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Post Office Box 1147
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Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945
▪ (781) 639-9709
“Every Tax is a Pay Cut ... A Tax Cut is a Pay Raise”
48 years as “The Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers”
— and
their Institutional Memory — |
|
CLT UPDATE
Monday, April 11, 2022
March Tax Collections
Break Yet Another Record
Jump directly
to CLT's Commentary on the News
|
Most Relevant News
Excerpts
(Full news reports follow Commentary)
|
|
The trend
of above-benchmark monthly tax collections
continued in March as the
Department of Revenue brought in $3.858 billion --
$802 million or 26.2 percent more than actual
collections in March 2021 and $427 million or
12.5 percent above the expectation for the month....
"March
collections increased in most major tax types in
comparison to March 2021 collections and the March
2022 monthly benchmark, including increases in
withholding, non-withholding, sales and use tax, and
corporate and business tax. 'All other' tax, which
includes several tax categories, decreased relative
to March 2021 collections but increased relative to
the March 2022 benchmark," [Revenue Commissioner
Geoffrey Snyder] said....
Through
three-quarters of fiscal year 2022, tax collections
have totaled approximately $27.545 billion, which
is $4.961 billion or 22 percent greater than
collections in the same period of fiscal year 2021
and $2.184 billion or 8.6 percent more than DOR's
year-to-date benchmark.
State
House News Service
Tuesday, April 5, 2022
Robust
State Tax Haul Continues with $3.8 Bil in March
Gas prices
in Massachusetts shot past the $4 a gallon mark in
early March, rose to $4.35 a gallon about a week
later and ticked lower to rest at a per-gallon
average of $4.18 to start this week.
The trend
of higher prices is causing supporters of gas tax
relief, a concept that's been cast aside on Beacon
Hill, to resurface the idea. On Tuesday, the
Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance pointed to
Connecticut's decision to temporarily suspend its
gas tax and reports that New Hampshire is pursuing a
gas tax holiday option.
Fiscal
alliance spokesman Paul Craney suggested
Massachusetts lawmakers revisit gas tax relief
during the House budget debate later this month.
Opponents of temporary gas tax relief have raised
concerns about impacts on the state's bond rating
and whether relief will even reach customers in the
face of upward pressure on prices.
"These
prices are clearly not going away any time soon,"
Craney said. "Governor Baker has indicated he's not
opposed to the idea ... With two neighboring states
taking action, we will only hurt the gas station
owners and consumers in our own state if our
legislators don't do the same."
State
House News Service
Tuesday, April 5, 2022
High Gas Prices Keeping Tax
Relief In Mix
State
revenues continued to soar above projections in
March, prompting one conservative group to again
call for the suspension of the gas tax.
“March tax
collections blew past their benchmark, the state has
more money than they know what to do with, and yet
for Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen
Spilka, it’s still not enough,” said Paul Diego
Craney, spokesperson for the Massachusetts Fiscal
Alliance....
The
increases were due to tax revenues nearly across the
board, including increases in withholding,
non-withholding, sales and use tax, and corporate
and business tax.
The
Boston Herald
Wednesday, April 6, 2022
Gas tax suspension
pushed again in Massachusetts as state revenues soar
The future
of Gov. Charlie Baker's $700 million package of tax
reductions and incentives becomes clearer Wednesday
when the House Ways and Means Committee releases its
version of his $48.5 billion fiscal 2023 budget
proposal. After Baker in January surprised many on
Beacon Hill with his tax relief plans, House
Democrats said they had already been looking into
the topic, but still have not outlined a
counterproposal or even said if they intend to
advance tax relief as part of the annual budget
bill.
The
release of the House budget, which will sit over
school vacation week and hit the floor for
deliberations during the last week in April, marks
another step along the road toward the July 31 end
of formal sessions for this two-year meeting of the
General Court.
State
House News Service
Friday, April 8, 2022
Advances - Week of April 10,
2022
If Gov.
Charlie Baker’s tax cut proposals aren’t passed,
there’s a real danger the state could fail to
attract the talent it is going to need for continued
growth, according to the head of a nonpartisan tax
policy group.
“I think
that the proposal is balanced. It provides a lot of
help to folks at the lower end of the income
spectrum that have been most impacted by the
pandemic,” Eileen McAnneny, president of the
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said during an
appearance with John Keller on WBZ Sunday.
According
to McAnneny, in addition to helping seniors and
those with very little income, Baker’s proposal
would help Massachusetts continue to attract and
keep the sort of residents required for the state’s
economy to continue growing.
“Massachusetts’ economy is based in entrepreneurship
and investment in innovation and so we don’t want to
make our tax burden so high that we drive people
away from Massachusetts, particularly in this era
when people can live and move and be anywhere,” she
said.
Baker’s
proposal, submitted to the legislature in January
alongside his $48.5 billion budget plan for fiscal
2023, would amount to over $700 million in tax
relief for commonwealth residents, according to his
administration.
The plan
includes tax relief for renters, adoption of federal
standards for no-tax status for low-income
residents, an adjustment of the “low income circuit
breaker” on property tax relief for older residents,
and a proposal to lower the estate and short-term
capital gains taxes.
Despite
the nonpartisan foundation’s endorsement of the
proposal, McAnneny acknowledged it has to clear a
legislature that just last month declined to provide
tax relief to motorists via suspension of the gas
tax....
The tax
relief plan comes at a time when the state’s rainy
day fund, in part due to COVID-19 relief funds from
the federal government but also following record
state tax revenue, is currently sitting at an
all-time high of $4.6 billion.
March tax
revenues were up by nearly 14% over last year,
according to the Department of Revenue. That
department reports year-to-date revenues are up by
nearly 15%.
The
Boston Herald
Sunday, April 11, 2022
Massachusetts needs tax relief, can
afford it, budget watchdog says
A homeless
66-year-old grandmother is suing a city in
Massachusetts for “home equity theft” after her home
was seized for a tax debt and sold, but her equity
in the property wasn’t refunded to her.
The legal
action takes aim at what some call “home equity
theft,” which is widespread in Massachusetts,
according to the Sacramento, California-based
Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a public interest
law firm that’s representing the woman free of
charge. PLF has stated that it’s committed to ending
home equity theft across the country.
The legal
complaint (pdf)
in the case, Foss v. City of New Bedford, was filed
on March 29 in Massachusetts Superior Court in
Bristol County, Massachusetts....
The
plaintiff, Deborah D. Foss, who has been living in
her car, is challenging a state law that allows
private investors to seize the equity that
homeowners hold in their property over relatively
small tax debts....
Foss lived
downstairs and rented out the upstairs. The new home
needed repairs that she couldn’t afford and her
tenant stopped paying rent. When Foss couldn’t pay
her 2016 tax bill to New Bedford, the city initiated
a “tax taking” and 18 months later, sold its tax
lien to Tallage Davis for $9,626—the amount she owed
the city. Tallage Davis took ownership of the
property in September 2019.
PLF
attorney Joshua Polk said he’s hoping the court will
make things right.
“Obviously, the government has to have some
mechanism to collect what is owed, but neither the
government nor a private investor has any right to
collect more than what is owed,” Polk told The Epoch
Times.
“And
that’s a matter of constitutional law and basic
human decency. I think home equity theft is cruel
and unjust. And Massachusetts law shouldn’t allow
municipalities to enrich themselves or wealthy
investors at the expense of those suffering from
financial hardship, like Ms. Foss has been suffering
here. So we hope that this lawsuit will help bring
an end to the practice and get some justice for Ms.
Foss.”
The Epoch
Times reached out for comment to New Bedford Mayor
Jon Mitchell, but didn’t receive a reply as of press
time.
The Epoch
Times
Sunday, April 3, 2022
Homeless Grandmother Sues
Massachusetts City Over ‘Home Equity Theft’
"Public
workers are the backbone of our economy and deserve
the ability to fight for fair wages, access
affordable health care and work in safe conditions."
So said
Senate President Karen Spilka on June 27, 2019, when
she steered a public sector union dues bill through
her chamber in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's
Janus v. AFSCME ruling that barred unions from
charging non-members agency fees.
Nearly
three years later, Senate staffers are waiting and
hoping to see if the Ashland native and one of the
most powerful Democrats in Massachusetts will meet
their unionization push with the same support she's
voiced for public sector unions elsewhere.
News of
the union push within the State House walls spawned
an awkward dynamic, where many Democrats in the
House and Senate -- who are often quick to side with
workers in labor disputes and see themselves as
organized labor allies -- hesitated to take a
position until they see what kind of tone
legislative leaders set.
Even
Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman,
perhaps the most well-known labor leader in the
state, didn't want to get too involved given the
players involved. "This is a very delicate
situation, and a lot of feelings can get hurt if
things are misconstrued," Tolman said.
Key
questions continue to swirl about the effort to
organize Senate aides with IBEW Local 2222,
including whether legislators will need to, or be
willing to rewrite state law to empower the push,
and what would happen to a unionized staffer if
voters toss out their boss....
State
House News Service
Friday, April 8, 2022
Weekly Roundup - Friends of
Labor?
Another
Baker administration effort crashed and burned,
mostly, when the U.S. Department of Labor rejected
the state's request to waive most instances of
overpaid unemployment benefits that flowed through
federal programs.
The feds
wiped away the repayment obligation for a subset of
claimants who received Pandemic Unemployment
Assistance program overpayments made before March
23, 2021, saying those workers did not know they
needed to provide proof of employment and could not
be held at fault for improper benefit levels.
But the
Department of Labor -- headed by former Boston Mayor
Martin Walsh -- shot down the remainder of the
administration's request for a blanket waiver,
meaning state workers will need to launch a
laborious process to comb through tens or hundreds
of thousands of individual requests asking to be
forgiven from an obligation to repay excessive
jobless aid....
State
House News Service
Friday, April 8, 2022
Weekly Roundup -
Friends of Labor?
The reform
groups backing voter registration changes,
meanwhile, are hopeful they can achieve success in a
legislative compromise.
A panel of
lawmakers tasked with deciding whether mail-in
voting and expanded early voting should return to
Massachusetts convened its first meeting on
Thursday, two months after legislative leaders
tasked it with ironing out a final bill to overhaul
elections.
While the
conference committee was idling, cities and towns
quietly conducted springtime local contests using
pre-pandemic rules rather than now-expired voting
options that proved popular.
Wielding
Hershey chocolate bars, advocates poured into the
panel's meeting and urged members to back Election
Day registration, a slightly less extensive change
than the Senate-approved proposal allowing residents
to register and cast a ballot on any early voting
day.
The
committee has less than five months until the
statewide primary election, which could feature
heated contests for governor, lieutenant governor
and other constitutional offices.
State
House News Service
Friday, April 8, 2022
Weekly Roundup
Back in
2010, the last time the state auditor’s job was up
for grabs, CommonWealth went out on the hustings to
see what the candidates were talking about. It
turned out they were spending a significant chunk of
their time explaining what the auditor does because
few voters seemed to know.
Flash
forward to today, more than 11 years later, and it’s
the candidates themselves who are debating the
responsibilities of the office.
Sen. Diana
DiZoglio of Methuen, one of two Democrats seeking to
become auditor, has caused a bit of a stir by saying
she intends to audit the Legislature if she gets
elected. It’s an ideal issue for her since much of
her political success on Beacon Hill, first as a
representative in the House and then as a state
senator, has come from taking on the Legislature and
its leaders for their handling of sexual harassment
incidents, nondisclosure agreements, staff pay, and
transparency.
What’s
unclear is whether the auditor has the legal
authority to audit the Legislature.
Suzanne
Bump, who is stepping down next year after serving
11 years as auditor, said she researched the issue
when she first was elected. According to a statement
issued by her office, the enabling statute of the
auditor’s office grants her the authority to audit
more than 200 executive branch agencies.
“The
Legislature is not among that list; therefore, the
Office of the State Auditor by law does not have the
authority, express or implied, to audit the
Legislature,” the statement said. “Moreover, the
Legislature is not an agency or department but
rather another branch of government and, thus,
subject to protections under the separation of
powers doctrine. Just as the Office of the State
Auditor looks to its auditees for compliance with
their statutes and regulations, the Office of State
Auditor too is bound by the limitations of its
enabling statute and must act within its prescribed
authority.”
Bump’s
predecessor Joe DeNucci, who occupied the office for
the previous 24 years, appears to have agreed.
According to Mary Connaughton, a Republican who ran
against Bump in 2010, DeNucci filed legislation
seeking the authority to audit the Legislature. The
legislation never passed.
Anthony
Amore, the Republican candidate for auditor,
believes the office lacks the legal standing to
audit the Legislature. His campaign manager Mark
Steffen released a statement saying Amore knows what
public auditors can and cannot do.
“He
believes that all candidates for elected office
should make realistic promises they can keep,”
Steffen said. “If elected, Anthony will put his
decades of auditing and inspection toward efforts to
reform the law, and if unsuccessful he will support
and campaign for a ballot question to make the
Legislature subject to the public records laws, open
meeting laws, and audits by the state auditor."
CommonWealth Magazine
Thursday, April 7, 2022
Bump says auditor cannot audit
Legislature |
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary |
|
The long-running state
revenue bonanza continues its trend of piling up billions of surplus
over-taxation. Last Tuesday the
State House News Service reported on the Department
of Revenue's release of the state's March revenue riches ("Robust
State Tax Haul Continues with $3.8 Bil in March") as new records
are made and broken:
The trend of
above-benchmark monthly tax collections
continued in March as the
Department of Revenue brought in $3.858 billion
-- $802 million or 26.2 percent more than
actual collections in March 2021 and $427
million or 12.5 percent above the expectation
for the month....
"March collections
increased in most major tax types in comparison
to March 2021 collections and the March 2022
monthly benchmark, including increases in
withholding, non-withholding, sales and use tax,
and corporate and business tax. 'All other' tax,
which includes several tax categories, decreased
relative to March 2021 collections but increased
relative to the March 2022 benchmark," [Revenue
Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder] said....
Through three-quarters of
fiscal year 2022, tax collections have totaled
approximately $27.545 billion, which is
$4.961 billion or 22 percent greater than
collections in the same period of fiscal year
2021 and $2.184 billion or 8.6 percent more
than DOR's year-to-date benchmark.
The Boston Herald reported on Wednesday ("Gas tax suspension pushed again in
Massachusetts as state revenues soar"):
State
revenues continued to soar above projections in
March, prompting one conservative group to again
call for the suspension of the gas tax.
“March tax collections
blew past their benchmark, the state has more money than they know
what to do with, and yet for Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate
President Karen Spilka, it’s still not enough,” said Paul Diego
Craney, spokesperson for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance....
The increases were due to
tax revenues nearly across the board, including increases in
withholding, non-withholding, sales and use tax, and corporate and
business tax.
In its Advances
for this week, the State House News Service on Friday noted:
The future
of Gov. Charlie Baker's $700 million package of tax
reductions and incentives becomes clearer Wednesday
when the House Ways and Means Committee releases its
version of his $48.5 billion fiscal 2023 budget
proposal. After Baker in January surprised many on
Beacon Hill with his tax relief plans, House
Democrats said they had already been looking into
the topic, but still have not outlined a
counterproposal or even said if they intend to
advance tax relief as part of the annual budget
bill.
Yesterday, The Boston
Herald reported ("Massachusetts needs tax relief, can
afford it, budget watchdog says") even the Massachusetts
Taxpayers Foundation is calling for tax relief:
If Gov. Charlie Baker’s tax
cut proposals aren’t passed, there’s a real
danger the state could fail to attract the
talent it is going to need for continued growth,
according to the head of a nonpartisan tax
policy group.
“I think that the proposal
is balanced. It provides a lot of help to folks
at the lower end of the income spectrum that
have been most impacted by the pandemic,” Eileen
McAnneny, president of the Massachusetts
Taxpayers Foundation, said during an appearance
with John Keller on WBZ Sunday.
According to McAnneny, in
addition to helping seniors and those with very
little income, Baker’s proposal would help
Massachusetts continue to attract and keep the
sort of residents required for the state’s
economy to continue growing....
Baker’s proposal, submitted
to the legislature in January alongside his
$48.5 billion budget plan for fiscal 2023, would
amount to over $700 million in tax relief for
commonwealth residents, according to his
administration.
The plan includes tax
relief for renters, adoption of federal
standards for no-tax status for low-income
residents, an adjustment of the “low income
circuit breaker” on property tax relief for
older residents, and a proposal to lower the
estate and short-term capital gains taxes.
Despite the nonpartisan
foundation’s endorsement of the proposal,
McAnneny acknowledged it has to clear a
legislature that just last month declined to
provide tax relief to motorists via suspension
of the gas tax....
The tax relief plan comes
at a time when the state’s rainy day fund, in
part due to COVID-19 relief funds from the
federal government but also following record
state tax revenue, is currently sitting at an
all-time high of $4.6 billion.
March tax revenues were up
by nearly 14% over last year, according to the
Department of Revenue. That department reports
year-to-date revenues are up by nearly 15%.
That Herald report also
added: "The House Ways
and Means Committee is due to release its version of the budget
Wednesday, providing the first insight into whether Baker’s tax plan
has any hope of surviving. Lawmakers are under no obligation to move
forward with Baker’s proposal."
It's utterly incredible to
watch such shameless avarice with other people's money displayed by
so many elected to represent those constituents. It would be
simply stunning anywhere else but Massachusetts, and not permitted
beyond the next election. This is why I occasionally include a
section, It Doesn't Need To Be "The
Massachusetts Way". I've known this for a long time,
but I'm still awed when actually seeing it in action with such
regularity. Without such a comparison, most Massachusetts
taxpayers just can't conceive of how dysfunctional the Bay
State really is — how out-of-touch
entrenched Beacon Hill pols and hacks are with the governing ethos
in the majority of other states across the nation.
You probably knew that if
a homeowner falls behind with their property tax payments the city
or town can put a lien on the property. If this goes on long
enough the municipality can take the property. Where it gets
outrageous is, the city or town can sell the property to not only
collect the unpaid taxes but to confiscate the entire sale price of
the property, returning not a cent to the homeowner.
What we
at CLT didn't know was that the municipality was selling the
property to real estate investors for the back-taxes, then the
investors pocketed the remainder. The original homeowner in
arrears on the property taxes receives not one cent of his or her
equity, loses everything to the outside investors.
This legal "taking" under
Massachusetts law now has a name: "Home Equity Theft." This
scandalous process has been on CLT's radar for decades but has never
reached critical mass — enough victims
to warrant a battle. That may now change, and none too soon.
The Epoch
Times on April 3 reported a breakthrough in its
report "Homeless Grandmother Sues
Massachusetts City Over ‘Home Equity Theft’":
A homeless
66-year-old grandmother is suing a city in
Massachusetts for “home equity theft” after her home
was seized for a tax debt and sold, but her equity
in the property wasn’t refunded to her.
The legal
action takes aim at what some call “home equity
theft,” which is widespread in Massachusetts,
according to the Sacramento, California-based
Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), a public interest
law firm that’s representing the woman free of
charge. PLF has stated that it’s committed to ending
home equity theft across the country.
The legal
complaint (pdf)
in the case, Foss v. City of New Bedford, was filed
on March 29 in Massachusetts Superior Court in
Bristol County, Massachusetts....
The
plaintiff, Deborah D. Foss, who has been living in
her car, is challenging a state law that allows
private investors to seize the equity that
homeowners hold in their property over relatively
small tax debts....
Foss lived
downstairs and rented out the upstairs. The new home
needed repairs that she couldn’t afford and her
tenant stopped paying rent. When Foss couldn’t pay
her 2016 tax bill to New Bedford, the city initiated
a “tax taking” and 18 months later, sold its tax
lien to Tallage Davis for $9,626—the amount she owed
the city. Tallage Davis took ownership of the
property in September 2019.
PLF
attorney Joshua Polk said he’s hoping the court will
make things right.
“Obviously, the government has to have some
mechanism to collect what is owed, but neither the
government nor a private investor has any right to
collect more than what is owed,” Polk told The Epoch
Times.
“And
that’s a matter of constitutional law and basic
human decency. I think home equity theft is cruel
and unjust. And Massachusetts law shouldn’t allow
municipalities to enrich themselves or wealthy
investors at the expense of those suffering from
financial hardship, like Ms. Foss has been suffering
here. So we hope that this lawsuit will help bring
an end to the practice and get some justice for Ms.
Foss.”
The Epoch
Times reached out for comment to New Bedford Mayor
Jon Mitchell, but didn’t receive a reply as of press
time.
The State
House News Service reported on Friday ("Weekly Roundup - Friends of
Labor?"):
"Public
workers are the backbone of our economy and deserve
the ability to fight for fair wages, access
affordable health care and work in safe conditions."
So said
Senate President Karen Spilka on June 27, 2019, when
she steered a public sector union dues bill through
her chamber in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's
Janus v. AFSCME ruling that barred unions from
charging non-members agency fees.
Nearly
three years later, Senate staffers are waiting and
hoping to see if the Ashland native and one of the
most powerful Democrats in Massachusetts will meet
their unionization push with the same support she's
voiced for public sector unions elsewhere....
Key
questions continue to swirl about the effort to
organize Senate aides with IBEW Local 2222,
including whether legislators will need to, or be
willing to rewrite state law to empower the push,
and what would happen to a unionized staffer if
voters toss out their boss.
Patronage
staffers unionized and negotiating their salaries
and benefits with their patrons, their employers the
taxpayers having no say in the matter. Only in
Massachusetts.
CommonWealth Magazine on
Thursday published an interesting story ("Bump says auditor cannot audit
Legislature") introducing the candidates who
want to become the next state auditor —
and whether whoever wins the position can audit the top-secret
Legislature, or thinks they can — or
cannot. I find this to be the best response.
Anthony
Amore, the Republican candidate for auditor,
believes the office lacks the legal standing to
audit the Legislature. His campaign manager Mark
Steffen released a statement saying Amore knows what
public auditors can and cannot do.
“He
believes that all candidates for elected office
should make realistic promises they can keep,”
Steffen said. “If elected, Anthony will put his
decades of auditing and inspection toward efforts to
reform the law, and if unsuccessful he will support
and campaign for a ballot question to make the
Legislature subject to the public records laws, open
meeting laws, and audits by the state auditor."
One thing
we at CLT learned the hard way over our decades of
efforts is any petition and ballot question (if you
can get that far) which impacts the Legislature and
its perceived Divine Right to govern as it pleases
is almost guaranteed to fail —
even if it goes all the way up to the state Supreme
Judicial Court (SJC). We've been there, done
that — many times with
many proposed limitations and reforms (legislative pay raises,
limited sessions, term limits, rules reform, etc.)
without success. Remember, it's the
Legislature that funds the courts, clerk
magistrates, court staff, judges, and justices.
Cross or even slight the Legislature and the entire
judicial branch will starve. Realizing that is
when we began to call the SJC the Supreme Judicial
Kangaroo Court.
It Doesn't Need To Be "The Massachusetts Way'
For Bay State taxpayers,
here's an alien perspective you'll never see or hear in Taxachusetts.
It can be done — if there is the
will to do it.
"With the highest
inflation rate since 1982, Kentucky Republicans led the charge in
cutting the income tax rate to deliver relief to Kentucky workers
and families. [Democrat Governor] Andy Beshear vetoed that relief," RPK spokesperson
Sean Southard said. "At a time when Kentuckians are facing historic
inflation and the state coffers are brimming with money, Andy
Beshear believes your money belongs to him. Kentucky Republicans
believe your money belongs to you."
The Commonwealth of
Kentucky had a revenue surplus of just over $2 Billion, and is
returning half of it to the taxpayers who earned it and paid that
surplus into the state's treasury. The General Assembly
(legislature) passed a $16 Billion budget for each of the next two
fiscal years (Kentucky does one biennial state budget which covers
the next two years of state spending).
Kentucky Today reported on
Friday ("Governor vetoes bill that would reduce state income tax,"
By Tom Latek):
[Excerpt]
[Democrat] Gov. Andy Beshear on Friday vetoed legislation that
would drop the state income tax by 1 percent, and could even
reduce it to zero eventually, if certain benchmarks on state
revenue are reached.
He vetoed House Bill 8, sponsored by Rep. Jason Petrie,
R-Elkton, which reduces the state income tax rate from 5% to 4%,
on Jan. 1, 2023. Further reductions are possible based on
so-called “triggers,” which are dependent on increases in state
revenue....
On Beshear’s veto message he stated, “It imposes new taxes that
weaken public safety, harm vital industries, undermine economic
development incentives, and threaten Kentucky's future economic
security.” ...
After the
veto, the Republican Party of Kentucky issued a statement:
"With the
highest inflation rate since 1982, Kentucky Republicans led the
charge in cutting the income tax rate to deliver relief to
Kentucky workers and families. Andy Beshear vetoed that relief,"
RPK spokesperson Sean Southard said. "At a time when Kentuckians
are facing historic inflation and the state coffers are brimming
with money, Andy Beshear believes your money belongs to him.
Kentucky Republicans believe your money belongs to you."
The (Louisville, KY)
Courier Journal reported on Friday ("Gov. Beshear's latest vetoes: Abortion
bill, income tax cut, limits to public assistance," By Deborah
Yetter and Joe Sonka):
[Excerpt]
Gov. Andy Beshear
on Friday vetoed three priority bills of the legislature's
Republican supermajority — an "omnibus" abortion bill; one
cutting the state income tax rate; and another significantly
tightening rules for public assistance benefits.
Republicans in both
the House and Senate have the votes to override the vetoes from
the Democratic governor and have already done so several times
this year.
House Bill 3, the
abortion bill, House Bill 8, which cuts and could eventually
phase out the state income tax, and House Bill 7, which adds
multiple new rules to benefit programs such as Medicaid and food
stamps, passed with overwhelming majorities.
The Courier Journal on
Friday added ("Beshear vetoes abortion, tax and benefits bills.
Here's where all his 2022 vetoes stand," By Joe Sonka):
[Excerpt]
. . . While
the Democratic governor can issue vetoes within 10 days of
receiving bills, they can be relatively easy for the huge
Republican supermajority to override in the legislature, as they
only need a constitutional majority — at least 51 votes in the
House and 20 votes in the Senate.
This is the
veto override process for all bills passed before March 31,
which began the governor's 10-day veto period that ends when the
legislature returns for the final two days of the session on
April 13-14. ...
Lawmakers
will be able to override [vetoes] when they return to Frankfort
April 13-14. HB 8 [income tax reduction/phase-out] passed by
large margins in the House and Senate.
|
 |
 |
|
Chip Ford
Executive Director |
|
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State House News
Service
Tuesday, April 5, 2022
Robust State Tax Haul Continues with $3.8 Bil in March
By Colin A. Young
The trend of above-benchmark monthly tax collections
continued in March as the Department of Revenue brought in
$3.858 billion -- $802 million or 26.2 percent more than
actual collections in March 2021 and $427 million or 12.5
percent above the expectation for the month.
Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder said Tuesday that
March's revenues, like collections for January and February,
were affected by a change in state law affecting taxes for
pass-through entities, or businesses that pass all income on
to owners and investors. After adjusting for the
pass-through payments, DOR said, March 2022 collections
surpassed March 2021 by $423 million and rose above the
monthly benchmark by $455 million or 15.1 percent.
"March collections increased in most major tax types in
comparison to March 2021 collections and the March 2022
monthly benchmark, including increases in withholding,
non-withholding, sales and use tax, and corporate and
business tax. 'All other' tax, which includes several tax
categories, decreased relative to March 2021 collections but
increased relative to the March 2022 benchmark," he said.
"The increase in withholding in comparison to March 2021
collections is likely related to labor market conditions
while the increase in non-withholding tax collections is
mostly due to an increase in income return payments. The
sales and use tax increase reflects continued strength in
retail sales, which in turn was impacted by rising
inflation. The decrease in the 'all other' tax category is
attributable to estate tax, a category that tends to
fluctuate."
Through three-quarters of fiscal year 2022, tax collections
have totaled approximately $27.545 billion, which is $4.961
billion or 22 percent greater than collections in the same
period of fiscal year 2021 and $2.184 billion or 8.6 percent
more than DOR's year-to-date benchmark. After adjusting for
the pass-through entity excise, DOR said year-to-date
collections are trending ahead of expectations by $1.515
billion or 6.2 percent.
March tends to be "a mid-size month for revenue collections,
ranking #6 of the twelve months in nine of the last ten
years," DOR said. April tends to be the most significant
month for state tax collections and DOR has set this month's
benchmark at $4.884 billion. April revenues are scheduled to
be announced by May 4.
Commonwealth of
Massachusetts
Department of Revenue
April 5, 2022
Press Release
March Revenue Collections Total $3.858 Billion
Monthly collections up $802 million or 26.2% vs. March 2021
actual; $427 million above benchmark
Boston, MA — Massachusetts Department of Revenue (DOR)
Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder today announced that
preliminary revenue collections for March 2022 totaled
$3.858 billion, which is $802 million or 26.2% more than
actual collections in March 2021, and $427 million or 12.5%
more than benchmark. [1] March 2022 revenue
collections were impacted by the recently enacted elective
pass-through entity excise (PTE excise). Most of the impact
on collections associated with the PTE excise is temporary.
After adjusting for PTE excise, March 2022 collections are
$423 million or 13.8% above actual collections in March
2021, and $455 million or 15.1% more than benchmark.
FY2022 year-to-date collections totaled approximately
$27.545 billion, which is $4.961 billion or 22.0% more than
collections in the same period of FY2021, and $2.184 billion
or 8.6% more than the year-to-date benchmark. After
adjusting for PTE excise, FY2022 year-to-date collections
are $3.324 billion or 14.7% more than collections in the
same period of FY2021 and $1.515 billion or 6.2% more than
the year-to-date benchmark.
“March collections increased in most major tax types in
comparison to March 2021 collections and the March 2022
monthly benchmark, including increases in withholding,
non-withholding, sales and use tax, and corporate and
business tax”. “All other” tax, which includes several tax
categories, decreased relative to March 2021 collections but
increased relative to the March 2022 benchmark”, said
Commissioner Snyder. “The increase in withholding in
comparison to March 2021 collections is likely related to
labor market conditions while the increase in
non-withholding tax collections is mostly due to an increase
in income return payments. The sales and use tax increase
reflects continued strength in retail sales, which in turn
was impacted by rising inflation. The decrease in the ‘all
other’ tax category is attributable to estate tax, a
category that tends to fluctuate.”
March is a mid-size month for revenue collections, ranking
sixth of the 12 months in eight of the last 10 years. While
many corporate and business taxpayers are required to make
estimated payments in March, tax filing season is underway,
resulting in March typically being a significant month for
refund payments (outflows), which reduce total net revenue.
Given the brief period covered in the report and the impact
of PTE excise payments, March and year-to-date results
should not be used as predictors for the remainder of the
fiscal year.
Details:
• Income tax collections for March were $1.813 billion, $171
million or 10.4% above benchmark, and $553 million or 43.9%
more than March 2021. After adjusting for PTE excise, income
tax collections for March 2022 are $199 million or 16.1%
above benchmark, and $174 million or 13.8% more than March
2021.
• Withholding tax collections for March totaled $1.604
billion, $113 million or 7.6% above benchmark, and $122
million or 8.2% more than March 2021.
• Income tax estimated payments totaled $103 million for
March, $20 million or 23.6% more than benchmark, and $77
million or 303.4% more than March 2021.
• Income tax returns and bills totaled $534 million for
March, $3.2 million or 0.6% more than benchmark, and $383
million or 252.8% more than March 2021.
• Income tax cash refunds in March totaled $428 million in
outflows, $35 million or 7.6% below benchmark, but $29
million or 7.2% more than March 2021.
• Sales and use tax collections for March totaled $668
million, $124 million or 22.9% above benchmark, and $111
million or 20.0% more than March 2021.
• Meals tax collections, a sub-set of sales and use tax,
totaled $106 million, $32 million or 43.0% above benchmark,
and $39 million or 58.3% more than March 2021.
• Corporate and business tax collections for the month
totaled $1.191 billion, $125 million or 11.7% above
benchmark, and $166 million or 16.2% more than March 2021.
• “All other” tax collections for March totaled $186
million, $7 million or 3.8% above benchmark, but $29 million
or 13.5% less than March 2021.
March 2022 Tax Collections Summary (in $ millions)
Preliminary as of April 5, 2022
[1] With the enactment of the FY2022 budget,
monthly revenue benchmarks were developed for the August
2021 through June 2022 period only. In December 2021,
monthly benchmarks from December 2021 through June 2022 were
further modified to reflect the impact of the recently
enacted pass-through entity excise (PTE excise) and the
impact of taxation of non-residents. On January 14, 2022,
the Secretary of Administration and Finance announced a
revised tax revenue estimate of $35.9 billion for FY2022, an
increase of $1.5 billion from the prior estimate of $34.4
billion. This revision is based on recent revenue
performance and improved economic data. The revised FY2022
benchmark estimate of $35.9 billion represents July 2021
through December 2021 actual collections, adjusted for PTE
excise collections, and forecasted collections for the
months of January 2022 through June 2022.
###
State House News
Service
Tuesday, April 5, 2022
High Gas Prices Keeping Tax Relief In Mix
By Michael P. Norton
Gas prices in Massachusetts shot past the $4 a gallon mark
in early March, rose to $4.35 a gallon about a week later
and ticked lower to rest at a per-gallon average of $4.18 to
start this week.
The trend of higher prices is causing supporters of gas tax
relief, a concept that's been cast aside on Beacon Hill, to
resurface the idea. On Tuesday, the Massachusetts Fiscal
Alliance pointed to Connecticut's decision to temporarily
suspend its gas tax and reports that New Hampshire is
pursuing a gas tax holiday option.
Fiscal alliance spokesman Paul Craney suggested
Massachusetts lawmakers revisit gas tax relief during the
House budget debate later this month. Opponents of temporary
gas tax relief have raised concerns about impacts on the
state's bond rating and whether relief will even reach
customers in the face of upward pressure on prices.
"These prices are clearly not going away any time soon,"
Craney said. "Governor Baker has indicated he's not opposed
to the idea ... With two neighboring states taking action,
we will only hurt the gas station owners and consumers in
our own state if our legislators don't do the same."
Gov. Charlie Baker did not include gas tax relief in a
package of $700 million in tax breaks that he's pushing in
this year's budget talks. House leaders have expressed an
openness toward some tax relief but have not laid out a
plan. If House leaders offer tax relief plans in the budget,
it would also open that bill up to other tax measures.
The Boston
Herald
Wednesday, April 6, 2022
Gas tax suspension pushed again in Massachusetts as state
revenues soar
By Amy Sokolow
State revenues continued to soar above projections in March,
prompting one conservative group to again call for the
suspension of the gas tax.
“March tax collections blew past their benchmark, the state
has more money than they know what to do with, and yet for
Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka, it’s
still not enough,” said Paul Diego Craney, spokesperson for
the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.
Preliminary revenue collections for March totaled $3.858
billion — $802 million more than was collected in March of
last year. That’s 26.2% above March 2021 actual collections,
according to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. Last
month’s totals sat 12.5% above the benchmark.
The increases were due to tax revenues nearly across the
board, including increases in withholding, non-withholding,
sales and use tax, and corporate and business tax.
Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder said that March’s
revenues, like collections for January and February, were
influenced by a change in state law affecting taxes for
pass-through entities, or businesses that pass all income on
to owners and investors.
Craney noted that despite this trend of high revenues, the
Massachusetts House rejected proposals to suspend the gas
tax without a roll call vote. The state Senate rejected the
idea 11-29. He expressed concern that “Massachusetts
middle-class businesses will be fleeing the state and
relocating to New Hampshire and states like Florida.”
The Republican-led proposal would have saved Bay Staters $3
to $4 at the pump during this period of unusually high gas
prices, and would have followed states like Georgia,
Maryland and neighboring Connecticut in doing so.
Democrats, meanwhile, argued that suspending the gas tax is
a political “gimmick” that would have strained future
resources dedicated to transportation projects, and could
also negatively impact the state’s bond rating, as the
Herald has previously reported.
State Sen. Michael Rodrigues, D-Westport, noted last month
that gas prices have already begun to fall.
“There is no guarantee that you would see one penny of
reduction at the gas pump,” he said. “Do you all really
trust the big oil companies as we see that they are making
record profits over the last month throughout the course of
this war?”
State House News
Service
Friday, April 8, 2022
Advances - Week of April 10, 2022
The future of Gov. Charlie Baker's $700 million package of
tax reductions and incentives becomes clearer Wednesday when
the House Ways and Means Committee releases its version of
his $48.5 billion fiscal 2023 budget proposal. After Baker
in January surprised many on Beacon Hill with his tax relief
plans, House Democrats said they had already been looking
into the topic, but still have not outlined a
counterproposal or even said if they intend to advance tax
relief as part of the annual budget bill.
The release of the House budget, which will sit over school
vacation week and hit the floor for deliberations during the
last week in April, marks another step along the road toward
the July 31 end of formal sessions for this two-year meeting
of the General Court.
While representatives next week focus on revenues, line
items and spending needs, senators plan on Thursday to
tackle a clean energy bill (S 2819) featuring some of the
specific proposals senators believe are necessary to ramp up
progress in carbon emissions reduction. The bill, unveiled
this week, is designed in particular to clean up the
transportation and construction sectors, two big sources of
emissions where reliance on fossil fuels has become the
norm.
Also on the agenda in the Senate on Thursday are bills
dealing with open space (S 2820) and home heating oil leaks
(S 2821).
The week kicks off with a noon virtual hearing Monday on
Gov. Baker's health care bill, which faces an uncertain
fate, followed by a Tuesday hearing on the governor's $9.7
billion plan to take advantage of federal infrastructure
aid, a bill that's expected to pass in some form.
Storylines in Progress
UMass overseers plan to make decisions next week on an issue
important to many students and families: tuition and
mandatory charge levels for the next academic year ...
Fenway Park comes back to life Friday afternoon when the
Boston Red Sox hold a lockout-delayed home opener against
the Minnesota Twins ...
March unemployment and jobs numbers are scheduled to be
released Friday by state labor officials ...
The Judiciary Committee has a Friday deadline to make a call
on legislation Gov. Baker has repeatedly pushed to enable
judges to detain more defendants under so-called
dangerousness provisions ...
The week begins with the resumption of this session's
Constitutional Convention although it appears lawmakers will
not dive into the ConCon agenda ...
The Health Policy Commission is set to decide on both
whether to grant Mass General Brigham more time to file its
proposed performance improvement plan, and where to set next
year's health care cost growth benchmark ...
State reps (and their constituents) from Lowell (Tom Golden)
and Framingham (Maria Robinson) are in limbo as Golden works
out details of his new hometown job and Robinson awaits word
on the fate of her nomination to join the Biden
administration's electricity team ...
Heading into the weekend, Gov. Baker has three bills on his
desk including one (S 2616) that would allow adults to adopt
their younger siblings, a policy change supporters say would
create a wider range of permanent living arrangements for
children ...
Taxpayers get a bit of extra time to file their state and
federal 2021 income tax returns -- the deadline for both has
been moved to April 19 this year.
The Boston
Herald
Sunday, April 11, 2022
Massachusetts needs tax relief, can afford it, budget
watchdog says
Nonpartisan tax group says that Baker’s tax policies should
be considered.
By Matthew Medsger
If Gov. Charlie Baker’s tax cut proposals aren’t passed,
there’s a real danger the state could fail to attract the
talent it is going to need for continued growth, according
to the head of a nonpartisan tax policy group.
“I think that the proposal is balanced. It provides a lot of
help to folks at the lower end of the income spectrum that
have been most impacted by the pandemic,” Eileen McAnneny,
president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said
during an appearance with John Keller on WBZ Sunday.
According to McAnneny, in addition to helping seniors and
those with very little income, Baker’s proposal would help
Massachusetts continue to attract and keep the sort of
residents required for the state’s economy to continue
growing.
“Massachusetts’ economy is based in entrepreneurship and
investment in innovation and so we don’t want to make our
tax burden so high that we drive people away from
Massachusetts, particularly in this era when people can live
and move and be anywhere,” she said.
Baker’s proposal, submitted to the legislature in January
alongside his $48.5 billion budget plan for fiscal 2023,
would amount to over $700 million in tax relief for
commonwealth residents, according to his administration.
The plan includes tax relief for renters, adoption of
federal standards for no-tax status for low-income
residents, an adjustment of the “low income circuit breaker”
on property tax relief for older residents, and a proposal
to lower the estate and short-term capital gains taxes.
Despite the nonpartisan foundation’s endorsement of the
proposal, McAnneny acknowledged it has to clear a
legislature that just last month declined to provide tax
relief to motorists via suspension of the gas tax. But she
said the governor’s proposal has an advantage ahead of the
legislature’s planned July 31 adjournment.
“It is an election year and people like tax relief,” she
pointed out to Keller.
That may matter to legislators hoping to keep their jobs,
but Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito have announced they will
not seek re-election to a third term.
The House Ways and Means Committee is due to release its
version of the budget Wednesday, providing the first insight
into whether Baker’s tax plan has any hope of surviving.
Lawmakers are under no obligation to move forward with
Baker’s proposal.
The tax relief plan comes at a time when the state’s rainy
day fund, in part due to COVID-19 relief funds from the
federal government but also following record state tax
revenue, is currently sitting at an all-time high of $4.6
billion.
March tax revenues were up by nearly 14% over last year,
according to the Department of Revenue. That department
reports year-to-date revenues are up by nearly 15%.
The Epoch
Times
Sunday, April 3, 2022
Homeless Grandmother Sues Massachusetts City Over ‘Home
Equity Theft’
By Matthew Vadum
A homeless 66-year-old grandmother is suing a city in
Massachusetts for “home equity theft” after her home was
seized for a tax debt and sold, but her equity in the
property wasn’t refunded to her.
The legal action takes aim at what some call “home equity
theft,” which is widespread in Massachusetts, according to
the Sacramento, California-based
Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF),
a public interest law firm that’s representing the woman
free of charge. PLF has stated that it’s committed to ending
home equity theft across the country.
The legal complaint (pdf) in the case, Foss v. City of New
Bedford, was filed on March 29 in Massachusetts Superior
Court in Bristol County, Massachusetts.
In addition to New Bedford, Boston-based real estate
investment company Tallage Davis also is named as a
defendant.
On its website, Tallage Davis characterizes its work as a
public service, stating that it “purchases past due
obligations of municipalities and takes over all of the
risks as well as the legal and administrative costs and
obligations required in the attempt to recoup monies
previously owed to the municipality.”
“In any economic environment, revenues now are better than
revenues later,” the site reads. “In difficult economic
times, revenues now may mean being able to afford to keep an
extra school teacher, police officer, or fire fighter.”
The plaintiff, Deborah D. Foss, who has been living in her
car, is challenging a state law that allows private
investors to seize the equity that homeowners hold in their
property over relatively small tax debts. Her car was towed
because she couldn’t pay the auto insurance, but she was
able to get it back with help from her son, according to her
attorneys. Her family and friends created a GoFundMe page to
help Foss secure housing.
Foss lives on a small fixed income and suffers from chronic
lymphocytic leukemia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,
and neuropathy. She took care of her ailing mother for the
past 10 years of her life, and when her mother died, she
used the money from the sale of her mother’s house—plus her
own life savings—to buy a $168,500 home in New Bedford.
Foss lived downstairs and rented out the upstairs. The new
home needed repairs that she couldn’t afford and her tenant
stopped paying rent. When Foss couldn’t pay her 2016 tax
bill to New Bedford, the city initiated a “tax taking” and
18 months later, sold its tax lien to Tallage Davis for
$9,626—the amount she owed the city. Tallage Davis took
ownership of the property in September 2019.
PLF attorney Joshua Polk said he’s hoping the court will
make things right.
“Obviously, the government has to have some mechanism to
collect what is owed, but neither the government nor a
private investor has any right to collect more than what is
owed,” Polk told The Epoch Times.
“And that’s a matter of constitutional law and basic human
decency. I think home equity theft is cruel and unjust. And
Massachusetts law shouldn’t allow municipalities to enrich
themselves or wealthy investors at the expense of those
suffering from financial hardship, like Ms. Foss has been
suffering here. So we hope that this lawsuit will help bring
an end to the practice and get some justice for Ms. Foss.”
The Epoch Times reached out for comment to New Bedford Mayor
Jon Mitchell, but didn’t receive a reply as of press time.
But William P. Cowin, a principal at Tallage Davis, provided
a comment to The Epoch Times, quoting from a lengthy
statement issued on March 29 by attorney Daniel C. Hill of
Hill Law in Boston. Tallage Davis denies wrongdoing and says
it carefully followed the law.
Hill said the title to the property was held in a real
estate trust since 2015 and that the trust never paid any
property taxes after acquiring the property. The case went
to court, and in July 2019, Foss, the trustee of the realty
trust, was “given an opportunity to redeem the property by
paying off the back taxes, or hire a lawyer to challenge the
tax taking. She did neither, and was defaulted. The Court
entered a foreclosure judgment on September 25, 2019.”
In fall 2021, after Tallage Davis assumed ownership, it
tried to help the occupants relocate.
“The occupants signed an agreement under which they agreed
to vacate the premises by November 30, 2021, in exchange for
a monetary settlement,” Hill said. “The sisters did not
honor that agreement.”
The next month, an oil spill was discovered in the basement,
and Tallage “paid to temporarily re-locate the sisters to a
hotel while the contamination was being remediated.” The
remediation, documented by the state, is still ongoing and
Tallage “has over $75,000 in clean-up expenses to date.” The
sisters vacated the property on Feb. 1 and Tallage paid the
agreed-upon settlement funds, Hill wrote.
State House News
Service
Friday, April 8, 2022
Weekly Roundup - Friends of Labor?
Recap and analysis of the week in state government
By Chris Lisinski
"Public workers are the backbone of our economy and deserve
the ability to fight for fair wages, access affordable
health care and work in safe conditions."
So said Senate President Karen Spilka on June 27, 2019, when
she steered a public sector union dues bill through her
chamber in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's Janus v.
AFSCME ruling that barred unions from charging non-members
agency fees.
Nearly three years later, Senate staffers are waiting and
hoping to see if the Ashland native and one of the most
powerful Democrats in Massachusetts will meet their
unionization push with the same support she's voiced for
public sector unions elsewhere.
News of the union push within the State House walls spawned
an awkward dynamic, where many Democrats in the House and
Senate -- who are often quick to side with workers in labor
disputes and see themselves as organized labor allies --
hesitated to take a position until they see what kind of
tone legislative leaders set.
Even Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman, perhaps
the most well-known labor leader in the state, didn't want
to get too involved given the players involved. "This is a
very delicate situation, and a lot of feelings can get hurt
if things are misconstrued," Tolman said.
Key questions continue to swirl about the effort to organize
Senate aides with IBEW Local 2222, including whether
legislators will need to, or be willing to rewrite state law
to empower the push, and what would happen to a unionized
staffer if voters toss out their boss.
Instead of the labor movement on Beacon Hill, Spilka wanted
to talk about the next major legislative push her chamber
will make: a wide-stretching bill investing in clean energy,
electric vehicles and green building.
Top Senate Democrats unveiled their response to a
House-approved offshore wind bill, significantly widening
the scope of proposed action to target the transportation
and construction sectors.
That appears likely to complicate the lawmaking process. If
and when the bills head into conference committee
negotiations, the talks will not just focus on whether there
should still be an offshore wind cap and how to manage new
bids, but will also need to determine if the House is ready
for action on electric car rebates, utility decarbonization,
MBTA buses, solar panel sites and other topics that weren't
part of the House bill.
Senators' ideas are fueled in part by frustration with how
state agencies have responded since Gov. Charlie Baker
signed a law last year committing Massachusetts to achieve
net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
That displeasure was on display earlier in the week, when a
Senate panel dove into a utility-driven report analyzing the
future of natural gas in Massachusetts, which some lawmakers
panned as pulling its punches.
"In my view, reaching net-zero emission requires that the
future of gas is largely a future without gas," said Senate
Majority Leader Cynthia Creem, who chairs the Senate
Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change.
While both branches mull strategies to supercharge the
offshore wind industry, the Senate this week planted a flag
in another growing sector.
Senators approved legislation aimed at removing obstacles
and stumbling blocks for cannabis businesses with a
combination of grants, stronger oversight on host community
agreements, and authorization for "pot cafes."
It's perhaps the first time since the 2016 legalization
ballot question that lawmakers have revisited the topic with
an explicit goal of empowering industry growth rather than
tweaking regulations, an acknowledgement that recreational
marijuana is here to stay and has the potential to become a
pillar of the state's economy.
House Speaker Ron Mariano has also named the topic as a
priority, and the wildcard in the mix is Baker. After
opposing the ballot question, it's not clear where Baker
stands on the latest changes sought to help expand the
cannabis industry.
Baker has been especially wary of allowing cafes for adults
to purchase and use marijuana in a social setting without an
updated drugged driving law in place. The Judiciary
Committee already spiked Baker's proposed operating under
the influence overhaul, and the governor might now wield his
signature on the latest pot bill as a bargaining chip in an
effort to revive debate.
Another Baker
administration effort crashed and burned, mostly, when the
U.S. Department of Labor rejected the state's request to
waive most instances of overpaid unemployment benefits that
flowed through federal programs.
The feds wiped away the repayment obligation for a subset of
claimants who received Pandemic Unemployment Assistance
program overpayments made before March 23, 2021, saying
those workers did not know they needed to provide proof of
employment and could not be held at fault for improper
benefit levels.
But the Department of Labor -- headed by former Boston Mayor
Martin Walsh -- shot down the remainder of the
administration's request for a blanket waiver, meaning state
workers will need to launch a laborious process to comb
through tens or hundreds of thousands of individual requests
asking to be forgiven from an obligation to repay excessive
jobless aid.
Significant work is on the horizon for the Department of
Correction, too, to wind down operations at MCI-Cedar
Junction. Department of Correction officials announced
suddenly Thursday that they would work to take the
67-year-old prison in Walpole offline, citing a decreased
need for housing costs and "the aging facility's exorbitant
maintenance costs." Over the next two years, DOC will stop
using the prison, starting with relocation of its reception
and diagnostic center followed by relocation of inmates to
other facilities.
While lawmakers continue to push for a five-year pause of
all jail and prison construction, some celebrated the news
as a milestone toward additional criminal justice reform.
"BREAKING: @MassGovernor announces closure of Walpole
prison!" Judiciary Committee Co-chair Sen. Jamie Eldridge
tweeted shortly after the administration unveiled the news.
"Major priority of @CJReformMA Caucus & big push this
session by @MaryKeefeMA, myself & #CJReform members.
Declining crime rates, prosecutors' progressive shift & 2018
#CJRA led to today!"
Justice was on the mind of Attorney General Maura Healey,
who brought a cadre of mayors and Bay Staters who lost loved
ones to opioid overdoses along to talk about the $525
million Massachusetts will receive from a 2021 settlement
with Johnson & Johnson and a trio of drug distributors.
All of the money -- more than $210 million for cities and
towns and $310 million for the state -- will go toward
blunting the impact of the opioid epidemic that still rages,
including addiction treatment programs and overdose
prevention measures.
"Of course" those dollars are not enough, Healey said,
especially when placed in context with a crisis that has
claimed the lives of more than 21,000 Bay Staters since 2000
and left thousands of families irreversibly changed.
The AG buoyed reform activists who have long pressed for
Massachusetts to invest in safe injection sites, also known
as supervised consumption sites, by indicating some interest
in the controversial idea.
"I certainly have supported efforts at harm reduction. Safe
injection sites are part of that," Healey said.
Supporters have gained little traction in recent years amid
threats of federal prosecution from former U.S Attorney
Andrew Lelling and Gov. Baker, but with Rachael Rollins now
the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts and Healey in
the running to become governor, they may have reason for new
optimism.
The reform groups backing voter
registration changes, meanwhile, are hopeful they can
achieve success in a legislative compromise.
A panel of lawmakers tasked with deciding whether mail-in
voting and expanded early voting should return to
Massachusetts convened its first meeting on Thursday, two
months after legislative leaders tasked it with ironing out
a final bill to overhaul elections.
While the conference committee was idling, cities and towns
quietly conducted springtime local contests using
pre-pandemic rules rather than now-expired voting options
that proved popular.
Wielding Hershey chocolate bars, advocates poured into the
panel's meeting and urged members to back Election Day
registration, a slightly less extensive change than the
Senate-approved proposal allowing residents to register and
cast a ballot on any early voting day.
The committee has less than five months until the statewide
primary election, which could feature heated contests for
governor, lieutenant governor and other constitutional
offices.
If the past is any indication, a resolution probably may not
come until or even after the 11th hour.
STORY OF THE WEEK: History might be in the making among
unionizing legislative staff, but they might need to secure
a change to state law first.
CommonWealth
Magazine
Thursday, April 7, 2022
Bump says auditor cannot audit Legislature
By Bruce Mohl – CommonWealth editor
Back in 2010, the last time the state auditor’s job was up
for grabs, CommonWealth went out on the hustings to see what
the candidates were talking about. It turned out they were
spending a significant chunk of their time explaining what
the auditor does because few voters seemed to know.
Flash forward to today, more than 11 years later, and it’s
the candidates themselves who are debating the
responsibilities of the office.
Sen. Diana DiZoglio of Methuen, one of two Democrats seeking
to become auditor, has caused a bit of a stir by saying she
intends to audit the Legislature if she gets elected. It’s
an ideal issue for her since much of her political success
on Beacon Hill, first as a representative in the House and
then as a state senator, has come from taking on the
Legislature and its leaders for their handling of sexual
harassment incidents, nondisclosure agreements, staff pay,
and transparency.
What’s unclear is whether the auditor has the legal
authority to audit the Legislature.
Suzanne Bump, who is stepping down next year after serving
11 years as auditor, said she researched the issue when she
first was elected. According to a statement issued by her
office, the enabling statute of the auditor’s office grants
her the authority to audit more than 200 executive branch
agencies.
“The Legislature is not among that list; therefore, the
Office of the State Auditor by law does not have the
authority, express or implied, to audit the Legislature,”
the statement said. “Moreover, the Legislature is not an
agency or department but rather another branch of government
and, thus, subject to protections under the separation of
powers doctrine. Just as the Office of the State Auditor
looks to its auditees for compliance with their statutes and
regulations, the Office of State Auditor too is bound by the
limitations of its enabling statute and must act within its
prescribed authority.”
Bump’s predecessor Joe DeNucci, who occupied the office for
the previous 24 years, appears to have agreed. According to
Mary Connaughton, a Republican who ran against Bump in 2010,
DeNucci filed legislation seeking the authority to audit the
Legislature. The legislation never passed.
Anthony Amore, the Republican candidate for auditor,
believes the office lacks the legal standing to audit the
Legislature. His campaign manager Mark Steffen released a
statement saying Amore knows what public auditors can and
cannot do.
“He believes that all candidates for elected office should
make realistic promises they can keep,” Steffen said. “If
elected, Anthony will put his decades of auditing and
inspection toward efforts to reform the law, and if
unsuccessful he will support and campaign for a ballot
question to make the Legislature subject to the public
records laws, open meeting laws, and audits by the state
auditor."
Chris Dempsey, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for
auditor, hasn’t taken a stance yet on whether the auditor
has the authority to audit the Legislature. “The enabling
legislation gives the auditor’s office broad authority to
audit and to suggest changes to state government,” he said.
“I have a track record of reforming state government and
standing up to protect the public interest. I’m running for
this job to do more of that work, including taking on reform
of the State Police, making the auditor’s office a national
leader on climate change by making it the first in the
country to incorporate carbon accounting into our audits,
and overseeing the proper expenditure of federal recovery
funds.”
DiZoglio takes issue with Bump’s interpretation of the law.
“Nothing in the statute expressly exempts the Legislature
from being subject to the powers of the auditor’s office and
— let’s be clear — the Legislature has never been shy in the
past about exempting themselves explicitly from oversight in
other statutes, including the public records law,” the
senator said in a statement. “In addition, when it comes to
the argument about separation of powers, that hasn’t stopped
the auditor’s office from investigating issues related to
the judiciary. No branch of government, especially the
Legislature, should be above the law and exempt from
accountability. As auditor, if I see wrongdoing in the
Legislature, I will investigate, which is the right thing to
do. If those efforts are stonewalled by unwilling
participants, we can have the discussion in court. It’s
important for the next auditor to be willing to challenge
the status quo and not just give in to powerful insiders.”
Right now, auditing the Legislature is an ideal campaign
issue for DiZoglio. Whether it’s a real possibility or not,
the idea of auditing the Legislature feeds her campaign
narrative.
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