Letter to the Editor

An Outrageous and Callous Request

To the Editor,

Massport has decided to celebrate the July 4 holiday by choosing to release their controversial Logan Airport Runway 27 End expansion plan, in the form of a DEIR, at the very beginning of the holiday week when residents of the impacted neighborhoods in Winthrop- Point Shirley in particular- and East Boston are planning family celebrations and enjoying local events such as parades and fireworks.

This complex 625-page document regarding a runway expansion project with significant environmental consequences would usually require at the very least a three-month public comment period. However, Massport has initiated the public comment period by asking the impacted neighborhood public to forego their July 4th Holiday week to begin preparing their comments by July 8, an outrageous and callous request.

Instead, Massport should immediately rescind the Runway 27 End DEIR comment schedule, which begins as soon as July 8, and replace it with a comment period which commences after the traditional summer vacation period, such as September 30, allowing local neighborhood residents to comment accordingly after their return. The new comment period should last for at least three months, in deference to the impacted neighborhoods.

John Vitagliano

Tax Rebate Proposal Misses the Mark

To the  Editor,

The Massachusetts Legislature’s proposal to send $250-$500 checks to a particular income range (38-150k) is economically misguided and fails to meet the moment.

Under this proposal:

-A widowed mother of two kids making $30,000 a year in the service industry gets $0… but a dual-income, no kids married couple in their late 20s making $135,000 a year gets $500.  (Why???)

-With a historic opportunity to invest in things we’ve long ignored, like our transportation system, crumbling public housing and a lack of affordable housing generally, a lack of affordable childcare, and our public higher education system that keeps increasing tuition on MA residents — $500 million will be sent out, without a penny going to the most needy, in a short-term way that will not make a lasting impact.

-During a period of inflation, money is given to the income range most likely to spend it on supply-constrained goods and services, thus making inflation worse.

I 100% get trying to help families facing the crunch of inflation right now, but a short-term cash infusion increases demand, which increases inflation… what would actually fight inflation would be increasing the supply of things that are driving cost of living up – like housing and childcare.

If the Legislature feels the best use of the state’s surplus is tax cuts rather than investing it in public goods, then let’s do actual tax cuts that are permanent and promote long-run economic growth.

The state could increase the earned-income tax credit or the child tax credit, cut the sales tax, reduce filing fees and licensing fees on small businesses, or marginally reduce business taxation in general on small businesses… all kinds of things that have a long-term impact, rather than a sugar high that is only appropriate in a time of urgent need for short-run economic growth, which is not the situation we are in right now, as any economist left, right or center would attest to.

I disagree with Governor Baker’s proposed suite of long-term tax reductions, many of which would predominantly help upper-income earners, but at least there’s a logic to them, in terms of promoting the state’s economic competitiveness in the long-term.

This proposal is deeply unserious, short-term thinking, which wildly misses the opportunity we have to make investments in the state’s future — all to try to conveniently time checks around election time, even though more than half of the Legislature doesn’t even have an opponent. For the sake of thinking long term about MA’s future, I hope it is sunk.

Joe Gravellese

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