ARCHIVE: CAMPAIGN FOR OUR COMMUNITIES (Progressive Revenue Reform, 2012-2013)

- Campaign updates
- Goals
- Gov. Patrick's Revenue Proposal
- An Act to Invest in Our Communities
- Changes in Tax Share under Governor's Proposal
- Changes in Tax Share under Act to Invest in Our Communities
- Legislation
- Compare Governor's Plan and Act to Invest
- Background: Why do we need more revenue?
- Take Action
- Toolkit
 

UPDATE 4/9/2013: On Apr 8, the House passed Leadership’s flawed and inadequate Joint Ways and Means (JWM) Transportation Funding bill. However, it did not pass with a veto-proof majority, meaning, what the final revenue package looks like is very much still in play. Gov Patrick has promised to veto if the bill, in its current form, reaches his desk.

On Thursday 4/11/2013, the SENATE votes, and we believe that the progressive position –vote no–  has a decent chance of prevailing… if we continue to contact the Senate, pressuring those on the fence to vote “NO”, and thanking and encouraging those Senators who have shown their commitment to a “no” vote already (the politics are rough! let’s give them our thanks and support for sticking it out!).  Your calls and emails and other conversations* with your State Senator are just as important as ever. Keep it up. And thank you.

Our Goals:

The Campaign for Our Communities is committed to improving the quality of life for Massachusetts families and strengthening our economy. We need to make smart investments in our people and communities.   To fund those investments we support tax reforms that will raise substantial new revenue while holding down increases for low and middle income families.

• Our families and our communities need investments in the services, schools, and infrastructure that make Massachusetts a great place to live and work.
• In order to make the necessary investments, we will need to raise significant* new revenue
• That revenue should come primarily from the highest income earners.

*Significant means around $2 billion, the amount necessary to address MBTA, education, restore budget cuts to services, spurred by tax cuts in the 1990s and the Great Recession. A smaller amount will only be a temporary stop-gap, and we’ll continue going from crisis to crisis and continue to need to cut programs, raise fees, and raise taxes again. Let’s do it right the first time.

An Act to Invest in Our Communities

We need to invest in our communities and keep middle-class families working and earning!  “An Act to Invest in Our Communities,” legislation filed in January 2013 by Rep. Jim O’Day [HD 1359] and Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz [SD 555] does just that.

By allowing us to invest in education, innovation and infrastructure, this proposal builds on our state’s strengths, making life better for our families today and into the future.  By asking more from high income households and investors who received large windfalls from the Bush tax cuts, while raising the personal exemption as a way to hold down the tax increase for middle-class families, the bill raises needed revenue primarily from those who can best afford to pay.

With that revenue, we can keep the quality schools and services that make our state a good place to live and do business. [more information below]

Governor Patrick’s Revenue Proposal

In his State of the Commonwealth address in January 2013, Governor Patrick outlined a bold and exciting new proposal to raise revenue through raising the income tax while cutting the sales tax. The Governor’s plan is ambitious and follows the same core principles as the “Act to Invest In Our Community:” that investment in our infrastructure and education is imperative to our economic vitality now and in the future, and revenue should be raised progressively, with vulnerable citizens protected.

Legislators Can Demonstrate Commitment to Our Values

Over the course of the next few months, both the House and the Senate will consider the Governor’s proposal and other revenue bills and proposals.  The climate seems ripe for new revenue but a strong grassroots case must continue to be made and pressure exerted on reluctant legislators.   We continue to urge legislators to co-sponsor ACT TO INVEST, or make their support for new revenue public.  Doing so will demonstrate a strong public commitment to the Governor’s aims and needs and values of all Massachusetts voters.

Details/Background on An Act to Invest in Our Communities

[ATI Fact sheet - PDF] [PDM Fact Sheet - PDF]

Massachusetts State and Local Taxes are Regressive

That means that the wealthiest Massachusetts earners have been paying far less in taxes than their poorer counterparts.

 Provisions in 'Act to Invest'

Lots of maneuvering but substantially less drama over the last few days as the Senate discusses procedural matters and leadership works to sweeten the revenue bill which came out of the House so as to attract more members.  In case you are keeping score, here’s what we know:

1) Progressives are holding strong and working together to improve the bill.

2) Calls are continuing into swing Senators to shore up our support – and every call matters.

3) The Senate President put a new proposal on the table a few days ago.  It adds some money but still falls short of our key principles – substantial new revenue, progressively raised, focused on more than transportation.   Check out T for Mass’ analysis of how this proposal still falls short on Transportation.

4) The debate will begin at 10:00 am tomorrow, Saturday, April 13 – unless the Republicans move for a delay.

5) We will update our blog post progma.us/JWMSenateVote with the vote count as we learn it.

One thing that is clear from this week’s work in the Senate – when Progressives work together, when they are supported by your calls and tweets and facebook posts, we can get a better bill.  We have power to influence the argument.  And now the Senate President is on record supporting other important progressive policies like the minimum wage.

The political stakes around revenue are climbing, as Leadership, the legislature and the Governor continue to defend and negotiatetheir positions — to apply a short-term fix to transportation only, or fairly raise taxes in order to invest in education, human services, transportation and infrastructure. In Needham, Progressive Mass organizer Stacie Shapiro weighs in with her letter to the local paper:

Today, the Senate overwhelming voted for an improved revenue package for transportation.  The “yes” votes included those progressive Senators who have worked hard with their partners inside and outside the State House over the past week to improve the bill.   Right after the vote, progressive Senators  (Chang-Diaz, Clark, Donnelly, Eldridge, Montigny and Wolf) released a statement saying:

“Through both the work of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and the amendment process, the transportation finance bill passed by the Senate today reaches a level of revenue that allows for meaningful investments in a fiscally-sound, 21st century transportation system. It is for this reason that we vote yes on this bill today.

We look forward to the bill continuing to the joint House-Senate conference committee. Should the bill be reported out of the conference committee having lost the revenue gains we made, it will also lose our support. We are grateful to all of our partners in the legislature, the Governor, advocates, and constituents across the state for their tireless work in crafting solutions to one of the most pressing issues in our Commonwealth.”

While these improvements are notable, the bill still falls short.  As our colleagues in the transportation coalition said immediately before the vote:

“…it does not provide sufficient funding to move our transportation system into the 21st century. The bill’s revenue projections are too optimistic and the total funds insufficient. It will burden drivers and transit riders with unreasonable fare and toll hikes. It will take a long time to realize the revenues projected from the legislation, leading to further delays in important safety and public transportation investments.”

We urge the conference committee to do better and support progressive senators’ decision to withhold their backing should the bill that emerges from Conference Committee move us backward.

We remain disappointed that the legislature has not addressed the other revenue and investment needs of the Commonwealth specifically education and human services.  We hope that these needs will be addressed in the budget process in a progressive fashion.  While we recognize other social benefits for gas and cigarette taxes we remain concerned about their regressivity and disproportionate impact of low and middle income families.

SENATE VOTE COUNT

To Navigate, place cursor in the spreadsheet and use up/down arrows to move through the data. (spreadsheet may not load properly on iPads/iPhones; click here to see in separate window.)

UPDATE 1AM 4/9/2013: The JWM financing bill passed, with 55 representatives voting against, not enough to override a veto from the Governor (notably, 37 Progressive Caucus members voted to pass the bill). The roll call is in the spreadsheet below, but we want to make special acknowledgment of the Progressive Caucus legislators who voted No, and in so doing stood up to fight for a better bill: Reps. Andrews, Farley-Bouvier, Garballey, Hecht, Keefe, Provost, D. Rogers, Sciortino, Sullivan. 

We encourage more legislators to stand up for a better bill and join these progressive champs in making sure the Governor’s veto holds, and taking leadership in crafting a good  revenue bill that (1) is substantial enough for our needs, (2) is raised progressively, (3) addresses education, human services, transportation. 

HOUSE VOTE COUNT

More from Team Needham’s adventures in advocacy for progressive new revenue to invest in our Commonwealth’s many pressing needs!

Our Needham neighbor Laurie wrote a great advocacy letter to one of our State Senators (Needham is split between Sen. Rush’s and Sen. Ross’s districts):

Dear Senator Ross:

I have been teaching in Weston, MA, Public Schools for 33 years. Even in Weston, we are seeing continuous cuts to staffing and programs. But my concern is for all public school students in the Commonwealth.

PLEASE Please support new revenue for public education and other services vital to our communities and our economy. (HB 2687/SB 1313) After six years of very tight budgets, it is time to stop making cuts.

The fairest way to raise new revenue is by increasing the income tax rate while also increasing the personal exemption, as both the Campaign for Our Communities and Governor Deval Patrick have proposed.

As an educator, I know firsthand how much my students would benefit from stable and adequate funding. Our communities and our economy depend on quality public education, from preschool through graduate school.

Over at Blue Mass Group, posters asked about membership in the progressive caucus, because we are hearing that some are wavering in their commitment to stand up and fight for a better revenue bill.

We encourage progressives to reach out and find out — where do these progressives stand? Will they vote against the bad Joint transportation bill? Call them and let us know what you hear!

These are the members of the House progressive caucus, as far as we knew them as of just before the beginning of this legislative session:

House Progressive Caucus Members  

To be quite frank, the State House is all a frenzy with updates and rumors about who’s where on what. And it’s changing all the time.

The best thing to do is call EVERYONE on this list. When you learn their position, share it in comments here or on the BMG thread that started this line of inquiry!

We know grassroots and constituent contact works. Get dialing.

[skip to calls] - The politics around this topic are shifting and volatile. We’re updating as the landscape changes. For our original post, click here. For broader context of the revenue debate, see: progressivemass.com/ourcommunities

On April 2, the Beacon Hill leadership unveiled the pre-conferenced Joint Ways and Means revenue proposal (“JWM“) (effectively, a counter-proposal to “Act to Invest in Our Communities” and the Governor’s) which is wholly inadequate to meet our needs (see our press release, here).

On April 8, the House passed the measure — but without a veto-proof margin. The Senate votes Saturday, where there’s a chance to stop a bad bill, right then and there. If it passes, it goes to the Governor, who’s promised a veto if it reaches him in its current form.

On April 9, to win additional support, the Senate President released an updated proposal calling for more revenue.  While the Governor praised the progress made, our friends at T for Mass have analyzed the new measure and found it lacking.

Between now and Saturday, our Senators will be under intense pressure from leadership to support the JWM bill. Some deal-sweetening, in an attempt to coax individual Senators on board, is expected. Our Senators need to hear that we’ll stand with them if they stand strong for real (ie, substantial) investment in our many needs now, and invest in our future economic strength.

Our script and key talking points are below. And, remember, your ability to get others to call too can make the difference. Get started!

Urges Lawmakers to Vote No

Progressive Massachusetts joins the Campaign for Our Communities and activists across the state in opposing the revenue plan unveiled yesterday by Speaker Deleo and Senate President Murray, and urges all lawmakers to vote against the transportation finance plan next week, and go back to the table for further discussion on how to truly meet the Commonwealth’s investment needs.

“The proposal put forward yesterday, which raises just $500 million for transportation investments only, is inadequate to the substantial need we have here in Massachusetts to invest in our infrastructure, our education system and our future,” said Executive Director, Deborah Shah.

“Governor Patrick and many state lawmakers showed real vision and a commitment to supporting our communities by proposing a nearly two billion dollar plan. Our members are fully behind any proposal that will raises substantial revenue, in a progressive manner, to invest in education, transportation and human services.

“Progressive Massachusetts members include community leaders, political activists and citizen volunteers, who have been fighting for over a year for the revenue necessary to meet the state’s needs. We will be calling our elected representatives, demanding they reject the current proposal, and we will be watching carefully to see how our legislators vote.”

Progressive Massachusetts is a statewide, diverse grassroots organization that organizes around progressive issues in Massachusetts, helps to elect and support progressive candidates for public office who are committed to making a difference on these issues, and holds elected officials accountable to progressive positions and values. This week, Progressive Massachusetts released a scorecard of last session’s roll call votes and intends to track and report this session’s votes on an on-going basis.

More resources on Revenue and Investing in Our Communities:progressivemass.com/ourcommunities