The Boston Herald
Thursday, June 20, 2002
Bill collapses under request$:
Pols outraged by pork pile on amendments
by Elisabeth J. Beardsley
An environmental bond bill laden with House leadership pork
derailed yesterday, collapsing under a deluge of spending requests from rank-and-file lawmakers outraged over their
leaders' nest-feathering.
Speaker Thomas M. Finneran had hoped to whisk the bill
through the House without debate, shooting the bill out of committee late Tuesday night and rushing it to the floor
yesterday morning.
But the floodgates opened after the Herald reported
Finneran's leaders larded the bill with millions of dollars for their pet projects, while pleading poor mouth to rank-and-file
requests.
"What the speaker did wrong is he only took care of his
friends," said House Republican Leader Francis L. Marini (R-Hanson). "Chairmen bring their pork back to their districts
and the rest of us, we don't even get a 'thanks for coming in.'"
Within hours, 123 amendments had piled up in the House
clerk's office, totaling $190 million - nearly half the size of the $424 million bond offering. Riders were still pouring in at
closing time.
After spending all day struggling against the tide, Finneran
threw in the towel shortly after 4 p.m. - amid vocal complaints from lawmakers that their priorities were being shunted aside.
Canceling all action for the day, Finneran admitted on the
House floor that the "sheer volume" of amendments had become unmanageable.
Caving to rank-and-file demands, Finneran offered - and
members approved - an extra five days for lawmakers to pore through the 45-page bond bill and file their own amendments.
Tuesday has been set aside solely for environmental debate.
Without denying his lieutenants treated themselves to a
pork-fest, Finneran insisted the House's $424 million bond bill is a mere shadow of the Senate's $945 million package.
"The journals of our commonwealth have presented this to the
citizens as a bond bill out of control," Finneran said. "I disagree with that assertion, but members should think about
that - how we have conducted ourselves fiscally and responsibly."
Despite the self-congratulations, Finneran - who has beat
the drum relentlessly about the state's $2.5 billion deficit - expressed open alarm at the prospect of a runaway spending
train.
"I exhort all members to exhibit appropriate restraint with
the filing of amendments," Finneran said.
But Finneran's speech failed to mollify lawmakers. No sooner
had he concluded his remarks than Rep. Anne M. Paulsen (D-Belmont) jumped up and pointed to the Herald story, which
detailed how the vast majority of the bill's earmarks went to Finneran's chairmen and
favorites.
Paulsen demanded the bill be stripped of earmarks, so
lawmakers can compete on an even playing field when debate resumes next week.
"I assume my amendment should be on equal footing with the
other members," Paulsen said.
Lawmakers were furious they weren't given any time to
examine the bill - and then learned of the leadership goodies in the paper.
Lawmakers weren't the only ones digging in yesterday -
acting Gov. Jane M. Swift told the Herald she's readying her veto pen to excise any pork that doesn't meet the merit test.
"My No. 1 concern is that critical programs receive funding,
and that no programs that are not justifiable survive," Swift said.
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The Boston Herald
Thursday, June 20, 2002
A Boston Herald editorial
The realities of pork
About the only good thing you can say about that pork-loaded, $400 million-plus
"environmental" bond issue bill in the House is that it could have been worse - the Senate
passed one twice as large.
Bills like these reinforce the worst instincts of the
politicians, who at election time can parade as worthy accomplishments whatever pork they manage to stuff into the
bill in backroom favor trading. Yet they can rationalize this activity as harmless because the governor,
whoever it is, may simply refuse to issue the authorized bonds.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman John Rogers
(D-Norwood) showered benefits on his district, and on the districts of favored colleagues even as he held the total
below the Senate version.
Herald reporter Elisabeth Beardsley found that Rogers set
aside $675,000 in the bill for purchase of 6.5 acres in Norwood (by no means his only local project to benefit) and $3
million for open space purchases in the district of Education Committee
Chairman Peter Larkin of Pittsfield (by no means the only insider so accommodated), even though Rogers
refused another member's request for similar funds on the grounds that it was
poor public policy. We agree, such local favoritism is poor policy everywhere, especially when needs are
so great in housing, transportation, construction and renovation of existing infrastructure. It is
especially poor policy to allocate scarce funds for river cleanups, dam repair, trail
construction and similar work according to the number of brownie points a member wins
from the leadership.
There's nothing wrong with carefully borrowing money for
good projects that benefit the entire state. But the state's debt already is the highest per capita in the nation, and
governors are unlikely to risk the state's hard-won double-A credit rating by exceeding the promised
limit of $1.3 billion in annual new obligations. Only a fraction of the
"environmental" projects approved by the eventual House-Senate conference committee are likely to get funds. For
that we are thankful.
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The Springfield Union-News
Thursday, June 20, 2002
WMass lawmakers join pork parade
By Dan Ring
BOSTON House members from Western Massachusetts yesterday
moved to insert their own pet projects into $424 million environmental bond bill already stuffed with election-year
spending.
House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, D-Boston, yesterday
postponed debate on the bill until Tuesday and set a 5 p.m. Monday deadline for members to file amendments.
Finneran agreed to delay debate after some members said he
and other House leaders were using the bill for "pork projects" while shutting out rank and file members.
Rep. Cheryl Rivera, D-Springfield, yesterday filed several
amendments including $100,000 for drainage and other improvements to the LaBroad section of Springfield; $50,000 to
improve Emily Bill Park in the city and $200,000 to restore and clean up the Mill River.
Local lawmakers said they decided to seek money for
important projects in Western Massachusetts when they arrived on Beacon Hill yesterday and discovered the bill was
packed with money for communities represented by Finneran and other House leaders.
"I have to do my job and fight for my area as well," Rivera
said.
The bill allows the governor to borrow about $130 million a
year to pay for projects. The bill does not take money from the state's annual operating budget. The governor can also pick
and choose which projects to fund.
Even though the money won't come from the operating budget,
critics said it sends the wrong message for lawmakers to tout "pork projects" while also warning that state government is
facing a fiscal crisis.
"From a credibility point of view, it can be problematic
because it suggests to the citizens we have all this money to spend when in fact we don't," said Michael J. Widmer, president
of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Association.
Charles R. Rasmussen, a spokesman for Finneran, said
yesterday that people received plenty of notice about the bill. He said there was no attempt to use the bill only for the
projects of House leaders.
The House Ways and Means Committee approved the bill on
Tuesday and the bill moved to the full House of Representatives yesterday. The committee's version contained virtually no
projects for Western Massachusetts, angering some local House members.
Rep. Ellen Story, D-Amherst, said she and some other members
were "very annoyed" with the committee's bill. She filed amendments yesterday for $175,000 to resurface the
Norwottock rail trail between Northampton and Amherst, $400,000 for a composting
machine at the capped landfill in Amherst and $600,000 to build soccer fields in Amherst.
Rep. Michael F. Kane, D-Holyoke, proposed amendments for
$250,000 to improve the access road to the Mt. Tom State Reservation in Holyoke; $700,000 for the Holyoke Canal
Walk and $80,000 to repair rail cars and a platform for a tourist railroad in Holyoke
Heritage State Park.
Rep. Stephen Kulik, D-Worthington, wants to amend the bill
to include $1 million in grants for improving agricultural fairs in small towns in Western Massachusetts. Kulik also filed
an amendment to create a loan fund for local farmers to promote their products and another to
keep forever as open space a farm in South Deerfield owned by the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst.
In April, the Senate approved $918 million version of the
bill. The Senate's version included an array of projects for Western Massachusetts.
Lawmakers are aiming to approve a compromise bill before the
end of the legislative session on July 31. Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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The Boston Globe
Wednesday, June 19, 2002
State owes $325M in tax refunds
Cutbacks stall processing of 650,000 returns
By Bruce Mohl
Globe Staff
Two months after the state's tax-filing deadline, officials
at the Massachusetts Revenue Department say 650,000 taxpayers are still owed refunds totaling an estimated $325 million.
Staff cutbacks at the department mean some taxpayers are not
likely to see their refund money until the end of August, or later.
To make matters worse, the state isn't paying interest on
the taxpayer money it is holding. The law covering refunds was changed on April 17 to give the state 120 days after April 15
before it must pay interest at a rate of 7 percent on a refund. Previously, the limit was 45
days.
That change is costing taxpayers millions of dollars in lost
interest, while allowing the state to continue earning interest on their funds.
"Somehow the whole thing seems unfair," said Peter Bertschmann of Sherborn, who filed his
return early in March and still hasn't received his refund. "It seems to me that
those who are owed refunds are taking a disproportionate hit because of the budget problems of the
Commonwealth."
Ed Moore of South Boston, who says his wife's refund was
stalled until he threatened the state with a lawsuit, says he can't believe the state's nerve. The state is asking taxpayers
to pay an additional $1.2 billion in taxes while asking many to wait longer for their refunds.
Moore is convinced Acting Governor Jane Swift and the
Legislature cut the funding of the Revenue Department by $13 million last year so the agency would have fewer hands to
process tax refunds this year.
"I think there's something rotten in Denmark," he said.
Another frustration for taxpayers is the system set up by
the Revenue Department to tell them the status of their refunds. The system, accessed by phone or via
www.Massdor.com, doesn't provide any detailed information.
If a return hasn't been processed yet, the system doesn't
say when it will be processed. It just gives a canned response: "We are currently working on returns that were mailed to us 10
to 12 weeks ago. We appreciate your patience and ask that you not check back for at least
seven days."
Bertschmann and Moore say the message hasn't changed in the
last two months.
Alan LeBovidge, the Revenue Department commissioner, said
his staff is doing the best it can with the equivalent of 300 fewer full-time workers this year.
"There is no slowdown here," he said. "When you don't have
the people to process the returns, you can only do so much."
The situation would have been even worse had Swift and the
Legislature not appropriated an additional $1 million for the Revenue Department in April to help deal with the backlog.
Without that money, LeBovidge said, some taxpayers wouldn't have received their refunds
until December.
The problem could be just as bad or worse next year. The
Revenue Department's budget was cut $13 million this year, from $128 million to $115 million, and is unlikely to grow in the
fiscal year starting July 1.
The House, in its budget proposal, kept funding for the
department at $115 million, while the Senate cut it another $5 million to $110 million. The two branches are now trying to
reconcile their numbers.
Acknowledging his staffing levels are unlikely to rise much,
LeBovidge said he is hoping a bond proposal will be approved that would enable the department to purchase sophisticated
bar code technology that could rapidly read the 1 million paper returns filed by such major
tax preparers as H&R Block.
"Technology could save us yet," LeBovidge said.
He stressed that the best way for taxpayers to get their
refunds quickly is to file electronically. The approximately 1 million taxpayers who filed their returns electronically this
year received their refunds in three to four days, he said.
LeBovidge said those taxpayers still waiting for their
refunds may fare better financially if the department doesn't get around to processing them until later this summer.
Any taxpayer with a refund processed after Aug. 16 - the end
of the state's 120-day window - would receive their refund plus 7 percent interest dating back to April 16.
Of course, if the state extends the no-interest period again
the taxpayer would be out of luck.
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