May 1, 2021
Hello Patrick Fennell,
The Boston Statehouse gives away $17.8 billion per year in tax breaks to the politically connected special interests.
Source: "As Beacon Hill begins budget debate, tax breaks come under scrutiny", By Emma Platoff and Matt Stout, Boston Globe Staff, April 12, 2021
Daniel Bosley served as a North Adams State Representative for 24 years. Daniel Bosley is infamously known for trying to pass "The Bosley Amendment" as a rider to a bill on Beacon Hill many years ago now. "The Bosley Amendment" would have given big business in Massachusetts billions of dollars in tax breaks that would have upended the Massachusetts state budget. "The Bosley Amendment" rider was introduced within one business day and would have had no public hearings or public input of any kind. The Boston Globe reported that "The Bosley Amendment" even surprised the secretive and top-down leaders on Beacon Hill. "The Bosley Amendment" was defeated.
What do you think Daniel Bosley does now? First, Daniel Bosley collects at least one taxpayer-funded state pension - possibly a second one from MCLA (formerly called North Adams State College) after he lavished the college with pork barrel dollars. Second, Daniel Bosley is a registered Beacon Hill lobbyist where he earns a 6-figure salary to give the politically connected special interests $17.8 billion per year in tax breaks, while the hard hit working class pay their hard earned tax dollars to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
I believe that Beacon Hill should change the law so that Massachusetts taxpayers make their tax payments directly to Daniel Bosley instead of The Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It would be more efficient for everyone, while paying our respects to Massachusetts top shakedown artist of state taxpayer dollars.
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
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May 2, 2021
Hello CommonWealth Magazine,
I have explained my point of view many times over about how two municipalities border themselves on a map, but are very economically unequal. I grew up in Pittsfield (Massachusetts), which is an old working class city near Albany, NY that has been on a decades long downward spiral with low income workers, a growing underclass, among the worst rated inner city public schools in the state, violent crime, drugs, gangs, and a downtown that is sarcastically called "Social Services Alley".
I went to graduate school at UMass Amherst in the late-1990s. In my studies of communities and public administration, I came to understand that distressed communities don't want to gentrify with real economic development and living wage jobs. There are always well meaning people who go into the poorest communities in Massachusetts and try to bring economic opportunity to the economically disadvantaged, but the ruling elites who run these communities turn them away.
Of course, one would ask why? To answer the question of why distressed communities in Massachusetts only go in one direction - downward - I used a term from economics called "Perverse Incentives". In my native city, Pittsfield (Massachusetts), GE left the city decades ago, but the ruling elites in Pittsfield did nothing in terms of positive outcomes to bring back living wage jobs to Pittsfield. I believe that Pittsfield's ruling elites found it more profitable to fill their municipal and school district coffers with federally funded and state administered social service and public education dollars than invest in real economic development.
To illustrate my point of view, I use the Massachusetts State Lottery's inequitable and predatory targeting of distressed communities to make a majority of its regressive revenue. People who are financially literate and understand economics know that the state lottery is really a regressive tax on the working poor and financially illiterate. The working poor and financially illiterate live in distressed cities such as Pittsfield (Massachusetts). The disadvantaged people who pour their hard earned or limited income into the lottery do not understand that it is a financial scheme to tax the low to moderate income people so that the high income people and big business get to pay less in state and local taxes - along with the $17.8 billion per year that the politically connected big businesses in Massachusetts receive in state tax breaks from Beacon Hill lawmakers.
Many years ago now, North Adams State Representative Daniel Bosley opposed casino gambling in Massachusetts because he felt it would cut into the state lottery's multi-billion-dollar revenues. Of course, this was the same Daniel Bosley who unsuccessfully tried to give big business in Massachusetts billions of dollars in state tax breaks with his same day rider to state legislation without any public input, studies or hearings. The irony of it all is that Daniel Bosley represented the poorest community in all of Massachusetts, but he was fighting for the state lottery's financial interests that exploits the very people who live in distressed cities such as North Adams. Now, Daniel Bosley is a greedy registered lobbyist on Beacon Hill pulling down a 6-figure salary representing big business, which is on top of his state pension(s) and perks.
When I was a graduate student at UMass Amherst over 2 decades ago, I asked one of my professors why distressed communities in Massachusetts don't want real economic development and living wage jobs for the people who live there. My professor answered me that the inequitable public policies of distressed communities are by the design of the ruling elites in Massachusetts.
In closing, when I think of the politics of poverty, I see it through the lens of corrupt politicians turned greedy lobbyists such as Daniel Bosley who wanted the state lottery to make billions of dollars in regressive revenues so the wealthy and big businesses don't have to pay as much in state and local taxes - along with the $17.8 billion per year that the politically connected big businesses in Massachusetts receive in state tax breaks. It is all an inequitable and predatory set of financial schemes by the ruling elites who run Massachusetts! I wish we could be able to vote in new politicians who would invest in all of the people who live in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but it I know it will never happen.
In Truth!
Jonathan Melle
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May 3, 2021
Hello blogger Dan Valenti and blog readers and posters,
As I explained in the Planet's weekend blog about economically distressed cities like Pittsfield, the regressive voluntary lottery tax or financial scheme/scam, and greedy lobbyist Daniel Bosley doing the bidding of big business on Beacon Hill as a North Adams State Representative and now a Beacon Hill registered lobbyist, the same goes for Pittsfield's public school district, which is a huge cash cow for Pittsfield politics. It is so obvious to me that it hurts me to think that others don't understand it: how state and local government operates via financial schemes/scams. The Lovely Linda and the 3 of the 6 Pittsfield School Committee members chose the inside candidate over the minority outside candidate for Superintendent because he will use Pittsfield's Level 5 (or failing) public school district as a cash cow for Pittsfield politics instead of reforming the broken, overpriced and underperforming Pittsfield public school district. It is always about MONEY to state and local politicians in cities such as Pittsfield (Massachusetts). I wish I could get everyone out there to understand that state and local politicians use economic distressed cities such as Pittsfield, the state lottery scheme/scam, the overpriced public school districts, and corrupt politicians turned greedy lobbyists like Daniel Bosley as financial schemes/scams to enrich themselves instead of helping the working poor and underclass, more state money for cities and towns and public education, educating the common children, and serving the average taxpaying citizens such as Mary Jane and Joe Kapanski. It is all about financial schemes/scams that take advantage of the proverbial Kapanski family and enriching themselves - the ruling and corporate elites - without the Kapanskis realizing what is really going on in City Hall and the Boston Statehouse. I see it as class warfare and mocking the ignorance of most of the people and taxpayers who don't understand what is going on. It is all so very WRONG on so many levels.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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Re: Massachusetts' millionaire surtax proposal is really a phony scheme/scam - 3May2021
Last month, the Boston Globe reported that Beacon Hill gives away a whopping $17.8 billion per fiscal year in state tax breaks to big business. Beacon Hill also underfunds public education in Massachusetts by around $1 billion per fiscal year. Beacon Hill also runs multi-billion-dollar regressive taxation and fees schemes/scams such as the state lottery, among many other forms of regressive taxation and fees that state taxpayers pay for. Put it all together, Beacon Hill runs a regressive taxation and fees operation that totals in the tens of billions of dollars per fiscal year that mostly favors of the wealthy. Moreover, the ratio of greedy registered lobbyists to state lawmakers in Boston's corrupt Statehouse is huge. To be clear, Beacon Hill does nothing but disservices to the Massachusetts state taxpayers and people year in and year out.
Tomorrow morning at 11 a.m., the coalition Raise Up Massachusetts will launch their millionaire income surtax campaign on Wednesday, May 4th, 2021. The disingenuous Boston-based state lawmakers and idealistic progressive coalitions want to tack a 4 percent surtax on annual incomes exceeding $1 million, which will raise around $2 billion in additional state revenue per fiscal year. I must ask, does anyone out there do the math on all of this public financial scheming/scamming in Boston's corrupt Statehouse? If not, I will explain what is going on here. Beacon Hill gives away nearly $18 billion in state tax breaks to the wealthy per fiscal year, underfunds public education by around $1 billion per fiscal year, and raises many billions of dollars in regressive taxes and fees so that the wealthy won't have to pay as much in state and local taxes, but now they are planning on putting a surtax on millionaire taxpayers in Massachusetts to raise an additional $2 billion per fiscal year. The net total would still disproportionately favor the wealthy in Massachusetts by tens of billions of dollars, while doing a great disservice to successful small businesses that employs a lot of workers.
In closing, the surtax on millionaire taxpayers in Massachusetts won't even make a dent in Beacon Hill's inequitable and regressive public financial schemes/scams that enrich the wealthy, corrupt state lawmakers and greedy lobbyists at the expense of the people and taxpayers who pay the public bills in Massachusetts. It is really yet another feel good Boston-based state government scam to fool people who don't understand economics and are financially illiterate!
- Jonathan A. Melle
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"Mass. coalition to launch income surtax campaign Wednesday"
By Michael P. Norton, State House News Service, May 3, 2021
The coalition backing an income surtax on high earners in Massachusetts plans to launch its campaign this week to pass its measure on the 2022 ballot.
The Raise Up Massachusetts coalition on Wednesday also plans to release new public opinion polling on the proposed constitutional amendment, which tacks a 4 percent surtax on annual household incomes exceeding $1 million.
The surtax needs a favorable vote from lawmakers meeting in a Constitutional Convention to reach the ballot, and it comes as the Biden administration also is pushing for new taxes on the wealthiest Americans to support its far-reaching domestic spending agenda.
Supporters of the income surtax say it would raise $2 billion a year that would be dedicated exclusively to education and transportation spending, and force the wealthiest taxpayers to pay their "fair share" of taxes.
Opponents say it would drive wealth and capital out of Massachusetts, and the debate on the plan this year comes as the federal government showers states with economic stimulus and COVID-19 relief money and with state tax collections on a steady ascent.
A virtual news conference is planned for 11 a.m. Wednesday, and it will come a week before the Constitutional Convention gets underway May 12. The measure was advanced on a 147-48 vote during the Constitutional Convention last session.
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May 6, 2021
Hello Erin - Act on Mass,
Thank you for your email about Beacon Hill being so secretive and unaccountable that Massachusetts state government is not a functional democracy. I agree with everything you wrote, which I copied and pasted below my name. I would like to state the facts about what happened so far this year of 2021 under Boston's shiny golden dome's corrupt Statehouse. On January 1st, 2021, the 200 corrupt Massachusetts State Legislators were all eligible to receive up to 3 legislative pay raises, while over 1 million Massachusetts workers lost their jobs and health insurance during the coronavirus pandemic. State Representative Ronny Mariano was elected (or anointed) as the new Speaker of the House with no opponent. Governor Charlie Baker oversaw a botched vaccine rollout. In March 2021, the Boston-based corrupt state lawmakers gave big business hundred of millions in state government tax breaks within 24 hour's notice with no public hearings or public input. The state's unemployment account still has over $400 million missing or unaccounted for due to fraud. The state lawmakers low balled public education in their state budget proposal(s), while giving away $17.8 billion per fiscal year in state tax breaks to big business. Local governments and public school districts are putting together their budgets without knowing how much state aid they will receive for their schools, roads, and the like because Beacon Hill lawmakers have yet to negotiate and pass the fiscal year 2022 state budget that starts in less than 2 months from now on July 1, 2021. Beacon Hill has received billions of dollars in federal stimulus funds, but Governor Baker has not spent most of the money while the working people are struggling to survive and stay financial afloat. Next week, Beacon Hill lawmakers will meet in a state constitutional convention to pass a surtax on millionaires, which will hurt the interests of small business in Massachusetts who are trying to recover from the Covid-19 K-shaped recession.
Like you, Erin, I would like to see Beacon Hill lawmakers in Boston have an open government with reasonable exceptions that would ensure accountability and a functioning democracy that invests in all of the people who live and pay taxes in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. I dislike Beacon Hill corruption, secrecy, special interests dollars, greedy lobbyists, and career politicians who only do disservices to the people they are supposed to represent in Boston. But the reality of what I have wrote about so far this year of 2021 shows the exact opposite of legislative reform. Beacon Hill lawmakers are NOT investing in all of the people who live and pay taxes in Massachusetts, but, in fact, they are always screwing over the hard hit working class. I write email letters to Massachusetts state and local politicians, too, but they never send me a response to my concerns, nor does the news media publish my email letters.
I am a 100% service connected disabled Veteran, and I am upset with Governor Charlie Baker's mismanagement of the Holyoke Soldiers Home where nearly 80 Veterans died of Covid-19 over the past year. My pen pal Patrick Fennell, who is a U.S. Army Veteran like myself, sarcastically wrote to me that they should put the Massachusetts Statehouse in the Holyoke Soldiers Home so the corrupt state lawmakers can experience their disservices and failures that our country's heroes and their families tragically went through. I wrote email letters that if Beacon Hill lawmakers want to raise state taxes, including the millionaires surtax, then they should lead by example and cut their own public pay and perks by at least 50 percent first.
Best wishes,
Jonathan
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Jonathan,
Year after year, the State House is unable to pass popular and needed legislation. On many issues, like criminal justice reform and climate change, we lag behind similar blue states. At the same time, Massachusetts is one of the least transparent State Houses, and has one of the lowest rates of incumbent turnover in the country. This isn’t a coincidence.
The status quo protects itself; it doesn’t give into change willingly. The State House maintains its own status quo by ensuring that people aren’t able to see what their reps are doing. It’s strategic for those in power to shut young people, BIPOC voters, and the working class out of the democratic process, even though they have a right to know what goes on in Beacon Hill.
Without transparency, there’s no accountability, and if our reps aren’t accountable to the people who voted for them, then we’re not living in a functioning democracy.
We’re organizing to give working people a voice and make sure that the people we choose to represent us aren’t making harmful choices behind closed doors. Thanks to your support, we’ve already come a long way, and with your help we can win structural rules reform in July.
That’s why we need you to bring your friends into the movement. If you haven’t already, join your District Team today - and send this email to five friends so they can join the fight!
When Beacon Hill makes most of its decisions behind closed doors, it concentrates power in the hands of a few, stripping us of our collective power. People across Massachusetts know we need bold, transformative change to solve the crises of our time, including the housing crisis and economic devastation of COVID-19.
That’s why we launched The People’s House Campaign: to take back the power that we deserve. It’s time working people have a say in how our state is governed, and we need your help to build on the wins of the past few months and win a State House that answers to us!
Thanks for being a part of this,
Erin
Act on Mass
35 Kenwood Street
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
United States
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May 9, 2021
Hello Boston Globe Editors,
My dad, Bob Melle, was the last Chair of the Berkshire County government before it was abolished as a budget rider by then Berkshire state Legislators Nuciforo and Dan Bosley in the fiscal year 1999 Massachusetts State budget with its end date on at the end of June 30, 2000. My dad told me that all 4 county governments in Western Massachusetts were abolished, but a handful of county governments remain around Boston. I used to go to Beacon Hill legislative hearings with my dad in the late-1990s where he would testify about Berkshire County government being taken over by the state government. My dad pointed out that Boston's "Big Dig" public works project, which was ran by the same Beacon Hill lawmakers targeting county governments, was the single most expensive public works project in U.S. history, and it had many multi-billion-dollar cost overruns. My dad told Beacon Hill lawmakers that he could run Berkshire County government for 5,000 year based on Boston's "Big Dig's" recurring billion dollar cost overruns. Yet, Beacon Hill said that Berkshire County government was inefficient and that the state government had to take over all of the functions of Berkshire County government in the name of government efficiency. What was wrong with that picture back then? Beacon Hill mismanaged Boston's "Big Dig" with billions of dollars of cost overruns, but their myopic focus on efficient government was at the other end of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
It is not only Boston's "Big Dig", but it also all of the other mismanaged state bureaucracies in Massachusetts State Government. The state's unemployment bureaucracy currently has over $400 million missing or unaccounted for due to fraud with little information from Governor Charlie Baker and Beacon Hill lawmakers. The current fiscal year 2021 state budget was passed 5 months and 11 days late, while Beacon Hill lawmakers took months off at a time while over one million Massachusetts workers lost their jobs and health insurance during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The fiscal year 2022 state budget begins in less than 2 months from now on July 1st, 2021, but Beacon Hill lawmakers have yet to start budget negotiations and they have tacked well over 1,000 riders to their respective budget proposals. Massachusetts is the number one per capita debtor state in the nation. Massachusetts mismanagement with the RMV, State Police, and other state agencies such as the DCF where innocent children have systemically lost their lives and/or faced domestic abuse. When Beacon Hill lawmakers received tobacco settlement dollars many years ago now, hardly any of it went to hospitals, cancer patients, educating the youth, and the like. When one thinks about it, Beacon Hill lawmakers only do disservices to the people and taxpayers of Massachusetts. But according to Beacon Hill and Boston politicians and now evidently The Boston Globe Editors, county governments in Massachusetts are inefficient and not equipped to receive Biden Buck$, but somehow the Massachusetts State Government should receive the direct federal financial aid instead, or at the least the respective municipalities who still have county governments around Boston should receive the Biden Buck$.
Maybe my dad was wrong over 2 decades ago about Berkshire County government? Perhaps all governments throughout Massachusetts from Boston to Pittsfield are all equally mismanaged. But that would be me being fair in saying the pot is calling the kettle black instead myopically only picking on county government.
In Truth!
Jonathan A. Melle
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May 13, 2021
Hello Patrick Fennell,
Thank you for sharing your email letter about PAC Man Richie Neal proudly saying that he gave Williams College a $4.2 million stimulus check, despite the fact that Williams College has a multi-billion-dollar slush fund (or endowment). I enjoy reading your political views about Great Barrington, Berkshire County, Beacon Hill, and Swamp politics. I agree with you that all of the ruling elites from Great Barrington on down to the Swamp do nothing but disservices to little guys like you and me.
Senator Ed Markey is critical of Israel, but now Israel is being bombarded with Hamas' missiles from Palestine, but we are not hearing from the U.S. Senator from Chevy Chase, Maryland who, like Billionaire John Forbes Kerry, spews useless hot air about the Green New Deal and climate change, while the U.S.A. is the number 2 polluter of greenhouse gasses in the World behind China. I do not understand what Joe Biden is doing other than having the highest inflation rate in 13 years, which is far worse than any federal tax on the working class.
I have been reading letters to the Editor of the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) from citizens and political candidates in Lee Massachusetts about the corrupt EPA and heavily indebted GE's plan to put a toxic waste dump there. The people who live in Lee and Lenoxdale mostly oppose the horrible settlement, but the ruling elites, including Chrome Down and Smitty Pignatelli, along with PAC Man Richie Neal, are still screwing the people over. If I lived in Lee or Lenoxdale, and my property value plummeted from a toxic waste dump in my neighborhood, I would ask the ruling elites to pay me for my financial losses, but when my telephone doesn't ring, I would know I received yet another disservice from my corrupt politicians who only answer their telephones for greedy lobbyists.
Lastly, I agree with you about protesting Great Barrington renaming their middle school after registered Communist W.E.B. DuBois, who was friends with Stalin, who killed millions more innocent people than Hitler. We should never forget our history, especially now when the ruling elites and corporate elites are profiting off of the inequitable K-shaped recovery/recession we are in. If one studied history 100 years ago from 2021, he or she would find parallels to current events. When the World was in crisis with economic inequality, huge public debts, rising inflation, and political instability 100 years ago, Adolf Hitler rose to power, and we all know what followed: The Holocaust, World War 2, and then Stalin wanting to control all of Europe during the Cold War where the World was on the brink of being nuked for decades on end.
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
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Representative Neil has failed miserably to help veterans, elderly, working poor, small businesses, students, and disabled. The good news he has gone out of his way to give a relief check to Williams College for 4.2 million dollars. Williams College has an endowment 0f $2,749,653,000.00, tuition is $55, 450.00 and the average professor makes $150,000.00 a year with benefits. Williams College is literally worth BILLIONS and Richie Neal is proud to buy them lunch on out tab. What a guy. Of Course the rest of the MA delegation helped as well.
The same delegation that stiffed millions of veterans, workers, small businesses, elderly and disabled had to move aside so a billionaire coult get a big check. Will BIll Gates be getting Food Stamps next, will the Beacon Hill Gang get new electric cars to sit around the State House to steal our money too?
To those that vote for Richie Pac Man Neal, thanks for nothing!
To Richie, &%&$()#@*(&^%$#!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is very easy to HATE Congress. Guys like Richie Neal, Liz Warren and Ed Markey from MD make it too easy to hate the Swamp!
Patrick Fennell
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June 6, 2021
Hello Patrick Fennell,
We the People are supposed to be the government, which means that our parasites/politicians should work to invest in ALL of the people they represent in government. However, U.S. Senator Ed Markey, who really lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, is a career Swamp politician who says lofty things that he knows full well will never get done by the Swamp's corrupt parasites/politicians. Peter Larkin lives in a Worcester suburb with his medical doctor wife and their children. Peter Larkin is a greedy Beacon Hill lobbyist like Dan Bosley and Stan Rosenberg, who all collect taxpayer-funded state pensions and public perks on top of their respective 6-figure lobbyist salaries. PAC Man Richie Neal only represents K Street corporate lobbyist firms that donate millions of special interest dollars per year into his campaign coffers so he can serve 1,000 years in the Swamp. Adam Hinds bought a $690,000 home with his wife in Amherst, Massachusetts, which means like Peter Larkin and other past and current Pittsfield politicians, he does NOT want to invest in a Pittsfield property for his family to live in. Adam Hinds votes himself and accepts huge legislative pay raises, while he will soon release a Beacon Hill report that proposes raising state taxes on the very people and taxpayers who pay for his public pay and perks.
Like I recently wrote to blogger Dan Valenti, I really do NOT understand how state and local governments such as Beacon Hill and Pittsfield politics have billions and millions of dollars in Biden Buck$ direct aid respectively, and they are all still raising state and local taxes on the working class taxpayers who are at the bottom of the K-shaped economic recession. Do state and local politicians such as Adam Hinds and the Lovely Linda Tyer have a clue how difficult it is to stay financially afloat when a working class household earns or receives a low to moderate income? Beacon Hill has an over $1 billion slush fund, while Pittsfield politics' Matt Kerwood has multimillion dollar slush funds, which is on top of their Biden Buck@ stimulus funds, but they all want more tax dollars from the working class taxpayers.
I am frustrated because Adam Hinds is looking to raise state taxes to pay for social programs in the name of low to moderate income families, but most working class families he supposedly represents could not purchase a $690,000 home in Amherst, Massachusetts, while also renting an apartment in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. The Lovely Linda and her millionaire Accountant husband Barry Clairmont live in a near $1 million home in a gated community close to the Pittsfield/Hancock border, while Pittsfield's shrinking working class families will soon be paying for Pittsfield politics' near $180 million record setting municipal budget that begins on July 1, 2021 - or in 25 days from now. The state and local political salons don't understand that their tax increasing government budgets are hurting the very people they say they want to help because they do not walk in the shoes of the working class families. It must be nice for those fortunate few who get to live charmed lives on the backs of the many low to moderate income people and taxpayers who pay for their taxpayer-funded excesses. I wish the ruling elites would understand what I am writing about.
Best wishes,
Jonathan A. Melle
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June 24, 2021
Beacon Hill can take their billions of Biden Buck$ and vote themselves more pay raises, pay Dan Bosley his two state pensions and perks along with his 6-figure per year lobbyist salary, slap a surtax on Massachusetts' nearly 20,000 millionaires a few years from now, pass yet another late state budget, give sinecures to their relatives and crony campaign donors, give more marijuana dispensary permits to the politically connected greed-balls, keep Boston's Democratic Party leaders in place for a few more years after they ran an ugly homophobic smear campaign against Alex Morse last year in 2020, sell more lottery tickets to the underclass and working poor, continue to screw over the people and taxpayers, while treating themselves to lobster or steak dinners at expensive Boston restaurants, plan their next decade as corrupt career politicians feeding at the public trough, and shutting out the public from the all of their corrupt sausage making to continue to give tens of billions of tax breaks per year to politically connected big business. Did I miss anything?
- Jonathan Melle
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July 28, 2021
Hello Greedy Lobbyist Daniel Bosley,
You must be proud of the Massachusetts State Lottery for its record sales and profits in fiscal year 2021 (July 1, 2020 - June 30, 2021). For decades, you advocated for the working and underclass residents of Massachusetts to spend their limited financial resources on the lottery scam that gives them pennies back on their limited dollars. The lottery is really a financial scheme of voluntary regressive taxation that targets the financially illiterate disadvantaged people who don't understand that they are being taken advantage of so the well off residents and big businesses get to pay billions of dollars less in state and local taxes. Of course you know all of this, but that doesn't matter to someone like you who spent decades on Beacon Hill pushing huge tax breaks and giveaways for big business interests in Boston that have nothing to do with the poorest municipality in all of Massachusetts: North Adams. You parlayed your fiscal conservative public record in Boston into greed as a registered lobbyist on Beacon Hill who makes 6-figures representing big business interest, which is on top of either your one or possibly two state pensions and other public perks as a retired Massachusetts State Representative who had a side gig at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (or the former North Adams State College). Just how much money do you make off of the people and taxpayers of Massachusetts? Maybe the state taxpayers should just pay you instead of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It might be a lot more efficient for everyone involved. In closing, the corporate and ruling elites, along with all of the greedy lobbyists in Boston like yourself, must be celebrating the record breaking year the Massachusetts State Lottery just announced because you are all a lot richer for it.
In Truth!
Jonathan A. Melle
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MASSACHUSETTS LOTTERY
"Record Massachusetts Lottery profits climb to more than $1.1 billion"
By Colin A. Young, State House News Service, July 28, 2021
The fiscal year that ended last month was a record one for the Massachusetts Lottery, which set new standards for revenue, profit, prize payouts, commissions and bonuses for retailers, scratch ticket sales and Keno sales, the agency announced Tuesday.
The Lottery generated an estimated profit of $1.105 billion to be used for local aid from $5.827 billion in revenue while paying out $4.283 billion in prizes and handing out $333.3 million in commissions and bonuses in fiscal 2021. The previous records were $1.104 billion in profit from $5.509 billion of revenue while awarding $3.987 billion in prizes in fiscal 2019.
"Despite the pandemic, this year the Lottery experienced record setting sales. Thanks to our lottery team, retail partners and particularly our customers, we will again be able to deliver critical resources to every community in the state," Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, who chairs the Lottery Commission, said.
The Massachusetts Lottery generated an estimated profit of $1.105 billion to be used for local aid from $5.827 billion in revenue while paying out $4.283 billion in prizes and handing out $333.3 million in commissions and bonuses in fiscal 2021.
For the first time ever, Lottery players bought more than $4 billion worth of scratch tickets in fiscal 2021 and Keno also established an all-time high with $1.057 billion in total sales. The rebound of Keno, a game often played in bars and restaurants that were not able to operate at full capacity for much of fiscal 2021 and which usually counts for 20 percent of the Lottery's overall sales, has been pointed to for months as a key to the Lottery's strong performance.
Initially, the Lottery projected that it would end fiscal 2021 with an estimated profit of $940 million but upgraded that estimate in March to $985 million as sales defied expectations. In mid-June, the agency announced another upgrade — this time projecting that it would produce $1.06 billion for the Legislature to pass on to cities and towns in the form of local aid.
The fiscal 2021 numbers will still need to be audited, but the Lottery said it "does not expect them to change substantially" by the time the audit is completed in September. Goldberg and the Lottery have been attempting for years to secure legislative authority to sell Lottery products online, arguing that the Lottery's profits are not sustainable without the ability to compete with various online gaming options for younger players.
Complicating that argument is the fact that the Lottery continues to post sales and profit records even as the Legislature remains cool to online lottery products.
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July 19, 2022
Hello Patrick Fennell,
I agree with your letter to the Editor of the Dirty Bird (Berkshire Eagle) about Beacon Hill lawmakers passing a $52 billion fiscal year 2023 late state budget that began 19 days ago on July 1st, 2022. With the always growing larger underclass, the overtaxed low to moderate income people, the substandard public services, and the failing public school districts throughout the Commonwealth, it is a wonder there isn't a 21st Century version of the Boston Tea Party or Shay's Rebellion.
Beacon Hill lawmakers enrich themselves their wealthy financial backers at the public trough. In April of 2021, the Boston Globe reported that Beacon Hill lawmakers giveaway a little less than $18 billion per fiscal year in state tax breaks to Boston area big businesses who donate campaign dollars into the corrupt career politicians' coffers. A big problem with Beacon Hill giving away tens of billions of dollars in state tax breaks to the politically connected few wealthy business entities is that the rest of the Commonwealth doesn't receive the same or similar benefits that the Boston area receives. To illustrate, mostly rural Western Massachusetts has to pay Boston its tax dollars, but in return, the state provides more lottery tickets than living wage jobs to regions such as Berkshire County, which is where I am from and my father served as a Berkshire County Commissioner (1997 - mid-2000).
Daniel Bosley is an excellent example of a corrupt career politician turned greedy registered lobbyist on Beacon Hill that epitomizes the financial, corporate and ruling elites all enriching themselves at the public trough, while the rest of us are falling behind financially. Many years ago, then North Adams State Representative Dan Bosley sponsored "The Bosley Amendment", which was a rider on a piece of State House legislation that would have given billions of dollars in additional state tax breaks to Boston area big businesses. Daniel E. Bosley did so without any public hearing, public input, or legislative deliberation. Even the corrupt career politicians on Beacon Hill had to vote down the biggest would-be state tax giveaway in the history of Massachusetts, which in the year of 2022 goes back over 400 years in time to the year of 1620.
In 2010, Daniel Bosley announced he was stepping down from Beacon Hill, and that he was running for Berkshire County Sheriff, which is a plum "no show" state government position that would have doubled his state pension. Dan Bosley lost to Tom "Pudge" Bowler in 2010, and after Dan Bosley retired from Beacon Hill in the year of 2011, he put in for his public pension plus perks, and then he later went onto become a greedy registered lobbyist on Beacon Hill, which is similar to many other former State Representatives and State Senators.
I sarcastically wrote and blogged that it would be more efficient for state taxpayers in Massachusetts to pay their taxes to "Daniel E. Bosley" than to the "Commonwealth of Massachusetts". Also, I sarcastically wrote and blogged that the Massachusetts State Lottery should make a ceremonial "Dan Bosley" scratch ticket to commemorate his support for their multibillion-dollar voluntary regressive taxation schemes.
Lastly, I propose that when the corrupt career politicians in Boston raise state spending by billions of dollars per fiscal year, they cut their public pay, pensions and perks by at least 50 percent per fiscal year to show that they are sacrificing their own money like the taxpayers have to.
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
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To the Editor of the Berkshire Eagle;
Under Governor Baker the 2015 fiscal year Massachusetts state budget was around 35 billion dollars, yesterday he signed a 52-billion dollar budget. In eight years the state budget has gone up 17 BILLION dollars in eight years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Meanwhile the Great Barrington Food Pantry assist over 2,000 families with food and other needs. Other Food Pantries and charities are also struggling to assist thousands of people struggling through the Pandemic and Inflation, through no fault of their own.
So what is the Commonwealth of Masschusetts really doing with over 52-billion dollars if charities have to feed and cloth poor falimilies.
Guess the State House is telling us, "To eat cake".
Patrick Fennell
Great Barrington, MA
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July 20, 2022
I will tell it like it is when it comes to the plum "no show" position of Berkshire County Sheriff. It is a high paying post for a politically connected Democrat that is akin to a commoner inheriting a large sum of money or winning a large state lottery jackpot plus public perks including healthcare insurance and a huge taxpayer-funded state pension. Tom Bowler wishes to serve one more 6-year term and then retire in 2029. Alf Barbalunga wishes to serve two 6-year terms and retire in 2035. Both Bowler and Barbalunga want to win the proverbial state lottery jackpot in the high paying sinecure. It is politics at its very WORST!
Jonathan A. Melle
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November 5, 2022
In Massachusetts, the November 8th, 2022, state government general election will further exacerbate regional inequities. To be clear, Western Massachusetts will be voiceless in Boston. So much for the government investing in its most valuable resource: The People who live in Massachusetts. Instead, Beacon Hill always systemically underfunds cities such as Pittsfield and regions such as Western Massachusetts. Meanwhile, Beacon Hill lawmakers undemocratically and secretively giveaway tens of billions of dollars in state tax breaks to their Boston-area politically connected big business wealthy campaign donors. Beacon Hill lawmakers are only about the Almighty Dollar and Power so that they can enrich themselves at the public trough. Beacon Hill lawmakers = DISSERVICES!
https://bunewsservice.com/election-likely-to-exacerbate-massachusettss-regional-inequities/
Election likely to exacerbate Massachusetts’s regional inequities – Boston University News Service (bunewsservice.com)
Jonathan A. Melle
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November 6, 2022
Hello Patrick Fennell,
The Boston Globe editorial explained that tax reform and tax relief did not factor into Beacon Hill lawmakers' $3.8 billion spending bill on economic development and pork barrel earmarks. The tax-relief sections of the multibillion-dollar spending bill were scrapped, which means there will be no new holiday season themed tax relief measures for low to moderate income households, senior citizens, and Veterans. There will be no sending of Christmas/Holidays cards either, unless you donate a lot of PAC money to the Beacon Hill lawmakers' campaign coffers, of course, but one would only do so in order to receive a lucrative state tax break for their Boston-area big business. Beacon Hill lawmakers voted to put Question 1 - the surtax on millionaires on the November 8th, 2022, state ballot, but they did not vote for progressive tax relief and reform. The editors of the Boston Globe called out Beacon Hill lawmakers for their "dereliction of duty on the issue of tax reform".
Best wishes,
Jonathan Melle
A BOSTON GLOBE EDITORIAL: "Tax relief gets short shrift on Beacon Hill"
By The Editorial Board, November 5, 2022
Massachusetts lawmakers had no problem agreeing on how to spend some $3.8 billion — including a boatload of budget earmarks guaranteed to curry favor back home. But when it came to reforming the outmoded estate tax and offering tax breaks to the state’s neediest, well, that got the wait-till-next-year treatment.
It took legislative leaders more than three months beyond the end of formal sessions this summer to come up with the spending package that finally won approval Thursday — the latest version of an economic development bill funded with surplus state revenue and federal stimulus funds.
But the $500 million tax-reform package that was part of that earlier bill would have to wait, Speaker Ron Mariano insisted, because of the “economic uncertainty” that lies ahead.
“The relief will be coming,” the Quincy Democrat pledged. “Obviously we’re committed to taking a look at permanent tax cuts next year when we have a better picture of what the economy looks like. We want to be sure that what we do is smart and well thought out.”
Isn’t it funny how that same standard didn’t apply to the spending side of the equation?
Sure, the bill will meet some serious needs — $350 million for “fiscally strained” hospitals, $112 million for MBTA safety improvements mandated by the Federal Transportation Authority, $100 million for the Unemployment Insurance Fund, and $57 million for heating assistance to low-income families. And it will provide some $25 million for the kind of low-threshold housing several local officials, including Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, are looking for to help deal with those who are chronically homeless due to substance abuse and/or mental health issues.
But in a moment of candor Mariano also said, “There’s a lot of important items for members back home fighting to be reelected. There’s a self-interest in making sure some of these projects get done.”
The political battles being “fought” by incumbent lawmakers are few, but the demand for local pork is virtually limitless. And so the bill contains $86 million earmarked for “local economic recovery efforts and community development projects,” $44 million for “local public service needs,” and $24 million for local parks projects.
Among the “local economic recovery projects,” for example, are $15,000 “for the promotion of Holyoke’s 150th anniversary celebration,” $100,000 for the restoration of Norcross House, a “historic events space” in East Longmeadow, $400,000 to replace a pool in Newton, and $100,000 for basketball courts in Sudbury. The list goes on — and on — for pages.
Ah, but tax reform and tax cuts will have to wait, despite the fact that lawmakers were generally in agreement on both this summer before they got word of the $3 billion in tax relief that a 1986 law mandated be returned to taxpayers. The news seemed to flummox House leaders — and the House is where money bills must originate under the state constitution.
That left Senate President Karen Spilka disappointed that the tax-relief sections were scrapped.
“I have said from the very get-go that we could and should do the permanent progressive tax relief,” she said.
Lawmakers had earlier agreed to a package of proposals that would expand the Earned Income Tax Credit offering tax relief to low-income taxpayers, increase the child and dependent care deduction, provide a permanent tax break for low-income renters, and hike the tax credit for low-income seniors who either rent or own a home.
It would also make much needed reforms to the antiquated estate tax that has long made Massachusetts an outlier nationally. Not only is Massachusetts one of only 12 states plus the District of Columbia that levy an estate tax, its $1 million trigger is, along with that of Oregon, the lowest such threshold. And it is the only state where if an estate goes over that $1 million threshold by even a dollar, the entire estate amount is taxable.
The proposed reforms would increase the threshold to $2 million and apply the tax only to the amount over that figure.
It’s not unthinkable that the Legislature’s inability to get this done by Election Day could trigger some voters to slip to the no side of Question 1, the so-called millionaires tax. After all, voting yes on that question requires a leap of faith that Beacon Hill will spend money raised by the new tax wisely — faith that’s hard to justify at the moment.
Lawmakers’ dereliction of duty on the issue of tax reform has at least caused a small flurry of promises to correct the omission next year, including from Democratic gubernatorial candidate Maura Healey, whose spokesperson said, “As governor, it will be a top priority of hers to get this done with the Legislature.”
“House and Senate leaders are committed to revisiting the issue of broader, more permanent tax relief next session,” Mariano, Spilka, and the chairs of their respective Ways and Means Committees said in a joint statement.
It shouldn’t have come to this, and lawmakers should be embarrassed that it did. But a promise is a promise — and taxpayers will be watching and waiting for the state’s leaders to be fulfilling theirs early in 2023.
Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us on Twitter at @GlobeOpinion.
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