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CLT UPDATE
Sunday, July 14, 2013
A bad week for the Governor
|
Did you know that Gov. Deval Patrick has led the
fight to end EBT-card abuse?
Just ask him.
“I think you know it was our administration,” he
was saying yesterday, “that surfaced these issues and is working to
get those balances down.”
Yes, the same payroll patriot who first dismissed
the Department of Terrorist Assistance (DTA) scandal as “anecdotes”
and then “leakage,” who called the state rep who really led the
fight a liar and who dismissed this newspaper as only running the
stories “to make people angry.”
Well, that was then, this is now.
But I guess if you mean by “surfacing,” allowing
the fraud to go on unabated, yeah, Deval probably can claim credit
for making EBT welfare abuse a major issue.
And hey, it was a mere six months after state
Rep. Shaunna O’Connell (R-Taunton) asked for the outstanding
balances on the cards that Deval finally turned them over to her,
but not before charging her a mere $800 for the privilege of looking
at public records.
The Boston Herald
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Gov. Deval Patrick snubs, then touts EBT probe
By Howie Carr
A member of the Legislature needed an $800 check
and a virtual crowbar to pry data on “high-balance” EBT cards out of
the Patrick administration, which has suddenly announced a series of
reforms to ensure that welfare recipients aren’t just sitting on
cash that could be going to other needy families.
Let’s set aside for a moment the outrageous
stonewalling by the state Department of Transitional Assistance —
along with the hurry-up reforms, which officials claim are not
intended to deflect criticism (uh-huh) — to focus on the data.
Rep. Shaunna O’Connell (R-Taunton) was prompted
to request the data when someone showed her a receipt reflecting an
EBT card balance of $7,000. Imagine her shock, then, had she known
about the beneficiary with $12,088 in food stamp dollars banked,
which was reflected in the data DTA finally released to her on
Tuesday....
There was an infuriating “nothing to see here
folks” attitude from administration officials when O’Connell started
nosing around, but they announced new rules this week that will
freeze or erase balances that exceed certain thresholds. That’s a
start. But it shouldn’t have taken a public battle (and 800 bucks)
to acknowledge the problem and protect the public’s investment.
A Boston Herald editorial
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Give her a refund!
How is it possible to run up a $12,000 balance on
an EBT card?
It’s a simple question. Food stamp benefits are
for people who can’t afford to eat. What kind of person is so broke
he can’t buy food, but so well off he can sit on $12,000 of grocery
money and never touch it?
Gov. Deval Patrick, a newly-minted “EBT Reform
Fighter!” said Wednesday that there could be a perfectly logical
explanation in some cases, “such as a lengthy hospital stay for a
recipient,” according to the Associated Press.
Given that the average food benefit is $230 a
month, $12,000 would be a hospital stay of more than four years!
Pal, you don’t need an EBT card — you need a
priest....
There are only two explanations. Either Patrick’s
team has no interest in stopping EBT fraud and didn’t bother to try;
or the DTA is the Inspector Clousseau of fraud — utterly incompetent
and inept.
Which one is it, governor? Is your administration
incompetent? Or just corrupt?
The Boston Herald
Friday, July 12, 2013
No one’s minding EBT store
By Michael Graham
The Telegram & Gazette
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Editorial cartoon by David Hitch
Gov. Deval Patrick is backing a hotly debated
provision to put photos on EBT cards as part of a supplemental
budget he signed today, though he still remains leery of how
cost-effective it will be.
Patrick, in announcing he’s inked the $125
million spending bill, sent the plan back to the Legislature
with an amendment recommending the Department of Transitional
Assistance, Inspector General and state Auditor to review the
measure, and report back to legislators in three years on its
progress.
The Boston Herald
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Gov. Patrick backs putting photos on EBT cards
Gov. Deval Patrick’s claim yesterday that he
is “supporting” a measure to put photos on EBT cards drew
immediate skepticism from critics, who said the halfhearted
backing isn’t sending an anti-fraud message.
“That makes it sound like we’re on the
precipice of getting this done,” House Minority Leader Rep. Brad
Jones said of the Patrick administration’s assertion he is
backing the hotly debated measure — yet is also sending it back
to the Legislature with an amendment to study its effectiveness.
“I would have a lot more confidence if the
governor was actually embracing this,” the North Reading
Republican said....
But a group of GOP lawmakers yesterday
blasted the initiatives and vowed to file legislation that
requires all EBT balances over $1,500 be returned.
“The reforms DTA suggested will not protect the taxpayers, it
will only get people to spend down the balances,” said Rep.
Shaunna O’Connell, who paid $800 to get the records the Herald
reported on.
“Families in my district don’t have in excess of $1,500 in their
grocery budgets.”
The Boston Herald
Friday, July 12, 2013
Skeptics question Deval Patrick's EBT call
Faced with an annual state budget relying on
uncertain revenues, Gov. Deval Patrick on Friday used his veto
pen to slice out $240 million in transportation funding and $177
million in unrestricted local aid before signing a $33.6 billion
bill. Patrick also vetoed another $18 million for programs he
thinks are unnecessary.
In January, Patrick proposed major new
spending on education and transportation fueled by a $1.9
billion revenue increase driven by an income tax hike, the
closing of tax breaks and an offsetting sales tax decrease.
In June, the Legislature sent Patrick a $500
million tax bill, raising new revenues with increased tobacco
taxes, the new application of the sales tax to certain software
services, and a 3-cent hike in the gas tax, which would
subsequently be tied to inflation.
Patrick, who argues the tax bill would not
achieve the transportation funding it purports to, sent the bill
back with an amendment. The state budget, which Patrick had to
act on by Friday, relied on $183.5 million from the tax bill for
spending priorities unrelated to transportation....
The $177 million local aid cut amounts to a
19 percent reduction of the unrestricted local aid distributed
to the state’s 351 cities and towns. If it stands, it would
bring the funding down to levels not seen since 1986, according
to Massachusetts Municipal Association Executive Director Geoff
Beckwith.
“It would destabilize local budgets all
throughout the Commonwealth; communities forced to lay off
thousands of employees; it would slash services,” said Beckwith.
He said, “We believe that these revenues, the tax revenues, will
be coming. I think everyone expects those revenues will be
enacted by the Legislature, with or without the governor’s
signature.”
State House News Service
Friday, July 12, 2013
Patrick signs Fiscal '14 budget, vetoes $435 Million amid tax
fight
It raised the stakes in his ongoing showdown
with legislative leaders while leaving the embattled MBTA with a
$115 million deficit and local towns facing a 19 percent cut in
much-needed aid....
Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo has
signaled he has enough members behind him to override the
governor, and today vowed that lawmakers “will protect the
cities and towns of Massachusetts.” The House is expected to
vote on Patrick’s amendment Wednesday, followed by the Senate
the next day.
“We passed a budget that addresses key
transportation needs, provides funding to our municipalities and
makes key investments in higher education and community
colleges,” DeLeo said in a statement, “and we will again vote
next week to maintain that commitment.” ...
Patrick’s budget does include some
closely-watched policy decisions. It creates a Bureau of Program
Integrity, headed by the Inspector General, to oversee the
embattled Department of Transitional Assistance, which has come
under heavy fire for its ability to root out and identify fraud.
It also makes the long-guarded MBTA pension
fund public for the first time, opening what have been
taxpayer-funded books.
The Boston Herald
Friday, July 12, 2013
Gov. Patrick slashes local aid, MBTA funds
The legislature produced a budget for FY 2014
as it began last week.
The budget does not address persistent
structural deficits.
In a year during which baseline revenues have
grown because of a slowly recovering economy, we have set
ourselves on a course to raise taxes and, remarkably, also to
withdraw hundreds of millions of dollars from the rainy-day
fund.
Pioneer Institute
Thursday, July 11, 2013
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Massachusetts’s 2014 Status Quo
Budget
Policy Brief: July 11, 2013
You know how when you get a new phone and, of
course, sign up for a long term contract with the wireless
company of your choice, they — out of the goodness of their
business-generating hearts — deeply discount the price of the
phone. On a good day that $400 phone may cost, say, $150 in
cash....
A bill filed by Reps. Denise Garlick
(D-Needham) and Jay Barrows (R-Mansfield) would correct that
situation and allow taxes to be collected only on the actual
price paid. What could be more fair?
The bill, just approved by the Legislature’s
Committee on Revenue, should have weary taxpayers shouting, “Can
you hear us now?”
A Boston Herald editorial
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Good enough to Tweet
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
•
Governor Patrick has had a tough week on Beacon Hill, and the one
ahead looks to be even tougher for him. This is good news for us
taxpayers, who regardless will be getting hammered with tax
increases imposed by the Democrat-controlled Legislature, though
less than the $1.9 Billion the governor sought. While some are
praising a tax hike of "only" half a billion more or our
dollars, taxpayers are still in trouble here in Taxachusetts.
• The
Patrick administration's attempt to claim credit for State Rep.
Shaunna O'Connell's Herculean effort to expose welfare recipients'
bank account balances, despite months of it stonewalling her, was
shameful. While the Boston Globe carried the governor's water as
usual — providing him with as much
cover and concealment as it could — few
who are paying attention were fooled.
His sudden conversion to putting photos on EBT
Cards — with of course his exclusions,
restrictions and more "study" — isn't fooling many anymore either.
The fight this lameduck
governor has picked with House and Senate leadership is doing him no
good.
•
Governor Patrick signed the Legislature's
Fiscal 2014 state budget on Friday — almost two weeks into FY 2014 —
along with his vetoes and recommendations. They are expected to be
quickly overridden this week. The Legislature will likely have its
way, for spite if no other reason.
This is nothing taxpayers
can celebrate. Gas, cigarette, and computer services taxes will
still be hiked by over $500 Million — despite revenues coming in at
over $600 Million more than expected by late June. These new taxes,
of course, are on top of and in addition to the over-burden
that is already being extracted from us.
The Pioneer
Institute's analysis makes this budget even more depressing:
"The budget does not address persistent
structural deficits.... In a year during which baseline
revenues have grown because of a slowly recovering economy,
we have set ourselves on a course to raise taxes and,
remarkably, also to withdraw hundreds of millions of dollars
from the rainy-day fund."
As always, on Bacon Hill the over-spending
continues even as revenues increase. Revenues never increase as fast
as the pols can spend them. Bacon Hill is like the dog chasing
its tail. More Is Never Enough (MINE) and never will be
— until and unless we replace those who
make the laws with those who will represent us, we the hard-working
taxpayers who fund all of government.
• The
only honestly good news is that the Revenue Committee has
recommended that when we buy a cell phone/contract, we pay a sales
tax only on the amount of the actual sale. What a revolutionary
concept! It's a good first step, but has a long way to go before
undoing the abusive current law. (See also: State House News
Service, Jul. 9, "Committee
okays bill to limit sales tax to discounted phone prices")
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Chip Ford |
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The Boston Herald
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Gov. Deval Patrick snubs, then touts EBT probe
By Howie Carr
Did you know that Gov. Deval Patrick has led the fight to end EBT-card
abuse?
Just ask him.
“I think you know it was our administration,” he was saying
yesterday, “that surfaced these issues and is working to get those
balances down.”
Yes, the same payroll patriot who first dismissed the Department of
Terrorist Assistance (DTA) scandal as “anecdotes” and then
“leakage,” who called the state rep who really led the fight a liar
and who dismissed this newspaper as only running the stories “to
make people angry.”
Well, that was then, this is now.
But I guess if you mean by “surfacing,” allowing the fraud to go on
unabated, yeah, Deval probably can claim credit for making EBT
welfare abuse a major issue.
And hey, it was a mere six months after state Rep. Shaunna O’Connell
(R-Taunton) asked for the outstanding balances on the cards that
Deval finally turned them over to her, but not before charging her a
mere $800 for the privilege of looking at public records.
But don’t worry, Deval et al. have a plan.
“Officials said they will contact all those with more than $1,500 on
EBT cards, asking them to call DTA to explain their cash kitty.”
O’Connell is skeptical, to put it mildly: “They’re going to just tip
off people and tell them their balances are too high.”
But wait, there’s more. When the balance on the SNAP portion of the
card — food stamps — reaches $5,000, those crack sleuths at the DTA
will begin a “case review.”
The top SNAP card balance was $12,088. But let’s stick to the cash
EBT cards, where the highest take was $4,622.
How many working people in this state have $4,622 in their checking
account, or on their debit card, or whatever? Damn few.
The Legislature plans to take up welfare reform in October, wink
wink nudge nudge. The Democrats used to talk about their
constituents living “paycheck to paycheck.” Now they live EBT reload
to EBT reload.
The liberals do want one reform though. They want to remove those
pesky balances from the store receipts. What gives taxpayers the
right to know how much more flush the local layabout is than they
are?
I have a receipt from a big chain supermarket over Memorial Day
weekend. The “vulnerable” citizen (or non-citizen) spent $228.48,
leaving them with a balance of $2,229.41.
Goodies included Doritos (nacho and cool ranch), a 12-pack of Dr.
Pepper, an $18.99 veggie platter, $68.71 worth of filet mignon, a
$19.99 rack of baby back ribs and $17.53 in petit sirloins.
The state Democratic convention is being held this weekend in
Lowell. What are the chances any pol will make a speech denouncing
EBT card fraud?
Three chances. Slim, fat and none.
The Boston Herald
Thursday, July 11, 2013
A Boston Herald editorial
Give her a refund!
A member of the Legislature needed an $800 check and a virtual
crowbar to pry data on “high-balance” EBT cards out of the Patrick
administration, which has suddenly announced a series of reforms to
ensure that welfare recipients aren’t just sitting on cash that
could be going to other needy families.
Let’s set aside for a moment the outrageous stonewalling by the
state Department of Transitional Assistance — along with the
hurry-up reforms, which officials claim are not intended to deflect
criticism (uh-huh) — to focus on the data.
Rep. Shaunna O’Connell (R-Taunton) was prompted to request the data
when someone showed her a receipt reflecting an EBT card balance of
$7,000. Imagine her shock, then, had she known about the beneficiary
with $12,088 in food stamp dollars banked, which was reflected in
the data DTA finally released to her on Tuesday.
As of March 31, a total of 1,794 food stamp accounts (funded with
federal dollars) had balances of more than $1,500, and another 45
had balances exceeding $5,000.
For those who receive cash welfare aid funded with state dollars,
the average balance in March was just $25.21. But one account-holder
had a $4,622 balance, and another $4,320. Six households had a
balance over $2,500, while 37 exceeded $1,500.
The effort to unearth this data isn’t about punishing a small number
of beneficiaries who manage to scrimp and save.
It’s to expose the fact that there are welfare recipients who
clearly don’t need the money who continue to collect it — and until
now the state showed no interest in doing a thing about it. Some
card-holders are obviously going months or even years without
dipping into the funds.
There was an infuriating “nothing to see here folks” attitude from
administration officials when O’Connell started nosing around, but
they announced new rules this week that will freeze or erase
balances that exceed certain thresholds. That’s a start. But it
shouldn’t have taken a public battle (and 800 bucks) to acknowledge
the problem and protect the public’s investment.
The Boston Herald
Friday, July 12, 2013
No one’s minding EBT store
By Michael Graham
How is it possible to run up a $12,000 balance on an EBT card?
It’s a simple question. Food stamp benefits are for people who can’t
afford to eat. What kind of person is so broke
he can’t buy food,
but so well off he can sit on $12,000 of grocery money and never
touch it?
Gov. Deval Patrick, a newly-minted “EBT Reform Fighter!” said
Wednesday that there could be a perfectly logical explanation in
some cases, “such as a lengthy hospital stay for a recipient,”
according to the Associated Press.
Given that the average food benefit is $230 a month, $12,000 would
be a hospital stay of more than four years!
Pal, you don’t need an EBT card — you need a priest.
So assuming you aren’t a welfare recipient who happened to be on a
doomed, three-hour cruise with Gilligan and the Skipper, there is no
rational explanation for having $4,000 cash balances or $10,000 food
balances on your taxpayer-funded benefits.
But that’s not the question I’m asking. I want to know how it is
possible for an EBT account to be this ridiculously, blatantly out
whack, and for the Patrick administration and its Department of
Transitional Assistance and the USDA (which funds food stamps) to
keep pumping our money into it?
My first job out of college was at a third-rate rent-a-car company
in Tulsa, Okla. When people drove away in one of our Chevy Cavaliers
(I said it was third-rate), it was possible for them to keep it a
day or two longer than the contract without us noticing. Hey, stuff
happens. People show up a few days late, settle up — no biggie.
But when the car was gone a week or more beyond the limit, things
happened. Phone calls were made, credit card companies contacted.
Eventually the police were involved.
This was a redneck outfit using computers so primitive they came
with a pull start. But we knew when a line had been crossed.
Massachusetts has a massive government bureaucracy, one that can
track every unpaid, out-of-state speeding ticket and can use my
driver’s license to make sure I pay my local property taxes.
But dead welfare recipients — hundreds of them — and ... nothing.
EBT card-holders who never submit their Social Security numbers ...
but continue receiving benefits for years.
And now EBT accounts with massive balances bigger than the average
middle-class savings account — and nobody noticed? No red flags went
up? No questions were asked?
“People who are eligible for these benefits are in many cases the
poorest of the poor, so having an accumulated balance certainly
raises issues,” Patrick said Wednesday, after the data was finally
released.
Hey, governor — if it “certainly raises issues,” why weren’t those
issues raised a month ago? A year ago? When you first took office?
There is only one explanation for the Patrick administration not to
notice huge EBT balances like these: They’re not looking.
Somebody in the administration is supposed to be on the side of
taxpayers. Somebody is supposed to be the security guard watching
over our money. It’s one thing for the guard not to notice if
somebody shoplifts a candy bar.
But $12,000 is the equivalent of shoplifting the Slurpee machine,
then coming back for the nacho-maker, too.
There are only two explanations. Either Patrick’s team has no
interest in stopping EBT fraud and didn’t bother to try; or the DTA
is the Inspector Clousseau of fraud — utterly incompetent and inept.
Which one is it, governor? Is your administration incompetent? Or
just corrupt?
The Boston Herald
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Gov. Patrick backs putting photos on EBT cards
By Matt Stout
Gov. Deval Patrick is backing a hotly debated provision to put
photos on EBT cards as part of a supplemental budget he signed
today, though he still remains leery of how cost-effective it will
be.
Patrick, in announcing he’s inked the $125 million spending bill,
sent the plan back to the Legislature with an amendment recommending
the Department of Transitional Assistance, Inspector General and
state Auditor to review the measure, and report back to legislators
in three years on its progress.
The move was a centerpiece of Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo and
House Republicans’ push to combat EBT card trafficking, but it also
drew fire from critics, who contended former Gov. Mitt Romney
eliminated it in 2004 because it was expensive and didn’t reduce
fraud.
Funding for it, too, remains a question. The supplemental budget
approved by the legislature did not include any money for slapping
pictures on EBT cards, and Patrick instead said he’ll recommend
committing $2.5 million to it as part of a separate supplemental
bill he’ll file tomorrow.
DTA officials have previously said the practice would carry $7
million in first-year costs, and run the state $4 million every year
after. A separate welfare reform bill passed by the Senate last
month recommended $5 million to cover the measure.
The provision is part of a bill that also kicks in more than $55
million to cover snow removal costs, $10 million for youth summer
jobs and another $13.6 million to cover the special Senate election
won by Ed Markey last month.
Patrick also slashed $7.3 million from the legislature’s proposal.
The announcement comes a day before Patrick is expected to unveil
his decisions on this year’s $34 billion state budget, which is
reliant upon a $500 million tax bill that remains unsigned and a
point of contention in his showdown with legislative leaders.
Patrick has repeatedly said he won’t sign the bill if it doesn’t
eventually kick transportation spending north of $800 million, a
level he said the state can’t reach if officials nix western
Massachusetts tolls in 2017 and the $135 million in revenue they
generate.
He recommended hiking the gas tax in their place, but DeLeo and
Senate President Therese Murray moved quickly to blast the proposal.
Both chambers are expected to vote to reject the amendment next
week.
The Boston Herald
Friday, July 12, 2013
Skeptics question Deval Patrick's EBT call
By Matt Stout
Gov. Deval Patrick’s claim yesterday that he is “supporting” a
measure to put photos on EBT cards drew immediate skepticism from
critics, who said the halfhearted backing isn’t sending an
anti-fraud message.
“That makes it sound like we’re on the precipice of getting this
done,” House Minority Leader Rep. Brad Jones said of the Patrick
administration’s assertion he is backing the hotly debated measure —
yet is also sending it back to the Legislature with an amendment to
study its effectiveness.
“I would have a lot more confidence if the governor was actually
embracing this,” the North Reading Republican said.
Patrick’s office made a point to highlight the proposal amid the
release of a $125 million supplemental budget in which he called for
$2.5 million to fund the measure and added an amendment asking the
inspector general, state auditor and the Department of Transitional
Assistance to report back on the program’s progress in three years.
The move comes a day after Patrick, who has previously downplayed
scandals that have plagued the program, jumped to paint his
administration as the whistle-blower of EBT fraud after the Herald
reported more than 1,800 people were carrying food stamps balances
over $1,500, including one account with $12,000.
The DTA simultaneously released a list of reforms to better track
the bloated balances.
But a group of GOP lawmakers yesterday blasted the initiatives and
vowed to file legislation that requires all EBT balances over $1,500
be returned.
“The reforms DTA suggested will not protect the taxpayers, it will
only get people to spend down the balances,” said Rep. Shaunna
O’Connell, who paid $800 to get the records the Herald reported on.
“Families in my district don’t have in excess of $1,500 in their
grocery budgets.”
State House News Service
Friday, July 12, 2013
Patrick signs Fiscal '14 budget, vetoes $435 Million amid tax fight
By Andy Metzger
Faced with an annual state budget relying on uncertain revenues,
Gov. Deval Patrick on Friday used his veto pen to slice out $240
million in transportation funding and $177 million in unrestricted
local aid before signing a $33.6 billion bill. Patrick also vetoed
another $18 million for programs he thinks are unnecessary.
In January, Patrick proposed major new spending on education and
transportation fueled by a $1.9 billion revenue increase driven by
an income tax hike, the closing of tax breaks and an offsetting
sales tax decrease.
In June, the Legislature sent Patrick a $500 million tax bill,
raising new revenues with increased tobacco taxes, the new
application of the sales tax to certain software services, and a
3-cent hike in the gas tax, which would subsequently be tied to
inflation.
Patrick, who argues the tax bill would not achieve the
transportation funding it purports to, sent the bill back with an
amendment. The state budget, which Patrick had to act on by Friday,
relied on $183.5 million from the tax bill for spending priorities
unrelated to transportation.
“Without the revenues from the transportation finance bill, this
budget is out of balance. So to bring the budget into balance I have
vetoed $417 million of spending in the budget,” Patrick told
reporters Friday, announcing that he had signed the bulk of the
budget and sent much of it back. “This actually will come as no
surprise. I have never signed a budget that was out of balance, and
I am not about to start to do so.”
The governor’s actions leave it up to the Legislature to potentially
override Patrick’s spending vetoes and to vote on his tax-bill
amendment, which would add a gas-tax trigger tied to the state’s
tolls. House and Senate leaders have maintained that Patrick’s
amendment is unnecessary.
“While I disagree with the Governor’s interpretation of the funding
included in the Legislature’s transportation financing bill, I
recognize and value his right to return the bill with an amendment,”
Senate President Therese Murray, who was at a conference in
Scotland, said in a statement. “I look forward to bringing the
amended bill to the Senate floor for a debate and vote on Thursday.”
House Speaker Robert DeLeo, who shepherded through the tax bill
earlier this year by a slimmer margin than Murray, indicated
Patrick’s vetoes would not deter passage of the legislation that
passed the House.
“We passed a budget that addresses key transportation needs,
provides funding to our municipalities and makes key investments in
higher education and community colleges, and we will again vote next
week to maintain that commitment,” DeLeo said in a statement.
The $177 million local aid cut amounts to a 19 percent reduction of
the unrestricted local aid distributed to the state’s 351 cities and
towns. If it stands, it would bring the funding down to levels not
seen since 1986, according to Massachusetts Municipal Association
Executive Director Geoff Beckwith.
“It would destabilize local budgets all throughout the Commonwealth;
communities forced to lay off thousands of employees; it would slash
services,” said Beckwith. He said, “We believe that these revenues,
the tax revenues, will be coming. I think everyone expects those
revenues will be enacted by the Legislature, with or without the
governor’s signature.”
House Minority Leader Brad Jones, who voted for neither the final
budget nor the tax bill that funds much of it, objected to Patrick’s
decision to cut local aid.
“I am extremely disappointed that Governor Patrick has not only
continued his tax-and-spend assault on taxpayers, but has now
extended his fiscal wrath to municipalities across the
Commonwealth,” Jones said in a statement. He said, “Cities and towns
across Massachusetts should not be used as a pawn in the Governor’s
quest to fund his legacy project.”
Asked why he targeted local aid for cuts in the $34 billion budget,
Patrick said local aid is a largest area of expense and is “the
least specific of the line items."
Some lawmakers were pleased that Patrick signed the budget and did
not send the whole budget back, which could have reopened the
massive legislation for amendments. Patrick’s signature settles into
law $97 million in additional funding for public higher education,
which will freeze tuition and fees, a $130 million increase in local
school aid, and a $15 million increase that will expand early
childhood education to 1,000 more children.
With the filing of an additional $40 million spending bill, Patrick
laid out an alternative to an override for the Legislature, as
passage of the bill would “automatically” restore the $417 million
in cuts Patrick made to bring the budget into balance, as long as
those spending items are paid for with additional revenues.
Beyond the vetoes he made to balance the budget, Patrick cut an
additional $18 million funding for programs that he said “I do not
support.” Those include a $50,000 earmark to rehabilitate the State
Theatre in Stoughton, $300,000 to “renourish” Salisbury Beach State
Reservation with sand, and mitigation for communities that contain
prisons, which Secretary of Administration and Finance Glen Shor
said does not include a “clear rationale.”
Patrick also sent back eight budget riders relating to the Regional
Greenhouse Gas Initiative, judicial compensation and a provision
increasing reporting requirements and information regarding
registered sex offenders. Patrick said he sent the sex offender
sections back with a “more precise tailoring.” Patrick also returned
a policy rider limiting ethanol facilities near dense residential
areas, saying it would “interfere with marine terminal operations
and potentially impact existing licenses throughout the state.”
The $240 million in transportation cuts that make up the bulk of the
$435 million Patrick removed from the budget would have provided
forward-funding to the state’s regional transit authorities, sped up
the state’s plans to move highway employees off of the debt-funded
capital budget and provided money to fund a $115 million hole the
MBTA left in its budget.
“My ask to the Legislature is simply this: plug the hole in the
transportation bill and we can put that and this budget to rest,”
said Patrick, who was flanked by much of his Cabinet in the
Governor’s Council Chambers but not lawmakers. Patrick also did not
hold a public signing of the budget.
Patrick contends that the tax bill he returned to the Legislature
would not provide $800 million in new funding for transportation by
fiscal year 2018, as advertised. Patrick administration officials
have said the bonds on the Massachusetts Turnpike are set to be paid
off by then, which could bring down tolls.
While DeLeo and Murray have argued that the law does allow the tolls
to stay up, if the road is not deemed in a state of “good condition
and repair,” that leaves too much wiggle room for investors,
hampering the capital projects that might be funded by the revenue
increase, according to Patrick.
“That level of uncertainty does not work in the bond markets,” said
Patrick, who favors taking the tolls down and making up for the
forgone revenue with a further gas tax increase. He said on Friday,
“I love the idea of taking down the tolls.”
Patrick described his dispute with legislative leaders as “a policy
difference; it’s not a personal one,” and signaled that he would be
happy with the Legislature’s lower transportation-funding amount as
long as he could rely on it.
“I am willing to work with an $800 million transportation bill,”
Patrick said. “More to the point, I am enthusiastic about an $800
million transportation bill.”
For much of the spring, conversation revolved around transportation
funding, as the chairmen of the Transportation Committee worked on
the tax bill aimed at funding public transit and highways, and
Patrick administration officials sometimes had to reiterate their
support for new spending on education as well.
With Patrick’s signature Friday, some additional funding for
education is now securely on the books, while the transportation
increases that drove much of the tax-raising talk remain in
jeopardy.
“I think we’re going to get a transportation bill and a good one,”
Patrick said Friday. He said, “We are at the moment when we can and
should deal with our transportation needs.”
Patrick also included an amendment that would accelerate the $30,000
pay raise given to state judges, which the Legislature spread out
over a year and a half.
“Seven years they’ve been waiting,” Patrick said, referencing the
last judicial pay raise.
The Boston Herald
Friday, July 12, 2013
Gov. Patrick slashes local aid, MBTA funds
By Matt Stout
Gov. Deval Patrick slashed more than $400 million from the state
budget today amid his heated standoff with lawmakers over a still
unsigned tax bill, raising the intensity in the Beacon Hill
tug-of-war that’s potentially left the MBTA and local towns with
huge gaps to fill.
Patrick, in signing a $33.6 billion state budget, vetoed $240
million in transportation funding and another $177 in local aid,
arguing that without a finalized $500 million tax bill that’s still
before the House and Senate, the budget was out of balance.
It raised the stakes in his ongoing showdown with legislative
leaders while leaving the embattled MBTA with a $115 million deficit
and local towns facing a 19 percent cut in much-needed aid.
Patrick cautioned that with a “good transportation bill,” the
funding will be automatically restored, but it did little to
reassure local officials, who are calling on legislators to override
a Patrick veto on the bill and push the $500 million plan into law.
“I haven’t made a threat. They’re vetoes,” Patrick said at a State
House news conference. “And they are vetoes because we have an
out-of-balance budget without them.”
Patrick again vowed to veto the Legislature’s tax bill if it didn’t
include ways to recoup $135 million in lost revenue if Mass Pike
tolls are eliminated west of Route 128 in 2017. But it’s a concern
legislative leaders have waved off, arguing the tolls west of Weston
don’t need to disappear while rallying their chambers to flat-out
reject Patrick’s amendment to raise the gas tax in the tolls’ place.
Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo has signaled he has enough members
behind him to override the governor, and today vowed that lawmakers
“will protect the cities and towns of Massachusetts.” The House is
expected to vote on Patrick’s amendment Wednesday, followed by the
Senate the next day.
“We passed a budget that addresses key transportation needs,
provides funding to our municipalities and makes key investments in
higher education and community colleges,” DeLeo said in a statement,
“and we will again vote next week to maintain that commitment.”
The local aid cuts drew immediate criticism from Mass. Municipal
Association Executive Director Geoff Beckwith, who said without the
veto override, they would cause a “devastating fiscal crisis” for
communities statewide.
“That’s a necessary case scenario,” Beckwith said of lawmakers
building enough votes to push the transportation bill throughout
without Patrick’s signature.
Secretary of Transportation Richard Davey said the $115 million
shortfall represents roughly 10 percent of the T’s operating budget,
and without a resolution, could force deep service cuts, fare hikes
or both. But with Patrick at his side, he preached caution.
“We are hopeful we can work through in the next week or 10 days with
the legislature to get this done, but we will wait and see at the
MBTA to see how we plug it,” Davey said.
Patrick’s budget does include some closely-watched policy decisions.
It creates a Bureau of Program Integrity, headed by the Inspector
General, to oversee the embattled Department of Transitional
Assistance, which has come under heavy fire for its ability to root
out and identify fraud.
It also makes the long-guarded MBTA pension fund public for the
first time, opening what have been taxpayer-funded books.
Pioneer Institute
Thursday, July 11, 2013
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Massachusetts’s 2014 Status Quo
Budget
Legislature's FY 2014 Budget Is the Status Quo, Just More of It:
Yes to New Spending, No to Reform
Pioneer Institute's Public Statement on the Conference Committee
Budget
The legislature produced a budget for FY 2014 as it began last week.
The budget does not address persistent structural deficits.
In a year during which baseline revenues have grown because of a
slowly recovering economy, we have set ourselves on a course to
raise taxes and, remarkably, also to withdraw hundreds of millions
of dollars from the rainy-day fund.
The budget blueprint is projected to increase spending by more than
5 percent in FY 2014. With tax revenue rising just under 4 percent,
we are setting ourselves up to increase an already over $1 billion
structural deficit. The cash shortfall is to be covered by about
$400 million from the rainy-day fund and increased departmental
revenues.
Alarmingly, most of the new tax receipts coming from the
transportation bill passed earlier flow into general operating
revenues and are not set aside as dedicated transportation funds.
As the budget continues funding state programs on a status quo plus
basis, municipalities and schools see at best a marginal increase in
appropriations (mainly for unrestricted local aid).
This budget has precious little reform, but continues to feed the
beast of the status quo.
Policy Brief Date: July 11, 2013 Author: Iliya Atanasov Pioneer
has generally produced at the time of release of key budget
documents a series of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” reports. The
conference committee’s fiscal year 2014 budget was circulated on the
first of the month, just as the new fiscal year started. The
conference committee budget is the culmination of the House and
Senate budget processes. Now the legislative compromise goes to
Governor Patrick for approval, amendment or veto. As Pioneer has
written previously, the Governor’s H.1 budget bill promised no real
reform and was focused on raising taxes and spending billions more,
ostensibly, on transportation and early education, although most of
the proposed tax increases would have flowed into general revenues.
The conference committee’s budget is, unfortunately, a document
mainly consisting of the Bad and the Ugly.
Pioneer Institute is an independent, non-partisan, privately
funded research organization that seeks to improve the quality of
life in Massachusetts through civic discourse and intellectually
rigorous, data-driven public policy solutions based on free market
principles, individual liberty and responsibility, and the ideal of
effective, limited and accountable government.
The Boston Herald
Saturday, July 13, 2013
A Boston Herald editorial
Good enough to Tweet
. . . And for those of us in Massachusetts who actually have to pay
for our cellphones, there’s some good news.
You know how when you get a new phone and, of course, sign up for a
long term contract with the wireless company of your choice, they —
out of the goodness of their business-generating hearts — deeply
discount the price of the phone. On a good day that $400 phone may
cost, say, $150 in cash.
Problem is, here in Massachusetts, you still have to pay a sales tax
on that full $400. It’s not merely annoying, it’s wrong. If a
coffeemaker goes on sale for half price, do you have to pay tax on
its original price?
Of course not.
A bill filed by Reps. Denise Garlick (D-Needham) and Jay Barrows
(R-Mansfield) would correct that situation and allow taxes to be
collected only on the actual price paid. What could be more fair?
The bill, just approved by the Legislature’s Committee on Revenue,
should have weary taxpayers shouting, “Can you hear us now?”
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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
Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪
PO Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
▪ 508-915-3665
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