MBR Welcomes New Member
MBR is pleased to welcome Ranch Kimball, President and CEO of the Joslin Diabetes Center, to our membership. As Joslin’s seventh president and first business executive to hold these roles, Kimball sets the strategic direction of the organization and oversees all operations regarding its growth, and is focused on expanding the impact of Joslin on the healthcare epidemic of our time. Kimball joined Joslin in February 2007 after serving as the Secretary of Economic Development for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Kimball is also Chair of Mass Development and he sits on the Massport board. Active in the community, he also serves on the boards of the Museum of Fine Arts, WGBH-TV, the Museum of Science and Wheelock College.

Chapter 173 of the Acts of 2008 — An Act Relative to Tax Fairness and Business Competitiveness
The corporate tax bill will generate $482 million in new state revenues next year and start delivering smaller amounts of corporate excise tax relief over three years, beginning in 2010, to businesses and financial institutions. The legislation will institute combined reporting and check the box tax reforms pushed by Gov. Deval Patrick. The corporate tax reforms, which will take effect in the 2009 tax year, will produce an estimated $289 million in new revenues for the fiscal 2009 budget, according to staff. Over a full tax year, the combined reporting change will produce about $313 million in new revenues while the check the box reform will generate $169 million. Tax relief plans agreed to by House-Senate negotiators call for the corporate excise tax rate to drop, in three annual steps beginning Jan. 1, 2010, from 9.5 percent to 8 percent. The first cut would reduce the rate to 8.75 percent, followed by a drop to 8.25 percent and then 8 percent. The tax rate paid by financial institutions would fall in three half-percentage-point steps from 10.5 percent to 9 percent, also starting Jan. 1, 2010. The bill also includes rate relief for larger so-called S corporations. The contentious issue of taxation of hotel rooms sold over the Internet was held in conference committee. The tax increases are advancing through the Legislature largely because state spending is outpacing current revenues, driven by big increases in spending on health care. (Source – State House News Service)

Chapter 169 of the Acts of 2008 — An Act Relative to Green Communities
Massachusetts adopted a sweeping energy policy shift, prodding distributors to prioritize efficiency and encouraging consumers to obtain power from alternative fuels. The law requires utilities to buy energy efficiency improvements that are cheaper than power generation, a restriction the state says will lead to lower electricity bills, and forces them to sign long-term contracts with renewable energy developers to help them obtain financing. Consumers will receive rebates on efficiency upgrades, and those who own wind and solar facilities would enjoy “net-metering” discounts by selling excess electricity. Municipalities could access incentives and technical assistance for efficiency and renewable efforts. The new energy law is the most sweeping in that area of state public policy since passage of an electricity generation deregulation law in 1997. (Source – State House News Service)

Chapter 168 of the Acts of 2008 — An Act Relative to the Cigarette Excise and Health Care Funding
Gov. Deval Patrick signed the $1-per-pack cigarette tax increase to help fund the state’s landmark health care reform law. Lawmakers estimated the package would be worth $175 million in new tax revenue for the fiscal year. (Source – State House News Service)

Fiscal Year 2009 Appropriations Bill
The House and Senate both have approved a $28.22 billion state budget that assumes federal approval of $600 million in state health care requests, spends hundreds of millions of dollars from planned tax increases and the state's rainy day stabilization fund, and boosts scores of budget accounts that lawmakers described as critical priorities. The bottom line represents a 5.2 percent increase over the $26.8 billion budget approved last July for fiscal 2008. The budget proposal depends on hundreds of millions of dollars from cigarette tax increases and corporate tax increases. The budget is also balanced with $508 million in rainy day-related revenues, including a $310 million withdrawal from the state stabilization fund, $107 million that will be spent instead of being transferred into the fund, and $91 million in fund interest that will be spent this fiscal year. Along with the $26.8 million in operating budget spending, the state has added another $353 million in direct supplemental appropriations to fiscal 2008 outlays, according to administration officials. Governor Patrick plans to sign the bill on July 13, including his veto recommendations. (Source – State House News Service)

Mass. insured pay 12 cents of every dollar on mandated benefits
State House News Service – July 8, 2008
Massachusetts’s 3 million fully insured residents spend 12 cents of every health care premium dollar on the 26 mandated benefits, a new state analysis found. Overall, residents spent $1.3 billion on the mandates between July 1, 2004, and June 30, 2005, according to the Division of Health Care Finance and Policy report. Eighty percent of the total, about $1.07 billion, went to just five mandates: maternity, mental health, home health, preventive care for children and infertility services. The report notes, however, that of the total cost of mandates, more than half – $687 million – are tied to federally required services

Measure curtails hospital expansion
Boston Globe – July 9, 2008
State health regulators are expected to make it significantly harder for Boston's teaching hospitals to expand into the suburbs, a move designed to protect smaller community hospitals that feel under siege from their powerful rivals. The measure will force hospitals to prove that proposed expansions do not duplicate services. Until now, hospitals hoping to add overnight beds at outpatient facilities faced little scrutiny from the state.

MTF warns of “fiscal meltdown,” urges cuts to state budget
State House News Service – July 10, 2008
The Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation called on Gov. Deval Patrick and legislative leaders to cut several hundred million dollars from the budget now on the governor’s desk. The foundation, a business-backed group, says the spending levels authorized in the $28.22 billion budget are unsustainable and represent more spending than either branch recommended this spring. Saying the budget relies on $1 billion in one-time fixes - $425 million in underfunded accounts, $200 million in overestimated revenues and $401 million in reserve-related revenues - the foundation warns that stock market volatility likely means a steep drop in capital gains tax revenues, which dropped in 2001 to $337 million from $1.16 billion. Since then, capital gains revenues have grown back up to $1.7 billion in 2007 and while the foundation does not see a repeat of the 2001 drop, it says a 25 percent decline would mean a loss of $400 million to state coffers. MTF is also calling on Patrick to veto a cost-of-living increase for state and teacher retirees that is collectively worth $1.1 billion, according to the foundation, and due to be paid over many years.