There were no roll call votes in the House or Senate last week. This week, Beacon Hill Roll Call reports local senators’ final roll call attendance records for the entire 2019 session.
The Senate held 153 roll call votes in 2019. Beacon Hill Roll Call tabulates the number of roll calls on which each senator was present and voting and then calculates that number as a percentage of the total roll call votes held. That percentage is the number referred to as the roll call attendance record.
In the 40-member Senate, 28 senators (70 percent) have 100 percent roll call records.
Beacon Hill Roll Call contacted the four senators who missed the most roll calls and asked them for a statement.
The senator who missed the most roll calls is Sen. Joe Boncore, D-Winthrop, who missed 10 roll calls (93.4 percent attendance record).
“Since taking office, I have remained steadfast to the principle that participation in every part of the legislative process is essential to best serve my district and constituents,” Boncore said. “In the four years prior to this, I had never missed a roll call vote, and would never unless it were a matter of absolute importance. All of these abstentions are reflected on Oct. 3, 2019, when I was dealing with a pressing family matter.”
The next three senators who missed the most roll calls are Sen. Adam Hinds, D-Pittsfield, who missed seven roll calls (95.4 percent attendance record); and Sens. Barry Finegold, D-Andover, and Mike Barrett, D-Lexington, who each missed four roll calls (97.3 percent attendance record).
Sen. Hinds office sent Beacon Hill Roll Call a statement that was entered by the senator in the Senate journal which keeps a history of Senate sessions.
“I was absent from the chamber as I was scheduled to be out-of-state for official business,” Hinds said. “Earlier this year, Senate President Karen Spilka appointed me to represent the Massachusetts Senate at the NCSL Budget and Tax Academy in Washington D.C., and, as such, I was out of town. I regret this scheduling conflict prevented me from … recording my position on a number of roll call votes taken that day.”
“Those missing roll call votes should all be from the same night where the senator had to catch a flight to spend time with his wife for her birthday,” responded Sen. Finegold’s chief of staff MaryRose Mazzola. “He had booked the trip way in advance and notified the Senate president as soon as we thought the evening might go late.”
Sen. Barrett did not respond to repeated requests by Beacon Hill Roll Call for a statement on his absences.
The percentage listed next to the senator’s name is the percentage of roll call votes for which he or she was present and voting. The number in parentheses represents the number of roll calls that he or she missed.
Sen. Joanne Comerford — 100 percent (0)
Sen. Adam Hinds — 95.4 percent (7)
The Baker administration announced that sufficient economic growth in 2019 under the terms of a 2002 law will result in tax cuts for millions of Massachusetts taxpayers in 2020. The cuts would come from a reduction in the Part B individual income tax rate and long-term capital gains tax rate from the current 5.05 percent to 5 percent, effective Jan. 1, 2020.
The administration said the cuts are estimated to result in an $88 million tax reduction in partial fiscal year 2020 and $185 million in full fiscal year 2021. Estimates are that the average taxpayer would save from $20 to $50 per year. High income earners would save hundreds of dollars.
Part B income includes wages, salary and many other forms of income, including self-employment income; business, professional and farm income; S corporation distributions; and rental income from personal property. The rate associated with Part B income is also applied to several other income categories, including interest and dividends and most long-term capital gains.
Under the same 2002 law, the state charitable deduction was indefinitely suspended and now will be reinstated on Jan. 1, 2021. The estimated loss of revenue from the charitable deduction is $64 million in partial fiscal year 2020 and approximately $300 million in full fiscal year 2021.
All these reductions were originally supposed to take place in 2003 under the terms of voter-approved ballot questions in 2000. Citizens for Limited Taxation spearheaded the ballot question, rolling back the state’s then-5.85 percent income tax rate to 5 percent over the course of three years. It was approved by 59 percent to 41 percent. Voters also approved a separate question creating the charitable deduction by a 72 percent to 28 percent margin. But it has taken 20 years for the rates to go down to 5 percent and for the charitable deduction to be revived.
These tax cuts do not need the approval of the Legislature. They are part of a system devised by the Legislature when it approved a $1 billion-plus tax hike package in 2002. The package took away the charitable deduction completely, set the long-term capital gains tax at 5.3 percent and froze the income tax rate at 5.3 percent instead of allowing them to drop to 5 percent in January 2003 — a reduction that was approved by voters on the 2000 state ballot. The 2002 law also includes an automatic trigger that reduces both taxes by one-half of 1 percent each year, until they reach 5 percent, if certain goals are met, including if revenue from the prior fiscal year grew at least 2.5 percent faster than the rate of inflation. This upcoming tax reduction to 5 percent represents the conclusion of the process laid out in the 2002 state law.
“Starting in January, the income tax rate will be the lowest it has been in decades, allowing Massachusetts taxpayers to be able to keep more of their hard-earned money,” said Gov. Charlie Baker. “Our administration is working to keep the commonwealth’s economy strong while maintaining fiscal discipline and now we are finally making happen what voters called for almost 20 years ago.”
“Consistent increases in state revenue are triggering this final income tax rate reduction,” said Administration and Finance Secretary Michael Heffernan. “This is excellent news for Massachusetts taxpayers, and it was incorporated into our assumptions for fiscal year 2021 so there is no change in our revenue outlook.”
“It’s a day that should be celebrated that even in Massachusetts, occasionally the taxpayer can keep more of their hard-earned income before state leaders can dig any deeper into our checking accounts,” said Paul Diego Craney, spokesperson for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance. “It’s long overdue, but it goes to show you how hard it is to advocate for the taxpayer at the State House. I doubt our state leaders even know how to spell ‘tax cut.’”
Not everyone is celebrating, however.
“The income tax is one of the few revenue sources that asks high-income people to pay in-line with their larger bank rolls,” said Phineas Baxandall, senior analyst at the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. “Repeated cuts to the income tax rate are a big reason that Massachusetts’ tax system is upside-down. Those with higher incomes end up paying a smaller share of their income, on average, than moderate- and low-income taxpayers pay.”
“Our past failure to invest in transportation and public education forces many working families in Massachusetts to struggle with lengthy commutes, high transportation costs and a lack of economic opportunity,” said Andrew Farnitano, spokesperson for Raise Up Massachusetts, the group that is sponsoring the possible 2022 ballot question that would impose an additional 4 percent income tax on taxpayers’ earnings of more than $1 million. “This income tax rate cut will give low- and middle-income people just $10 or $20 each year, but that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of recent MBTA fare increases, or to the high tuition bills at our public colleges. The vast majority of this tax cut will go to those at the top, with the highest-income 1 percent receiving almost 25 percent of the total tax cut.
“Massachusetts needs major new investments in transportation and public education in every part of the state, and that will require significant new revenue,” Farnitano continued. “It’s time for millionaires and large corporations, who have been the only big winners in our economy, to finally pay their fair share to make those investments. That’s why Raise Up Massachusetts is fighting for the Fair Share Amendment tax on million-dollar incomes, and for closing corporate tax loopholes.”
The House and Senate approved and sent to Gov. Charlie Baker a $541 million fiscal 2020 supplemental budget to cover expenses and to fund various state programs and agencies that are running out of money. The package also deposits $428 million into the state’s Rainy Day Fund, now estimated to be $3.3 billion.
Provisions include $32 million for repairs on the MBTA; $1 million in grants to help cities and towns with the 2020 census; $2.1 million to cover the costs of allowing early voting in the 2020 presidential primaries, including $1.5 million earmarked to increase public awareness of the option to vote early; $3 million to provide relief for communities that experienced financial impact from the July 23 tornado on Cape Cod; $2.5 million to support the state’s agricultural and commercial fishing and cranberry growing industries; and $5 million for public universities to enhance the safety and security of students, faculty and staff.
Supporters said the budget represented a fiscally responsible way to distribute the state’s more than $1 billion surplus.
No one spoke against the budget.
The Public Health Committee held a hearing on several bills including:
Donate food (H 1969) — Allows restaurants and other food establishments to donate their edible leftover cooked food and non-perishable food to local food pantries and assistance shelters. The donor would receive a tax credit or deduction. The bill also relieves the restaurant of any liability if a person is harmed by eating the donated food.
Firearm screening by doctors (H 2005) — Requires doctors to screen all patients by asking them if they have a firearm in their home. The details of how often the screening would be and guidelines for safety counseling for individuals who screen positive for the presence of firearms in the home will be established by the Department of Public Health if the bill is ever signed into law.
“Our priority is to encourage further conversations about gun safety, identify red flags for suicide and domestic violence, and limit child access to guns,” Boston Health and Human Services Chief Marty Martinez testified before the committee. “We know that gun safety is a public health issue. As such, doctors are uniquely positioned to help prevent gun-related injury and death.”
Rep. Jon Santiago, D-Boston, the sponsor of the legislation, did not respond to repeated requests by Beacon Hill Roll Call for a statement.
“Mandating that people are screened for gun ownership as if we have a communicable disease is outrageous,” said Jim Wallace, executive director of the Gun Owners Action League (GOAL) of Massachusetts. “The bill also mandates that we receive some sort of counseling if we are “screened positive” for firearms. Simply put, not only the bill, but the terminology used shows the disdain for simply exercising our civil rights in the commonwealth.”
Mandatory diaper-changing area (H 19123) — Requires restaurants that serve families with children to have at least one designated diaper-changing area or facility on the premises that is open to all customers.
“As a father of two young children, I know firsthand that too many family establishments across the state lack diaper-changing stations, especially in men’s restrooms,” said Sen. Brendan Crighton, D-Lynn, the bill’s sponsor. “Parents should be able to go out with their children without having to worry about finding a safe and clean place to change their baby’s diaper. It’s time for Massachusetts to join other states like California and New York and pass this common-sense legislation.”