The Legislature recently broke for the summer after speeding through the FY18 budget, leaving some important items undone among the wreckage of pay raises, pet projects, and tax hike plans.

The massive 40 percent legislative pay hike remains the big story from Beacon Hill this year. Even dodging their responsibility to reform MassHealth can't compete, but I'll get back to that story in a minute.  

Let me tell you why the pay grab is still timely, even now. The total price tag on the package is estimated at $18 million dollars. Funny enough, that's the same amount lawmakers claimed state coffers needed desperately when they eliminated the traditional sales-tax-free weekend. Which would traditionally occur right about now.

So Massachusetts retailers are going to miss out on a Dog Days boost in sales. And Massachusetts consumers have no added incentive to make a significant purchase. Everyone loses.

Except the Legislators. They got theirs. 

Back to MassHealth, the state-sponsored health care plan that gobbles up a whopping 40 percent of the state budget. Governor Baker's reforms, aimed at controlling the budget buster, were tabled for another day, although the legislature managed to levy a hefty new tax on business owners to feed the monstrous mess.

The Beacon Hill game also managed to fit in another vote advancing Prop80. Prop80, a proposed constitutionally amendment creating a graduated income tax, would raise taxes on the state's top producers by 80 percent. 

Many Legislators are headed back to their districts to face questions on the pay grab. MassFiscal's education campaign has mailed to more than 390,000 people. Many of those people were shocked to learn that their Representative or Senator, or both, put their own bank accounts and retirement portfolios ahead of the important business of the Commonwealth. 

Accountability is important. And without MassFiscal advocacy spreading the word on the Legislature's questionable priorities, our elected officials wouldn't have to answer for their choices. With more than 390,000 mailers out this summer, we are just getting started.

This year has been tough on the taxpayer, given January's enormous 40 percent legislative pay grab, out-of-control MassHealth spending, and the back-room deal making that makes it all possible. 

MassHealth has grown exponentially in recent years and now makes up over 40% of the entire state budget. Baker is trying to fix it, just like he did when he vetoed the pay raises and the 40B dollar budget. 

Baker proposed a common sense reform package to restructure MassHealth for non-disabled adults. He’s moving 140,000 people with income above the federal poverty level off of MassHealth. The Governor is also requesting a pass from the federal government’s harmful Obamacare laws to prohibit MassHealth eligibility for those who are offered employer based healthcare. 

Even with Baker’s fiscal responsibility and lawmakers in the legislature who have high MassFiscal scores, Massachusetts still ranks nearly dead last for fiscal health at #48 and has the highest debt per capita in the nation. Tack on Prop. 80, which is a 80 percent tax increase, and we’ll soon look worse than even New Jersey.