- Posted Jul. 25, 2015 at 9:00 AMNORWOOD
It’s late July, so that means there’s the annual last-second buildup for a sales tax holiday weekend in August.
The idea touted by the Massachusetts Retailers Association is in favor of such a weekend, arguing it keeps money in the state that would be spent in New Hampshire or online.
The MRA asked the Beacon Hill Institute to measure the economic impact of the holiday.
The study is based on the responses of 63 business owners asked by the MRA how the reprieve impacts their shops. Having the business association handpick owners’ answers is in not a good way to measure impact, as the MRA could have stacked the deck in emailing business owners to get favorable results.
Even then, the owners’ responses were lukewarm, at best.
The answers in favor of the concept are all the standard answers that don’t really have any specifics. They’re all vague generalizations like “it stimulates the economy” or “people spend more than they otherwise would have.”
The answers from owners who aren’t in favor are more telling.
“There is no cash flow for three weeks before,” one owner wrote.
Another stated “five weeks of business are crammed into two days” and that the totals don’t match five normal summer weeks.
A majority of business owners, 60 percent, stated in the survey they believe any sales from the weekend came from other weeks in the year, not money that would have been spent out of state.
That means the holiday isn’t any sort of economic boost, just a rearranging of when purchases would occur.
Only 13 percent said the sales come from the boogey men of “tax-free” New Hampshire and the Internet.
One of the major points the paper points out is that 72 percent of shoppers were at least somewhat likely to spend in state if there were a holiday. The question was leading at best.
There was no response in that question indicating whether to indicate if a responder was not planning to partake, just whether it would make a difference between shopping in state or elsewhere.
Another question found that 68 percent of respondents hadn’t taken advantage of the holiday. While no one likes paying taxes, savvy shoppers can find better deals on other weekends.
The institute concluded the weekend generates the equivalent of about 627 jobs. Realistically, employers aren’t hiring new workers to deal with the supposed benefits, but just scheduling more hours to their current work force. That works out to about six hours for every one of the 225,000 retail workers in the state.
Sunday, July 26, 2015
[EDITORIAL] Massachusetts sales tax holiday not worth it
[EDITORIAL] CHIGAO: No more waiting to pay down big pension bills
POSTER BOY FOR WHAT'S WRONG WITH CHICAGO!!
Chicago had better start budgeting like the game is up.
On Friday, a Cook County judge rejected Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to restructure two of the city’s underfunded pension systems. If the Illinois Supreme Court does not reverse the lower court — and that’s looking like a pipe dream — the city will be on the hook for billions of dollars more just to adequately fund the Municipal Employees and Laborers pension funds.
On top of that, Friday’s ruling makes it extremely likely the city will remain on the hook for billions of dollars to adequately fund its police, firefighter and teacher pension systems.
New revenue must be found now, mostly through an array of loathsome tax increases, and cuts in city services are inevitable. That pension debt keeps growing. There can be no more waiting on the courts to give their seal of approval to pension reform schemes that border on wishful thinking.
But even if Chicago takes the most painful measures, a day may come when the city simply cannot pay full benefits to a retired worker. One would hope that the specter of this alone might compel the unions to agree to reasonable pension cuts — to better protect what they’ve got. But that, too, might be a pipe dream.
When Judge Rita Novak shot down the city’s pension reform plan, a union spokesman called it “a win for all city residents.”
It was, in fact, a disaster.
Texas Supreme Court Addresses Major LGBT Ordinance Photo of Casey Harper
The Texas Supreme Court dealt Houston’s contentious LGBT ordinance a major blow Friday.
The court ruled that the city of Houston must repeal or allow a vote on the Equal Rights Ordinance, an ordinance that qualified for the ballot but was kept off by Houston’s mayor, who sparked outrage when she tried to subpoena sermons and communications of local pastors.
The Equal Rights Ordinance banned businesses that serve the public from discriminating against gay or transgender people.
Conservative activists say that the ordinances can be used to allow men who identify as women to use women’s restrooms and locker rooms, and vice versa for women who identify as men.
After the ordinance was passed in May of 2014, conservative activists fought to get a repeal vote on the issue, but the mayor and other city officials refused to allow the repeal vote, saying the activists did not obtain enough signatures.
The court disagreed, and told the city to either repeal the measure or allow the city to vote on the repeal. Houston has until Aug. 24 to decide.
“The legislative power reserved to the people of Houston is not being honored,” reads the court’s opinion.
It’s important to note that the court did not rule against anti-discrimination ordinance for LGBT people in general, only that the city was obligated to allow the measure to be put up for a vote or repealed outright.
Several large Texas cities, including Dallas and Austin, have some form of anti-discrimination protection in place for LGBT people.
[OPINION[ Finley: Democrats’ handout strategy is failing
Democrats hope to prevail in the 2016 elections by pounding the income gap. But at least one major group on the short end of that equation isn’t buying that the handout party has the right answers.
Blue collar white voters believe the Republican Party is better equipped to make the economic system more fair by an overwhelming margin, according to a new Washington Post poll.
In the survey of non-college educated whites, 50 percent had more faith in GOP policies, while 29 percent favored the Democratic strategy.
These are among the workers hit hardest by the economic shifts of the past quarter century, and in particular by the failed polices of the Obama administration.
They’ve seen good paying jobs in Appalachian coal mines become casualties of the president’s war on coal. They’ve lost solid, middle class work on the oil rigs of the Gulf to a president more obsessed with tomorrow’s temperatures than today’s families. And they’ve bid goodbye to Midwestern factory jobs while the president saddles employers with oppressive taxes and regulations.
They’re the autoworkers whose fathers punched in at $30 an hour, and they’re trying to get by on a $15 hourly wage. They’re the legion of middle class workers who once had employer-provided health insurance, but now have to pay for most of their medical costs themselves.
They should be ripe for the Democrats’ anti-corporate, people vs. the powerful message. But they aren’t buying. And that’s good news, not just for Republicans in the upcoming election cycle, but for the country in the long-term.
Mitt Romney, the failed GOP standard bearer in 2012, bemoaned the prospects for selling a message of smaller government when 47 percent of the population is receiving some form of government assistance.
But many of these blue collar whites are among the 47 percenters. They may be getting Obamacare subsidies, or unemployment benefits, or even food stamps.
And that’s not what they want. They’re looking for the opportunity to take care of themselves and their families. They want jobs, not another Big Government giveaway designed to replace the paychecks Democratic policies have killed.
They’ve lost faith — if they ever had any — in the government’s ability to solve their problems. And who can blame them?
Blue collar workers have lost ground under Obama’s wealth transfer schemes. His policies haven’t helped the poor and working class, and haven’t much hurt the rich. During the president’s tenure, the gaps between rich and poor have widened. All he’s done is explode the size of government and enrich the political class.
Democrats won’t win these working white voters with campaigns built on class resentment and Robin Hood promises, and they may not be able to convince other blue collar workers to buy into more of the same failed strategies.
Because this rather large and often neglected group of voters doesn’t want more government. They want more and better jobs. And so far, Democrats haven’t proved they can deliver.
[VIDEO] Krauthammer: It Will Snow in Hell Before DOJ Launches Criminal Investigation into Hillary
On Fox News today, Bret Baier brought the subject to Hillary Clinton‘s emails, which got renewed media focus following a report that the Department of Justice received requests to open a criminal investigation into the scandal. The DOJ later backtracked by saying that the referral they received was not actually criminal in nature.
After reading a statement from a Clinton spokesman, Baier said that it was a common maneuver of Hillary to place the blame on “reckless, inaccurate leaks” whenever she is being pressed on her emails.
Charles Krauthammer agreed, saying that whether the Times report was false or not, the substance of the charges against Clinton are still present, and she is trying to create distractions and shift blame onto others.
He said it’s be up to the DOJ to actually determine the criminality of any charges brought against Clinton, but was doubtful on that prospect, saying “I think it will snow in Hell before the DOJ is going to go after her.”
Krauthammer also blasted the DOJ as “an extremely politicized department,” saying they weren’t going after her for being untruthful like they were when former CIA director David Petraeus was discovered having an extramarital affair.
He concluded by saying that even though Clinton insisted otherwise at her speech today, the intelligence community made it clear that the emails she sent out had classified information, and she resisted handing them over.
Three for the Money: Carly, Walker, and Cruz
This week, three of the Republican candidates showed their mettle and had very good weeks. Majority leader Mitch McConnell and both the Democrat’s “inevitable” Hillary Clinton and the president’s standings sagged.
Carly Fiorina
Carly’s ability to handle the press and make a name for herself without a large staff or campaign chest continues. This week, she capitalized on videos showing Planned Parenthood to be involved in a distasteful racket, negotiating for the best price for aborted fetal tissue.
Mainstream news outlets pretty much ignored the story, as Michael Barone noted:
The 2012 Obama campaign appealed to single women by suggesting that without Obamacare’s contraception mandate, contraceptives would somehow be unavailable -- a favorable way to frame the abortion issue. But the Planned Parenthood videos are, in the words of Democratic columnist Kirsten Powers, “stomach-turning stuff.”
Most mainstream media outlets are carefully avoiding the subject, as the Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway points out. The New York Times and Washington Post ran 773 stories on the Confederate flag over the last month but only 31 on the Planned Parenthood video. Heavily pro-choice newsrooms have no appetite to discredit the nation’s leading abortion provider, but may be forced to as members of Congress hold hearings and propose legislation
Carly Fiorina, however, with her penchant for the main shot, did not ignore the issue. In interviews with CNN’s Jack Tapper and Fox and Friends, she refused to bite the usual media bait and instead turned tables on the interviewers, reminding viewers that it is the leading Democrat’s positions which are extreme and out of the mainstream.
“Let’s also talk about Hillary Clinton’s position,” Fiorina said. “Let’s talk about what ‘extreme’ is. It’s not a life until it leaves the hospital? That’s Hillary Clinton’s position. It’s Hillary Clinton’s position that a 13-year-old girl needs her mother’s permission to go to a tanning salon or get a tattoo, but not to get an abortion. It’s Hillary Clinton’s position that women should not be permitted to look at an ultrasound before an abortion, and yet people who are trying to harvest its body parts can use an ultrasound to make sure that those body parts are preserved, so they can be sold. That, Jake, is extreme.”
She was as deft in refusing to attack Scott Walker, in expressing concern about domestic security, and in agreeing with Trump and public sentiment on immigration policy.
[VIDEO] Marco Rubio Has a New Answer for His Inexperience Problem
Has Marco Rubio hit on a way to turn two political minuses into a plus?
The 44-year-old first-term senator is competing for the Republican presidential nomination against a crowded field that includes eight governors or former governors and several more experienced lawmakers. He has also been dogged by questions about his acumen when it comes to his personal finances. In recent days he has come up with an argument that seemingly attempts to handle both potential problems.
At a forum last weekend in Ames, Iowa, Republican pollster Frank Luntz told Rubio that "the single biggest knock on you" is that "you haven't been around long enough." In response, the son of Cuban immigrants from humble beginnings cleverly morphed job "experience" into life "experience," arguing that his makes him the most qualified to understand issues facing ordinary Americans.
"I don't think anybody running for president understands what life is like for people today more than I do," Rubio said, adding that his parents lived "paycheck to paycheck" and that he had student loans until four years ago. His youth and his financial struggles have given him more of kind of experience a president needs, he argued.
"No one running has more experience on the issues we face right now, today, in the 21st century, with a world that's more dangerous than ever and an economy that's changing faster than we've ever seen since the industrial revolution."
The crowd applauded.
Thursday, in another interview, Rubio trotted out a different version of the same line.
"The world is changing, and no one who is running for president has more experience than I do on the issues confronting our country right now," the freshman Florida senator told Fox News in an interview Thursday.
Fox host Bret Baier didn't seem convinced. Why, he asked, is a governor not better positioned for the White House than he is?
Rubio responded that the presidency is a "unique office" that's "not like being a senator, but it's not like being a governor, either," saying that presidents face national security challenges but that they "don't create jobs."
CALIFORNIA: POT TAX: SACRAMENTO POLITICIANS ‘JONESING’ FOR A SPENDING FIX
With Sacramento politicians desperate to find a new source of continuous tax revenue, the state’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Policy has just published a study, “Pathways Report Policy Options for Regulating Marijuana In California,” as a precursor to sponsoring a 2016 ballot initiative to legalize recreational pot use.
However, it seems that underground farmers of California’s largest cash crop have no intention of going legit and paying taxes.
“One of the major findings of the Blue Ribbon Commission’s work is that the legalization of marijuana would not be an event that happens in one election. Rather, it would be a process that unfolds over many years requiring sustained attention to implementation,” the report says.
In perhaps the most hilarious section of the report, under the heading “What to do with all that new tax money,” the Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom-led group of academic and law enforcement experts suggests that the expected cash hoard from taxing marijuana should not go to back-fill the State General Fund: “We do not believe that making government dependent on cannabis taxes makes for sound public policy, nor do we believe cannabis tax revenue will be very large in relation to the total budgets of state and local government.”
Sacramento politicians have been clear that they hope marijuana can provide a stable tax revenue base for the perpetually insolvent state. After passing Proposition 30‘s“temporary tax increase” in 2012, the Golden State saw its top marginal tax rate jump by 33% and capital gains taxed at the same rates as income, up to 13.3 percent.
The media have been full of stories about companies moving to lower-taxed states, but tax collection was up by $11 billion in the 2015 fiscal year, mostly due to huge capital gains taxes from Silicon Valley. California’s collection of capital gains jumped from $4.7 billion in 2010 to 11.9 billion in 2014, and may have hit $15 billion for 2015.
Yet with the annual cost for state employees’ salaries and benefits at $10 billion, any fall in capital gains collections would create the same type of disaster for public employee unions that happened in the Great Recession, when capital gains income to the state plunged from $10.9 billion in 2007 to $2.3 billion in 2009. In that crash, 6.7 percent of the state’s public employees were terminated; K-12 and early education were slashed by 8 percent; and public health and welfare were slashed.
The 93-page Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Policy report makes 58 recommendations essentially suggesting that marijuana “licensing” should shadow the policies used to maximize tax collection in regulating alcohol distribution and consumption in California.
Licensed and taxed entities would include: cultivators who grow cannabis; distributors and wholesalers; manufacturers who make specific products for retail sale; retailers who sell to individuals; transporters who are responsible for delivery between any two points in the system; suppliers of seeds; product testing; training providers and any other entities involved in supply chain monitoring; and product safety testers.
Separating alcohol manufacturing, transportation and distribution has been the key to maximizing tax collection in the U.S.. The weight and size of alcohol liquids make them much easier to identify in illegal transit and storage.
But the bad news for tax-hungry Sacramento politicians is that the current drug business is highly integrated with criminal gangs controlling all levels of production, transportation and distribution. Recognizing that the only way to bring the illegal pot trade into regulation, the Newsom report suggests that marijuana regulation would have to allow a higher level of integration than alcohol:
Alcohol regulation clearly separates manufacturer, distributor and retailer, with few exceptions. Prohibiting all vertical integration would have the effect of breaking up some current responsible players in the medical marijuana industry who engage in cultivation and sales, while requiring vertical integration of cultivation and sales could force large numbers of small incumbent growers into rushed and perhaps unwanted “shotgun marriages” with retailers.
The report also seems to suggest concessions to labor unions as a way to add political support: “The workforce involved in marijuana cultivation and processing should be afforded the same protections and rights as other workers in the agriculture and processing industries. This includes the right to collective bargaining, as well as other worker safety protections.”
As Breitbart News recently noted, in “California Is Greece, but with Capital Gains,” the state’s failed experiment in liberalism has resulted in the highest poverty rate in the U.S. at 23.4 percent. The grossly insolvent Gold State, with about $500 billion in debt, has survived–on life support–from billions of dollars of inconsistent revenue from capital gains taxes.
Desperate to keep the game going, Sacramento politicians are pushing to legalize marijuana for the tax revenue. They are likely to be disappointed.
Levin: ‘Unbridled Immigration, Legal and Illegal, Is Taking the Country Down’
“Immigration, legal and illegal, is taking the country down,” nationally syndicated radio show host Mark Levin stated in his broadcast on Thursday.
“Unbridled immigration, wave after wave after wave, which is what has taken place for the last 50 years, is killing this country,” Levin said. “Fundamentally altering this country, creating more poor American citizens in this country - and to what end?”
“Now I can go on and on; the case is overwhelming that unbridled immigration, wave after wave after wave, which is what has taken place for the last 50 years, is killing this country.
“Fundamentally altering this country, creating more poor American citizens in this country – and to what end?
“That information, all that information is in Plunder and Deceit on my chapter on immigration, but there’s a lot more because immigration is even more than that.
“It’s about foreigners coming into the country, not assimilating, and it’s about a federal government basically controlled by the Left, almost in a monopolistic way, which does not want assimilation, does not want Americanization because, as [President] Obama has said repeatedly, he and the Left despise America.
“So we have people escaping failed cultures, escaping failed economic systems, escaping failed governments, coming into this country and bringing all three of those with them –and our country encouraging it.
“So this does affect jobs. This does affect the economy. It sure as hell affects your children and grandchildren. It affects our school systems, it affects law enforcement – yes. It affects our health care system, it affects our entire country.
“Unbridled – wave after wave – immigration, legal and illegal, is taking the country down."
DNC speaks to empty College Democrat event
Emphasizing the importance of Millennial voters in upcoming elections, progressive activists spoke to a nearly empty auditorium at the College Democrats of America annual conference on Friday.
Despite offering a full day of activities, speakers like Julian Castro, and campaigning advice from top political operatives, the College Democrats of America were barely able to fill the first couple rows with young attendees.
The speakers emphasized the important role Millennial voters can play in the political process by getting out the vote, engaging fellow students on campus, and supporting the objectives of the Democratic Party. The conference began July 22 and will end this Saturday.
Donna Brazile, Vice Chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee and frequent television political commentator, began an unscheduled appearance by thanking “all those who work so hard to ensure that all of our young people, all of our College Democrats, are involved, active, and engaged in the national Democratic Party.”
Brazile encouraged the members of the sparse audience to seek public office while pointing to an empty chair on stage.
“I want you to start thinking about filling this seat,” said Brazile, who said she has been active in politics since childhood and looked forward to the contributions of the next generation.
“I didn’t come here with any talking points, I don’t have a speech, I don’t have a candidate yet, but I do have an empty chair,” said Brazile.
During a panel earlier in the day, Rock the Vote president Ashley Spillane described Millennials as the “Get Sh*t Done Generation” but said that “the current political landscape isn’t that inspiring and people are frustrated with politics.”
“I believe the Millennial Generation is getting sh*t done, they just happen to be doing it outside of the political system right now and we need to be impressing the importance of participating in civics in order to get them more involved in the process,” said Spillane.
Environmental groups raise concerns over Florida's new hunt for oil
MIAMI – Renewed hunts for oil in sensitive Florida ecosystems have environmental groups raising questions about the state's regulation of the oil and gas industry.
A Miami company, Kanter Real Estate LLC, has submitted a permit application to drill an exploratory oil well on the eastern edge of the Everglades.
Meanwhile, federal approval is pending for a seismic survey meant to locate new areas for drilling in the Big Cypress National Preserve, a freshwater swamp whose health is vital to the neighboring Everglades and to native wildlife, including the endangered Florida panther.
The state recently issued a wetlands activity permit to Fort Worth, Texas-based Burnett Oil Co. Inc. for the survey that would cover 110 square miles within the preserve. Florida and the National Park Service are requiring a number of steps to ensure minimal harm to wildlife and the environment, but the proposal worries critics who have complained that lax oversight of previous drilling operations left ecologically sensitive areas vulnerable to contamination.
From 2012 to 2014, Florida issued three environmental violations for oil and gas operations in the state, according to violations data analyzed by The Associated Press.
The three violations occurred in 2014 after Collier County officials raised concerns about another Texas oil company's use of a fracking-like oil recovery practice at a well near panther habitat.
The Department of Environmental Protection — the state's oil and gas regulator — say the number doesn't show lax law enforcement, but rather that Florida's strict inspections keep well operators in compliance.
"During the 2014 calendar year, DEP's inspectors conducted 2,472 inspections on the 160 active wells in the state. Due to the frequency of these inspections, potential problems are identified and remedied before a violation occurs or a compliance action is required," said DEP spokeswoman Lauren Engel said in a statement.
Environmental groups argue that Florida's regulations currently only cover conventional drilling methods, not the "acid stimulation" that prompted last year's violations or other advanced extraction techniques.
"We've learned that Florida's oil and gas laws are extremely antiquated and rudimentary and don't address new techniques such as fracking," said Jennifer Hecker, director of natural resource policy for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.
Drilling has been a part of the Big Cypress since before it became a national preserve in 1974. The first wells were dug in the 1940s, and drilling continues to this day, as new technologies may improve the efficiency of extracting oil from deposits running underground from Fort Myers to Miami.
The Burnett survey would be scheduled for Florida's winter dry season and produce vibrations created by plates attached to thumper trucks driving across a grid.
The state has gone on record opposing some methods of seismic testing, but it has not objected to the Burnett project.
DEP sent a letter to the Obama administration opposing new rules allowing seismic surveys for oil and gas off the state's Atlantic coast because not enough was known about the surveys' effects on marine life. The seismic survey in the Big Cypress, however, has to comply with Florida laws, said Engel.
"With onshore seismic, we have regulatory authority through this permitting program," she said.
Burnett says it's prepared to address concerns about the survey's environmental impact. The wetlands activity permit issued by DEP requires the company to restore "using hand tools" any habitat damaged by the survey vehicles, and it encourages crews to remove any invasive plant species they encounter.
The survey trucks' wide, balloon tires will be less damaging than off-road vehicle tires, said Burnett spokesman Ryan Duffy.
The survey would cover an area between active well fields in the eastern and northwestern parts of the preserve, far from recreational areas. In addition to the state permit, the park service could impose additional stipulations on Burnett to mitigate any environmental damage, said Ron Clark, the preserve's chief resource manager.
Drilling has been a rarity east of the Big Cypress. In 1985, a Texas company drilled in western Broward County, but that well was plugged and abandoned the same year, according to DEP.
The Kanter permit application calls for a 5-acre operation to drill down 11,800 feet.
In a statement, John Kanter said the application is "one of the first steps in a long-term plan that includes proposed mining, as well as water storage and water quality improvement components that have the potential for assisting with Everglades Restoration."
His family has owned the Broward County property slated for exploratory drilling for over 50 years. "As stewards of this land, we are fully invested in ensuring this project provides maximum public benefit while also providing Florida with solutions for water storage and treatment in South Florida," he said.
Environmental groups and some local elected officials say any drilling expansion threatens the region's water supply and Everglades restoration plans.
"Florida law asks the driller to do the best job possible, but it doesn't say you can't drill for oil in wetlands, in the Everglades, in panther habitat," said Matt Schwartz, executive director of the South Florida Wildlands Association.
In Miramar, the city 5 miles from the where Kanter wants to drill, the mayor and city commission recently voted to oppose the plan because of the threat to their drinking water.
Bonita Springs is over 30 miles from the Big Cypress and hasn't been a target for drilling, but the city council last week unanimously approved an ordinance banning fracking within city limits.
San Francisco combats the stench of urine with pee-repellant paint
Don't get into a pissing match with walls in San Francisco.
The city's Public Works agency is testing a pee-repellant paint on walls in areas that have been saturated with urine. Anyone urinating on the specially treated walls will get the spray splashed back onto them.
San Francisco's director of public works, Mohammed Nuru - whose Twitter handle is @MrCleanSF - got the idea when he read on social media about the use of the paint in Hamburg, Germany's nightclub district to stop beer drinkers from relieving themselves in the street.
The paint, called Ultra-Ever Dry, is sold by Ultratech International Inc and is billed as a superhydrophobic coating that will repel most liquids.
"The urine will bounce back on the guys pants and shoes. The idea is they will think twice next time about urinating in public," said Rachel Gordon, a Public Works Department spokeswoman. She said the super-hard coating made the "bounce back" effect much stronger than when peeing on a regular wall.
In a pilot program, San Francisco last week painted nine walls in areas around bars and other areas with big homeless populations.
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