Tactic or Gaffe: Patrick Admin Circulates Loophole Report?

It’s hard to know what the Patrick Administration was thinking when it circulated a draft of the commission considering his proposed changes to the corporate tax code. I’d like to think there was some underlying tactic behind this apparent move. It resembles the tactic we call “pre-emption” in debate (casting an issue in your own light before your opponent gets a chance). But circulating a report, which the other guys vigorously disavow, doesn’t seem like it will do much. Like the administration’s use of the wrong numbers when calculating Chapter 70 funds (I have a couple of Beacon Hill sources), I’m afraid it’s just more bumbling.

For Gov. Deval Patrick, the specially appointed commission was a loser from the beginning. The best he could hope for was some favorable press. The appointees were split evenly between Patrick, House Speaker Sal DiMasi, and Senate President Therese Murray. Even if all of Patrick’s appointees voted for his policy, and he got a couple of votes from Murray’s picks, the best he could hope for was a split vote. The commission included the House and Senate Minority leaders, who could be counted on for an anti-tax vote. The ubiquitous Speaker for the House Michael Widmer was, of course, served as well. The Globe reports:

A specially appointed commission considering Governor Deval Patrick’s proposed changes to the corporate tax code is sharply divided heading into a scheduled vote on preliminary recommendations today, with some members accusing the administration of pressuring the commission into a premature finding in order to score political points.

A favorable vote by the commission could be an important victory for Patrick, giving him ammunition to persuade reluctant lawmakers on Beacon Hill to adopt at least some of the changes he proposed earlier this year and help fund some of his expensive new programs, including a $75 million property tax break for some homeowners and an education plan that could ultimately cost more than $1 billion.

A draft report circulated by the administration yesterday said the commission supports a change that could generate up to $100 million next year by barring corporations from registering as one kind of company on federal tax forms and as another on state forms.

But several dissenters on the commission, which was named less than two months ago to consider Patrick’s corporate tax legislation, say they never reached agreement on the recommendation in the draft. The 15-member group, they said, never took a vote on anything in its first four meetings and had no time to carefully evaluate the proposals.

“This interim report undermines our long-term goals by requiring us to come up with something in a very short time,” said commission member Eileen McAnneny, vice president of government affairs for Associated Industries of Massachusetts, which has opposed Patrick’s corporate tax changes. “It puts the cart before the horse.”

–Mark