The increase in the sales tax passed the State Senate tonight, increasing the rate to 6.25%. This increase is exactly what the House passed, and guarantees the Governor will be faced with the issue of holding to his veto threat on a sales tax increase. The vote was 29-10 in favor. State Senator Steve Baddour voted against the increase.
The State Senate will today begin budget deliberations, and first up will be revenue amendments. It appears likely that the Senate will follow the House by passing an increase in the sales tax to 6.25% from 5%. It now appears likely that some local option meals taxes will be included as well. This menu of taxes will likely include a local option lodging tax, as well as a lifting of the exemption currently granted to Verizon on the property tax for telephone poles. Beverage alcohol will likely lose its sales tax exemption as well. I predict a failure to enact meaningful municipal health care reform.
Methuen’s Recreation Department has just started a lacrosse league, and recently had its first home game at the stadium. It was a great event, and I was delighted to be there to see the kids enjoying this great sport. We talked about this some months ago, and I would like to thank Caroline Hamel, Ernie Difiore, Wayne Puglisi, Heather Fusco, Bill Pare, and everyone else responsible for making this a reality. They have all done a fine job, and worked very hard.
The Republican Party has been born again on the evils of deficit spending, after running up some pretty big red ink while they were in charge. And yet despite the Republicans new found enthusiasm for deficit fighting they seem to have plenty of trouble articulating where they might be willing to make cuts that really save money. Here we have the Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, hemming and hawing over what specific cuts he would make to reduce the federal deficit. Wants to keep talking about a few things in South Carolina while Chris Matthews justs asks him to name one federal program he would cut. He ends up at Social Security, advocating for a private system. No word from this interview whether Governor Sanford would raise taxes to pay the multi trillion dollar bridge costs associated with privatizing social security. Great video, lifted directly from Daily Kos.
President Obama spends this weekly address dealing with health care and energy, with an accent on agreement reached by major stakeholders in each area. The health care agreement has garnered a lot of press, with some of the same folks who had opposed the Clinton health care initiative offering to work together to slow the unsustainable rate of increase in health care costs.(Their letter to the President is attached below). The President commented on Monday. From the New York Times:
In remarks prepared for delivery to health care providers on Monday, Mr. Obama says: “These groups are voluntarily coming together to make an unprecedented commitment. Over the next 10 years, from 2010 to 2019, they are pledging to cut the growth rate of national health care spending by 1.5 percentage points each year — an amount that’s equal to over $2 trillion.”
“Reform is not a luxury that can be postponed, but a necessity that cannot wait,” Mr. Obama says.
The President is staking plenty on an ability to finally get under control the cost of health care, which is destroying budgets and killing jobs everywhere. But even this letter only holds down “the rate of increase”. And real cost containment, which would provide tangibile relief, will be fought hard. The same NY Times story includes an observation, which I think is accurate.
In the abstract, slowing the growth of health spending is a goal on which consumers and health care providers agree. But experience shows that specific proposals touch off fierce battles among interest groups fighting to expand their share of health care money.
And that brings us to the latest David Brooks column in the Times, which agrees that Obama’s entire strategy revolves around ramping up spending in order to get health care costs under control, and via the savings achieved putting our fiscal house back in order. Brooks also agrees that some of the Obama proposals are good public policy, and point us in the right direction. But ultimately Brooks feels that the severity of the problem requires what might be politically untenable solutions, and that Obama will fail to generate the savings necessary to justify the current deficits. The title of his column “Fiscal Suicide Ahead” gives his central thesis away. From Brooks:
If you read the C.B.O. testimony and talk to enough experts, you come away with a stark conclusion: There are deep structural forces, both in Medicare and the private insurance market, that have driven the explosion in health costs. It is nearly impossible to put together a majority coalition for a bill that challenges those essential structures. Therefore, the leading proposals on Capitol Hill do not directly address the structural problems. They are a collection of worthy but speculative ideas designed to possibly mitigate their effects.
The Brooks column is a good read even if you do not agree. If you tend to agree then it could be argued that our political system, as it works today, will not allow serious cost containment on health care, ever. And then we will be stuck forever with a system that will bankrupt us as a nation.
MAYOR MANZI NAMES KAREN FITZGERALD AS THE MAY ARTIST OF THE MONTH
Methuen Art Teacher’s Work on Display in the Mayor’s Office
Mayor William M. Manzi has named Karen Fitzgerald as the May Artist of the Month. Karen is an art teacher at the Methuen High School and a longtime employee of the Methuen School Department. Her work includes drawings, watercolor painting, mixed media and photography. She is a graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and Lowell State College. Karen has won several awards for her art and has participated in several painting and photography regional workshops and local competitions. She has belonged to various art associations throughout her career. Karen has sold over 500 drawings, watercolor paintings and architectural renderings to realtors and clients nationwide.
Karen states, “As a Methuen Public School Teacher for 23 years, it has been my pleasure to introduce my students to my passion, the world of art and art making. I hope that these students take away some of my enthusiasm and pleasure in some respect and stay connected with the arts throughout their lives. It is my belief that art brings “Wholesomeness” to life. That the art process of thinking, doing, evaluating and rethinking is an intellectual endeavor necessary to teach our children even more so today in this technological age.”
Mayor Manzi stated, “It is my pleasure to display Karen’s work in my office. She is one of many talented teachers working in our schools. It’s my hope that more Methuen art teachers participate in the program. I encourage the public to come by City Hall and view her work.” Karen is the third Methuen art teacher to participate in the popular program.
The Methuen Artist of the Month Program was created by Mayor Manzi over two years ago in order to give members of the Methuen Arts Community a forum to display their work and to encourage participation in Methuen’s growing creative economy. Methuen artists interested in being considered for Artist of the Month should view the guidelines on the city website and contact the Mayor’s Office.
There have been continual postings here on the Massachusetts budget crisis, and the news really has been uniformly bad. As a Mayor it is hard to find something to smile about lately. But just when you might think that you may never laugh again along comes Michael Steele, and I can do another post on the best dargone Republican chair we dems have ever had. In his latest public prouncement Steele explains that the Republican base rejected Mitt Romney because of his flip flopping on abortion, as well as his Mormonism. The RNC issued the requisite “clarifications” at some later point. I wonder if the RNC has hired a full time “clarifications” staffer. Mike Huckabee joined the hit parade by insulting the new group of Republicans looking to rebrand the party. Great stuff by Huckabee. Romney is part of that new group, so I guess he gets it from both Steele and Huckabee. The Mittster is not feeling the love from some in the GOP. Thats a shame!
The panel on state finance convened by State Senator Steve Baddour met at Northern Essex last night, and the news was uniformly grim. With the State Senate poised to deliver a budget today that will be even more austere than the House budget the room at Northern Essex was filled with police officers protesting the potential cut to the Quinn Bill. Senator Baddour and the panel heard from police officers from many cities in the Valley, and it did get a bit testy at times. The focus was on the downgrade of the State’s revenue estimate to about $17.9 billion, and the real impact that will cause to all those who receive state services.
Michael Widmer spoke to the unsustainability of the municipal health care system, and joined in my criticism of the “municipal relief bill” put out by the Rosenberg/Donato Committee. I made that critcism here yesterday, and the reports I got on yesterdays hearing only reinforce my thought that the legislature just does not understand the real nature of this problem.
It was a good exercise, and Senator Baddour is to be commended for having some real heavyweights come to Haverhill. The Treasurer spoke of some of the serious problems facing us on the debt front, and how we may be at the end of the road as far as our ability to keep piling on debt. Widmer was as usual brilliant, and currently is the guy you want to be listening to if you have any questions on numbers. And the Senate budget set to be unveiled this morning does indeed zero out the Quinn Bill.
State Senator Steve Baddour will host a forum on the state of the economy, as well as the Massachusetts Budget tonight Tuesday May 12th at 6:00 p.m. Guests will include Treasurer Tim Cahill, Michael Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, and Professor Alan Clayton Matthews. The forum will be held at Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill in the new Technology Center, Room 103A. The address for Northern Essex is 100 Elliot Street. Hope to see you there.
