“Working hard to do more with less.”
When the state is allegedly outperforming the nation economically?
"State OK’s $31m in tax breaks" by Todd Wallack | Globe Staff, June 27, 2012
A state economic development board on Tuesday awarded more than $31 million in state and local tax breaks to companies for 17 projects.
I noticed there is always money for well-connected concerns.
The Economic Assistance Coordinating Council approved $10 million in state tax credits for 10 firms, including $3.3 million to defense contractor General Dynamics Corp., $3 million to retailing giant TJX Cos., and $1.7 million to Saint-Gobain SA, a French building materials company.
The council also approved $21 million in local property tax breaks negotiated with cities and towns, including nearly $18 million for TJX. TJX, which operates the T.J. Maxx and Marshalls chains, pledged to create 300 jobs and invest $264 million to expand in Framingham, where the company is based, and Marlborough, where it has agreed to buy buildings vacated by Fidelity Investments.
General Dynamics plans to create 100 full-time jobs and retain more than 1,100 as part of an $18 million upgrade of its Pittsfield manufacturing plant.
I'd rather not base the economy on an empire-supporting murder machine, thanks.
Related: Massachusetts' Lost Decade of Jobs
So even with all the tax loot to$$ed at corpor.... SIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Saint-Gobain, which has about 2,000 employees in Massachusetts, plans to use nearly half of bankrupt Evergreen Solar’s old plant in Devens to make a component of light-emitting diodes, or LEDs. The firm plans to create 90 full-time jobs and invest $31 million in the facility.
Evergreen went bankrupt and then $plit for the Chinese beach.
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Related: State closes Buddy’s diner in Somerville for taxes
Where's his tax break, huh?
Update: Buddy’s Diner in Somerville reopens after tax seizure
"Mass. Senate begins economic development bill vetting" by Andy Metzger | State House News Service, July 03, 2012
“There is a lot to dissect,” Brian Joyce — chairman of the Senate Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures, and State Assets — said after the hearing Monday morning....
Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Greg Bialecki also broadly supported the bill but said that tax incentives should go through a new vetting process....
Bialecki said the bill’s passage would help the agency MassDevelopment provide expanded assistance to manufacturers, enable Mass. Technology Collaborative matching investments for research and development initiatives, and establish a “creative economy network.”
Lawmakers spoke in favor of infrastructure-building programs that would be expanded by the bill, with Joyce mentioning that he had coffee Monday morning at a coffee shop that owed its existence to a MassWorks grant....
Lobbyists representing union workers, real estate developers, and research labs all spoke in favor of the bill, too, focusing on the specific areas that would help their interests and offering suggestions for minor tweaks.
Related: Union-only labor for bridge project irks firms
Ever notice Democrats always become the working man's friend about every two year around election time? I feel like telling them to take a long hike off a short pier.
Project labor agreements: Mass. taxpayers lose again
Yeah, the Globe is really looking out for you, sigh.
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Could that great state economy be an illusion?
"State business confidence index slips" by Chris Reidy | Globe Staff, July 02, 2012
A Massachusetts business confidence index posted a June reading of 48.3, the lowest since October.
June’s reading was 8.5 points lower than May’s. The decline was the second-largest in the history of the 21-year-old index from the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, an employer group.
Sure at odds with all the business bulls*** the Globe shovels about the state economy, 'eh?
“A drop was hardly unexpected, especially in view of a spate of negative economic reports during the month,” said Raymond G. Torto, chairman of AIM’s Board of Economic Advisors. “It remains to be seen how long this slump will last, and whether the size of the June decline may have been exaggerated by the timing of the responses. The economy is obviously in much better shape than it was three years ago, but it remains fragile, and employers are very aware of threats and uncertainties.”
PFFFT!
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Yes, I'm sure the state is the savior!
"Mass. Legislature OK’s economic development bill" by Megan Woolhouse | Globe Staff, August 01, 2012
The legislation is designed to promote new businesses by exempting start-ups from the corporate excise tax for three years, which would cost the state an estimated $15 million to $19 million in revenue during that period. It also includes $2 million for the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, a quasipublic economic development agency, to support paid internships at technology start-ups and other companies.
Why not just get rid of it for everybody?
House Speaker Robert DeLeo called attention to the jobs bill in May, when he published an open letter calling on Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who created the social media website in his Harvard University dormitory room, to consider returning the company to Massachusetts.
Maybe you should offer him a tax credit check.
‘‘To see a gentleman such as Mark Zuckerberg, who started here in Massachusetts and is now in California, it bothers me,’’ DeLeo told reporters at the time. ‘‘He should be here in Massachusetts.’’
I'd rather he stay there.
Related: Facebook F***ing Up Massachusetts Justice
Facebook's IPO Flops
Facebook has more than 83 million illegitimate accounts
Startup Claims 80% Of Its Facebook Ad Clicks Are Coming From Bots
Oh, trying to fraudulently drive up advertising rates, huh?
"Leaked emails from data security firm HBGary show the federal government is offering private intelligence companies contracts to create software to manage “fake people” on social media sites, possibly to manipulate public opinion or create the illusion of consensus on controversial issues."
Also see: Most of Newt Gingrich’s Twitter Followers Are Fake
I don't tweet or face, readers. It's all right here for you.
While acknowledging that was unlikely, DeLeo and other supporters of the bill said they hoped it might spur other cutting-edge firms to make Massachusetts their home. The bill also establishes an Advanced Manufacturing Futures Program, offering grants for technical assistance to small and mid-size manufacturers. State officials also will organize a yearly summit to discuss major economic initiatives.
In addition, the bill designates Aug. 11 and 12 as a sales tax holiday, suspending the 6.25 percent levy.
How did it get that high?
Related: House leaders push for a new sales tax holiday
Mass. retailers look for lift over tax-free weekend
I make it a point to not shop that weekend. Get rid of it for good and watch this economy take flight!
The measure, which retailers see as a boost to sales, is expected to cost the state $20.8 million in revenue. Restaurant meals, cars, motorboats, tobacco, and any single item priced at $2,500 or more are not part of the tax holiday.
Look at all the exemptions! Not much of a holiday!
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"At session’s close, Beacon Hill swings into action" by Michael Levenson | Globe Staff, August 02, 2012
There was a strange scene at the State House on Tuesday night: Everywhere you looked, people were passing bills.
Suddenly, an institution that often drawls howls of protest for its grindingly slow approach to legislating looked like the most productive workplace in America.
Pages in blue jackets darted through the marble halls, shuttling papers between the House and Senate. Lobbyists swarmed the chamber doors, buttonholing lawmakers. And legislators voted on bill after bill, as they scrambled to get as much done as possible before their two-year legislative session ended just after midnight.
Related: The Perils of One-Party Politics: Massachusetts' Democracy
In their final day of formal lawmaking, House and Senate members rushed 32 bills to Governor Deval Patrick’s desk — 14 of them in the two hours before the last gavel banged in the Senate at 12:33 a.m. Wednesday.
Those bills ranged from the momentous — such as a 349-page, first-in-the nation plan to cut health care costs, unveiled the night before it was voted on — to the monotonous, such as H4341, which transfers control of an acre of parkland from the state to the town of South Hadley.
Related: Massachusetts Health Model Means Return of Hated HMOs
The legislative bustle was quite a shift from the first seven months of the year, when lawmakers worked at a much slower (they prefer the term “deliberative”) pace and approved about 140 bills.
House Republican leader Bradley H. Jones Jr. said he does not like waiting until the last minute to make laws, but the final day of the session just seems to spur lawmakers into action.
“Unfortunately, I know that’s the dynamic that forces people to reach consensus,” he said just after the House session ended at 12:06 a.m. “Nothing like a deadline.”
Especially when no one has a clue as to what is in them! It is vote the way leadership wants or face their wrath. It's Democratic fascism is what it is.
Representative Steven L. Levy, a Marlborough Republican, said he supported many of the bills that sailed through Tuesday night but did not like “this mad rush at the end.”
“Why can’t we just have a steady stream of bills moving through the legislative process and being addressed and voted on their merits?” he said. “There’s got to be a better way.” I agree.
The LOBBYISTS SHOULD NOT BE WRITING the BILLS and sending them over for a rubber stamp.
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House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo defended the Legislature’s last dash. He pointed proudly to the passage of controversial crime legislation barring parole for certain repeat offenders, as well as the health care bill and energy and economic stimulus measures....
Related: This Massachusetts Post is a Crime
We live in a criminal state.
Patrick now has 55 bills on his desk. The details of some of them began to emerge as daylight broke Wednesday and tired staffers sorted through the fine print.
Related:
"Patrick’s vetoes of earmarked spending in the budget for programs and projects such as marine fisheries, parks and recreation, housing services, and travel and tourism were mostly overturned in the past few weeks by the Legislature. Earmarks are making a comeback. Democrats and Republicans appear to have been successful in winning money for pet projects in their districts."
But you must endure austerity, fellow citizen!
Also see: Patrick vetoes bill aimed at illegal immigrant drivers
Stay off the streets, reader.
A transportation bond bill enacted just after midnight will make the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy, the private board that oversees the ribbon of parks in downtown Boston, subject to open-meeting and public records laws. The board had been criticized for its lack of transparency....
Related:
"The nonprofit conservancy that runs the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway in Boston is resisting the Patrick administration’s request that it become 100 percent privately funded within five years, saying state money is necessary to run the downtown public park network."
Also see: Police say shooter in Greenway slaying may have acted in self-defense
Stay away from the Greenway, readers.
A measure that would lease Daly Field in Brighton to Simmons College was also approved.... the general public will be all but shut out.
Maybe this will Brighton your day:
"With the state financially strapped, Massachusetts officials are searching for creative ways to maintain its vast array of public parks, swimming pools, ice rinks, and other public amenities."
State financially strapped?
Mass. economy outpaces US
Then they must be mismanaging the finances something terrible!
Related: Massachusetts loses 2,600 jobs
Oh, I'm sorry; turns out I was being lied to again by the sack of s*** agenda-pushing paper.
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Patrick has said he is eager to put his signature on the sweeping bill to control health care costs, which was his top priority.
Related: Massachusetts Health Model Means Return of Hated HMOs
Yeah, it's a great bill!
He has not set a date for that signing, although it is almost certain to come with some pomp.
Related: Deval Patrick signs repeat offender crime bill in private State House ceremony
When Governor Mitt Romney signed the state’s universal health insurance law in 2006, he held a gala ceremony at Faneuil Hall, complete with a fife-and-drum corps dressed in tricorn hats and breeches.
I'll bet he's wishing he hadn't do that.
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More:
"The authority would need the Legislature to approve tax increases or other public funds to pay for the project. Is this the best use of taxpayer dollars?"
No, it's about improving life for themselves, their events, and their parties!
Related: Memory Hole: Massachusetts' State Budget
See where the money is going even now?
Hey, those are the breaks, right?
Also see: One If By Land, Two if By Sea....
Oh, the MBTA got a bailout even after the sales tax swindle?
Big Pit Still Digging Into Taxpayer Wallets
Yeah, those interest payments for fraudulent debt to fraudulently-profitable banks take precedence in the budget.
Massachusetts Lets Hollywood Roll Credits
I'll be showing that picture above at some point.
And those bills on Patrick's desk?
"Lawmakers back overhaul of state system for runaways, truants" by Peter Schworm | Globe Staff, August 03, 2012
The frenetic end of the legislative session at the State House included a major overhaul of the Commonwealth’s system for handling children who are often in trouble at home or school.
The legislation calls for a system of community-based programs that will provide children with mental health and substance abuse counseling as an alternative to the juvenile justice system.
“The community programs will be the front door,” said Marylou Sudders, president of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which lobbied for the changes.
Sudders and other advocates said the legislation marked the first overhaul of the Children in Need of Services system, known as CHINS, since it was created in the 1970s. The Legislature passed the bill this week, and Governor Deval Patrick is reviewing it.
Under the new system, which will be phased in over the next three years if Patrick signs the bill, social service agencies will seek to address problems at a family level, with the goal of keeping more children in their homes....
Wasn't that always the goal?
The CHINS program deals with about 8,000 children a year. Advocates have lobbied for years to change the program, which they say needlessly brings wayward teenagers into the juvenile justice system and creates a stigma that can make them feel like criminals....
Anyone who has ever interacted with law enforcement and state authority feels that way.
The bill also prohibits children from being arrested, confined in shackles, or placed in a court lockup unless they are accused of breaking the law. It requires school districts to offer truancy prevention programs for students before referring them to juvenile court.
That is something I expected out of one of those icky-pooh Repuglican states, not Democratic Massachusetts.
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Related: ‘Melissa’s bill’ signed in nearly private ceremony
New bathroom access bill hailed as victory for ‘human decency’
Did we need a law for that?
Wonder how long it took to pass:
"Closed-door dealings yield big bills, but little scrutiny" August 03, 2012
The strengths and weaknesses of Massachusetts’s single-party-dominated Legislature were on display in the closing days of the session, as House and Senate leaders compromised with each other and Governor Deval Patrick to arrive at reasonable legislation to curb health care costs, even as they rejected his sensible efforts to add more judicial flexibility to the “three-strikes” crime bill.
Backed by substantial majorities in their respective chambers, House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray had the strength to negotiate with Patrick on almost equal terms and reshape important legislation even as time was running short. If there were less power concentrated in the persons of DeLeo and Murray, such sweeping bills as the “three strikes” and health care laws might have been undermined by legislative wrangling.
On the other hand, in a more balanced Legislature there would almost certainly have been more time devoted to open debate on policies with major implications for criminal justice, health care, and the economy — and citizens could feel more confident that all angles and consequences had been appropriately explored....
No process is perfect.... but Massachusetts’ leaders are too comfortable doing them behind closed doors.
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Also see: The Perils of One-Party Politics: The Ruling Party
