Hello everyone. Been a while, since I’ve been neck-deep in my program at Tufts. My energy class (more on that later) got an extension on a paper, and it’s a snow day, so I’ll duck in and highlight a few stories that shouldn’t be missed:
◊ RUMOR MILL: Is DeLeo stepping down? That wouldn’t have been surprising, since that’s been whispered for a while. He needs to be replaced with a progressive. All those progressives who have complained that their hands were tied … well, now (again) they’ve got a chance to stand together and demand someone better. Who’s your choice? I’m floating Nika Elugardo. Tell me why not, but it had better be good.
◊ Don’t miss the Globe’s Spotlight deep-dive history on the Weymouth compressor debacle — which is still ongoing, and will be seemingly forever. To bottom-line the whole thing: Charlie Baker always professed that the approval of this acute and chronic danger to public health was basically out of his hands; while at the same time he was greasing the skids for the project that was a part of his “combo platter” energy agenda — while acting in a personally arrogant, dismissive manner to his own constituents. So much more here from reporter Mike Stanton. Notably, the actual pumping of gas has been delayed — again — until at least January by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
◊ Anyone who wants to run against Baker will have his record of neglect as justification (see above). The only thing I know about Prof. Danielle Allen is this piece for the Washington Post from 2018, about restoring honor and integrity to public life. Sure, that’d be good, but I want to know about funding the MBTA; etc.
The intensity of our disagreements, and the temptation to short-term victory, should not lead any of us to adopt weapons that will do us all in — such as dishonesty and the evacuation of meaning from our language. What, then, will we have done to our inheritance? How will we preserve a legacy of democratic practice and faith to pass on to future generations?
How indeed? Easier to ask than to answer. I’ll be looking into her work.
But in my program, I’m reminded of something I’ve always felt: Never, ever be cynical about public service. There are plenty of people doing good, honest, difficult, public-minded work in the public sphere every day; and they’ll never get adequately appreciated. Look for the helpers.
◊ Kudos to AG Healey for this devastating report on Bristol Sheriff Hodgson and his indecent treatment of immigration detainees. He’s our own Joe Arpaio, right here in MA.
◊ We need much, much more economic help.
jconway says
I think Bakers record on Covid is finally starting to sour some voters. His approval rating is down to 57%, from a summer high of 70%. He’s getting slammed from the Covid denying right flank for tanking the economy and slammed from the left and now many apolitical doctors for bungling the public health response.
I don’t fault Baker for facing the false choice between the economy and public health, without a federal bailout, threading that needle is his only recourse. But there’s a lot he’s done on his own that hasn’t helped. The high handed moral lectures to tell people to stay home and mask shaming combined with policies that encourage people to recklessly go out (indoor non essential retail and indoor dining booming right now). Wanting to reopen schools and force MCAS testing while failing to close down indoor dining and lockdown in person employment across the state to essential workers only. Also priming the eviction courts for mass evictions instead of finding an equitable solution. I hear it and agree with the complaints from homeowners like Tom, but I also want my students not to be evicted in the middle of the pandemic. Surely our state has the resources to help both sides. Also giving talks on climate change in global forums while doubling down on fossil fuels at home and openly letting the T die.
We need new legislators and a new governor. Whether our voting public recognizes this or not is a different story. I respect the hell out of Prof Allen and Maura Healey, but I think we need a Joe Biden Democrat like Steve Lynch or Joe Kennedy to make the strongest lunch pail case against this Governor. Maybe a self funding outsider like Dan Wolf or Steve Pemberton. We ain’t got time for theory and nationalizing the race failed for Coakley. We need a statewide leader with the vision to help working people in the here and now.
SomervilleTom says
Our state most certainly DOES have the resources to help both sides. That starts by accurately framing the issue, describing the solution, then acting to implement the solution.
The issue is the very wealthy versus the rest of us — NOT renters versus landlords, in spite of what some voices argue.
The great majority of landlords in Massachusetts are struggling just as hard their renters. An effective way to prevent your students from being evicted in the middle of an epidemic is to provide immediate and effective relief for their landlords who at the moment are still being forced to pay mortgages, mortgage interest, property taxes, water bills, and all the other expenses that come with a rental property.
I proposed an idea to my “liberal” city councilor last summer, who rejected it because it would “cost too much” (I note that he has announced that he is stepping down. Perhaps the incoming city councilor will be more willing to consider actual actions).
Somerville already offers property tax relief for owner-occupied properties. My idea is this: The city of Somerville could offer a “COVID relief credit” against the property taxes due from owner-occupied properties in Somerville to match rent relief the owner extends to tenants.
My proposal would allow a property owner to designate a dollar amount as “COVID rent relief” as an addendum to a lease or as a standalone agreement in the case of Tenants At Will, and would allow the property owner to claim a matching tax credit against the property taxes up to some limit based on the property tax already assessed on the property.
This is a mechanism by which a city or town with ample tax revenue can directly assist struggling renters AND property owners. In some cities and towns, it might be wise to extend the program to property owners with small portfolios — not every town has as many owner-occupied rental properties as Somerville.
For most cities and towns, there are two dominant sources of revenue: property taxes and state aid. Property taxes are pegged to assessed property value, and the pandemic has not had a measurable impact on property values (it may have slowed property appreciation). No city or town, to my knowledge, is providing ANY property tax relief to ANY property tax payer in Massachusetts.
It is certainly possible for the state to offer some sort of compensation in its cherry-sheet decisions for aid to various cities and towns. State tax revenues are similarly only slightly lower for 2020 (if at all) and are improving in 2021.
As is so often the case, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has more than enough tax revenue to address the crushing impact of the pandemic to virtually everyone except the ultra-wealthy.
The MBTA is being shut down because Mr. Baker, the GOP, and Mr. DeLeo WANT it to shut down. Your students are at risk of eviction because Mr. Baker, the GOP, Mr. DeLeo, and the overwhelmingly Democratic state legislature CHOOSE to pit renter against landlord rather than actually solving the issue.
Local government — at all levels — should be aggressively and immediately raising tax revenues collected from the ultra-wealthy and using that to provide immediate relief to the rest of us.
We in Massachusetts do NOT need to be paralyzed by the appalling failure of the federal government to provide meaningful relief to the states — the inaction of our state government is a willful choice.
It is willful choice made by more than just Charlie Baker and the GOP.
Christopher says
How do you then propose to make up the property tax shortfall so that municipal services won’t be hurt?
jconway says
This is how we come back to the no good choices the feds have left states with. I think there is definitely stuff Baker can be blamed for, I also think governors had a ton of crap shoveled in their lap by the reality star president.
SomervilleTom says
It certainly is a time to relentlessly hammer the message that GOP Governor Charlie Baker and his “Democratic” enablers in the legislature are part of the problem. Both Mr. Baker and Bob DeLeo have been claiming for years that there’s no need to raise taxes.
The claimed inability or unwillingness of Massachusetts government to protect the homes and lives of Massachusetts residents being hurt by the pandemic is the direct consequence of irresponsible tax decisions made by both Mr. Baker and Mr. DeLeo.
Now that public transportation is actually collapsing after years of sabotage by Mr. DeLeo, it is not surprising that he chooses to make a quick exit to the hallowed halls of Northeastern University.
SomervilleTom says
Raise property taxes. Demand that the state raise taxes on the wealthy as Deval Patrick proposed in 2013.
I don’t know about other towns. Here in Somerville, property tax revenue is skyrocketing, along with property values. The town has a enough tax revenue to erect pretty little signs declaring roads closed to all but local traffic — allegedly to encourage walking — and then does nothing to enforce the restriction. The town has erected lots of little sticks that further restrict already narrow streets. Those are simply mowed down by delivery trucks and emergency equipment, so they’re just wasted money.
One of the consequences of the gentrification is that each two-family that gets turned into two or three luxury condos effectively triples the property tax revenue for that property — instead of one two-family assessed at $750K, the town ends up with two or three condos assessed at $1.0-1.2M each.
There is no property tax shortfall in Somerville.
At the state level, tax revenues are well above projections and well above the prior year.
We are in an emergency. This the time for government to act.
Christopher says
I’m glad Somerville seems to be doing well. It’s just that prop 2 1/2 is about the same age as I am and I feel like we’ve seen nothing but consequences of limiting that.
SomervilleTom says
How is that that an overwhelmingly “Democratic” legislature didn’t manage to either undo Prop 2 1/2 or change the dependence of cities and towns on the property tax in the forty years since Prop 2 1/2?
Blaming Prop 2 1/2 was a perfectly defensible reason for bad tax policy in the mid 1980s. It is NOT an excuse for worse tax policy in 2020.
We Democrats are as much to blame for this issue as any Republican.
Christopher says
You’re preaching to the choir, but we do seem to have a lot of tax-allergic Dems.
Trickle up says
One of the most regressive taxes we have, versus raising the income tax to pay for things like this.
A big reason people voted for 2-1/2.
Christopher says
Problem is the prevailing wisdom is that the state constitution prohibits progressive income taxation, though I am not convinced that clause should not be construed geographically.
SomervilleTom says
One more time — that was FORTY YEARS AGO.
We could have and should have fixed this by now.
Trickle up says
We did fix it in the 1980s, by using the more-progressive income tax to fund local government.
We broke it again in the 90s. I’d say, learn from that.
jconway says
ACT Up had a great thread that in many ways DeLeo is a symptom of a dysfunctional system. I worry going with another choice is just rearranging the deck chairs and not a systematic change to the rules of the House. I guess we need the insiders outsider, which could be someone like a Jay Livingstone or someone else with a B or C rating from this list.
https://scorecard.progressivemass.com/all-legislators
Incidentally Haddad and Mariano are viewed as the frontrunners and both have similar ratings.
Christopher says
A quick look at that scorecard suggests to me their rating system leaves a bit to be desired. I could not find which votes they used and they seem to be a bit draconian in their grading. If I were teaching a class and had that many of my students getting Ds and Fs I’d start to think the class was unreasonably difficult. Even our own stomv only got a C+ ?! Then again, maybe equating to academic grades is not the right approach since 2/3 of the way there is a supermajority in most contexts, yet only gets you a D in school.
jconway says
The ratings speak to a bigger issue. Everyone thinks the Speaker is the center of the House, including progressives who kiss his ring to play ball and progressives who score a perfect 100 on PM by always voting against him (and possibly losing a lot of their influence in the process, though it’s debatable what influence actually gets). The real problem is this is neither a Democratic nor a democratic house. It’s wicked centralized.
It’s a system DeLeo inherited from three other speakers who had different ideologies (Flaherty and DiMasi more liberal while Finneran and DeLeo were more conservative), but all shared a desire to centralize power. The sole speaker who didn’t do that was viewed by contemporaries as diverse as Howie Carr and Barney Frank as being a disaster at his job. So I’m not sure how to fix it. Other than voting out people I don’t like and voting in people I do.
Christopher says
Can you elaborate on your choice for Speaker? I thought I remembered some things about Elugardo that made me a bit uncomfortable, but it’s possible I’m thinking of someone else so I’d like to know more before I run my mouth.
jconway says
Charley just used that as an example of someone who isn’t a straight white male and votes down the line progressive. She’s a two term backbencher who is unlikely to get the job. My hunch is the people in the statehouse already know who the new speaker is, and he or she sealed it up years ago.
jconway says
Her controversy was being part of an anti gay protestant church, a problem they never seemed to effect as every elected Catholic progressive in the commonwealth.
Christopher says
That one I recall being much ado about not very much, though there is IMO a spectrum of how much anti-gay is part of a church’s identity. I thought I had recalled her expressing radical opinions on the left.