket, particularly
geographically, or to help punch up its fund-raising.
Lesser, a Harvard alum, entered December with $630,756 on
hand in his political account. He also had been viewed
within some Democratic circles as a potential candidate in
the race for attorney general, where some Democrats have
been preparing campaigns should Healey forgo seeking
reelection. |
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