Minutes - January 24, 2008

New ADTC website & ADTC group email info; on ballots for Feb. 5 presidential primary, ADTC to use stickers with names of all those nominated for 4-year ADTC terms;

ADTC passes Resolution supporting House Bill 3075 to close certain Mass. corporate tax loopholes, & supporting revision of Mass Constitution Article XLIV to permit Legislature to establish progressive income tax; ADTC to set up meeting with Town Manager, Amherst Republican Town Committee, others to discuss concerns about using town vehicles & public employees as part of privately-run 4th of July parade; Amherst Democratic Caucus on Sat. Feb. 9 at Crocker Farm School, 10 a.m.

Dates to Note:

* Tuesday, 5 Feb.: Presidential primary (and election of Regular ADTC members

for the next 4 years) (please see item 5, below)!

* Saturday, 9 Feb.: Amherst Democratic Caucus to elect delegates to MassDems

annual convention, Crocker Farm School, 10 a.m. sharp! (item 8, below)

* Thurs. 21 Feb., Jones Library, 2nd floor: Next ADTC meeting.

7:07 p.m. Chair Harry Brooks called the meeting to order.

1) Announcements:

Many thanks to Peter Vickery and his family for generously hosting our December End-of-Year

cum Start-of-Campaign-Season kickoff potluck!

2) Secretary's Report:

Minutes of our 26 November 2006 meeting, emailed to the usual suspects long ago.

Molly Turner moved to accept, Diana Stein seconded. All ayes.

3) Treasurer's Report:

ADTC Treasurer Keri Heitner reported, via email before the meeting, that at the end of 2007

we were the proud possessors of $360.13.

Keri has filed the required annual report with the Mass. OCPF (?) via its Electronic Filing &

Campaign Disclosure System.

Sarah McKee moved to accept, with thanks to Keri for a lot of work. Accepted by acclamation.

4) New ADTC email groups & website!

IT chair Kimo Lee has our new email groups & attractive website up -- with our thanks!

New website: www.amherstdemocrats.org.

This will put the ADTC email address(s) in the automated system of the petition's sponsor. Goodness knows where it may go from there. Also, the ADTC secretary deflects spam sent to ADTC group email addresses. She prefers to do as little spam-deflecting as possible.

5) Presidential Primary ADTC Nominating Papers:

At the Presidential Primary on Tuesday, 5 Feb, the ADTC must elect Regular Members for a 4-year term.

28 existing Regular Members signed the nomination form agreeing to serve if elected. (ADTC is allowed a total of 35 members.) For a cascade of reasons, the Secretary of State's office did not accept our forms. So ADTC nominees' names are not printed on the 5 Feb. ballots.

The Mass. Secretary of State's office proposes that we have labels printed, each of which contains the names of our noble 28 (who may yet total 29). A voter can vote for all 28 (or 29) by affixing this single label to the ballot. (And, presumably, cross out the name of anyone for whom he or she wishes not to vote.)

The SOS specifies 2 specialty printers who do this. (We're not the first in this situation, obviously.)

This will make it as easy as possible for the Town Clerk to count the votes.  Harry offered to foot the $50. bill for sticker printing. There can still be write-in votes for the remaining 7, or 6, ADTC slots.

Leo Maley moved, Diana Stein seconded that we accept this solution.

Passed with 2 votes against.

5 Feb. PRIMARY LOGISTICS:

•  Harry will get 100 ADTC candidate stickers printed. We'll deliver one to each ADTC member.
• For additional stickers for Amherst Dem friends & significant others voting on Feb. 5, please call Harry at 256-8831.

6) Resolution to Support Mass. House Bill 3075, to increase Commonwealth revenue streams, & to support Mass. Constitution revision to permit a progressive income tax

ADTC second vice chair Peter Vickery drafted, and Leo Maley proposed the adoption of, an ADTC

resolution in support both of Gov. Deval Patrick's bill to reverse the dismal post-2001 trend of

ever-decreasing state aid to Mass. cities & towns, and to allow a graduated Mass. income tax.

by revising Mass. Constitution's Article XLIV.

Click here to read the full text of the resolution passed...

House Bill 3075 would, inter alia, plug some corporate tax loopholes & permit a property tax on

telephone poles, tax-exempt since early in 20th century to encourage growth of phone companies.

A progressive, or graduated, income tax would be more equitable than our present flat income

tax rate of 5.3%, while raising additional revenue, including from some ADTC members.

Leo Maley met 2 weeks ago with Lt. Gov. Tim Murray to discuss House Bill 3075. Murray & Deval are most concerned immediately with getting a property tax on the poles & closing corporate loopholes.

They'd welcome support from Mass. Dem. Town Committees.

There seems to be no good explanation of the Legislature's delay. Murray also wants a resolution

supporting a progressive income tax, though the other revenue sources are the immediate priorities.

Mary Wentworth: has anyone calculated what closing the corp. loopholes would total? Diana

Stein had figures for Amherst that I wasn't fast enough to take down. The official Mass. website

appears not to have the statewide potential-revenue breakdowns that Gov. Patrick sent out months

ago. If anyone knows where to find it, please let Harry Brooks or me know & we'll send it around.

Leo Maley: The Associated Industries of Mass (AIM) will say that Mass. corp. income tax rate is 4th

highest in country. But, per well-regarded Mass Budget & Public Policy Center, we're down at 40th out of 50 states in actual taxes on businesses (highest overall taxes, state & local, on corps are in Wyoming, of all places. So it's No. 1.)

state -- those with sales over $50,000,000 a year -- a third paid just the minimum corporate income tax rate of $456 last year." [Bolding in original.]

Mary Wentworth: noted that AIM ran a "mousetrap" ad that helped doom a previous attempt to institute progressive Mass. income tax, and that AIM's "legislature will put your taxes up"

fearmongering then was phoney: legislature can do this already.

Roland Chilton: As veteran of 2 unsuccessful campaigns for a progressive income tax, thinks it

important to specify that what we like about House Bill 3075 is local meals tax option & tax on

telecoms for their poles. (There was, however, no motion to this effect.)

Dick Bentley: Do other states tax telephone poles? Yes, apparently most if not all have repealed

their early-phone-company pole tax exemption.

Roland also wanted to know where this resolution would go. Leo -- would get it to our legislators,

others, spread far & wide like our well-received ADTC resolution last Oct. against Mass. casino gambling.

Wrapup: Diana Stein moved previous question; Molly Turner seconded; Motion to Adopt Resolution

passed unanimously.

7) Vexed and Troubled Private Amherst 4th of July Parade

Background: Amherst's downtown 4th of July parade is privately organized by residents who censor, rather censoriusly in ADTC's experience, who may march and what their signs may say. Parade nonetheless has Amherst fire, police, and emergency vehicles with town employees, plus many such from surrounding towns, and U.S. military participation. Our tax dollars at work.

In 2007, ADTC resolved to abstain from parading on 4th of July rather than forego our free speech rights.  Our 2007 resolution still stands per email from 2nd vice chair Peter Vickery, so no need for a new one.

Roland Chilton: If it's a private parade, it shouldn't have taxpayers' firetrucks.

Tom Plaut: U.S. Supreme Court has held that private parade organizers may censor what

marchers say.

Harry will invite Town Manager to meet with ADTC, ARTC, perhaps others, to discuss our concerns about having taxpayer vehicles & Amherst town employees participate in a private parade.

8) New Business: Utter silence.

9) Amherst Dem. Caucus on Sat. 9 Feb. 2008, 10 a.m. sharp, in Crocker Farm School:

This is to elect Amherst Dem. delegates and alternates to the Mass. Dems Convention in Lowell, at the Tsongas Arena, on Sat. 7 June 2008 at 10 a.m.

ALL Amherst residents registered as Dems by end of 2007 are eligible! They need not be ADTC members.

Delegates will determine, among other things, which U.S. Senate candidate(s) can run in the Mass. Dem. primary in September.

Leo Maley noted new 2008 Caucus rules: 

• To be elected a delegate or alternate, you MUST be at the Caucus!
• Also, you cannot have any intention of opposing the eventual Dem. nominee(s).

This apparently includes having a lawn sign for a Republican or Green, etc. I did not completely follow the details. But it seems clear that delegate Dems can't be partly something else.

10) Re Amherst Select Board Election on 1 April (no fooling):

Not on agenda, but it is a civic matter. Two Select Board seats are up for grabs, 7 candidates. (Select Board member Rob Kusner will not run for re-election.)

Candidates include incumbent Hwei-ling Greeney, Diana B. Stein, and, per the Town Clerk's office today (25 Jan.), Stephanie J. O'Keeffe, Aaron A. Hayden, David T. Keenan, Irvin E. Rhodes, and Jacobo A. Roque.

At roughly 8:15 p.m. Tom Plaut moved to adjourn, Mary Wentworth seconded.

Passed unimously.

Respectfully submitted,

Sarah McKee

Secretary

Present - Members (Regular and Life)

Bently, Dick

Brooks, H. Oldham

Chilton, Roland

Johnson, Chad

Lee, Kimo

Maley, Leo

McKee, Sarah

Plaut, Tom

Stein, Diana B.

Tarallo, Joe

Turner, Molly

Wentworth, Mary

Dunn, Steve (2nd time)