Hope you find a winner:
"Lottery seeks $1b jackpot for itself; Raffle-style game part of big plan to boost profits" by Todd Wallack, Globe Staff / May 21, 2011
The Massachusetts State Lottery Commission, pursuing an ambitious goal of $1 billion in profits, plans to launch raffle-style games reminiscent of fund-raising efforts by youth sports and church groups, and to sell tickets to jumbo drawings like Mega Millions through hundreds of electronic vending machines.
As if they needed competition from the loot-lapping state.
Already among the most profitable lotteries in the country, the Massachusetts system would need to increase profits by another 16 percent to fulfill newly elected state Treasurer Steven Grossman’s campaign pledge to reach the $1 billion mark for the first time in its history....
“It’s a big initiative and it’s a lofty goal, but it’s attainable,’’ said Paul R. Sternburg, who was appointed lottery executive director in January. “You have to be innovative. You have to adapt and try other ideas. If you just do the same games over and over again, your sales are going to stay the same or dip.’’
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The main goal is to increase the amount of local aid the lottery generates for Massachusetts cities and towns, which are still dealing with recession budget cuts, including reductions in outlays from the state government.
By TAKING from the PATHETIC POOR!?
In LIBERAL, DEMOCRATIC Massachusetts?
“It’s critical,’’ said Geoff Beckwith, the executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. “The funds go to public safety, education, maintaining our roads, libraries, and everything in between.’’
Related:
"Legislators also agreed last week to change legal language in the recently passed sales tax hike to assure credit agencies that $100 million earmarked for the Turnpike Authority would go toward paying off Big Dig debt"
Also see:
Memory Hole: Massachusetts' State Budget
Mass. State Budget: Screwing Cities and Towns
Uniting With Hollywood
Just wanted you to see where all the money is going, fellow citizens and taxpayers.
I'm just wondering if you are getting sick of the cry wolf, gut the teachers, cops, and firefighters garbage so banks, well-connected corporations, and lavish political lifestyles can be maintained.
Still, if Grossman fulfills the pledge to boost lottery sales, it could have hidden costs. Critics say government lotteries exploit residents who are desperate to escape poverty and do not understand how extreme the odds are of winning. Numerous studies have shown that lottery games are most popular in the poorest neighborhoods where residents can least afford the expense....
Yes, even in solidly-blue and liberal Massachusetts the state is simply a reverse-Robin Hood supply line for tax loot to the usual suspects.
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Some federal, state, and city favorites:
"Millions in profits and a tax bill ($0) to envy; Generous breaks a significant plus for 30 public companies in the state" May 01, 2011|By Beth Healy, Globe Staff
More like BILLIONS for some; however, I now expect such obfuscations from the corporate media.
They are high-tech companies, financial players, and manufacturers. What they all have in common: They paid no federal income taxes last year, despite making millions of dollars in profits.
Software company Novell Inc. and cellphone tower giant American Tower Corp. are just two of 30 public companies in Massachusetts that owed no federal income tax in 2010, generally because they lost money in prior years and were able to carry forward those losses to offset tax liabilities. In some cases, companies received refunds worth millions of dollars....
What we have here, folks, is corporate fascism like the world has never seen.
No Massachusetts company had a larger federal tax benefit last year than State Street Corp. The Boston financial services giant received an $885 million refund, after taking significant losses on its investment portfolio. State Street received a $2 billion taxpayer-funded bailout in 2008, which it has since repaid, and last year reported a $1.6 billion profit.
Related: State Street Stealers
The company drew fire last month from labor groups, which decried its refund given its large profits and taxpayer bailout. State Street recently cut its head count by 5 percent, laying off 400 workers in the Boston area, and 1,000 more in other locations.
Jeff Crosby, president of the IUE-CWA Local 201, whose members make jet engines in Lynn for General Electric Co., said tax cuts to major companies often don’t create jobs or benefit workers. GE, the largest US company, has sparked national attention to corporate taxes because it paid no federal tax bill last year, even though it turned a $14.2 billion profit.
Not only that, they got a $3.2 billion refund.
Yeah, that's BILLION with a B!
“That’s billions we’re spending subsidizing rich companies,’’ Crosby said....
State Street and many other Bay State companies are simply taking advantage of longstanding, legal tax deductions. But Congress and the Obama administration have extended about $48 billion more in short-term tax breaks to large corporations since 2009, according to the US Treasury Department, aimed at fueling growth and protecting jobs.
One deduction allowed companies to apply their losses toward five years of past profits, instead of two....
Companies get to deduct stock options as a form of compensation, and in an ironic twist, the more the stock price goes up, the more they get to write off....
One begins to realize the WHOLE $Y$TEM is RIGGED for CORPORATION$!!!
Corporate tax lawyers say the system is fair; it lets companies take credit for stock compensation in the same way that they would otherwise deduct employee salaries. But it’s also another way in which taxpayers are subsidizing companies, said Robert McIntyre of Citizens for Tax Justice, a Washington group that advocates for American workers on taxes....
To be sure, many Bay State companies did pay taxes last year....
Anytime the media says "to be sure" you might want to hold your breath.
Some Massachusetts companies pay little or nothing in federal taxes because they are doing most of their business overseas....
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Sun went down on Evergreen:
"Solar company warns it may close; Evergreen is low on cash as orders slip and prices fall" May 13, 2011|By Todd Wallack and Erin Ailworth, Globe Staff
The market for solar products is worsening....
Initially, Evergreen added more jobs than promised, but then shut the plant after deciding it could not compete with the cheaper manufacturing in China....
So they moved there.
It continues to operate a filament plant in Michigan....
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Stick it where the sun don't shine, Evergreen.
"Evergreen Solar loses tax breaks worth millions; Retroactive bill for property levies is in the mail, too" May 20, 2011|By Todd Wallack, Globe Staff
It remains unclear whether they will be able to recoup any of the $21 million in cash grants that were part of the package.
The company’s fortunes have changed dramatically in the years the Patrick administration made Evergreen a symbol of its commitment to grow the clean-energy sector in Massachusetts.
Beset by falling demand and falling prices for solar products, Evergreen last week warned investors that it is in danger of running out of cash in the next year. The announcement raised questions about how the state would be repaid if Evergreen’s warning came to bear and the company shuts down or files for bankruptcy protection....
The state (in this case) is YOU, taxpayers!!!
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Related: Slow Saturday Special: Evergreen Turns Brown
Slow Saturday Special: Evergreen Solar Burns Massachusetts
State Keeps Watering Evergreen
Executive Payday: Evergreen Excesses
Yup, that's where all your tax loot went, taxpayers.
The sunlight must have blinded you to the fraud.
Also see: No More Evergreen in Massachusetts
While Boston begs:
"City sends ‘tax’ bills to major nonprofits; Aims to triple voluntary payments within 5 years" April 24, 2011|By Michael Rezendes, Globe Staff
For the first time, Boston’s major tax-exempt institutions — its premier hospitals, universities, and cultural centers — are being asked to make regular voluntary payments to the city based on the value of their property to help offset the rising cost of city services and cuts in state financial aid.
Although many of the city’s nonprofit organizations have been making so-called Payments In Lieu of Taxes for decades, this marks a major change to a system that feels to some organizations uncomfortably close to tax bills....
Am I supposed to feel sorry for them?
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Also see: Boston's major tax-exempt institutions
The Massachusetts Model: Tax-Exempt Memory Hole
All highly profitable institutions with millions going for executive compensation -- and they are "voluntarily" spitting in the bucket.
Has anyone asked whether you voluntarily want to pay taxes, reader?
Related:
"At $2 billion, it would be one of the largest construction projects in Boston and probably require tax increases to fund it."
All so the elite of Boston can have some place to party!
See: A Second-Class City
And always will be; why don't you fix the decrepit and deteriorating T first?
Also see: Dual-job disclosure a wake-up call for safety agencies
