Citizens for Limited Taxation & Government
"The Commonwealth Activist Network"
18 Tremont Street #608 * Boston, MA 02108
Phone: (617) 248-0022 * E-Mail: cltg@cltg.org
Visit our web-page at: http://cltg.org
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*** CLT&G Update ***
Thursday, June 12, 1997

Greeting folks;

The Beacon Hill Cabal’s tax surplus feeding frenzy continues!

Massachusetts has a bonding limit of $900 million. By law it can’t borrow any more money than that. This limit currently includes the Dukakis fiscal crisis emergency bonds. When those bonds are paid off, the state can borrow more money.

Sort of like how the Turnpike Authority has perpetuated itself over all these decades, if you recall, despite its promise to take down the tollbooths once the debt was paid off years ago.

The Senate wants to appropriate a big chunk of this year’s tax surplus to accelerate paying off those Dukakis debts. Thus, it would dodge the automatic tax cut that otherwise would be easily triggered this year—despite the Legislature’s best effort to avoid any more tax refunds by its recent increase of the "rainy day" stabilization fund, from $550 million to $850 million.

With the Dukakis bonds finally paid off, more money could then be borrowed without exceeding the bond limit, putting the taxpayers back into debt and precluding further automatic tax refunds.

Now we receive the following information . . . and can see another area where that tax surplus will be squandered. "Spend it anywhere, just don’t give it back to those who earned it!" seems to be the Beacon Hill strategy—it’s just a question of where to spend it the quickest.

Priorities such as $25 million to "let every kid find out what it’s like to play one-on-one with Michael Jordan."

Chip Ford
Co-director
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Subj: LAWMAKERS URGED TO MOVE AHEAD ON MEGAPROJECTS
Date: 97-06-11 17:42:36 EDT
From: State House News Service
To: SHNS Subscribers

LAWMAKERS URGED TO MOVE AHEAD ON MEGAPROJECTS
STATE HOUSE.......JUNE 11, 1997.......The lingering logjam that has stalled construction projects important to every region of the state appears to have been broken with news that plans for a new convention center in Boston are finally advancing.

House Speaker Thomas Finneran is reportedly convinced that the latest scheme to finance a $700 million convention facility in Boston is more reasonable than those of the past, and will not sap the state budget or consume money needed for other capital projects. A hearing on the Boston bill is scheduled for Monday before the State Administration Committee.

Today, the same committee was urged by the Weld administration to advance similar capital projects for other parts of the state. For the past two years, it has been understood that in order to garner legislative votes for a Boston convention center, economic development projects in other regions would also have to move.

Today, Lt. Gov. Paul Cellucci pushed for all of the projects, explaining that Gov. William F. Weld will testify at Monday’s hearing on the Boston project.

[. . .]

"Our plan for a Boston Convention Center won’t reduce the General Fund at all - because we propose a revenue financing structure without significant use of general obligation bond proceeds," he said. "That means there will be money within the $900 million bond cap for Worcester, Springfield, Fall River and Berkshire County projects. And that means the entire commonwealth will get the maximum benefit from the legislation that has been filed to get the convention center.

"Gov. Weld and I believe that Worcester needs a convention center, Springfield needs the Basketball Hall of Fame, Berkshire County needs the National Music Center, and Fall River needs a revitalized Kerr Mill site," Cellucci said, "just as badly as the city of Boston needs its convention center."

The bill heard this afternoon provides $17 million for the Worcester Convention Center expansion, already underway and scheduled for completion in September. The project is designed to attract more conventions, tourists and jobs to the city.

[. . .]

The National Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield would get a $25 million boost under terms of the bill. The existing riverfront site would be enhanced by a retail development and by construction of what Cellucci called a "state-of-the-art, multimedia exhibit hall with interactive displays that will let every kid find out what it’s like to play one-on-one with Michael Jordan."

The bill also provides $2.5 million for the National Music Center in Berkshire County. Under terms of the legislation, the state money would become available once there is $1 million in private money on hand. The planned museum and performance facility in Lenox "reminds us," Cellucci said, "that big initiatives - with big economic impact - can come out of small towns."

Another $3.5 million would be used to develop the Kerr Mill site in downtown Fall River. "Long ago, textile mills were the backbone of the Fall River economy, and now these buildings may become the backbone of that economy again," the lieutenant governor said.