March 24, 2010 11:41 AM

By Milton J. Valencia, Globe Staff

Saying the state is on the verge of an economic recovery, Governor Deval Patrick today dismissed any notion of raising the gas tax and defended the state and national health care reform laws, in the first breakfast forum planned for 2010 gubernatorial candidates.

The discussion, hosted by the Associated Industries of Massachusetts and Denterlein Worldwide at the UMass Club in Boston, was at once witty and serious as the governor sought to outline his agenda in hopes of a second term in office, and to explain his policy decisions over the past four years.
greene_sjcgants2_met.jpg Governor Deval Patrick

Saying he has had to engage in “hand-to-hand combat” at times with even his friends to get measures approved, Patrick cited education and transportation reform, changes to the state’s pension system and the use of civilian flaggers as controversial, yet important achievements.

“Unless you’re willing to take shots, unless you’re willing to put your political capital on the line and take hits, you’ll never make change,” the governor said.

Patrick said he saw no valid argument for increasing the state’s gas tax. “I just don’t think we can keep adding at these times,” he said.

The forum, called “In the News,” was the first that organizers hope to have with the gubernatorial candidates. Patrick engaged with host and longtime Boston television reporter John Henning as some 50 of the state’s top business leaders had a breakfast of bacon, eggs, home fries, and fruit.
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State Treasurer Timothy Cahill, an independent candidate, is expected to meet with the group next month, and Republican candidates Charles Baker and Christy Mihos have also been invited, organizers said.

“The focus is really going to be on economic issues, business development and job creation,” said Paul Jean, of Denterlein Worldwide, a public affairs firm specializing in health care and public policy.

Patrick started his 40-minute appearance by expressing support for the national health care plan President Obama signed into law Tuesday, and he assured the crowd that he and the state’s congressional delegation worked to make sure that states like Massachusetts that already have their own plans will not be harmed.

He said Massachusetts could receive as much as $7 billion as a result of the national plan, and that the state will continue the Health Connector, which runs an online site where consumers can shop for health insurance.

He also defended the state’s universal health care plan against allegations that it is putting the state in debt, saying the plan only made the state budget grow by 1 percent.

“There’s a lesson in there, that we have to pay for it all one way or another,” the governor said. “But I think we are doing it in a way that is smarter, better, and more efficient.”

He acknowledged that any program of such magnitude would constantly need readjusting. Of particular concern is the impact on small businesses, he said, citing as an example a Worcester law firm that saw its costs jump more than 20 percent just by hiring two lawyers and a receptionist.

The governor vowed to continue to examine the state’s transportation system, but dismissed any notion of hiking the gas tax, saying the state cannot afford it at this time. The governor had supported a gas tax in the past because, under state law, any revenues from the tax would have to be redirected to transportation projects.

The governor did say he is moving forward with plans to connect commuter rail service to southeastern Massachusetts and said construction on a terminal in New Bedford could start this year.

“That is enormously important to our regional economy, and that’s a project that has to happen,” he said.

By Eric Grunebaum  |  May 25, 2009

DESPITE the Massachusetts Senate’s passage of a tax package last week, it’s clear that funds allocated for transportation – principally from the sales tax – are simply not enough. Moreover, with the rejection of 19- and 11-cent gas tax increase options, what seems to be absent from the debate is the compelling environmental argument for a hike in the gas tax.

Looking at the evidence for climate change – and its dire consequences – it’s clear that we need to get serious about weaning ourselves from our CO2-emitting, petroleum-based economy. Already in evidence is faster-than-expected melting of the polar ice cap, an incipient rise in sea levels, and increasingly destructive storms, droughts, and heat waves, with more serious consequences likely to follow. Meanwhile we’re spending vast treasures buying oil from largely hostile nations.

What we need are policies that send clear market signals encouraging change. The governor and business groups demonstrated real leadership in proposing 19- and 25-cent gas tax increases, respectively. Even tax-averse New Hampshire is considering a 15-cent increase. And in April, the Globe itself endorsed removing the sales tax exemption for gas, which equates to about a dime a gallon. At a minimum, we need the 19-cent increase and the $500 million it would raise for the transportation system.

However, we need the increased gas tax not just to provide a dedicated source of funding to fix crumbling infrastructure, not just to create jobs, and not just to rescue our public transportation authority. What we need it for above all else is to encourage the move toward more efficient cars, hybrids, and plug-in electrics. And we need the gas tax hike, not just to prevent layoffs and service cutbacks, but to make public transportation and trains more attractive relative to driving, and to increase transit availability. Based on last summer’s gas prices, it’s clear that people do adjust to sustained price signals.

We also need the gas tax to encourage people to bicycle and to fund design work so that we can unlock federal dollars for more bikeways. Eighty million dollars of federal funds for these projects, which Massachusetts has left on the table, may soon be forfeited. Similarly, we’re behind the Midwest and California on high-speed rail. As with bikeways, our lack of planning may cost us a share of $8 billion in federal subsidies, which could help us move to a less auto-centric future.

While the wisdom of the Big Dig can be debated, it’s a done deal and the bill is due, as well as the bills for long-deferred maintenance of our highways and perpetually underfunded public transportation. But let’s recognize that all corners of the state do share in the Big Dig’s benefits, if not directly while driving to the airport and hospitals or while taking part in the city’s commerce or culture, then certainly in the lifting of the state’s broader fortunes.

Yet, rather than more tolls – an inequitable and selective tax – what we need are the subtle market adjustments of a gas tax to put Massachusetts ahead of other states in making the switch to a post-petroleum transportation model, and perhaps closer to our friends across the gradually rising Atlantic. And despite its green credentials, the Northeast is the seventh largest producer of CO2, when compared with the world’s largest nations. As a major emitter, this is our problem to solve.

In the move toward a greener economy, Massachusetts has done well so far. Due to the governor and state Legislature’s efforts – along with our region’s academic leadership, business ingenuity, and groups like the New England Clean Energy Council – we are well-poised to create more green jobs, reduce our environmental impact, and keep advancing our leadership position. But we have a long way to go.

Yes, we need additional revenue from the sales tax to maintain services. And yes we need reform, transparency, and less redundancy in our transportation bureaucracy. But what we need above all else is the political will to use the tools available only to our government to give us a nudge in the right direction. And the gas tax hike is precisely the nudge we need.

Eric Grunebaum is a documentary film producer.

A top House lawmaker today called Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposed 19-cent gas tax hike unlikely to receive further attention from the Legislature for the foreseeable future, after the Senate rejected the measure Tuesday, and as legislative officials voiced annoyance with Patrick for trying to play a larger role in deliberations.

“I think that the gas tax is off the table for now,” said Rep. Joseph Wagner, House chair of the Transportation Committee.

Patrick, who has said he would veto a sales tax if the Legislature does not present him with adequate reforms, turned up the heat on lawmakers Wednesday afternoon, accusing those voting for higher taxes of disrespecting voters.

“This really isn’t about State House dynamics between the Governor and the Legislature – the public could care less about that,” Patrick said in a statement to the News Service. “What they do care about – particularly those families struggling to find a job or keep one, or pay for their home or their kids’ education – is being asked to pay more for the status quo. To ask them to dig deeper into their pockets for higher taxes without first adopting meaningful reforms is thumbing our nose at them.”

Patrick two years ago asked for higher corporate and local options taxes and in January proposed a 19-cent per gallon gas tax, calling the revenue urgently needed, along with a passel of reforms.

Legislative officials said they had been displeased with Patrick administration’s efforts to gain rare Executive Branch access to closed-door deliberations between lawmakers discussing a major transportation overhaul. Patrick aides asked for working documents, which would have been “unprecedented,” according to one legislator. Those requests were swiftly rejected, according to sources with knowledge of the discussion.

Lawmakers said they regarded the overtures as trespassing.

“That just wasn’t going to happen,” said an anonymous lawmaker familiar with the request.

The snub came before Patrick sent confidential letters to both transportation and pension conference committees advising them of his preferences in each bill. Some lawmakers interpreted the letters themselves as intrusive.

“I’m reluctant to talk about things because we are in conference,” said Wagner, the lead House negotiator. “I will say this, since we have been in conference, I have not had any contact with any members of the administration, about conference.”

On March 19, in a tentative deal to postpone pending toll hikes, Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, and House Speaker Robert DeLeo announced intentions to delay the first stage of $100 million worth of toll hikes, address a transportation reform bill in the next two weeks, and enact a transportation financing bill by July 1.

“As the matter now stands before the conferees, the Legislature has had this matter for 90 days, give or take, and the administration had promised it since the fall of 2007,” Wagner said. “I am comfortable that our pace is fairly quick when compared with the administration’s pace over the course of some 15 months or so, give or take. May have been 16 months.”

In November 2007, Patrick’s then-transportation chief, Bernard Cohen, said he wanted a transportation overhaul in place by March 15, 2008, and Patrick said the reforms would be filed “in the very near future.” Patrick filed the legislation Feb. 24, 2009.

Wagner refused to discuss details related to conference committee deliberations.

Both the House and Senate voted to set aside $275 million in their budgets for transportation needs, funded by a 25-percent sales tax hike. The Senate on Tuesday voted 34-6 to reject the 19-cent increase to the existing 23.5-cent-per-gallon rate Patrick had filed. A second vote, on an 11-cent increase, fared slightly better, with 30 nays and 9 yeas.

“I’ve made my position on the issue very clear over a period of time, that a determination of that would be made by the number of votes that there were or were not for a gas tax,” Wagner said. “And I think the vote in the Senate yesterday made quite clear that the votes are not there in the Legislature to move forward with increasing the gas tax … at 19 cents.”

Patrick has repeatedly threatened to veto the sales tax hike, from 5 percent to 6.25 percent, if lawmakers did not pass satisfactory overhauls of the state’s transportation, pension, and ethics systems. So far, Patrick has found flaw with different versions of all three.

Patrick’s press aides declined comment.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1173740

Gov mustn’t sell out his tax opposition
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Patrick: Mass. helped propel Obama emissions plan
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Mass. Senate gears up for bleak budget debate
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BOSTON — Will Massachusetts drivers have to dig deeper in their wallet to pay at the pump in the coming year?

New House Speaker Robert DeLeo seems to think so. When pressed in a recent NECN interview, he said it was “a pretty good bet” a gas tax hike would be approved this year.

The emotional issue of a gas tax increase — coming on the heels of volatile prices at the pump last summer — will be one of the stickier issues as Statehouse leaders try to shape a major overhaul of the state’s debt-ridden transportation system this year.

What hasn’t been spelled out is how large the tax increase could be, or where the money would go.

Gov. Deval Patrick has called the gas tax a “serious alternative” to staggering, proposed toll hikes on the Massachusetts Turnpike and the Boston Harbor tunnels. DeLeo, D-Winthrop, hasn’t taken a position on the gas tax and is said to be exploring all the options, his comments on NECN notwithstanding.

Senate President Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, has been resistant, saying the Senate won’t even consider raising the gas tax until the state’s transportation bureaucracy is reformed.

“We have no intention of taking up a gas tax until we reform and reorganize the transportation agencies,” Murray said in an interview, while not ruling out the need for a hike in the future.

‘Waste in the system’

Senate leaders filed a 268-page bill last week that reorganizes the state’s quasi-independent transportation agencies and takes back extra benefits for MBTA employees. The plan is projected to save $2.5 billion over the next two decades, in part by eliminating expensive outside consultants to state authorities.

“There is a lot of waste in the system,” Murray said. “To ask the public to put more money into our pockets, I don’t think it’s realistic until we show them we are looking to pull back and reform what we have so it is accountable and responsible.”

The state charges taxes of 23.5 cents per gallon of gas. Since 1991, it has been raised only once, a 2.5-cent per gallon charge that was dedicated to a fund to clean up underground storage tanks.

Michael Widmer, the president of the influential, business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, served on a state panel that recommended increasing the gas tax by 11.5 cents a gallon. The panel said it was needed to help close a $15 billion to $19 billion gap in transportation funding over the next 20 years.

“I think the situation is very fluid,” Widmer said. “My sense is all three leaders, the Senate president, the speaker and the governor understand how desperate the transportation funding picture is and that new revenues are necessary. So I think there’s quiet agreement on that.”

Two years ago, many legislators scoffed at the panel’s recommendation. Since then, the debt problems at the Turnpike Authority, which is saddled by the Big Dig, have only worsened. The MBTA is also staggering under debt.

Proposals for stark toll increases have shaken legislators whose constituents use the Tobin Bridge, harbor tunnels and Turnpike every day.

Patrick has said a gas tax would have to be part of a long-term plan to address the state’s transportation needs, and not as a short term fix for tolls.

Widmer put the odds of transportation reform and a gas tax hike at “better than 50/50 … but how and where the money goes, I think is very much up for grabs.”

The transportation panel believed every region of the state needed to be guaranteed infrastructure improvements from a gas tax increase. Legislators from areas outside metro Boston would be sure to insist on it.

Big Dig debt looms large

Rep. Stephen R. Canessa, D-New Bedford, filed legislation this year to create a commission to study the fairness and structure of the state’s entire tax and fee system. He said constituents have a hard time keeping track of local and state fees when they set a household budget.

“There have been many proposals that have been put forth relative to the issue of the gas tax, and I need to see the details,” Canessa said.

“As a legislator from Southeastern Mass., what I’m concerned about is I don’t want to see the debt of the Big Dig passed onto constituents who for the most part don’t benefit from the Big Dig.”

Rep. Jeffrey Perry, R-Sandwich, called for a gas tax holiday when gas prices were sky high last summer. He said the economic crisis was an opportunity for Beacon Hill Democrats to deliver on overdue reforms instead of a tax hike.

“When push comes to shove, what we are starting to see is no reform getting done and people looking toward taxes,” Perry said. “Let’s get rid of the Turnpike. Let’s merge it with MassHighway. Let’s look at

the MBTA. Let’s look at what we get for cost savings before we even consider increasing the gas tax on people who are struggling to make ends meet every day.”

Governor Deval Patrick is also considering a system that would charge drivers based on the miles they travel. Governor Deval Patrick is also considering a system that would charge drivers based on the miles they travel.
By Matt Viser
Globe Staff / February 10, 2009

Governor Deval Patrick is considering raising the state’s gasoline tax by as much as 29 cents per gallon, which would at once give Massachusetts the highest state gas tax in the country while generating enough revenue to potentially rid the Massachusetts Turnpike of tolls.

Governor Deval Patrick is also considering a system that would charge drivers based on the miles they travel.

But administration officials, responding yesterday to a leak reported in the media, said the governor also was considering a gas tax increase as low as 5 cents and that no decisions have been made.

The gas tax in Massachusetts is 23.5 cents per gallon, which has not been substantially increased since 1991. A 29-cent increase would bring the state’s tax to 52.5 cents per gallon. New York currently has the nation’s highest state gas tax, at 41.3 cents per gallon.

Patrick last month released a budget that includes a host of tax and fee increases, on everything from candy and soft drinks to alcohol and car registrations. Conspicuously absent was a gas tax increase, which transportation specialists and lawmakers have advocated as the fairest way to solve the state’s chronic shortages of highway and bridge money.

Administration sources refused to speak on the record yesterday or to make any top officials available for interviews, including Transportation Secretary James Aloisi. The Associated Press reported the contents of a draft proposal that included a 27-cent per gallon increase. Two administration officials later said that was only one of many options for an increase that range from 5 cents to 29 cents.

The reports yesterday angered top lawmakers with transportation expertise who have not been briefed by the administration but who have been prodding the governor to take a leadership role on a gas tax for months.

“I come from the school where the number one rule is no surprises,” said Representative Joseph Wagner, a Democrat from Chicopee who has been the House’s top transportation official. “These proposals are surprises. It’s not my preferred way of doing business.

“Perhaps it’s time for the administration to forward to the Legislature a proposal for reform,” he added. “Then we won’t see piecemeal things going on with tolls and taxes without any substance of proposed legislation.”

Senate President Therese Murray, who has not seen any plans and said the governor did not bring it up yesterday in a leadership meeting, also offered a tepid response.

“We’ve been very clear: reform before revenue,” Murray said in an interview. “There hasn’t been any reform. We filed a 268-page reform, and we expect it to be looked at and enacted before we go to revenue.”

In addition to removing tolls, the added gas tax could also be used to pay down the debt of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

How much debt is paid – and how many tolls are removed – would depend on how much the gas tax is raised, according to administration officials.

Deval Patrick is also considering a new system that would charge drivers based on the miles they travel. Those trips would be measured by a chip installed in a vehicle inspection sticker.

Patrick’s plan would also streamline the state’s myriad transportation agencies into four distinct divisions: highway, rail and transit, aviation, and the Registry of Motor Vehicles. He also plans to outline overhauls to the MBTA’s pension system.

Patrick has downplayed talk of a gas tax increase and sought to focus on toll increases as a way to pay off debt. In recent weeks, he has said that if there was a gas tax, it should be high enough to not only avoid the latest round of toll increases but to remove toll booths completely, or avoid sharp increases in the future.

The Turnpike Authority board gave preliminary approval to toll increases in November that would double cash tolls to $7 at the Sumner and Ted Williams tunnels and raise tolls at the Weston and Allston-Brighton booths to $2 from $1.25.

Former House speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi in November endorsed a gas tax increase instead of toll increases, but his successor, Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, has been less definitive.

“Whether it’s a toll issue, whether it’s a gas tax issue – those all have to be on the table,” DeLeo said in a recent interview. “The days [are over] of saying that no, we can’t have tolls, we can’t have gas tax, we can’t have either.”

Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.

Deval Patrick

About Us – New England Fuel Institute

Legislative and Regulatory Action Center Staff

Shane
Sweet: President and CEO of NEFI. Shane was the executive
vice president and director of the Vermont Fuel Dealers Association (VFDA)
for 14 years. Under his leadership, VFDA merged with another fuel association,
grew from 60 companies to 260, increased its revenue nearly 8-fold,
and became a visible and active member of the Vermont business association
community. Shane served on numerous Legislative & Regulatory committees
and regularly testified in Vermont House and Senate Committees on fuel-related
legislation. In 2006, VFDA offered the industry 130 different Education & Training
programs in Vermont. In the 1980s he managed the flagship heating oil,
propane, gasoline and service operations for a multi-state fuel marketer
based in Manchester, Vermont. Contact: shane@nefi.com.

Jim
Collura: Vice President, Public Policy and Communications — Prior
to joining NEFI in October 2005, Collura worked as a legislative
aid for a national charitable organization and as an assistant to
U.S. Senator Judd Gregg (of New Hampshire) in Washington, DC. Jim
is a native of Waltham, Massachusetts, holds a bachelors degree in
Political Science from Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH and
has completed some post-graduate work in Congressional Studies at
Catholic University in Washington, DC. Contact: jimcollura@nefi.com

Mark
S. Morgan: Regulatory Counsel in Washington, D.C. Mark lobbies
federal regulatory
agencies such as the EPA, DOT, OSHA and the IRS on issues important
to NEFI members. Mark
also provides regulatory compliance information to NEFI members as
well as other petroleum
marketing groups across the country. Mark, a Massachusetts native,
graduated from the
University of Massachusetts and earned his Juris Doctor and Masters
Degree in Environmental
Law at Vermont Law School. Contact: mark@nefi.com

Elizabeth
McCarthy: Policy Advisor — Prior joining NEFI in December
of 2008, Elizabeth completed her first year of Doctoral Studies
(PhD) in Resource Economics at the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst where she was both a Teaching Assistant and a Research
Assistant in Energy Economics. Currently, she is on leave for the
year 2008-2009. Professionally, Elizabeth has worked in Investment
Banking in Mergers & Acquisitions,
Private Equity, and Merchant Finance in New York City and Houston,
and as an Energy and Metals Commodities trader in London. Elizabeth
is a native of Boston, Massachusetts. She graduated from Mount
Holyoke College (A.B.) in South Hadley, Massachusetts where she
majored in International Relations with a minor in Economics and
a concentration in the International Political Economy of Energy.
Contact: elizabeth@nefi.com

David
Rocco: Regulatory Affairs & Marketing Assistant
— joined NEFI
in 2008. He currently resides in New Hampshire. He graduated from
the University of New Hampshire with a major in Political Science
and a minor in French. Running, writing and following politics are
his major hobbies. His previous career was in customer service. He
loves animals and enjoys traveling to France. Contact: dave@nefi.com

NEFI Government Affairs Committee

The NEFI
Government Affairs Committee (or “GAC”) is a standing committee within
the New England Fuel Institute, established to serve the industry by
identifying public policy issues (i.e., legislative, regulatory and
public relations issues) of interest to NEFI members and the industry
and taking action. Whenever possible, the GAC seeks to establish
productive national and regional dialogue within the industry, and to
build strong coalitions, alliances and partnerships within the industry
and beyond in order to advance issues of concern to fuel dealers and
their consumers.

Chris
Keyser: (Owner Services, Rutland, VT) – NEFI Chairman
of the Board —was born in Chelsea, Vermont. He graduated
from Tufts University in 1975 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. Chris
first entered the fuel industry in 1979 with the purchase of his hometown’s
fuel dealer. He currently lives in Rutland, Vermont. He has held numerous
distinguished posts: President of Vermont Fuel Dealers, Rutland Region Chamber
of Commerce, Rutland Economic Development Corporation and Member of the First
NORA Board and Finance Committee. He is currently President of the Vermont
Oil Heat Institute Workers Compensation Self Insurance Trust, a Member of
TBS, President of the Killington Music Festival, Vice Chair of the Vermont
Economic Progress Council (a state board responsible for granting Vermont
business tax incentives), a Member of the Rutland City Rotary and a Paul
Harris Fellow. He is also the Northeastern Region Chair for PMAA and the
Chairman of the Board for NEFI. Contact: chris.keyser@ownerservicesinc.com

Tom
Devine: (Devine Bioheat, Norwalk, CT) – Chairman, NEFI Government
Affairs Committee
Husband to Maribeth and father to Claire and Jack, Tom and his family
reside in Norwalk, CT home to the family business Devine Bros., Inc. Tom
shares the responsibility of managing the business with his brother Sean,
cousins Michael, Richard, Steve Devine and Sonia Donovan. The company produces
and retails redi mix concrete, retails mason building supplies and landscape
supplies. Devine Bros., Inc. retails heating oil, is a blender and retailer
of bioheat, and offers customers 24 hour heating and cooling conservation
services.

Tom
is involved in many community organizations as well as industry
organizations; National Biodiesel Board, Independent Connecticut
Petroleum Organization – board member and Legislative Chairman,
National Oilheat Research Alliance – board member serving on the
finance committee. Tom was recently appointed by CT Speaker of the
House Amann to sit on the Fuel oil Conservation Board, a venture
established for the purposes of administering and implementing
conservation and energy efficiency programs for Connecticut fuel oil
customers.

Tom is a 1989 graduate of St. Anselm College, Manchester, NH. Here he served
an internship researching for the State Senate in Concord NH, and became
involved with the successful bid made by George H.W. Bush for the White House.
Contact: TDevine@devinebrosinc.com

Photo by Angela Rowlings (file)

Three weeks from today, the tolls go up. Maybe it’s not too late to stop this rip-off.

Everybody’s obsessed with Deval Patrick’s proposed 19-cent gas tax increase, and rightly so. But some pol could make a name for himself trying to halt Deval’s other outrageous highway robbery – the two-step toll increases that start kicking in March 29.

Why doesn’t some ambitious solon file a bill to halt the toll hikes until, say, July 1, so we can see how Deval’s “transportation reforms” are coming along? Oh sure, most reps will throw up their hands and say they can’t do anything, that the hikes are a fait accompli, the Pike has to worry about its bond rating, etc., etc.

So what? Don’t we have a “rainy day” fund? Use some of that to tide the Pike hacks over until July. Impose a “stealing freeze” on the sticky-fingered toll-takers.

You pols say the Pike is a “quasi-independent authority.” But that didn’t stop you from packing the board with new members to protect the bloated idiot state senator who got the Pike into this jam that supposedly requires higher tolls.

I know, it’s St. Patrick’s Month. Yes, you’ll need to hold hearings. Will Speaker DeLeo deep-six the bill? Don’t forget (even if he has) that he represents Winthrop, Ground Zero of this latest Deval campaign against working people. Maybe the hacks will appease DeLeo by cutting Winthrop in on the toll-discount program, but $5 and then $7 tunnel tolls are not going to help property values there.

You say Deval will veto the bill? Let him. Did you get a load of his latest poll numbers? If they go any lower they’ll be calling him “W.” His credibility is zero. Increasingly he surrounds himself with poster boys for the hackerama, like his new fork-tongued frontman, the ever-loathsome Jim Aloisi.

In public, in Boston and Springfield, Aloisi talks up reform. “We need to have reform,” he said in Springfield. In Boston it was, “We are committed to reform.”

Then, behind closed doors, with the legislators, the career coatholder brushes it all off by saying “Reform is a meaningless slogan.”

It is, when Deval is in charge of it. Look at the marvelous savings he’s already realized from his vaunted civilian flagmen reform: $12,500. Wow! Next, Aloisi says they’re going to “abolish” the Turnpike Authority. The truth is, the only change will be the name above the tollbooths – “Mass Highway” instead of “Mass Pike.”

Together we con.

Deval is still talking about rescinding the toll increases if . . . if the Legislature cuts its own throat by voting him the highest gas tax in the United States. Now he hints maybe he’d be willing to phase in the gas tax increase, the way New Hampshire is going to do it.

The only difference is, New Hampshire has a three-year phase-in. Deval is thinking more in terms of three weeks. Please, some rep out there, file a bill to stop the increases. Put a rocket in Deval’s pocket. Think of the headlines you’d get. He might even fly back from Jamaica – nah, probably not. Deval’s been called a lot of things, but never a workaholic.

Three weeks and counting. Tick . . . tick . . . tick.

Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1156988

Unfair burden for region, many at hearing contend

Transportation Secretary James A. Aloisi Jr. responded to addressed the panel of state legislators at the first of four state hearings a Springfield hearing on increasing the gas tax. (Michele McDonald/Globe Staff)

“Let me be clear, there isn’t going to be a gas tax increase as high as 19 cents,” said Representative Joseph F. Wagner, a Chicopee Democrat who leads the House on transportation issues.

Wagner had not previously taken such a firm stance, though he also predicted last night that the Legislature would eventually reach consensus with Patrick. Wagner said in an interview that he spoke out against the 19 cents after canvassing fellow House members and not seeing the support. He did not provide an alternate number, but said he expected the final bill to rely on a combination of sources to meet the state’s estimated $20 billion in transportation needs over the next 20 years. A 19-cent hike would raise the state’s gas tax to 42.5 cents a gallon.

The hundreds of people gathered in the Springfield Technical Community College auditorium applauded loudly at statements alluding to an unfair burden that Western Massachusetts would bear with a higher gas tax. Some residents spoke in favor of raising the gas tax to fix the state’s transportation problems, but the opposition was particularly critical that money would go toward avoiding fare hikes on the MBTA and paying off Big Dig debt.

Patrick and his transportation secretary, James A. Aloisi Jr., have been touring the state in hopes of building support for their plan. The regional flavor of Patrick’s comments, and the nod to the tough economic times, underscore the challenges of winning over disparate areas in support of a plan that raises taxes.

“What do we do, go out and buy Priuses?” asked Jeff Koscis, an area resident who testified in front of the joint transportation committee. A Prius is a hybrid car made by Toyota. “Those cost money. We can’t catch a break from you people.”

Patrick emphasized that each region would get back most of what they put into the tax in the form of road and bridge construction. He acknowledged the Big Dig debt is an obstacle in the state’s ability to invest elsewhere.

He also pointed out that some projects benefit Western Massachusetts more than Greater Boston, including expansion of a universal broadband project and help with the Springfield government’s finance plan.

A transportation overhaul, financed by giving the state the highest gas tax in the nation, is the first of several initiatives Patrick and other Beacon Hill leaders will consider. Collectively, the initiatives might help restore public confidence in the Legislature and change the way Massachusetts government does business. If they fall flat, Republicans are pining for Harvard Pilgrim Health Care executive Charles Baker to challenge Patrick for re-election in 2010.

Patrick’s challenge is to ensure that Senate President Therese Murray, House Speaker Robert DeLeo and their various constituencies are willing to share the risks with him.

There are reasons, beyond Democrat party loyalty, to think DeLeo and Murray will back Patrick this year. That may explain why Patrick aides had the political courage to include a 27-cent gas tax hike in a draft copy of the transportation overhaul obtained last week by The Associated Press, and expected to be formally unveiled by Patrick as soon as Wednesday.

In the House, DeLeo started his tenure as speaker by pushing through new rules for his members he hopes lay the foundation for an upcoming debate on ethics reforms. Patrick has already proposed a comprehensive ethics overhaul in the aftermath of a federal bribery indictment against former Sen. Dianne Wilkerson and the ethics investigations into former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi. Now he has an ally in DeLeo, who is eager to buff up the image of his chamber following DiMasi’s departure.

And Patrick, Murray and DeLeo all want to move next to a sweeping change of the state’s transportation system — Murray has already filed legislation in the Senate.

But Murray has declared the Legislature must seek “reform before revenue.” So before talking about toll or tax increases, she is eager to first consider how the state can reshape its transportation bureaucracy and privatize some of its functions. Patrick has tried to address that by proposing to sell or lease the service plazas on the Massachusetts Turnpike.

But the governor also argues the state needs a jolt of tax revenues to address a staggering $5.1 billion debt at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, a $2.2 billion debt at the Pike and a backlog of road and bridge projects priced into the billions. If Patrick were to accept the heat for a massive tax increase — more than doubling the state’s 23.5-cent gas tax — he would survive the political damage only if he could show results and a pattern of improvement across state government.

Besides ethics and transportation reform, the leaders have all said they want to eliminate pension perks that permeate state government and aggravate taxpayers. That sets up the next major legislative initiative: retirement reform. Among the ideas are standardizing the state system around private-sector retirement programs and eliminating such concepts as enhanced pensions for lawmakers who get voted out of office.

The ethics, transportation and pension debates will take place at the same time as two other major discussions: how to close the state’s current $1.1 billion budget deficit, and what, amid a national and state recession, to include in the roughly $28 billion budget that will govern the 2010 fiscal year starting July 1.

Resolving all those issues will require give-and-take by groups and people close to Patrick, DeLeo and Murray, as well as horse-trading over a span of issues that might not otherwise be connected.

If they succeed, DeLeo could trumpet ethics reforms that sharpen penalties for bad behavior by lawmakers, and Patrick could sign a transportation overhaul that staves off projected Turnpike toll increases while streamlining government in the ways envisioned by Murray.

All three could lay claim to having ended pension abuses that undercut the public’s willingness to accept tax and fee hikes — all during the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Or not.

Patrick acknowledged the stakes during his State of the State speech last month.

“The times demand that we confront some issues that we may have avoided in ordinary times,” he told members of the House and Senate. “Seizing these opportunities will make us stronger in the long run. So, I am asking the Legislature tonight to join me in a season of significant government reform.”

Gas tax, Pike hike add fuel to fire
By Howie Carr | Sunday, February 22, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Politics

Gov. Deval Patrick, what part of “no” do you not understand?

No to the 19-cent increase in the gas tax.

No to the obscene hike in the tolls.

I know, the highest state gas tax in America will merely cost the “average” motorist “one large cup of coffee a week.” It’s the least we can do for what Deval calls the infrastructure – the bloated T pensions, the sticky-fingered Mass Pike tolltakers and Troop E’s detail-inflated, six-figure salaries, not to mention the “prevailing wage” scam – methadone-addled ditch diggers making $50 an hour.

How appropriate that Deval’s as-yet-unwritten legislation is called the “Transportation and Economic Security Plan.”

Economic security, all right. For hacks and pinky-ring union thugs.

Like Wimpy in the old Popeye cartoons, Deval will gladly give you “reform” tomorrow for a tax increase today. He leaked his soak-the-motorists scam to his sycophants at the dying broadsheet Friday morning, then delivered the speech on the Friday afternoon of a school-vacation week. How much more do you need to know?

Still, you owe it to yourself to read the entire opus – preferably on an empty stomach. Let’s get right to it: “Every time we hear another story . . . about a state worker collecting one pension from the T while earning another in state government, the average citizen gets madder.”

One of those double-dippers would be the son of Billy Bulger, he of the $197,000-a-year state pension, with whom Deval met regularly at Mul’s Diner on West Broadway during the 2006 campaign to concoct grand schemes to beggar the working man. Another of those MBTA double-dippers is the boss of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, Jim Rooney, several of whose board members Deval appoints. Maybe I missed it, but have any of Patrick’s MCCA appointees ever raised concerns about Rooney’s rip-offs?

“Don’t perpetuate the Big Dig culture,” Deval intones.

Right . . . the one that provided sleazy Jim Aloisi, Deval’s new transportation secretary, with millions in legal fees, not to mention one of those tsarist pensions that make us “average citizens” get madder.

“Let me be clear: the ‘23 years and out’ rule, where T employees start receiving a pension earlier than any reasonable retirement, is coming to an end.” Let me be clear: If you believe that whopper, you’re probably still holding your breath waiting for that property tax relief that candidate Patrick promised you in 2006.

Strangely, there wasn’t a single word in his speech about removing the toll booths on the Pike, which were supposed to come down in 1987. He does mention the “stiff imminent increases in tolls” that his Pike board may be rubber-stamping soon. He’s quite worried about all of us from “the North Shore, East Boston and MetroWest,” though not concerned enough to order his tax-fatted hyenas who run the Pike to take that extortionate option off the table.

Deval does promise to eliminate “about 300 positions,” no names attached, and I predict neither of Rep. John Fresolo’s siblings will have to be extracted from their Worcester toll booths with the Jaws of Life.

How stupid does Patrick think we are? As long as the Pike toll booths are up, we are all held hostage, like that rich businessman shaken down by the “escort” from Canton who kept blackmailing him every time she ran short on dough.

Don’t blame me, I voted for Muffy. For the rest of you guilt-ridden sheeple, how’s this one-party rule thing working out for you?
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1153783