Democratic House Speaker Robert Deleon estimates that this attack on benefits will result in $100 million in cost savings for cities and towns. In his statement after Tuesday’s vote he repeated the lie that there are not enough resources to provide decent benefits. “By spending less on the health care costs of municipal employees,” he said, “our cities and towns will be able to retain jobs.”
But while workers are targeted for cutbacks, the fiscal year 2012 budget passed by the House on Thursday contained no proposals for new taxes either on corporations or the rich. The state government, which provides hundreds of millions of dollars in local aid to cities and towns every year, is facing another crisis as it prepares its 2012 budget, exacerbated by the end of federal stimulus funding.
Giving the lie to the claim that there are not enough resources to pay for workers’ benefits, the Boston Globe published an article Sunday about large Massachusetts based corporations that paid no federal income taxes in 2010.
State Street Bank, for example, was able to write off against taxes its past losses from financial speculation, despite the fact that it made $1.6 billion in profits last year while laying off 400 workers in the Boston area. General Electric, also on the no-tax list, made $14.2 billion in profits last year; it employs thousands of workers at its jet engine factory in Lynn.
While refusing to touch these corporate profits, the Massachusetts legislature’s 2012 budget leaves intact the state’s regressive sales tax of 6.25 percent. Combined with rising gas prices, this tax is putting the squeeze on the same workers whose health benefits are being cut.
After the House vote, Governor Patrick claimed in comments to the Globe, “I’m not going to sign a Wisconsin-type bill in the end.” This statement stands in complete contrast to the fact that he filed the first bill in this attack, telling the Globe that unions should have a “role” but not a “veto” in determining workers’ benefits.
The web site of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, a group of private corporations, takes credit for the bill on its web site. That a private sector corporate group is able to call the shots on the benefits of public sector workers demonstrates the increasingly open pro-business stand of state Democrats. Referring to this relationship, Patrick boasted to the legislature at the beginning of the year, “CNBC has moved our state up to the fifth best place in America to do business.”
via www.wsws.org
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