Citizens for Limited Taxation & Government
18 Tremont Street #608 * Boston, MA 02108
Phone: (617) 248-0022 * E-Mail: cltg@cltg.org
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*** CLT&G ALERT! ***
Friday, March 28, 1997

The (Quincy) Patriot Ledger
Thurs., March 27, 1997

Hedlund says bill could shortchange taxpayers
By Lauren Markoe
Patriot Ledger State House Bureau

BOSTON -- Sen. Robert Hedlund is accusing legislative leaders of sneaking a multimillion-dollar tax increase into a bill that passed the House Tuesday.

And he is vowing to fight the measure when it comes before the Senate today.

"They want to speed the changes through before anyone realizes the impact. The impact is very clear. They want to shortchange taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars," said Hedlund, R-Weymouth.

The House voted for a provision included in a budget bill that would require at least $300 million more in the state's so called "rainy day" fund before any of it could be returned to taxpayers.

In future years. it would make it far less likely that the rainy day account -- even in these times of rising tax revenues -- could pay out anything close to the $48 a family of four will be able to deduct from its 1997 tax returns.

But House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Haley, D Weymouth, said there was nothing underhanded about Tuesday's action.

"It's not sneaky. Nobody thought to strike it. We'd been talking about it for months," Haley said.

Rob Gray, spokesman to Gov. Weld, pointed out that Weld, House Speaker Thomas Finneran, D-Mattapan and Senate President Thomas Finneran, D-Chelsea, all agreed to a higher rainy day cap at a joint press conference in January.

"You can't be more public about things than at a press conference," Gray said. Legislators may have been candid in January but they weren't this week, said Hedlund. They avoided a public hearing on raising the cap, he said.

Earlier this year Weld agreed to sponsor a bill to raise the cap to five percent of all state revenue instead of five percent of tax revenue, making it tougher to reach the point where taxpayers would get a break.

"It's up to the Legislature how they're going to move legislation forward," Gray said.

Instead of waiting until Weld's bill could be debated in a public hearing, lawmakers tucked the cap-raising provision into the supplemental budget bill voted on Tuesday.

"The bill was greased," Hedlund said. It passed easily on a voice vote. One representative spoke against it, but only after the bill had passed.

Rep. Ron Gauch, R-Shrewsbury, said the provision could cost taxpayers $323 million. "That's an awful lot of money not to be giving back," he said. Weld and House and Senate leaders in January said that the cap needs to be raised. Created in the late 1980's as emergency fund, the rainy day account isn't allowed to grow big enough before the taxpayer give-back is triggered, they said.

Hedlund disagrees, and said that as soon as he found out about the House action this week, he called Barbara Anderson of Citizen's For Limited Taxation and Government. She had planned to testify against the separate bill to raise the cap, and should have had the chance, he said.

"The Legislature is circumventing the process and denying public input by using the supplemental budget process as a vehicle to advance a revenue grab. There could be a large state surplus again this year, but if these changes go through taxpayers will not see a dime," Hedlund said.

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