Senator Tarr's Statement on New Tax Increases

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) released the following statement regarding today’s implementation of a 3-cents-per-gallon gas tax increase (with future increases tied to inflation), and a new 6.25 percent sales tax on computer software upgrades:

“Today, people who are working hard to pay their bills and employers who are trying to keep their businesses afloat in a stagnant economy are being hit with hundreds of millions of dollars in new taxes, taxes that could have and should have been avoided.  These sweeping new taxes represent the outcome of a choice the Legislature didn’t have to make, and now Massachusetts consumers and businesses are going to be forced to live with the consequences of that choice for years to come.

Both the House and Senate Republican Caucuses offered comprehensive alternative proposals during the transportation finance debate in April that would have paved the way for long-term sustainability, reliability and efficiencies within our transportation infrastructure without resorting to massive increases in taxes and spending.  Republicans offered a series of reforms that sought to capture the billions of dollars in promised savings from the 2009 Transportation Reform Act that have gone unrealized, while increasing the efficiency and integrity of the state’s transportation system and expanding partnership opportunities with the private sector, but those reforms were largely ignored.

In our quest to finance transportation improvements, we should not have forgotten our responsibility to protect the interests of the taxpayers and the state’s economy.  Unfortunately, we have lost sight of our obligation to the taxpayers, and now consumers and employers are left with a regressive gas tax increase that is running on auto-pilot, with no legislative accountability, and a new tax on computer software upgrades that the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation warns ‘strikes at the heart of the innovation economy and will stifle job creation for years to come’.”

Senator Tarr's Statement on Transportation Finance Bill Veto Override Vote

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) released the following statement today regarding the State Senate overriding a Governor’s veto to H.3535, An Act relative to transportation finance, which ultimately passed by a roll call vote of 35-5:

“The votes taken today to approve the Transportation Finance Bill over the objections of Governor Patrick put us on an unsound path of increasing taxes by hundreds of millions of dollars without first capturing promised savings from reform, burdening motorists with fuel taxes that will increase without legislative approval into perpetuity, and making a promising growth sector in computer software services less competitive by singling it out for a new tax.

Clearly our transportation systems need improvement, but the path chosen today subordinates savings, reform and economic growth to the types of taxing and spending solutions that have caused so many problems in the past.”

Senate Expected to Consider Housing Bond Bill

On Thursday the Massachusetts State Senate will consider a $1.4 billion housing bond bill, a five-year capital plan for the production and preservation of housing in the Commonwealth that includes $500 million to repair and improve public housing, $305 million dedicated to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and $135 million dedicated to the Housing Stabilization and Investment Trust Fund. 

Senators have until 3:00 p.m. today to file amendments to S.1835, “An Act financing the production and preservation of housing for low and moderate income residents”.  On June 5th, the House of Representatives passed a version of the bill unanimously by a vote of 148-0.

Posted below is a summary of the Housing Bond bill.  To read the text of the bill in its entirety please click here.

  

Summary to an Act Financing the Production and Preservation of Housing for Low and Moderate Income Resident...

Senate GOP Caucus Calls for Override of Local Aid Veto; Letter Urges House, Senate Leadership to Restore $177M for Cities and Towns

With municipalities facing a 19 percent reduction in state aid for Fiscal Year 2014, the Massachusetts Senate Republican Caucus is calling on House and Senate leadership to “prioritize and expedite” a vote to restore $177 million in unrestricted local aid recently cut by Governor Deval Patrick.

In a letter hand-delivered to Senate President Therese Murray (D-Plymouth) and House Speaker Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop) Wednesday afternoon, the Caucus echoed Massachusetts Municipal Association Executive Director Geoff Beckwith’s warning that a failure to overturn the Governor’s veto “would slash unrestricted municipal aid to 1986 levels and create widespread fiscal distress in nearly every city and town.”

“If this funding is not restored, communities across the state will be forced to lay off thousands of workers and to make devastating cuts to their police, fire and school departments and other essential municipal services,” the Caucus wrote.  The letter was signed by Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester), Assistant Minority Leader Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth), Minority Whip Richard Ross (R-Wenham) and Senator Michael Knapik (R-Westfield), the Ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Ways and Means.

The local aid reduction was announced by Governor Patrick on July 12, when he cut a total of $417 million in spending from the Fiscal Year 2014 budget.  In making the announcement, Patrick noted that the budget approved by the Legislature on July 1 relied in part on $183.5 million in funding included in a separate transportation finance bill.  That bill was returned unsigned by the Governor with an amendment on July 2.

“While Governor Patrick believes the level of new revenues the Legislature included in the transportation finance bill is insufficient to balance the budget, it is unconscionable to think that our 351 cities and towns should be asked to bear the brunt of his proposed budget cuts,” the Caucus wrote.  “Local governments are on the front lines in providing the basic services upon which our constituents depend, and are facing enormous pressure to balance their own budgets in the midst of a period of weak economic recovery.  Now is not the time for the state to renege on its budget promises, but to restore local aid to the levels endorsed by the House and Senate.”

A copy of the Caucus letter to President Murray and Speaker DeLeo is attached below.

July 17, 2013

The Honorable Therese Murray

President

Massachusetts State Senate

State House, Room 332

Boston, MA 02133

 

The Honorable Robert A. DeLeo

Speaker
Massachusetts House of Representatives
State House, Room 356
Boston, MA 02133

Dear President Murray and Speaker DeLeo:

We are writing to respectfully request that you prioritize and expedite the scheduling of an override vote on Governor Patrick’s veto of $177 million in local aid from the Fiscal Year 2014 budget.

The Governor’s $177 million veto announced on July 12 represents a 19 percent reduction in unrestricted local aid.  Massachusetts Municipal Association Executive Director Geoff Beckwith has warned that this veto “would slash unrestricted municipal aid to 1986 levels and create widespread fiscal distress in nearly every city and town.”  If this funding is not restored, communities across the state will be forced to lay off thousands of workers and to make devastating cuts to their police, fire and school departments and other essential municipal services.

While Governor Patrick believes the level of new revenues the Legislature included in the transportation finance bill is insufficient to balance the budget, it is unconscionable to think that our 351 cities and towns should be asked to bear the brunt of his proposed budget cuts.  Local governments are on the front lines in providing the basic services upon which our constituents depend, and are facing enormous pressure to balance their own budgets in the midst of a period of weak economic recovery.  Now is not the time for the state to renege on its budget promises, but to restore local aid to the levels endorsed by the House and Senate.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of this request.  We look forward to working with both of you to override the Governor’s veto and to restore local aid to our cities and towns.   

Sincerely,

Bruce Tarr
State Senator

Robert Hedlund         
State Senator

Michael Knapik

State Senator

 

Richard Ross

State Senator

Happy Independence Day!

“The United States is the only country with a known birthday. All the rest began, they know not when, and grew into power, they know not how. If there had been no Independence Day, England and America combined would not be so great as each actually is. There is no "Republican," no "Democrat," on the Fourth of July — all are Americans. All feel that their country is greater than party”. ~James G. Blaine

On July 4, 1776, people of all walks of life joined together and declared their independence as a free nation.  A country was born, and a people were united in demanding for their rightful freedom as Americans.  That legacy lives on today, and it is my hope that we all take a few moments to reflect on the sacrifices that have been made on this country’s behalf and of those servicemen and women stationed overseas who continue to fight for our way of life.

Have a happy and safe 4th of July!

Remembering the Battle of Gettysburg 150 Years Later

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr provided the following message regarding the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg:

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” – The Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln, November 1863.

On this day in 1863, two armed forces, one being the Union and the other being the Confederacy, engaged on a field in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in one of the bloodiest battles ever in US history during the American Civil War.  For three days the battle raged on, resulting in over 46,000 casualties combined from both armies.

The Union endured a barrage of attacks to its flanks by the Confederate Army, before the two sides met head on.  The three day battle proved to be a major turning point in the Civil War, due to the many successes the Union had at Gettysburg.  From the defense of Little Round Top by the 20^th Maine to “Pickett’s Charge”, the courageous efforts of those Union soldiers who fought during those three days kept not only their army intact, but kept a nation united.

My hope is that we all take some time out of our day to reflect on the sacrifices made that day and the people who made them on our behalf.  We are a better people, and a better nation because of their bravery.  Through the stewardship of President Abraham Lincoln, our country became whole once more.

Senator Tarr's Statement on FY2014 Budget

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) released the following statement today after the Legislature’s enactment of the Fiscal Year 2014 state budget:

“The Fiscal Year 2014 state budget approved by the House and Senate today and sent to Governor Patrick responds to many important spending priorities, and yet represents a substantial increase in state spending over the current fiscal year.

That increase in turn is dependent on major tax increases that will have a real impact on individuals, families and employers struggling to balance household budgets and create jobs and economic growth.  A gas tax increase that grows with inflation will be a continuing burden for drivers, and a new tax on computer and software services threatens to obstruct the growth of one of our most promising sectors, sending jobs to our competitor states.

Amidst major increases in spending and taxes, important reforms remain incomplete or undone in areas such as our welfare system, health care costs, procurement and transportation.

The focus of the budget should not be limited solely to spending, but to real priorities like implementing cost savings and helping employers create jobs.  With unemployment rising and reports that the economic recovery is stalling, we should not be creating major obstacles to economic growth.”