Massachusetts stands out as the top 2 state in terms of clean energy leadership among states in the US. The federal government recently awarded an important financial grant to the state for investments in our education system. But while it is clear that all of this is only possible with our shared support, it often feels uncertain how this support should best be provided.

A recent report from the Tax Foundation shows us the importance the personal income tax has in the overall state's finances:

“Massachusettsis the third most income-tax-dependent state in the nation, deriving 36.8 percent of its revenue from its 5.3 percent tax on individual earnings, and nearly cracked the top-ten list of states most dependent on property taxes, according to a new report from the Non-partisan Tax Foundation”

“Massachusetts derives 34.3 percent of its total government revenues from property taxes, 18.4 percent from sales taxes, 6.4 percent from corporate taxes and 4.2 percent from licenses and other taxes, according to the report.”

The personal income tax in Massachusetts has been subject of debate for a few years now. Despite having a flat rate of 5.3%, adjustments such asthe Earned Income Tax Credit and exemptions for our lowest-income taxpayers mean that it is one of our state’s most progressive taxes. Over the years, people have also pushed to make it even more progressive by implementing a graduated income tax in Massachusetts – taxing higher income earners at higher levels than low-income earners.

The report also shows how heavily the state relies on more regressive taxes such as property and sales taxes, and very little on corporate and other types of taxes. And while this information is not a surprise, it would be a welcome change to see a more balanced revenue structure. Corporations and individuals value the public structures we have in place in the state, but contribute in very different proportions for their creation and maintenance as shown in this recent report. While no one would argue that corporations play a key role in contributing to the state we cannot forget that the public structures that are in place make the state an attractive one for both businesses and families.

It is time to think about what we value in our communities and how we should pay for those structures. Reports like this one help us understand how the state gathers its resources and decide how we want to continue obtaining them. By gathering this type of information – from our state andacross the nation – we can build a tax system that shares responsibility in a more proportionate way among each person and corporation in our state.

Last month, we learned about how Bridgewater is expanding the hours of operation for its library and senior center during a time when many other communities are cutting services and laying off staff.  It was refreshing for me to learn about Dover, another community that has come together to make its public library an even better place than it used to be.

“The people here value their library,’’ said Cheryl Abdullah, the Dover library’s director. “It’s amazing to see. People use the library as a tool of the community.’’ Abdullah credits the Friends of the Library, a support organization, with raising awareness and money.

“In Massachusetts, state funding for libraries was cut from about $33 million in fiscal year 2008-2009 to about $24 million last year. The state funding this fiscal year is about $21 million, according to the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.”

Despite the cuts in the library system, the Dover community has not slowed down in supporting its library and kept it afloat through its efforts.

Difficult economic times are also an opportunity for our state to come together as an community to learn about what we value in our cities and towns, and to decide how we pay for the services and structures we all care about. Civic engagement efforts across the state are playing a key role in helping our friends and neighbors understand both the role of government in our lives, and our own roles in supporting initiatives and reforming the way we provide for services in our state.

Let's hope that we keep hearing about more and more communities that are supporting their public structures the way we've seen residents coming together in Bridgewater and Dover. If you know of other communities please do not hesitate to contact us!

Going to Extremes in the NYTimes is long on horror stories from all over the country telling us what happens when government services are withdrawn and disrupt lives of ordinary citizens, but short on ordinary citizens mobilizing to do something about it.

Faced with the steepest and longest decline in tax collections on record, state, county and city governments have resorted to major life-changing cuts in core services like education, transportation and public safety that, not too long ago, would have been unthinkable. And services in many areas could get worse before they get better.

The length of the downturn means that many places have used up all their budget gimmicks, cut services, raised taxes, spent their stimulus money — and remained in the hole. Even with Congress set to approve extra stimulus aid, some analysts say states are still facing huge shortfalls.

At least in Massachsetts we have a growing number of people fighting for 21/2 prop overrides in their own communities to protect their libraries  for example.

Ordinarily, it wouldn't make headlines. But the fact that the town of Bridgewater is expanding the hours of operation for its library and senior center during a recession makes headlines for several reasons.

First of all, while many in the state Legislature are saying "taxes" is a forbidden word during this election year, Bridgewater residents voted for a $2.8 million Proposition 2 1/2 override last month.

Times are tough everywhere, with deep cuts to funding for schools, public safety and public services in this year's and next year's budgets. Bridgewater Town officials responded by holding school funding steady and cutting everything else.

Bridgewater residents responded by voting in favor of an override 57 percent to 43 percent. According to local political activist John Palmieri, Bridgewater residents wanted to preserve their quality of life in the town:

“I heard people who had historically voted against the override say, ‘I have to do this to save my town,’" Palmieri said. "I hadn’t heard that before, so it was a different sentiment and it really translated into the vote.”

The override vote followed nine straight years of budget cuts that saw city services slashed and library hours cut to 14 a week. The library is now open 26 hours a week.

Town Manager Troy Clarkson says the town is now beginning the process of rebuilding its infrastructure.

“This is the beginning of building a better Bridgewater,” Clarkson said. “The community came together and saw the importance of moving forward to rebuild this community.”

President Obama made a major speech on the need for immigration reform a couple of days before the 4th of July that got a pretty good review from called Immigration Returns from Paul Walman in the Pospect because it put us in the way back machine to 1921.

The American public was fed up with hordes of aliens pouring into the country, speaking foreign tongues and threatening to take jobs from native-born citizens. So Congress took decisive action, and passed the Emergency Quota Act.

It was 1921, and the new law, designed to solve the country's immigration problem, limited immigration from any one country to 3 percent of the population from that country counted in the 1910 census -- so if there were 100,000 immigrants from a particular nation already here, then only 3,000 more could be admitted per year.

But countries in the Western Hemisphere were exempt -- as many Canadians as wanted could immigrate, and the doors were wide open to Mexicans, Salvadorans, Brazilians, and everyone else from Latin America. At the time, the invaders that threatened to dilute the American character were thought to come from our east (especially southern Europe) and west (China) but not our north and south.

And then back to 1780 or so

 

It’s not easy being transparent and Bill Galvin, Secretary of State,  has pulled off a triumph in the state wide transparency challenge with his office’s web site that helps public policy advocates decide if and when they should register as lobbyists and how to report their activities and expenses.

One of the key ethics reforms passed last year contain big changes in the lobbying laws that specifically define “lobbying activities” and define exactly who must register as an executive or legislative lobbyist. All in response to a bunch of bad guys who disgraced the profession of lobbyists.

New Reforms Will Make Government More Transparent and Accountable

By Guest Writer, Deirdre Cummings,
Legislative Director, MASSPIRG

Transparency advocates praised last night’s vote by the Massachusetts Senate approving two reforms which will set a new standard for government transparency and accountability.

With unanimous votes during its budget debate, the Senate created a searchable new state budget website, making transparent much of state spending and revenue sources for all state agencies, including quasi publics. The website will allow the public, including local officials, businesses, lawmakers, citizens, and others to see where the state is investing our tax dollars.

Over the past year, in nearly every state across our country, newspapers have been filled with stories of state legislatures and town committees trying to work their budgets out of the red.

These times of fiscal crisis can be opportunities for us all to work together to rebuild healthy, safe, and appropriately-funded state and local communities, but we can only be effective in these efforts if all involved have access to the necessary budget and revenue information.

Brockton community members have demonstrated their agreement as evidenced by at least two school committee members refusing to meet secretly with their Superintendent, and by the recent opinion piece on in The Enterprise regarding secret school committee meetings surrounding a potential layoff of hundreds of staff:

"As we face a serious financial crisis, the superintendent needs to lead openly, strongly and decisively. He can dispel any questions about his abilities to steer Brockton's system to even higher academic achievements if parents and citizens are certain of his strength and clear thinking under pressure.

But no one can support what they can't see or hear... [more]

The Eastern Massachusetts water crisis of 2010 offers us a teachable moment about the importance of the public systems and structures we depend on in Massachusetts.

It goes without saying that we take for granted the clean water we depend on every day for all our needs. We turn on the tap and know that the water that comes out will be drinkable and will never be in short supply. But the public systems that ensure that this water is inspected and safe and the public structures that collect, convey and clean the water are invisible to us. Out of sight, out of mind.

The water system is the perfect metaphor for the challenges we face in making the case for government. Most government systems that keep us safe and make life possible in our country are invisible to us: regulatory systems, air traffic controllers, environmental protection, social safety net services. We depend on these systems and thrive because of their existence. But when most of us think of government, we bring to mind the most visible forms of government, like elected officials and police. Our interactions with the public face of government and what we read about them in the media – good or bad – colors our opinion of government. The rest of government we think of as a vast, amorphous bureaucracy.

It’s an unfortunate characteristic of human nature that we often don’t appreciate what we have until we lose it. And we also often don’t notice our public systems and structures until they malfunction. A busted traffic signal gets more attention than a functioning one, in the same way we notice potholes more than smooth stretches of road, failing bridges more than safe ones, corrupt public servants more than those who do the job we elected them to do. While a broken water conduit is a rare occurrence, it grabs headlines in ways that the well-functioning water system we’ve depended on all our lives ever could.

This is why it’s much more likely that our friends and neighbors will have a negative view of government than a positive one.

We know that the public structures that make our state a great place to live can only be maintained and repaired with our shared support. That is why the nine votes in support of Rep. Matthew Patrick's amendment on dividends and interest are so important.

Those nine votes are a clear indication that representatives took to heart the calls our Greater Boston, Pioneer Valley, and South Coast and Cape members made, urging our legislators to support our communities with adequate revenues. Both rank-and-file reps and those in leadership positions backed the amendment in the face of stiff resistance from House Speaker DeLeo and Ways and Means Chairman Charles Murphy, both of whom have stated their opposition to any new revenues.

Speaking on the House floor, Rep. Patrick characterized his amendment as a call for the Legislature to look more closely at the tax system: "This is really the beginning of a conversation we need to have," he said. "We can't let talk radio dictate tax policy."