Colin A. Young, Chris Lisinski
State House New Service

State officials collected less in taxes than they expected for the sixth straight month in December, putting the year-to-date haul three-quarters of a billion dollars below projections as budget-writers face a growing thicket of challenges.

The Department of Revenue announced Thursday that it brought in $3.776 billion in December, which is not only $138 million or 3.5 percent below the monthly benchmark estimate but also $82 million or 2.1 percent less than what the state collected in December 2022.

Halfway through fiscal year 2024, the state has now brought in $769 million or 4.1 percent less than the projections used to craft an annual budget featuring steep spending increases. Tax revenue has increased a hair compared to the same point one year ago — up $60 million or 0.3 percent — but the limited revenue growth is not lined up with expectations or Beacon Hill’s appetite for spending.

“December collections decreased in non-withheld income tax, sales and use tax, corporate and business tax, and ‘all other’ tax in comparison to December 2022,” said Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder. “These decreases were partially offset by an increase in income tax withholding. The decrease in non-withheld income tax was driven primarily by lower income tax estimated and return payments and an unfavorable increase in income tax refunds. The decrease in sales and use tax was mainly due to typical timing factors in collections. The decrease in ‘all other’ tax is mostly attributable to a decrease in estate tax, a category that tends to fluctuate.”

Beacon Hill’s budget experts are now 0-for-6 at predicting monthly tax revenues this fiscal year, and the steady sluggishness combined with looming costs is cranking up the heat on Democrats, who do have significant cash reserves at their disposal.

Gov. Maura Healey told the News Service in mid-December that she was not considering unilateral budget cuts, known as 9C cuts because of the section of law that gives a governor that authority. At the time, actual state tax revenues had come in a cumulative $627 million or 4.3 percent less than the estimates used to craft the record $56 billion annual budget for fiscal year 2024.

“No. No, we’re going to manage the situation,” Healey said Dec. 13 when asked about the prospect of 9C cuts, the last round of which took place in December 2016. “Revenues are not what they have been the last few years. We recognize that. We’ve seen a dip.”

She added, “It’s also the case that we are fiscally very strong here in Massachusetts. We have a terrific bond rating. We have a record amount in the stabilization fund. And we’re going to just have to plan and evaluate as we prepare our next budget. That’s what we’re going to do, we’re going to manage the situation.”

Since then, the gap between actual and projected revenue collections has grown, and the administration unveiled its projection that it will need to spend far more than usual — $932 million in fiscal 2024 followed by $915 million in fiscal 2025 — on emergency shelter. Healey’s team will propose draining a roughly $700 million savings account to cover those costs.

And as the Legislature begins its seven-month sprint to the end of formal business on July 31, weaker-than-expected tax collections are weighing on the minds of key lawmakers. With the blessing of former Gov. Charlie Baker and now Healey, Democrats have sponsored major increases in state spending in recent years, but could soon face difficult decisions about whether they can sustain their investments.

Healey must file her fiscal 2025 budget proposal by Jan. 24, kicking off a budget season that is sure to bring novel challenges and could limit the time and attention on other important matters the House and Senate will prioritize over the next seven months.

Some of the major cost pressures the state faces are well-known, particularly skyrocketing emergency shelter costs, implementation of long-stalled tax relief that is going to swell to “cost” about $1 billion, and the lingering uncertainty around whether Massachusetts will have to repay the federal government some or all of $2.5 billion in erroneously spent unemployment aid.

That’s in addition to supporting the spending that has been added in recent years. Already, House Speaker Ron Mariano has given voice to the coming quandary, emphasizing the role of “fiscal prudence” in upcoming legislative business.

“Having been around as long as I’ve been around, I understand that everything is cyclical. When you’re riding the wave, it’s only a matter of time before you’re going to fall off the wave and hit the bottom,” Mariano said Wednesday. “Those of us who have been around a while have sort of expected some sort of contraction. The severity is always the question. The severity is what we’re going to be faced with, I think, pretty quickly, so we’ll just have to figure it out.”

Prominent business leaders recently implored the state to pump the brakes on spending, warning that “the drastic increase in government spending over the past five years is a growing concern for our future competitiveness and may detrimentally impact the long-term fiscal health of Massachusetts.”

DOR said that December “is a significant month for revenues because many corporate and business taxpayers are required to make quarterly estimated payments. In addition, some quarterly income estimated payments due by January 15th may be received in December.” The month generally produces 9.5 percent of the state’s annual tax revenue.

“A 37-year-old Freetown man, who is notorious in town for committing petty robberies, pleaded guilty in Fall River District Court this week in five separate cases and will spend the next two years in the Bristol County House of Correction, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III announced.

Brandan DeMoranville pleaded guilty to the following charges connected to five different incidents which occurred in Freetown between October of 2022 and September of 2023:

• Two counts of possession of burglarious instruments
• Two counts of breaking and entering into a vehicle or boat during the nighttime
• Vandalism
• Malicious damage to a motor vehicle
• Trespassing
• Larceny under $1,200
• Breaking and entering during the daytime
• Larceny from a building

Freetown Police Department photo.

The career criminal’s latest crime spree began on October 20, 2022 when a concerned neighbor contacted Freetown Police about a suspicious male entering into a single family home that was not presently being occupied. When police arrived, they found the defendant inside the home. He told police he was “just looking around.”

Then, on November 29, 2022, the defendant was arrested after making threats to a victim who refused to purchase tools from the defendant.

On January 6, 2023, the defendant was caught on video using a knife to cut open a cover of a pickup truck parked in a driveway. The defendant then tried unsuccessfully to gain entry into the truck’s cab.

On April 5, 2023, the defendant broke into a commercial belonging to the Delta Railroad Company. The defendant was caught on camera using a prybar to force open a tool/storage compartment doors ion the truck. As a result of the defendant actions, the doors were broken and no longer functional.

Finally, on September 18, 2023, the defendant entered the backyard of a residential home and attempted to break into a locked vehicle. When he couldn’t get into the vehicle, he moved on to a nearby shed and stole the homeowner’s chainsaw.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Zachary Ferris and the jail sentence was imposed by Judge Kevin J. Finnerty.

“The defendant is career criminal who has a history of breaking into people’s property and stealing. He needs to be kept off the street to protect the community,” District Attorney Quinn said.”-Freetown Police Department.

“The City of New Bedford has roadwork sites for the upcoming week of January 8, 2024 – January 12, 2024, and they are as follows:

Eversource will be working on gas main relays and services on:

• Main relay on Central Ave from Church St to Brook St
• Main relay on County St from Cove St to Mosher St
• Main relay on Mosher St from County St to Crapo St
• Main relay on W Rodney French Blvd
• Main tie in preparation on Church St

Other:

• MassDOT will be staging installation and beam end cleaning and concrete encasements at I-195 East and West bound lanes over Purchase St, County St and State St will is scheduled during the overnight hours starting November 12th and will continue until May 31st of 2024. Work will take place Sundays to Thursdays. Police will be on site for detour and safety setups.
• Contractor (SCR Constructors) will continue site work at the future South Coast Rail station platform locations in the city. (Church St at Carlisle St and Wamsutta St at Acushnet Ave.) If you have questions, please email the project team at SouthCoastRail@dot.state.ma.us
• Contractor (SCR Constructors) will continue site work at the future pedestrian bridge across Route 18 impacting parking along Purchase Street between Willis Street and Pearl Street and at the Division of Career Services on Acushnet Avenue. Temporary detours may be in place pending construction activities occurring.  If you have questions, please email the project team at SouthCoastRail@dot.state.ma.us
• Contractor (PA Landers) will be working at the intersection of Union Street and County Street installing traffic lights. Work may require lane and road closures.
• Contractor (PA Landers) will be working on Kings Highway installing temporary pavement markings. Work may require lane closures and detours.
• Contractor (Green Mountain) will being pre-cleaning and CCTV of the sewer mains. Work will take place in the areas east and north of the pond at Buttonwood Park.”

“Say hello to Clyde! This is SRO Connolly’s new comfort therapy dog. Clyde was paid for through generous donations after we received pushback from town administration which included a demand for the police department to return the dog or “drop it off at a shelter”.

If you see Clyde around town, please come up and say hello! Clyde is a great asset to our town as we firmly believe community policing is vital to a successful police department.

With Clyde’s best interest in mind, we ask you to please like and share Clyde’s new Facebook page which is linked here. This page will allow us to stay in touch with our community and keep everyone updated with Clyde’s success.

It should be noted that Clyde is fully owned and fully funded by SRO Connolly.”-Rochester Police Brotherhood.

Rochester Police Brotherhood photo.

“Citing Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, also known as the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause, the plaintiffs argue that Trump is constitutionally ineligible for public office after inciting the violent January 6th Capitol insurrection.

BOSTON, MA (January 4, 2024) – Free Speech For People (FSFP), along with nationally recognized litigator Shannon Liss-Riordan of the Massachusetts-based civil rights firm Lichten & Liss-Riordan, P.C., filed a challenge today before the Massachusetts Ballot Law Commission on behalf of individual Massachusetts voters challenging Donald Trump’s eligibility to appear on the state’s presidential primary and general election ballot. The challengers are a mix of Republican, Independent, and Democratic voters and include former Boston Mayor Kim Janey and two leading law professors. The challenge asks the Massachusetts Ballot Law Commission to abide by Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment and bar Trump from appearing on the state ballot.

Enacted in the wake of the Civil War, Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment disqualifies from public office, regardless of a prior criminal conviction, any individual who has taken an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution and then engages in insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or gives aid or comfort to its enemies. Trump’s involvement in the violent attack on Congress to prevent the certification of democratic election results clearly disqualifies him from holding any future public office.

Under Massachusetts law, the Ballot Law Commission “shall have jurisdiction over and render a decision on any matter referred to it, pertaining to the … constitutional qualifications of any nominee for … national … office [and] the certificates of nomination or nomination papers filed in any presidential … primary.”

“Donald Trump violated his oath of office and incited a violent insurrection that attacked the U.S. Capitol, threatened the assassination of the Vice President and congressional leaders, and disrupted the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in our nation’s history,” said Ron Fein, Legal Director at Free Speech For People. “Our predecessors understood that oath-breaking insurrectionists will do it again, and worse, if allowed back into power, so they enacted the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause to protect the republic from people like Trump. Trump is legally barred from the ballot and election officials must follow this constitutional mandate.”

“Today’s legal action is not about partisan politics but about upholding our Constitution, and that is why Massachusetts voters across the political spectrum have joined together to challenge Donald Trump’s wrongful placement on the Massachusetts ballot,” said Shannon Liss-Riordan. “As two other states have already recognized, Donald Trump’s instigation of and participation in the insurrection three years ago provide overwhelming cause for his disqualification from holding office in the United States.”

On behalf of voters, Free Speech For People has also filed legal challenges to Trump’s eligibility to appear on the ballot in Minnesota, Michigan, Oregon and Illinois. The state supreme courts of Minnesota and Michigan have ruled solely on state procedural grounds that Trump will not be barred from the presidential primary ballot but have left the door open for the challenges to be renewed for the general election. The Oregon challenge is currently pending review before the Oregon Supreme Court. The Illinois objection is pending before the state Board of Elections.

Both the Colorado Supreme Court and the Maine Secretary of State have recently issued rulings that Trump is disqualified from appearing on their state ballots under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Free Speech For People filed similar Section 3 challenges in 2022 against Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and former North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn for their role in the January 6th insurrection. Although those challenges did not result in disqualification (Cawthorn’s because he lost his primary while the challenge was pending; Greene’s because the judge found insufficient factual evidence that she, personally, had engaged in the insurrection), they set important legal precedent that lays the groundwork for this challenge, including: that states have legal authority to adjudicate Section 3 challenges; that state processes for adjudicating Section 3 challenges do not violate a candidate’s constitutional rights; that no prior criminal conviction is required under Section 3 challenge; that words (including “marching orders or instructions to capture a particular objective, or to disrupt or obstruct a particular government proceeding”) can constitute engaging in insurrection; and that an 1872 congressional amnesty for ex-Confederates does not apply to January 6.

On September 6, 2022, Judge Francis J. Matthew of New Mexico’s First District permanently enjoined Otero County Commissioner and “Cowboys for Trump” founder Couy Griffin from holding office under the Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause.

Free Speech For People, a national nonpartisan legal advocacy group, has spearheaded the nationwide effort to “hold insurrectionists accountable for their role in the violent assault on American democracy” that took place on January 6th, 2021, starting with the issuance in June 2021 of letters to secretaries of state and chief election officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Along with Mi Familia Vota, the group launched TrumpIsDisqualified.org, a campaign calling on Secretaries of State and top election officials across the country to follow the mandate of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment and permanently bar Donald Trump–and all other elected officials who participated in the January 6th insurrection–from any future ballot.

Click here to read the Objection.

To learn more about the case, click here.

To learn more about Free Speech For People’s other actions under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, click here.”-FREE SPEECH FOR PEOPLE.

“In late December of 1840, a 21-year-old man signed onto the crew of the whaleship Acushnet, a 359-ton square-rigged ship that departed New Bedford for the Pacific Ocean on Jan. 3, 1841.

That man spent 18 months at sea experiencing a whaling journey, and a decade later, that young man, Herman Melville, used New Bedford and his adventure as inspiration to write Moby-Dick.

The rest, as they say, is history.

And now the City of New Bedford is launching an effort to honor Melville with a statue at a site to be determined in the Historic District, the same neighborhood depicted in Moby-Dick. The initiative follows successful efforts in recent years to recognize individuals associated with the City’s history: Last year, the City unveiled a statue of Frederick Douglass at the new Abolition Row Park; a sculpture and park dedication honoring former State Rep. Tony Lopes was completed in 2016; and a monument recognizing local veterans who served in post-9/11 conflicts is being planned for the Clark’s Point neighborhood.

City of New Bedford photo.

“New Bedford is the setting for what is arguably the preeminent work of American literature. The novel has had a profound influence on artists the world over and on American culture itself. As it was until recently with Frederick Douglass, honoring Melville with a statue in New Bedford is long overdue,” Mayor Mitchell said.

“Melville’s spirit still echoes throughout all of New Bedford,” said Amanda McMullen, president and CEO of The New Bedford Whaling Museum, which is hosting the annual Moby-Dick Marathon this weekend. “We applaud the City of New Bedford’s vision for a Herman Melville statue. It is a natural choice for our Whaling City and will be a wonderful addition to the bounty of terrific public art. New Bedford’s rich maritime history and connection to Herman Melville’s literary masterpiece make it the perfect home for this iconic tribute.”

As a first step, the City is putting out a call for artists. Interested artists are asked to provide their contact information, a statement of interest, a resume/CV, previous work samples, and an estimated budget by Feb. 16. The City will establish an advisory committee – comprised of representatives from the arts and culture scene, as well as local historians – to evaluate the applicants’ qualifications. Finalists will then be granted stipends of $2,500 to propose designs, which the committee will evaluate. Interested artists can submit their documents by visiting https://forms.gle/teSbL3AE1hfvwVVk9.

The statue will be supported with a mix of private and public funds. More information on fundraising, the selection process, and other details will be released in the coming months. Anyone with ideas, questions, or comments on the Melville project can email HermanMelvilleStatue@gmail.com.”

UPDATE: Town of Dartmouth Animal Control believes the dog must have come from New Bedford.

“Hello, I found a stray dog on old Fall River Road just east of the intersection with Faunce Corner Road. It’s a very friendly and sweet grey male pit bull. Also seems friendly towards other dogs.

He is very malnourished, has overgrown nails and worn paw pads, and potentially ringworm. I brought him to the humane society located at 31 Ventura Dr. in North Dartmouth.”-Emily Santos.

Emily Santos photo.

Emily Santos photo.

Emily Santos photo.

“If this helps in your search this is the exact place I saw him, he came out from this little nook, I’m not sure if he had come from that house.” Emily Santos photo.

“There have been multiple B&E attempts and breaks into vehicles (unlocked) in the area of Fort Phoenix and the center of Fairhaven.

Our officers and detectives are working on catching this crook in the act but need your help! If you have any information regarding this male’s identity, please call Fairhaven Police Detectives at 508-997-7421 and press 5.

If you have video cameras with footage of a suspicious person we are interested in that footage.

As always, thank you to our community for your help and support!”-Fairhaven Police Department.

Fairhaven Police Department photo.

Fairhaven Police Department photo.

Nature has really spoiled us with a mild fall and an uncommonly warm Christmas week. However, this weekend she wants to remind us that it is winter.

The Greater New Bedford area will be impacted by a nasty little storm bringing with it a messy, hazardous commute, plenty of snow, and dangerous ice.

Snow for greater New Bedford will arrive Saturday night around 10:00 pm. Initially snow will fall heavily in very short period of time, between 2-3″ in a short window. The next few hours will not be as dramatic in terms of accumulation but by morning we may recive an an additional 1-2″ resulting in a possible total of 4-5″.

The hazard comes into play in these morning hours because the precipitation will may turn into a mix of freezing rain. A degree or two one way and that rain sticking to power lines and trees turns into ice and the weight may caused the downed line and loss of power.

That means when you wake up on Sunday morning you will have shovable snow and a miserable commute. Stay warm and cozy inside and Netflix an Ovaltine anyone?

“The State’s Executive Office of Housing & Livable Communities (EOHLC) has notified the Town that the families being sheltered at the Seaport Resort & Marina in Fairhaven will begin to be transferred to an alternate facility outside of Fairhaven in the coming weeks.

The state advised the Town that this decision is part of a strategic initiative aimed at streamlining resources and enhancing the efficiency of services provided to those in need. The Seaport Resort & Marina site will no longer operate as a supplemental shelter after this transition.

We appreciate the understanding and cooperation of the Fairhaven community during this process. The Town also extends its appreciation to the various Town departments, leaders, community organizations and individuals that came together to assist with welcoming and supporting the families as they were placed in shelter. Their commitment underscores the strength of our community and its ability to come together to address the challenges faced by these families.

For further information or media inquiries, please contact The EOHLC at (617) 874-0126 or the Select Board office at (508) 979-4023, Ext. 2.”-Town Of Fairhaven.

Steven Richard photo.