Beacon Hill Roll Call
As reported before the Senate 33 6 approved the budget of 27.5Billion, based on the sales tax increase to 6.25. 900 million was mysteriously added in before the vote was taken. SO.. the 6.25 will affect alcohol sales and with options for Towns to add a 2% meals tax option, approved by Town Meeting.
The Senate rejected an amendment to raise the income tax form 5.3 to 5.95% and also rejected a gas tax increase of.19 and .11 cents a gallon. They also rejected an amendment to allow Town Meeting to vote on whether to increase the meals tax. They rejected slot machines at each of the States race tracks.
They also rejected two major amendments, one was to prohibit pay increases for State workers for two years and a hiring freeze, unless deemed critical to public safety. And lastly, the rejected an amendment to work on Evacuation Day and Bunker Hill Day... two holidays that only State workers in Suffolk county get off.
posted by Jim Pillsbury @ 1:01 PM
8 Comments
8 Comments:
I am not following something here. You say in the first paragraph that the Town Meeting has the right to increase the tax on meals, but then you say later that they did not vote to allow an ammendment to do that. Can you just clarify that for us? You do a great job keeping us informed here. Thanks for all the thankless work you do. I have no idea how you find the time to do all this.
I got word today that my company of 120 employees is going to have to lay off 18 workers. Those of us who are not laid off will be taking a 12% cut in pay. I work for good people, and they honestly are trying to not lose their business so they are cutting corners to stay afloat. But they are being as fair as they can about the layoffs and the pay cuts, and they have opened the company books up to anyone who wants to look at them and are willing to listen to any cost cutting ideas we may have to help save jobs. They could up the cost of what they sell, but they feel what they get for it right now is a fair price, and people can not afford to pay more. Why can’t the state operate on the same principals as private buisness does? It angers my to see a state worker standing by the side of the road drinking coffee and eating a donut and shooting the breeze while I work twice as hard as I use to for less pay, and am grateful that I have the opportunity to do that. If I were a state worker in MA right now, I would be hanging my head in embarrassment.
Of course they would not vote to give up a day off, after all, they work so very hard already. The arrogance of these people thinking that just because they work for the state they are entitled to more days off, better benefits, and a shorter work week than the rest of the work force. Oh, and don’t forget that they should get their raises also, even when every place else is talking about salary cuts. How can they be so completely disconnected that they think no one in MA is going to be upset about this stuff?
Michael,
Sorry for the confusion... the Senate budget package includes a provision to let the Town's approve, via a vote at Town Meeting, to increase the meals tax to 6.5%. Also approved in the budget, an increase to 6.25% tax for Direct TV and satellite TV, allowing Towns to tax utility poles, banning texting for all of us, including public transportation drivers.
The rejected amendment would require a voter referendum at local election time to increase the meals tax. Like a ballot question type thing on a local election day.
The other party at the State House tries it's best for the tax payers at this point. They do provide at least some alternative's to the one party rule, but it can be confusing.
Friend.. I hope you get by the best you can... all of us will do what we have to.. to make ends meet. Perhaps your company's leaders could advise those at the State House how it's done.
Reading about how little regard these people have for the rest of us actually makes me feel sick to my stomach. To think I supported and voted for these people makes me realize I do not know enough about the political process and the politicians in this state. I can tell you one thing for sure, next election, I will make dam sure I know who it is that is getting my vote.
I have to admit that I have decided to not read the Globe, Herald or MWD papers anymore, or listen to local news. The WSJ and the national news are enough for me. I found myself dreading picking up the local paper, or turning on the local news, because every day there is some story about the absurdity of the politicians and the political process here in MA. We have failed miserably at doing anything about it, so I simply am going to ignore it. Not a good approach, I know, but yelling at the tv screen or blogging on the papers websites was not getting me anywhere except more frustrated. I simply can not do it and remain sane anymore. But I do come here, to this blog, to see what they are up to now. At least here Jim does not ty to make it sound like they are doing us a favor!
The question is, can we survive until 2010 with these people leading the state?
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