taxes

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.”

Dedicated to those who wish to limit or suspend the film credit. You couldn't make this up!!

TALLAHASSEE — Movies and TV shows with gay characters could be ineligible for a "family-friendly" tax credit in Florida under a little-noticed provision tucked into a $75 million incentive package that Republican House leaders hope will attract film and entertainment jobs to the state.

The bill would prohibit productions with "nontraditional family values" from receiving a so-called family-friendly tax credit. But it doesn't define what "nontraditional family values" are, something the bill's sponsor had a hard time doing, too.

"Think of it as like Mayberry," state Rep. Stephen Precourt, R-Orlando, said, referring to The Andy Griffith Show. "That's when I grew up — the '60s. That's what life was like. I want Florida to be known for movies for kids and all that stuff. Like it used to be, you know?”

For many in Massachusetts and across the nation, Scott Brown’s January 19th victory is being widely hailed as a victory for anti-government, anti-tax crusaders. Brown won big in suburbia and Dedham was no exception (55 percent).

But on the same ballot, Dedham voters also voted by a higher margin (60 percent) to increase their property taxes. The reason voters chose to override the Proposition 2 ½ levy limit? Dedham chose to invest in their schools.

It’s a tough time to talk about taxes in Massachusetts.  The House Speaker has asserted his opposition to any tax increases to deal with the state budget shortfall and echoes of the anti-tax rhetoric of the recent Senate campaign still ring in the public mind.

And tax conversations are never easy.  As Charles Pierce lays out in his excellent piece in the Globe Magazine this weekend, Americans have a love-hate relationship with taxes:

“Quite simply, if you love a particular government service -- that your bridges are repaired, for example, or your emergency calls answered -- you ought to love the taxes that pay for it. That, however, is rarely the case.”

And our conflicted relationship with taxes is about more than money:

“Taxes have become the way we define ourselves as a political commonwealth, or a way of determining whether we still see ourselves as such at all.”

But a recent vote in Oregon shows that talking about taxes in a productive way is still possible.  On January 26th Oregon voters approved two tax increases that had been passed by the legislature and were being challenged at the ballot.  Along with painful budget cuts these two tax measures helped to address a severe state budget shortfall.

While many communities in Massachusetts are cutting services to make up for increasing budget deficits, Randolph voters, who last year passed a Prop. 2 1/2 override, are investing in their public systems and laying the groundwork for economic growth according to an article in today's Patriot Ledger:

Executive Secretary David Murphy said economic development is key to a stable tax rate and stable municipal services. “If you don’t have new investment, you don’t have new revenues. And if you don’t have new revenues, you don’t have money to meet needs when they arise,” he said.

According to the Randolph residents, the investment is paying off.

Our governor and Legislature are at a critical juncture, faced with the choice between making sweeping cuts that could have far reaching consequences for the health and well being of the state or raising new revenue to support the public structures that keep our state and its economy functioning smoothly.

At its deepest level, the conversation is about what kind of state we want to live in and how we are going to pay for it.

But so far, the discussion has been relegated to cuts. Governor Patrick’s announcement he plans to lay off 2,000 employees sent shockwaves through the state yesterday. State officials are anticipating a revenue shortfall of $600 million for this fiscal year and $2-3 billion for next year.

As advocates point out, cutting 2,000 jobs doesn’t simply mean 2,000 people are out of work. It also means services and programs will be cut. Higher education, public health, human services are all on the chopping block. Patrick is also seeking powers under state law, to make cuts in the judiciary branch and to Local Aid. This means the cuts could also affect everything from the judiciary branch to schools, fire and police departments.

In times like these, the public systems we have built in Massachusetts are more important than ever – job training programs, social services, our public higher education system which is training the skilled workforce that attracts businesses to our state and grows our economy.

One last picture of Leslie Kirwan as she gets ready to leave for a more peaceful job as Dean for Administration and Finance for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, where she only has to deal with a couple hundred tenured professors and academic politics, which as everyone knows is sweetness and light.

As she begins to hand over the reins to Under Secretary Jay Gonzalez, Lesley will be engaged in round the clock meetings with the Governor to review the September revenue figures and the recommendations for 9C cuts  that have been submitted by the various Executive Agencies earlier this month. 

The “may” in the headline of Matt Viser’s very clear and informative story in the Globe today is countered by the Mass Taxpayer's Mike Widmer’s “O Lordy” exclamation as he estimates that our revenue predictions may be $500 million or more too high for this fiscal year.

Experienced advocates from all sectors (municipal officials and activists from the environmental, human services, affordable housing, social services, public safety, transportation etc etc communities), who are already working to reform and repair public structures at the state and local level just went on overtime building a case to the Governor that their program should be spared from 9C cuts.

And some of them are triple time working together through ONE Massachusetts to advocate for the obvious alternative to 9C cuts, which is, to be blunt, additional adequate and balanced revenues.  And one place to look is the Tax Expenditure Budget  to find those potential revenues.

Talk about civic engagement!!

I wish you had been there to watch the young people who waited till 4:30 to testify in favor of some of the Governor’s tax proposals yesterday in a packed Gardiner Auditorium.  The pretty thorough reporters from WBUR, the State House News via the Globe, and the Patriot Ledger missed them.

Here you see Wilne Ledesma from the Boston Arts Academy and the Youth Education Collaborative 

 

Here you see Co Chair Jay Kaufman asking Secretary Bigby earlier in the day, "If we give you this much in revenue, how does that correspond in the way of restored services to vital youth human service programs”?

The Youth Education collaborative got up after a parade of public officials, public health advocates and small business groups had testified and left, and these four young people out of a delegation of 18 from Sociedad Latina, Hyde Square Task Force, Boston Student Advisory Council, Boston Area Youth Organizing Project, Chinese Progressive Organization, Youth on Board, Sub/Urban Justice, and the Boston Student Alliance for the Future of Education, told the Committee their story of a year long self imposed civic lesson majoring in budget and tax policies affecting public education: they had gathered student opinion via interviews; held a series of student forums and briefing sessions within their organizations; brought delegations to meet with the Superintendent of Schools, the Mayor and every single member of the Boston School Committee and were in the midst of adding to the 1000 signatures in a petition supporting the following statement:

In the short term we support a local option meals tax and a local option hotel tax to allow cities and towns to raise much needed revenues and we support long term efficiency measures including “greening” of our buildings and eliminating waste in the school lunch program.

Props to the Youth Education Collaborative for sitting in the gallery for 6 hours after all the press had left and submitting some informed testimony. They promised to follow up with each member of the Revenue committee individually and I bet they will.

They've developed an appetite for taxes! 

Sound familiar? We all want and deserve to live healthy, happy lives, and there are some things that we must work on together because we just can't do them on our own - clean water, safe roads, reliable emergency services. Sometimes, it's all too easy to take these things for granted. That is because there is a pervasive disconnect between those things we expect from our government, and the way that those public structures are maintained.

We've already seen one round of 9C cuts this session, and this week will likely bring more. People across our state are already talking about the options we have to avoid devastating cuts - and taxes are clearly on the table:

• Patrick Considers Raising Gas Tax  [Boston.com, Jan 13, 2009]
• Mayor Set to Take on Larger Role (Meals Tax)  [Boston.com,  Dec 21, 2008]

Get Informed about some of our options to boost state revenues. Ready to learn how to talk more effectively about all kinds of taxes? Check out the of our Upcoming Events at ONE Massachusetts, or request a training for your organization or community! 

State reps Will Brownsberger (D-Belmont) and Alice Peisch (D-Wellesley) met with constituents in Belmont last night to talk about tolls, taxes, road and rails (as reported in the Belmont Citizen Herald). What makes this meeting somewhat remarkable is that it’s relatively rare for lawmakers to talk so frankly and openly about taxes.

But with I-90, commuter rails and Green Line rails running through their respective districts, neither lawmaker can ignore the looming funding problems our state’s transportation entities are facing. Kudos to the solons for bringing in Mike Widmer, President of the Mass. Taxpayers Foundation, to explain the relative merits of several solutions being kicked around Beacon Hill: