Massachusetts Politics

Michael Davidson was seeing patients at Brigham and Women’s Hospital when he stepped away to talk with the son of a deceased woman he had treated and the son shot him. Lawrence O’Leary was on a parking garage under construction at Logan Airport when he fell off the building. David Sutherland was trying to get from his sinking fishing boat to a rescue boat in the ocean off Gloucester. Joseph Brady was crossing a road to a lot in Stoughton where he was selling Christmas trees when he was run over. Lenore Travis was operating a tractor on her small family farm in Lincoln when the vehicle flipped over. These were just five of the 63 persons who died on the job last year in Massachusetts, according to the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. Yesterday, the AFL-CIO released its annual report on deaths in the workplace, “2016: Dying for Work in Massachusetts,” in conjunction with a ceremony at noon outside the State House.   The purpose of the event, as reported by the State House News Service, was “to...

Anyone who follows politics or government in Massachusetts has seen these numbers. They bear repeating:   Over the past seven years, spending on Medicaid (MassHealth) has increased 65%. Next year, total Medicaid spending is projected at $15.3 billion.   At $15.3 billion, Medicaid will account for 40% of the entire state budget. Medicaid insures 1.8 million income-qualified citizens.   That’s 26% of the total Massachusetts population of 6.7 million. Source: U.S. Census Bureau. Medicaid is jointly funded by the state and federal governments.   Of the $15.3 billion due to be expended next year, $6.8 billion will be state money. As anyone who has ever so much as touched the state budget has said, Medicaid spending is on an unsustainable course.  To keep MassHealth from imploding and plunging state finances into chaos , the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) proposes to transform it  via the creation of Accountabl...

1.) Ben deRuyter, a Democrat from Brewster announced this past Friday (April 15) he was withdrawing from the race to succeed Cape Cod state senator Dan Wolf because he wants to spend more time with his family.   I’m sure his family wants to spend more time with DeRuyter, which I can assure you would not be the case if I were engaged in a demanding campaign for public office.   Still waiting am I for the candidate who quits a race because he wants to spend more time contemplating the mysteries of the universe, learning to tie a bow tie, catching up on back editions of The Sunday New York Times , etc.    Hey, suddenly disillusioned candidates, it’s time for more novel excuses. 2.) Speaking of novelty, I thought Noah Berger, President of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, had an interesting take on the state budget for FY 2017 proposed by Governor Charlie Baker.   Stated Berger, once a top aide to ex-Senate President Tom Birmingham, in a Jan. 27 press rel...

Proposals to implement a graduated state income tax have twice been rejected by Massachusetts voters in my memory, first in 1972 and then in 1994. The margins of defeat in each case were overwhelming:   67% to 33%, and 70% to 30%, respectively. This year, there’s a coalition called “Raise Up Massachusetts” and it’s basically pushing a simplified, narrower version of the graduated income tax.   They have a pithy name for it: the “millionaire’s tax.”    “Raise Up” wants to get a referendum on the statewide ballot in 2018 to impose a 4% surtax on all incomes in excess of $1 million per year.   The ballot question would be part of a legal process that would ultimately encode the surtax through an amendment to the state constitution. Proceeds from the surtax, estimated to be between $1.3 and $1.4 billion annually, would be earmarked for public education and public transportation projects. “Raise Up” campaign organizers believe the relatively small number of taxpayers...

Attention, Massachusetts vacation home owners who earn money renting your properties!   An Act Providing for Local Aid Enhancement is showing signs of kinetic energy. On March 17, the legislature’s Joint Committee on Revenue gave a favorable report to a newly redrafted version of the bill, which would establish a new category of residence for taxation purposes known as a “transient accommodation.” It would also empower the Commonwealth to collect a 5% tax on the rental fees of properties so defined, and give cities and towns the option of levying an additional 6% tax on the rentals. An Act Providing Local Aid Enhancement , numbered House Bill 2645, defines a transient accommodation as “any vacation, leisure or short-term rental accommodation offering occupancy in exchange for rent, including but not limited to an apartment, single or multiple family housing, cottage, condominium, time-share unit or any furnished residential accommodation within any area zoned for residential or c...