Crumbling Massachusetts
This five-story package investigates the deterioration of state owned properties in the Commonwealth.
Borrowing Our Way Out of Trouble Not a Solution
Come February, Massachusetts turns 220, but motorists, park goers, and state officials say the commonwealth has been looking its age for far too long.
Potholes dot state roads, overcrowded jails and aging courthouses need repair, college facilities are outdated, the tattered state park system ranks 48th in the nation on per capita spending. Under the Statehouse’s glittering golden dome once coppered by Paul Revere, the state’s leaders must work amid leaks, cracks and falling fixtures. (By Ira Kantor and Marybeth Kennealy)
State Faces $1.2 billion Backlog in Park Repair
From the Boston Harbor Islands to the Pittsfield State Forest in the Berkshires, Massachusetts state parks are crumbling.
The state's park system, the fifth largest in the nation, is plagued by eroding trails, collapsing bridges and uncollected trash. A leader in public open space - Massachusetts Bay colonists established a park system in 1634 - the state now ranks 48th among the states in per capita spending on parks, according to a report by the Environmental League of Massachusetts. (By Annya Lott and Yu-Ting Wang)
Bumpy Ride on State's Roads
Are Massachusetts roads falling apart? West Warren resident Tom Rugani thinks so. Last year, he spent $300 to fix a shock absorber on his Toyota Tercel after hitting a pothole. Endless work on a bridge over Route 20 impedes his way daily. "It's been under repair now for six years," Rugani complains. "They spend millions and millions of dollars on a little bridge, and it doesn't get finished." Rugani is not alone in his frustration. A series of reports and studies suggest that Massachusetts drivers' lament over road conditions is well founded. (By Keith Howard, LaToya M. Smith and Dan Trudeau)
Leaky Pipes, Falling Fixtures Under the Golden Dome
Rep. Stephen Canessa, D-New Bedford, was forced to do his spring cleaning early this year. In January, a water coil burst on the fourth floor of the Statehouse and left Canessa with a flooded mess, displacing his staff for a few months. “There was paint coming off the ceiling and water running down the walls,” said Canessa. “Equipment, files, and the carpet got ruined. Basically, everything needed to be ripped up and fixed.” The flood was not an isolated incident. The deteriorating condition of the state’s roads, bridges and other infrastructures are echoed in the crumbling conditions under the golden dome, the state’s symbolic structure of government. (By Lauren Gniazdowski and Erin Prediger)
Some Courts and Jails are Overcrowded and Deteriorating
Each day in Massachusetts, prisoners, correctional officers, judges and lawyers find themselves in state facilities that are old, overcrowded and, sometimes, deteriorating and unsafe. Bristol County’s Ash Street Jail in New Bedford is the oldest operating jail in . Built in 1828, it has been the subject of lawsuits challenging conditions in the largely windowless lockup. The jail’s cells lack automatic door locks: in the case of a fire, a correctional officer must unlock each door. (By Toni Scott and Amy Rafferty)
(Photo by Heidi Heimsal)
Taxachusetts:
Myths and Realities
The five-story package takes a deeper look at Gov. Patrick's tax proposals and compares them to tax policies in other states.
Our findings: Massachusetts now ranks in the middle group of comparable states when it comes to corporate tax collections; concerns about the impact of taxes on economic development may be overstated; controversial proposals such as a local option meals tax and property taxes for telecom utilities are already fixtures in a majority of states.
The Myth and Reality
In 1980, the Tax Foundation’s annual rankings listed
Massachusetts as second in the nation in taxes. The rating earned the Bay State the title of ‘Taxachusetts.’ The debate over proposed additional taxes to balance the state’s projected $1.3 billion budget deficit has exhumed the 20-year-old moniker. But it raises the questions about the relevancy of the label. Some tax studies put Massachusetts behind other states such as New York, California, and Texas, the chief competitors for technology and biogenetics jobs. Although proposals to add a local option meals tax and to end tax exemptions for telecoms are controversial here, a majority of other states have already adopted such initiatives. And experts say the state's taxing policy is only one in a number of factors companies weigh in deciding to come to the state.
Dueling Studies:
Advocates find studies to support any position
One recent business survey rates Massachusetts as No. 3 when it comes to collecting business taxes. Another study lists the state at No. 41 in the percentage of corporate taxes vs. the gross state product. It seems there is a business study to support whatever argument you might want to make about taxes in Massachusetts.
Other Factors:
Business look beyond taxes when deciding to come here
When Gov. Deval Patrick proposed closing $500 million in
corporate tax loopholes lawmakers’ knees jerked up and they delivered a resounding “No.” Legislative leaders such as House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi said new taxes were wrong for a state struggling to create new jobs. But interviews with economists and business leaders suggest that state taxes are only one small factor in the equation businesses use to decide where they will create new operations.
Local Option Taxes:
Controversial here; fact of life in other states
Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposal to allow cities and towns to levy an optional meals tax has given a sour taste to some elected officials who say added taxes will unfairly burden businesses and consumers. Yet the proposal is hardly revolutionary. Thirty other states allow municipalities to add a percent or two to restaurant bills. Restaurant patrons in neighboring New Hampshire and Rhode Island pay 8 percent in taxes on meals, compared to the 6 or 7 percent Massachusetts diners would pay.
Telecom Exemptions:
Most other states tax poles and wires
In 1912, the state Legislature voted to exempt telephone
companies from property taxes on their poles and wires in hopes of encouraging the firms to expand their networks. Ninety-five years later, Gov. Deval Patrick wants to end the exemption in hopes the renewed taxes will help cities and towns lower property taxes. While telecommunications
companies say they need the exemptions to pay for expanding broadband networks only a handful of states offer the same exemptions.