Gimme Lobby imports another
"non-partisan think-tank"
to oppose keeping the promise
State House News Service
Advances: Week of September 25, 2000)
"new numbers showing the
state's pension system
is more adequately funded than many believed"
"...on Beacon Hill, lawmakers are beginning to take
notice of the progress and wondering when the state might begin plowing funds dedicated to pensions into
other areas.
"Similarly, public employee unions may see the good
news as reason to demand benefit changes deemed unaffordable in recent years."
The Gimme Lobby is raging ahead to "Keep the Broken Promise
Broken" at any cost, to keep your money flowing into their pockets.
Even as their state pensions are booming -- the fund almost
runneth over like the state's "rainy day" fund -- still they cry "The sky is falling, we can't allow your tax burden to be
lightened!"
Get ready for the campaign of a lifetime! Never has a campaign been so clearly defined for us and our
posterity:
"To the victors belong the spoils."
Watch for the "A Promise to Keep: 5%" letter in your mailbox
later this week, and quickly send in your most generous contribution. Consider it your investment toward prying your
earnings away from the state's biggest and most selfish special interest ... the insatiable Gimme Lobby ("Mine, mine, mine:
More Is Never Enough!").
There's only six weeks left before the election. The future
you invest in will be yours and your family's!
 |
|
Chip Ford |
PS. Click
here to view a video excerpt from Barbara's Thursday evening New England Cable
News debate against Jimmy St. George and has-been former-Congressman Chester Atkins on Margie Reedy's
NewsNight.
Also recently posted is the Secretary of
State's 2000 Voter Information Guide for Question Four.
In our Update of May 23, 2000, "A 'Nonpartisan' Report, My
Assets!" we exposed the liberal front-group, the Center on Budget and
Policy Priorities, an alleged "nonpartisan research organization," as TEAM's national arm.
We pointed out then that its Massachusetts "contact" and
recipient of CBPP financial state grants just happened to be none other than the "nonpartisan" Commonwealth Center for
Fiscal Policy -- run by Jimmy St. George of TEAM (Tax Everything And More), who obviously is just as "nonpartisan."
So who and what is this latest "Washington, DC-based
research organization" (reported below), this Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that's about to blow into the Bay
State and argue against our state taxpayers' promised rollback?
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy is an offshoot
of Citizens for Tax
Justice.
CTJ's stated goals are:
* Fair taxes for middle and low-income families
* Requiring the wealthy to pay their fair share
* Closing corporate tax loopholes
* Adequately funding important government services
* Reducing the federal debt
* Taxation that minimizes distortion of economic markets
It's Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and Good
Jobs First website states:
"For the first 15 years of its existence, ITEP worked
extensively with Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ), providing much of the research
for important studies released by that organization."
"ITEP works with a broad spectrum of local organizations on
tax, corporate subsidy, and other issues relating to government taxation and spending policy. Tax and budget advocates, unions,
community organizations, religious groups, living wage campaigns, environmentalists, and economic development
networks consult with ITEP regularly."
Does this sound very "non-partisan" to you?
State House News Service
Advances (Week of Sept. 25, 2000)
STATE HOUSE, BOSTON ...
TAX CUTS & HEALTH CARE: More than a dozen health care-related
associations and advocacy groups will join Senate President Thomas Birmingham Thursday to officially launch their effort to
defeat Questions 4 and 6 on the November ballot.
The questions would roll the income tax rate back to 5
percent and allow drivers to secure rebates on auto excise tax and toll payments.
Opponents of the questions will argue that the $1.8 billion
that would be stripped out of the state's revenue stream is needed to pay for health care services to the poor, children,
the elderly and the disabled.
Organizations that have signed on with the Coalition for
Quality Health Care include the Massachusetts Hospital Association, the Massachusetts Extended Care Federation, the
AIDS Action Committee, the Massachusetts Association of Older Americans, the Massachusetts Home Health Association,
Massachusetts Community Health Centers, Health Care For All, the Massachusetts Senior Action Council
and the Massachusetts Mental Health Coalition.
Gov. Cellucci is leading the tax cut forces. Cellucci says
the economy is roaring, jobs are plentiful and state services have been expanded due in part to a string of tax cuts that he
says have spurred economic growth in recent years. (Thursday, 1:30 pm, Grand Staircase, State House)
The new Coalition for Quality Health Care will supplement
the work of the Campaign for Massachusetts' Future, the lead organization opposing the income tax cut.
The latter campaign, which enjoys strong support from
organized labor, will release a report Monday detailing the way tax cuts would be distributed by income group if voters pass
the income tax cut.
The report was conducted by the Institute on Taxation and
Economic Policy, a Washington D.C.-based tax research organization. Michael Ettlinger, the institute's director of
tax policy, will present the report.
In October 1998, he partnered with the same Massachusetts
organizers opposing this year's tax cut question to release a study claiming the wealthiest 1 percent of Massachusetts
residents received the overwhelming majority of benefits from tax cuts enacted in the 1990s. At the time, Cellucci deputies
suggested the study authors were only interested in raising taxes. (Monday, noon, Room 456)
STATE PENSION FUND: The Pension Reserves Investment Management
Board meets Friday. It's the first PRIM meeting since state pension administrators announced new numbers showing the
state's pension system is more adequately funded than many believed, largely due to strong investment returns generated by
the PRIM Fund managers in recent years.
The $31 billion-plus fund is about 85 percent funded, as
opposed to 73 percent. That means it may not take until 2018, as is currently envisioned, to erase the state's unfunded
pension liability and have enough money on hand to meet pension obligations to thousands of current and retired public
employees.
The unfunded liability has for years been a black eye on the
state's overall fiscal record.
Now that PRIM officials have a new funding ratio figure,
serious discussions about future investment strategies are expected to take place over the next few months. And on Beacon
Hill, lawmakers are beginning to take notice of the progress and wondering when the state might begin plowing funds
dedicated to pensions into other areas.
Similarly, public employee unions may see the good news as
reason to demand benefit changes deemed unaffordable in recent years. The PRIM Fund has generated a 15.4 percent return over
the past seven years, far exceeding its statutory benchmark of 8.25 percent a year.
Fund defenders worry that the strong returns will cause
Beacon Hill budget writers to pull back too soon on annual pension funding, which now tops $1 billion a year.... (Friday,
9:30 am, 84 State St., Boston)
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