CLT
UPDATE
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Beacon Hill 'Marching Season'
arrives on schedule
House leaders have come up with a lean budget proposal that cuts overall spending by $360 million more than Gov. Mitt Romney has proposed and slashes higher education by 20 percent.
The austere plan will also have a bottom line $300 million under the House budget approved for the current year, according to a spokesman for House Speaker Thomas Finneran....
The question of new taxes continued to dog lawmakers. Both Finneran and House Ways and Means Chairman John Rogers, D-Norwood, have pledged not to raise tax hikes in the budget plan.
Critics say House leaders want to produce a budget with cuts that are so drastic it will prompt calls for higher taxes. House Democrats say they have no secret tax package.
"There is no grand plan of that sort," said Rep. Peter Larkin, D-Pittsfield, vice chairman of ways and means. "We are going to have an honest budget with real numbers attached to real programs."...
Romney, keeping up the anti-tax drum beat, met Tuesday with a hand-picked group of small business owners opposed to higher taxes.
The governor said if lawmakers adopted his restructuring plans, they could avoid some of the deepest cuts. He also said he believed House and Senate leaders when they said they would not raise taxes to balance the budget.
"I don't want to see deep cuts to local aid, to schools to municipal police and fire departments, and reform is the only way to keep that from happening," he said....
Lawmakers could save $300 million even before making any service cuts if they approved a slate of government reforms, according to Steve Adams, president of the Pioneer Institute, a conservative think tank.
"My fear is that they are going to offer half measures," he said.
Associated Press
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
House leaders putting finishing touches on budget plan
As legislators prepare to debate a budget, two major advocacy groups are escalating media campaigns to persuade the public and the Legislature that Beacon Hill should raise taxes to resolve the state's fiscal crisis.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association has begun airing a 30-second television spot that calls for revenue increases, following three weeks of radio ads, as part of a $2 million campaign this spring to lay out the bleak prospects for education because of sharp cutbacks in local aid.
The Massachusetts Municipal Association launched a more modest effort late last week with a 30-second radio ad that promotes its plan to raise taxes and other revenues to protect local services....
The Massachusetts Federation of Teachers is starting to air television ads this week on cable outlets around the state...
Some Democrats, bolstered by interest groups such as the teachers union, government employees, and the municipal association, are hoping that the prospects of deep cutbacks will create a groundswell for a tax package.
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Groups air campaigns calling for an increase in state taxes
Representative Ruth Balser of Newton, who will be pushing in debate for new tax revenues to close one-third of the budget gap, concedes she lacks majority support now. But, "when the public sees how bad the cuts are, they'll be willing to vote for taxes," she said.
There are several options. Restoring the income tax rate from 5.3 percent to 5.6 percent -- still lower than during the 1990s -- would raise $450 million a year. Raising the sales tax from 5 to 6 percent, though less progressive, would generate $750 million. Each penny increase in the gas tax would raise $30 million. Closing corporate loopholes shows promise. Some fees can also be raised.
A Boston Globe editorial
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
No one-sided budget
The state House of Representatives today will unveil a $22.5 billion state budget that slashes deeply into education, local aid and health care for the poor while imposing $700 million in fee hikes - but no new taxes....
Aides to Romney, who submitted a $22.9 billion budget that boosts school aid by $70 million while minimizing local aid cuts to $232 million, branded the House plan "outrageous."
"It's wrong for them to make draconian cuts to cities and towns without making wholesale reforms to state government first," Romney spokeswoman Shawn Feddeman said....
Next week, hundreds of advocates will rally at the State House to push for tax increases. Finneran declared hikes dead on arrival.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Cuts run deep: House plan slashes aid, education, health care
A massive rally at the State House is in the works for Wednesday, April 30, when the full House may be debating taxes at the outset of its annual budget debate.
According to an email alert circulated Tuesday by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, the rally will feature senior citizens, teachers, students, firefighters, community activists, religious leaders, union members and people with disabilities.
In addition to lobbying inside the building, rallies are planned outside as well. Organizers are calling for new revenues – Beacon Hill code for taxes – to protect state spending on education, local aid, public safety and health and the environment.
The Legislature and Gov. Romney are in the midst of drafting a budget to close a projected $3 billion hole in the budget. The state spends about $23 billion a year within its budget.
State House News Service
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Big pro-tax rally to feature activists, firefighters, teachers
In a budget being unveiled today, House leadership takes one of the first bold moves against the popular Quinn Bill benefits, seizing on criticism of its skyrocketing costs and allegations of do-nothing degrees....
[Boston Police Patrolmen's Association President Thomas Nee] said it's unfair to single out police for cuts, especially at a time of police layoffs and heightened security demands. About 1,500 cops are expected to march on the State House Monday.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Cops, communities balk at Quinn Bill funding cuts
A group of pharmacies, led by the CVS and Brooks chains, has filed a lawsuit against the state seeking to block the collection of a controversial prescription tax.
The suit, filed Tuesday in Suffolk Superior Court, argues the $1.30 per prescription charge violates state and federal law, was improperly implemented and lacks needed federal approval....
The suit argues that though state calls the $1.30 charge a fee, it isn't because the proceeds won't be used "for the benefit of pharmacies or to defray the cost of regulating them."
[Plaintiffs' attorney Michael Gardener] said the assessment is a tax masked as fee, and was implemented illegally because it was largely shaped by the state's Division of Health Care and Policy, which is responsible for rate-setting and not revenue collection. He said the tax is also unconstitutional because it places a heavier burden on pharmacies that fill low-cost prescriptions.
Associated Press
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Pharmacies sue to halt state prescription tax
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
Marching Season has arrived on Beacon Hill right on
schedule as usual. It doesn't matter whether there's a billion dollar
surplus or a "fiscal crisis," the legions of Gimme Lobby
activists can be counted on to stage guerilla theater on the steps
of the State House every spring like a rite of passage, demanding more, more, more is never enough.
The hordes with hands extended are forming and will
descend beginning next week.
The trigger of this year's tax-hike strategy has been
pulled -- exactly as we predicted in January right down to the timing.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association, the
Massachusetts Municipal Association and the Massachusetts Federation of
Teachers are attempting to softening the tax hike battlefield with multi-million
dollar air attacks. The ground troops are staging for assault on
the capital as the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation provides cover
with its heavy artillery.
The battle plan is in motion. Marching Season on
Beacon Hill has been launched.
We don't believe the public is willing to be taken
prisoner: this more-of-the-same is going to fail.
"Compassion Fatigue" has set in, even among the million
who voted against our tax rollback but rejected giving it back through
our voluntary tax check-off.
The Gimme Lobby legions may think they're storming
the wall ... but this time they're only banging their heads against it.
In knee-jerk reaction to the House's proposed
reduction in Quinn Bill spending, according to the Boston Herald today, Boston Police Patrolmen's Association President Thomas
Nee said "it's unfair to single out police for cuts." Single
out? His members aren't being singled out ... nor are they immune
from long overdue cuts in wasteful overspending during this "fiscal
crisis."
And what's with this "fiscal crisis"
anyway? What happened to that $3 billion deficit so much has been made
about? The House today released its proposed a $22.5 billion budget,
just $300 million less than the current budget and $360 million less
than the governor's proposed $22.9 billion budget plan.
That "$3 billion deficit" was the cut in anticipated
spending. If the Legislature had a free hand in spending -- if surplus
revenue was still pouring in as it did in the late '90s -- the budget would
have been increased by $3 billion more than this year's budget.
Today's Boston Globe editorial opined: "Last year Finneran showed courage and vision in a months-long campaign to publicize the seriousness of the budget gap and to include a modest tax increase (most of it actually the freezing of the income tax rate that was due to go down) in the mix of solutions."
What shameless audacity, calling "The Biggest
Tax Increase in State History" -- last year's $1.2 billion tax hike
-- "a modest tax increase"! I wonder what the incorrigible
Morrissey Boulevard bow-tied tax-and-spenders would consider a
significant tax increase ... does anything qualify? Would taking all
of our earnings instead of just a third of it qualify, or would they
still be blindly calling for more, more, more?
The Boston Globe editorial board is obviously intent
on making our Massachusetts tax burden Number One in the nation next year when Tax
Freedom Day again rolls around. Only Connecticut still stands in the way
of that apparent honor.
|
|
|
Chip
Ford |
Associated Press
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
House leaders putting finishing touches on budget plan
By Steve Leblanc
House leaders have come up with a lean budget proposal that cuts overall spending by $360 million more than Gov. Mitt Romney has proposed and slashes higher education by 20 percent.
The austere plan will also have a bottom line $300 million under the House budget approved for the current year, according to a spokesman for House Speaker Thomas Finneran.
House lawmakers, determined not to be outdone by Romney, have crafted a $22.5 billion budget that cuts a wide swath through state government, dramatically reducing spending while adopting some of Romney's ideas and avoiding new taxes.
House leaders have already outlined some of the budget's highlights, and planned to release the plan Wednesday.
They met Romney halfway on a plan to boost state workers' health care premiums, outlined a plan to help hospitals cover the cost of treating the uninsured, and recommended a small increase in spending on trial courts, while touting other judicial reforms.
Finneran added more pieces to the puzzle on Tuesday, recommending a legislative package designed to boost jobs in technology-based industries, including $100 million in grants and low interest loans to high tech companies, funded by restructuring the state's debt. House leaders say the restructuring will free up $600 million.
"The only way we can find a cure to our current situation is to get the economy back on track," said Finneran, D-Boston.
The question of new taxes continued to dog lawmakers. Both Finneran and House Ways and Means Chairman John Rogers, D-Norwood, have pledged not to raise tax hikes in the budget plan.
Critics say House leaders want to produce a budget with cuts that are so drastic it will prompt calls for higher taxes. House Democrats say they have no secret tax package.
"There is no grand plan of that sort," said Rep. Peter Larkin, D-Pittsfield, vice chairman of ways and means. "We are going to have an honest budget with real numbers attached to real programs."
The budget cuts about $170 million from higher education, according to Finneran spokesman Charles Rasmussen.
House leaders are also reluctant to abolish the office of University of Massachusetts President William
Bulger, according to Larkin. Romney had recommended closing the office.
Highlights of Finneran's job growth package include reauthorizing the investment tax credit at 3 percent to encourage young businesses and consolidating all economic development functions into one secretariat on Beacon Hill.
Business leaders, including Richard Lord, president of Associated Industries of Massachusetts, applauded the proposal.
Romney, keeping up the anti-tax drum beat, met Tuesday with a hand-picked group of small business owners opposed to higher taxes.
The governor said if lawmakers adopted his restructuring plans, they could avoid some of the deepest cuts. He also said he believed House and Senate leaders when they said they would not raise taxes to balance the budget.
"I don't want to see deep cuts to local aid, to schools to municipal police and fire departments, and reform is the only way to keep that from happening," he said.
Parts of Romney's budget plan have met with deep skepticism from House Democrats, including a call to incorporate the Boston Municipal Court into the state district court system, and a proposal to merge the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority with the state highway department.
Lawmakers could save $300 million even before making any service cuts if they approved a slate of government reforms, according to Steve Adams, president of the Pioneer Institute, a conservative think tank.
"My fear is that they are going to offer half measures," he said.
Return to
top
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Groups air campaigns calling for an increase in state taxes
By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff
As legislators prepare to debate a budget, two major advocacy groups are escalating media campaigns to persuade the public and the Legislature that Beacon Hill should raise taxes to resolve the state's fiscal crisis.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association has begun airing a 30-second television spot that calls for revenue increases, following three weeks of radio ads, as part of a $2 million campaign this spring to lay out the bleak prospects for education because of sharp cutbacks in local aid.
The Massachusetts Municipal Association launched a more modest effort late last week with a 30-second radio ad that promotes its plan to raise taxes and other revenues to protect local services.
"I think it is going to be close to an Armageddon budget," said Geoffrey C. Beckwith, executive director of the municipal association. "There's going to be incredibly deep cuts, which would be more than painful. They would move education reform backwards and lay off firefighters, police, and public works employees."
The Massachusetts Federation of Teachers is starting to air television ads this week on cable outlets around the state that do not specifically call for higher taxes. Instead, the ads promote the concept that education spending is necessary for a sound economy.
The sudden appearance of pro-tax television ads comes as tensions mount at the State House with the release today of the House budget that calls for cutting Romney's fiscal 2004 budget plan by $300 million and scales back the governor's plans for reforms and reorganization that he says will save $2 billion. Critics say those savings are highly inflated.
The House plan is expected to propose far sharper cutbacks in local aid accounts, far less savings from government reforms Romney is pushing, and cuts to human services spending.
Some Democrats, bolstered by interest groups such as the teachers union, government employees, and the municipal association, are hoping that the prospects of deep cutbacks will create a groundswell for a tax package.
Romney, who saw the MTA ad while working out yesterday morning, said he is confident the public will not be swayed. "I think there is a very strong outcry that has been registered in the minds of elected officials against raising taxes," the governor said. "They recognize we have to do the tough job of cutting back on state spending, not cutting back on needed services in our schools and not raising taxes."
Polls show mixed results on the issues of whether residents would prefer cuts to state services over raising taxes. A Boston
Globe/WBZ-TV poll earlier this month indicated Massachusetts residents opposed tax increases, but also in equal numbers opposed cutting health and human service programs and reducing state aid to cities and towns. But some Democrats are pointing to a series of University of Massachusetts polls that, over the last four months, shows people favor tax increases over service cuts to cope with the state's budget deficit.
House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran and his ways and means chairman, John Rogers, a Democrat from Norwood, say they have no other choice but to keep tax increases out of the budget because their colleagues have no appetite for them.
The Democrats would need a two-thirds majority in both House and Senate to override Romney's veto.
MTA president Catherine A. Boudreau said the association's ad will set the groundwork for public acceptance of tax increases. "This is the first step, and when people realize the extent and depth of the cuts, the public will revisit their belief that you don't have to raise revenues," Boudreau said.
A coalition of human services groups, public employees, environmentalists and housing advocates announced plans for a daylong lobbying effort and rally April 30 at the State House, with the theme: "Stop cuts - raise taxes."
Romney yesterday continued his attack on what some of his aides call an orchestrated attempt by Democrats and special interest groups to push for a tax package. He invited the media to a State House "roundtable discussion" yesterday with 11 small business owners.
"We're not raising the white flag," Romney told the group, whose antitax sentiment was unanimous and ran high. "It's going to be an ongoing battle. ... We will not shrink from that position."
Return to
top
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
A Boston Globe editorial
No one-sided budget
Leaders of the Massachusetts House are preparing to battle Governor Mitt Romney over the state's future with one hand tied behind their backs. The House Ways and Means budget, to be released today, proposes cuts in education, cuts in health care, cuts in aid to cities and towns -- but not a dollar of increased taxes. If the $3 billion budget gap is to be closed as fairly as possible, the House, and the state, need two-fisted fighters.
Earlier this year, legislative leaders deferred to the new governor, expressing some interest in his reorganization proposals. But the details have proved less efficient, even in theory, than advertised. Yet Romney still refuses to acknowledge the depth of the cuts he is proposing, insisting that most of the problem can be solved through reforms.
This has finally generated real frustration in the Legislature. "The idea that he could save $2 billion in waste, fraud, and patronage -- what complete drivel," House Speaker Thomas Finneran said in an interview yesterday.
Yet Finneran said many citizens, hearing Romney's sunny blandishments, doubt the severity of the problem, despite the dire descriptions of people like House Ways and Means Chairman John Rogers. "Who are you going to believe," Finneran asked, "the guy who's selling you castor oil or the guy who's selling you snake oil? Snake oil is winning."
Last year Finneran showed courage and vision in a months-long campaign to publicize the seriousness of the budget gap and to include a modest tax increase (most of it actually the freezing of the income tax rate that was due to go down) in the mix of solutions. This year he senses less receptivity.
Representative Ruth Balser of Newton, who will be pushing in debate for new tax revenues to close one-third of the budget gap, concedes she lacks majority support now. But, "when the public sees how bad the cuts are, they'll be willing to vote for taxes," she said.
There are several options. Restoring the income tax rate from 5.3 percent to 5.6 percent -- still lower than during the 1990s -- would raise $450 million a year. Raising the sales tax from 5 to 6 percent, though less progressive, would generate $750 million. Each penny increase in the gas tax would raise $30 million. Closing corporate loopholes shows promise. Some fees can also be raised.
The House budget does propose raising some $600 million through a refinancing of state debt at lower interest rates. Finneran wisely proposes to avoid using this one-time money for ongoing programs, but it still could provide some relief.
All choices need to be considered. When faced with removing people's health care, closing libraries, and retreating from the great education reform initiative of the 1990s, the Legislature needs to fight with all its heart, and both hands.
Return to
top
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Cuts run deep:
House plan slashes aid, education, health care
by Elisabeth J. Beardsley
The state House of Representatives today will unveil a $22.5 billion state budget that slashes deeply into education, local aid and health care for the poor while imposing $700 million in fee hikes - but no new taxes.
"Most of the decisions we had to make in this budget were grim," said House Ways and Means Chairman John H. Rogers (D-Norwood). "But that's what we need to do to get our fiscal house in order."
In addition to the dollar cuts, Rogers and House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran told the Herald they will dramatically expand the purse-string powers of the University of Massachusetts and state transportation agencies - ignoring Gov. Mitt Romney's bid to combine highway agencies, consolidate colleges and fire UMass President William M.
Bulger.
For the second year in a row, state spending would shrink by $300 million under the House budget, as political leaders grapple with a recession that's left the state with $3 billion of red ink.
And for the first time in a decade, Beacon Hill powerbrokers have proposed slashing state aid to local schools - a program that has so far been protected from rounds of harrowing budget cuts.
The House budget, detailed to Herald reporters and editors yesterday, proposes slashing the $3.2 billion education aid account by $150 million, or 4.6 percent.
But a majority of school districts - about 170 - would lose 20 percent of their aid after being cut down to "foundation" level, the legal minimum amount.
MCAS remediation money is slashed by 80 percent under the House budget - falling to $10 million from $50 million, with the remaining money targeted to the poorest communities, officials said.
Aides to Romney, who submitted a $22.9 billion budget that boosts school aid by $70 million while minimizing local aid cuts to $232 million, branded the House plan "outrageous."
"It's wrong for them to make draconian cuts to cities and towns without making wholesale reforms to state government first," Romney spokeswoman Shawn Feddeman said.
But the school cuts are only half of the local aid story, as the House proposal slashes another $180 million - or 15 percent - from other local aid accounts that fund services like police and fire departments.
Local leaders, who had been outraged at Romney's smaller cuts, reeled at the news of the House's proposed hit.
"Those cuts would be deeper than anything proposed before, and would shove communities all across Massachusetts into fiscal chaos," said Massachusetts Municipal Association Director Geoffrey Beckwith.
In other highlights, the House budget:
l Slashes $170 million from the higher education system - a 20 percent cut.
l Hikes $700 million worth of fees, mostly in the court system.
l Fully funds the state pension liability, and protects it so lawmakers can no longer "game" with state workers' retirement, Rogers said.
l Provides $5 million to advertise Lottery games, which House officials estimate will boost gaming revenues by $10 million.
The House budget includes watered-down versions of a few of Romney's restructuring ideas, including plans to streamline some human service agencies and make state workers pay more for health care.
But House leaders ignored most of Romney's key reforms, including his bid to wipe out Bulger's office and merge the state Highway Department and Turnpike Authority.
Rogers and Finneran said they would run with Romney's proposal to repeal the Pacheco Law, which requires private bidders to prove they can save more money on large construction projects than public entities. But the House leaders offered a twist - saying only UMass and the transportation agencies would be freed from the law's strictures.
That move would give both sectors vast new powers to divvy out taxpayer-funded contracts to private entities, without the restrictions of the law.
Rogers said the experiment with UMass and transportation agencies would provide a "candid assessment" of a program many have blamed for skyrocketing public construction costs.
House leaders also moved to cut back on the Quinn Bill, which provides salary boosts to cops who get college degrees.
In the area of health care, House leaders moved to rein in costs at the $6 billion Medicaid program, which provides insurance to nearly 1 million of the state's poorest citizens.
The House budget adopts 18 separate reforms Romney proposed to limit eligibility, which would save $470 million per year.
But House leaders went further and proposed moving 20,000 MassHealth recipients onto managed care plans, which Rogers estimated would save $120 million next year and $200 million thereafter.
"It's bankrupting Massachusetts, and if you don't face that reality, you're faking," Finneran said.
The House budget also wipes out the state's methadone treatment program for heroin addicts, which falls under the MassHealth program.
Next week, hundreds of advocates will rally at the State House to push for tax increases. Finneran declared hikes dead on arrival.
Return to
top
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Cops, communities balk at Quinn Bill funding cuts
by Elisabeth J. Beardsley
House leaders are taking a firm hold on one of Beacon Hill's third-rail political issues, proposing to dramatically cut cash for extra salaries paid cops with college degrees and promising to shutter the "diploma mills" that provide them.
In a budget being unveiled today, House leadership takes one of the first bold moves against the popular Quinn Bill benefits, seizing on criticism of its skyrocketing costs and allegations of do-nothing degrees.
"We intend to shut down the diploma mills," said House Ways and Means Chairman John H. Rogers (D-Norwood). "A cop's education ought to be something other than receiving a diploma that is worthless."
Rogers told the Herald the House budget slashes the state's $40 million Quinn contribution by $9 million, or about 20 percent - leaving cities and towns, which share half the costs, to handle the shortfall.
The spending plan also codifies a series of reform regulations recently adopted by the Board of Higher Education, including minimum qualification requirements for Quinn teachers, conflict of interest prohibitions, and a ban on college credits for "life experience."
Cops were furious over the House proposal - particularly Rogers' characterization of some of the colleges that teach cops as "diploma mills."
"That statement has no relationship to the truth," said Boston Police Patrolmen's Association President Thomas Nee. "That is an insult to me and my family and the time I've dedicated to my degree."
Nee said it's unfair to single out police for cuts, especially at a time of police layoffs and heightened security demands. About 1,500 cops are expected to march on the State House Monday.
Local leaders also recoiled, saying many communities are already locked into union contracts that require Quinn-related increases in cops' salaries and can't afford to absorb the reduction in state aid.
"That would just leave cities and towns holding the bag," said Massachusetts Municipal Association Director Geoffrey Beckwith.
But House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran (D-Mattapan) said the program has gotten out of control after years of "lax administration."
Gov. Mitt Romney didn't propose Quinn Bill reforms, and suggested increasing its funding by $5 million to $45 million per year.
"Over the '90s, it was just hey, nobody's watching, nobody cares, and so the inmates tend to get away with whatever they can get away with," Finneran said.
"One of the ways to make sure that everybody is a lot more serious is to codify some of these things."
With Quinn costs growing at double-digit rates annually, House leaders last year imposed a two-year moratorium on new entries to the program, freezing the number of participating communities at 250.
Return to
top
Associated Press
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Pharmacies sue to halt state prescription tax
A group of pharmacies, led by the CVS and Brooks chains, has filed a lawsuit against the state seeking to block the collection of a controversial prescription tax.
The suit, filed Tuesday in Suffolk Superior Court, argues the $1.30 per prescription charge violates state and federal law, was improperly implemented and lacks needed federal approval.
Plaintiffs' attorney Michael Gardener also said the prescription assessment, implemented on Jan. 1, effectively requires his clients to fund a portion of the state dispensing fee for filling Medicaid prescriptions.
"They're robbing Peter to pay Paul," Gardener told The Boston Globe, noting state and federal laws require the state to pay pharmacies "reasonable dispensing fees" for filling Medicaid prescriptions.
The suit asks for an injunction blocking the state from collecting the first installment of the tax on May 1.
Spokeswomen at Gov. Mitt Romney's and Attorney General Thomas Reilly's offices had no immediate comment on Wednesday.
The prescription tax, set at $1.30 on each non-Medicaid prescription, was intended to raise $36 million by the end of the fiscal year. Pharmacies initially passed the charge on to consumers, saying they couldn't afford it. But most later decided to absorb the cost, with bigger chains refunding the money, after customers complained it amounted to a tax on the sick.
At that point, Gardener said, many pharmacies began exploring legal action. Aside from Brooks and CVS, smaller chains such as Costco Wholesale Club, Shaw's Supermarkets, Hannaford Bros. Co., Eaton Apothecary, Big Y Foods and various independents joined the suit.
The suit argues that though state calls the $1.30 charge a fee, it isn't because the proceeds won't be used "for the benefit of pharmacies or to defray the cost of regulating them."
Gardener said the assessment is a tax masked as fee, and was implemented illegally because it was largely shaped by the state's Division of Health Care and Policy, which is responsible for rate-setting and not revenue collection. He said the tax is also unconstitutional because it places a heavier burden on pharmacies that fill low-cost prescriptions.
Return to
top
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17
U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or
payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this
information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For
more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
|