Beacon Hill Scorecard -- May 12, 2006
Constitutional convention recesses
A Massachusetts Constitutional Convention recesses until July 12 without action on citizen-sponsored plans to ban gay marriage and make access to health care a constitutional right. The convention had been in recess for eight months and now will be out for another two months.
Other items on the convention agenda include a proposed legislative amendment to the constitution that would obligate the state to make annual deposits to its stabilization or “rainy day” fund.
Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, D-Amherst, said the recess was agreed to “in deference to the work we have ahead of us.” He said lawmakers have been focused on health care access legislation and are preoccupied now with state budget deliberations and ongoing efforts to craft a consensus job creation bill, which has been hung up in conference committee since last fall.
State school aid to be debated
A budget plan proposed by the state Senate would add $210.4 million to state school aid and put in motion long-term structural changes that will affect how much each city and town receives.
Unveiled by Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, the plan would permanently rewrite the formula by which state school aid is figured. The plan sets a goal of minimum state aid at 20 percent of the foundation budget for each school district within the next five years. A House plan targets 15 percent and the governor, 12 percent.
The Senate committee is expected to begin debate on the budget May 24. School funding is a major component of local property tax increases on Cape Cod and other regions of Massachusetts.
Land conservation action urged
Rep. Jeffrey Davis Perry, R-Sandwich, is urging the House Ways and Means Committee to favorably release House Bill 4218, “An Act Relative to Establishing Massachusetts Land Conservation Incentives.” A letter signed by 68 members of the House of Representatives (including Perry) was recently sent to Robert DeLeo, chairman of Ways and Means, requesting release of this important legislation.
The bill, reported favorably from the Joint Committee on Natural Resources, Environment and Agriculture nearly a year ago, would create a new state income tax credit for landowners that make permanent gifts of conservation land to state and municipal agencies and qualified nonprofit conservation organizations.
More than forty acres of land are permanently lost to development every day in Massachusetts, and nearly 60 percent of undeveloped land in Massachusetts is privately owned. Perry said that a modest state income tax credit is the appropriate impetus to encourage land owners to voluntarily preserve natural resources that they might otherwise be unable or unwilling to protect.
State universal health insurance plan proceeding
The Romney administration has submitted to the federal government for approval a plan detailing how it will substantially reduce the number of uninsured in the commonwealth.
According to the governor, the recently approved universal health insurance law accomplishes the following goals sought by the federal government:
• Subsidizes the purchase of private insurance for low-income individuals to reduce the number of uninsured;
• Directs more federal and state dollars to individuals and less to institutions; and
• Improves the fiscal integrity of the MassHealth program.
Key milestones in the new state plan include creating a new health-care Connector Authority between May and October 2006, the offering and enrollment of lower-income residents into premium assistance programs by October 2006, the offering of private, non-subsidized products by January 2007, and statewide open enrollment between March and May 2007 in anticipation of the individual insurance requirement that starts July 1, 2007.
Federal health-care bill near death
A federal bill to supersede state health insurance coverage mandates and allow businesses to offer scaled-back health plans was debated in the U.S. Senate but was expected to die. The measure, S. 1955, introduced by Sen. Michael Enzi, R-WY, sought to allow small business and trade associations to band together and offer group health coverage across state lines.
Opponents said the legislation would erode patient protections and undo the work of state legislatures. Insurers say the cost of state-mandated coverage is driving up health insurance premiums. Business groups had favored the legislation.
Gas tax cut proposed
House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones Jr., R-North Reading, has proposed to suspend the Massachusetts 21 cent-per-gallon gas tax temporarily for the summer tourist season. He said, ''This proposal recognizes the people who don't have the immediate needs to go out and buy a hybrid vehicle overnight. When people feel like they're not paying something to the government, they feel a lot better."
Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey and other legislators supported the proposal, though its passage is in doubt. She said, ''We know that working families and small businesses are struggling to meet the higher costs of energy and gas right now."
Wendy K. Northcross, CEO of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce said, ''A lot of people here make their living from tourism. It's their mainstay here. They get anxious if there's something that can cut into consumer confidence."
Supporters propose using a portion of state surplus to make up for the estimated $187 million loss from suspending the gas tax from Memorial Day to Labor Day. A similar plan was proposed last week in Connecticut, but the legislature adjourned its regular session for the year without acting on it.
Reilly challenges home insurance rate hike
Attorney General Tom Reilly argued that the insurance industry is using an unexplained model for determining future hurricanes, overcharging for expenses and inflating its numbers to justify a proposed 12.9 percent statewide rate hike, including a 25 percent increase in the cost of homeowner insurance on Cape Cod.
Reilly filed his final brief with the Division of Insurance, as part of the rate setting case for the FAIR Plan, operated by the Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriting Association. In September, the MPIUA filed its request for a 12.9 percent increase for homeowners statewide, a 25 percent increase for Cape Cod and a 20 percent increase for most of the cities and towns in Plymouth and Bristol counties. Reilly is recommending no overall rate increase statewide in 2006 – including rate decreases for homeowners in many communities – and a slight increase, 1.2 percent, for Cape Cod homeowners.
Forecast: State won't see 2001 job levels by 2010
Tepid job growth in Massachusetts means total employment here won't reach its peak level, established in 2001, by 2010, economists said during an annual outlook conference in Westborough. Economists with the New England Economic Project say economic growth in Massachusetts between 2006 and 2010 will be "lackluster" compared to the expansions of the 1980s and 1990s, with annual growth in real gross state product of 2.8 percent.
Alan Clayton-Matthews, assistant professor at UMass Boston and chairman of the project's Massachusetts forecast, said a resurgence in technology markets worldwide has improved the climate for exports and improved the local job market, but noted a costly drag on the local economy: energy prices in Massachusetts exceed those of the rest of the nation by 32 percent. Forecasters see a "rocky road" ahead for Rhode Island, a continuing "up cycle" for Vermont, slower rates of growth in Maine and Connecticut, and a different situation in New Hampshire, which posted the largest percentage increase in jobs in 2004 when it added 37,500 jobs, a 6.8 percent increase.
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