Left In Lowell

UPDATE: As Charley says, these are the two more important loopholes to close, though the total revenue generated by the whole list is also important, in my opinion. The two are:

1. Letting business shift income to out of state subsidiaries to avoid taxes, and
2. Claiming different kinds of corporate identities between their federal and state tax returns. Let’s tax a duck like a duck, and not like a swan.

According to this Boston Globe report, DiMasi, self-styled King of Beacon Hill, has decided unilaterally to quash Patrick’s proposal which would help close the state’s budget deficit without too many cuts and without the rainy day fund (hint: we’re supposed to be in a good economy right now…it’s about to be crushed by real estate problems among others, so I wouldn’t dive into that rainy day fund just yet).

The Globe says that the House Ways and Means committee is going to come out with its own version of the budget by mid-April. This is your chance to say to DiMasi, you ain’t the boss of the voters. Call the House Ways and Means committee and express your views about closing the tax loopholes that only will affect the largest businesses in the Commonwealth and make them finally pay their share. (To view the proposals in a neat table format, BMG has it here.)

The main number for the whole committee is: (617) 722-2380. Here are the individual members and their responsibilities and the towns they’re from. You can get the list, with links to the members’ phone numbers and web pages, here. If one of these is your Rep, call them especially.

Robert A. DeLeo of Winthrop - Chair: 617-722-2990 or 781-289-8965
Marie P. St. Fleur of Boston - Vice Chair: 617-722-2380
James E. Vallee of Franklin - Assistant Vice-Chair: 617-722-2380 or 508-528-1095
Theodore C. Speliotis of Danvers
Frank M. Hynes of Marshfield
Thomas P. Kennedy of Brockton
William C. Galvin of Canton
Louis L. Kafka of Stoughton
William G. Greene, Jr. of Billerica
John F. Quinn of Dartmouth
Paul Kujawski of Webster
Colleen M. Garry of Dracut
Harold P. Naughton, Jr. of Clinton
Geraldine Creedon of Brockton
Barry R. Finegold of Andover
Alice K. Wolf of Cambridge
Elizabeth A. Malia of Boston
Walter F. Timilty of Milton
David Paul Linsky of Natick
Mark V. Falzone of Saugus
Anne M. Gobi of Spencer
Mary E. Grant of Beverly
William Lantigua of Lawrence
Robert M. Koczera of New Bedford
Christopher N. Speranzo of Pittsfield
Michael J. Moran of Boston

I spoke to a Pangiotakos staffer just now and they are saying that while the final numbers on the current state of the budget are yet to come in, and they are still working on these issues, that Senator Panagiotakos would consider voting for the closure of the tax loopholes proposed in Patrick’s budget - in particular I asked about the combined tax reporting proposal - if they are needed. He is not specifically for or against it at this time, but is not ruling it out.

Given that Panagiotakos has just been given the title of acting chair of the Ways and Means committee, that is good news.

The Lowell Sun is reporting that the Niki Tsongas campaign has raised $140K in two weeks, which will likely mean that Tsongas will stay competative in the race, especially if she can keep that up. To my mind, that’s her greatest advantage, because money will be very important in this special election race, where voter turnout is likely to be depressed. Dick Howe mentions on his blog that SecState Bill Galvin is worried about the timing of the election (July then August), while Meehan is probably planning to send his letter in as soon as his hiring at UML is final, and leaves the timing of the election - or the legislative tweaking thereof - to others.

While money is a huge advantage, especially in a special election, don’t forget that Patrick was outspent significantly, particularly in the primary. So far, I have heard of no polling data being collected for this race. Most voters probably don’t even know there is a race to begin with.

I was browsing a very cool site I found via dKos called OpenCongress, when right off the bat I found something affecting Lowell that could be interesting. I was looking up Sen John Kerry and Sen. Ed Kennedy’s tracking pages, which show their votes, the bills they sponsor, what committees they’re on, and news and blog posts about them. Sincerely nifty tool.

Anyway, a recent bill introduced by Kennedy, S.867 “A bill to adjust the boundary of Lowell National Historical Park, and for other purposes,” caught my eye (because, well, it said “Lowell” in the title). The page links to the full text of the bill. The bill’s purpose is to:

(a) Boundary Modification- Section 101(a) of Public Law 95-290
(16 U.S.C. 410cc-11(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
	
            `(3) ADDITIONAL LAND- The boundaries of the park are modified to include the
5 parcels of land identified on the map entitled `Boundary Adjustment, Lowell National
Historical Park', numbered 475/81,424B, and dated September 2004, and more particularly
described in section 202(a)(2)(G).'.
	
      (b) Acquisition of Property- Section 202(a)(2) of Public Law 95-290 (16 U.S.C. 410cc-22(a)(2))
is amended by adding at the end the following:
	
                  `(G) The following parcels of land, as identified on the map entitled `Boundary
Adjustment, Lowell National Historical Park', numbered 475/81,424B, and dated
September 2004:
	
                        `(i) 91 Pevey Street.
                        `(ii) The portion of 607 Middlesex Place.
                        `(iii) Eagle Court.
                        `(iv) The portion of 50 Payne Street.
                        `(v) 726 Broadway.'.

Anyone have any thoughts on those listed locations? I’m curious. Needless to say, that website is an amazing tool for zeroing in on things going on in your Congress. And the different items are available via RSS feed, so you can use a feedreader to track your congresscritter.

Now, can we put together something like this for our state legislature? We badly need it. How cool would it be…and it wouldn’t be that hard to put together, either. It might even be the case that the software OpenCongress is using was developed under an open source license (I suspect it was, given who sponsors it) . Hmm, might a progressive state legislator propose this as a bill? Then we could at least see on the record who’s not for open government.

I caught part of the Finance Sub-Committee meeting prior to the full City Council meeting. Thomas Moses, City CFO, was well prepared with his presentation. He was joined by CM Bernie Lynch and Auditor, Sheryl Wright.

The discussion focused on three areas: FY 2006 Audit; Free Cash and FY 2007 Budget. (more…)

Tonight, the City Council voted 9-0 to go into another Executive Session (non-public meeting, behind close doors) to discuss again, the “missing classrooms and the $290,000 payment” and all of its on-going legal ramifications. This is the second CC Executive Session on the Stoklosa School; they had met back in November 2005.

For those of you who do not know , I am referring to the City Council’s quest to determine how much did it really cost to build that school and more importantly why did we have to pay that extra $290,000. In case you are keeping tab, the original motion asking for that information came in November 2005. According to the minutes on the City’s web site, it was former Councilor Dick Howe who made a motion asking the then City Manager “…submit a breakdown on the $290,000 paid to Jackson Construction for the alleged deletion/restoration of the 3 classrooms.”

That was not the last time that question was asked. Throughout the following months, there were similar motions made by various City Council members to get additional information. CC E. Donoghue, February 28, 2006; CC K. Broderick, March 21, 2006; CC G. Ramirez, March 28, 2006. (more…)