Taxpayers Don’t Need Another Advocate for Higher Taxes & Opaqueness in the Senate

The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance released the following statement highlighting some of the votes state Rep. Jonathan Zlotnik (D-Gardner) has taken as a House member. Rep. Zlotnik told media he is running for the soon to be vacated state senate district currently held by state Senator Anne Gobi (D-Spencer).

 

“State Rep. Jon Zlotnik wants to run for the open state senate seat but taxpayers should be very worried about his voting record. During his 10 years in the House, he has consistently voted to raise taxes, keep the legislature opaque, make the state more unaffordable, and economically uncompetitive,” said Paul Diego Craney, spokesman for the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance.

 

“Rep. Zlotnik is free to run for any office he wishes but that doesn’t mean taxpayers should promote him any further. He has not demonstrated during his 10 years in the House that he understands how to lower taxes, respect the will of the voters, allow for more transparency in the State House, or make the state more affordable and economically competitive. If he were to be elected to the senate, he would further contribute to the problems making our state among the highest for outward taxpayer migration,” continued Craney.

 

“Taxpayers in central Massachusetts have a real chance to send a message to the State House that the status quo is not working. Rep. Zlotnik’s voting record in the senate will not benefit the state,” concluded Craney.

 

Below is a sampling of Rep. Zlotnik’s voting record over the last 10 years. More information about his votes may be found at www.MassFiscalScorecard.org.

 

Taxes and Fees

4/23/23 – Voted against protecting 62F, the popular voter approved tax cap and rebate law that sent $3 billion back to the state’s 4 million taxpayers last year.

4/25/22 – Voted against an amendment to suspend the state gas tax for two months.

4/25/22 – Voted against an amendment to lower the tax rate for short term capital gains at 5%, down from the current rate of 12%.

4/25/22 – Voted against an amendment to increase the taxable threshold for the estate tax from $1 million to $2 million.

3/3/22 – Voted for a bill that added a new fee on natural gas customer's bills and then voted against a separate amendment to remove the new free on natural gas customers.

7/28/21 – Voted to override Gov. Baker's veto of the legislature's attempt to further delay a charitable giving tax deduction as approved by the voters in the year 2000.

6/9/21 – Voted to raise the state income tax by 80% for some retirees, home sales, small businesses, and high income earners.

1/6/21 – Voted for a bill to raise fees on ride share services like Uber and Lyft.

3/22/18 – Voted in favor of a bill which includes new regulations and taxes on short term rental websites like AirBnB, HomeAway, and VRBO.

4/24/17 – Voted against rolling back the state income tax rate to 5% as approved by the voters in the year 2000.

1/29/15 – Voted against an amendment would have required a 2/3 majority vote in order to pass any tax increase.

4/29/14 – Voted against an amendment sought to provide approximately $250 million to cities and towns in order to mitigate past increases in property taxes.

4/28/14 – Voted against an amendment sought to raise the threshold at which the "death tax," also known as the estate tax, is applied, so that the effect on small businesses and farms is limited.

4/28/14 – Voted against allowing the legislature the ability to vote to roll back the state income tax to 5% as approved by the voters in the year 2000.

7/24/13 – Voted in favor of overriding Gov. Deval Patrick’s veto of the Transportation Finance Bill. A vote in favor of this bill is a vote in favor of a $500 million tax increase, including a three-cent increase in the gas tax and annual increases based on inflation, on the taxpayers of Massachusetts.

4/22/13 – Voted against an amendment to provide higher tax credits for Title 5 septic system.

 

Healthcare

6/19/13 – Voted in favor of a bill to alter Massachusetts' existing health-insurance system by implementing the full requirements of the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") in Massachusetts.

 

Farmers

4/25/22 – Voted against an amendment to provide rebates to farmers for fuel taxes for farm equipment through the end of the year.

 

Seniors

4/25/22 – Voted against an amendment to increase the cap on income tax credits for seniors for real estate taxes up to 10% of income, from $750 to $1,755.

 

Good Government

2/1/2023 – Voted against an amendment for legislative committee hearings to be scheduled with one week heads up time instead of the current 72 hours required notice.

2/1/2023 – Voted against an amendment for all amendments that are submitted after a formal session is called to order, be available via electronic copy to House Members and the public, as well as providing the Members with a paper copy at their seat. Such amendments shall be given 30 minutes review time before being taken up for consideration unless a roll call vote with two thirds support agrees otherwise. It also says that this rule shall not be suspended unless by unanimous consent of the members present.

7/7/21 – Voted against an amendment to make all committee votes public.

7/7/21 – Voted against an amendment to make all committee votes to be posted on the legislature’s website for the public to view.

7/7/21 – Voted against an amendment for at least two hours for committee members to review a bill before they vote on it in their committee.

2/24/21 – Voted against an amendment for Joint Committee votes to be made public, requires a one week lead time notice of a committee hearing before it's held, requires public testimony submitted to the committees to be made available upon request.

9/25/19 – Voted for a bill that would make the selection process for the Director of state campaign finance office to favor Democrats by eliminating the Republican vote in the selection process.

1/30/19 – Voted against an amendment that would make Joint Committee votes to be posted online.

1/30/19 – Voted against an amendment that would require 72 hours for a bill to be available to Members of the House and the public before it is taken up for consideration on the House floor for a vote.

2/2/17 – Voted against an amendment for an independent third party audit of House financial accounts with results available on the legislature’s website.

2/2/17 – Voted against an amendment which would require 24 hours to review a bill before it is taken up for consideration on the House floor.

4/13/16 – Voted against an amendment to allow legislators a minimum of 2 hours to review a consolidated budget amendment before they were asked to vote on it.

11/18/15 – Voted against allowing the legislature to vote on an amendment to the Public Records Reform Bill which would have subjected the legislature to the public records law.

4/16/15 – Voted against an amendment that sought to require that each amendment be dealt with individually, rather than being bundled into so-called "consolidated amendments."

1/29/15 – Voted against an amendment would have established a Legislative Budget Office, similar to the Congressional Budget Office at the federal level, to provide better data and oversight for Massachusetts fiscal policy.

1/29/15 – Voted against an amendment would have allowed legislators at least 24 hours to vote on any piece of legislation.

6/25/14 – Voted against an amendment to close the “union loophole,” which allowed unions to donate up to $15,000 to candidates, while individuals could only give $500 and corporations cannot give anything at all.

 

Term Limits

7/7/21 – Voted against an amendment for the re-implementation of term limits for office of Speaker of the House, capping the position at eight years.

1/30/19 – Voted against an amendment for a term limit of eight years for the position of Speaker of the House.

2/2/17 – Voted against the opportunity to vote on an amendment which would establish an eight year term limit for the Speaker of the House.

 

MBTA

4/27/15 – Voted against an amendment to require that the meeting minutes for the MBTA board be published online.

 

Welfare Reform

4/10/19 – Voted to override Gov. Charlie Baker’s veto of a bill to protect taxpayers that prevent welfare recipients from collecting public funds for children born AFTER the parent's initial determination of eligibility for welfare programs. These protections were originally put in place to disincentive people from having children solely for the reason of increasing monthly welfare payments.

4/25/17 – Voted for a further amendment which denied the legislature from being able to vote on extending EBT restrictions that are in place in MA to other surrounding states.

 

Local Aid

2/1/2023 – Voted against an amendment to notify cities and towns by March 31st, the minimum local aid they can expect to receive so they can plan their budgets accordingly.

4/25/16 – Voted against an amendment which would make 50% of excess state revenue go back to cities and towns.

4/29/14 – Voted against an amendment sought to ensure that 50% of all tax receipts, up to a total of $100 million, over the established projections would be sent to cities and towns in the form of local aid.

4/28/14 – Voted against allowing the legislature to vote on an amendment to exempt municipalities from gas tax increases.

 

Illegal Immigration

6/8/2022 – Voted to override Gov. Charlie Baker’s veto to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants with no distinction from the ones citizens have. The Governor's main concern for veto was due to the coupling of obtaining a driver’s license with registering to vote in Massachusetts. Because of this, this bill could pose potential threats to election integrity.

4/25/16 – Voted against an amendment which establishes that no city or town in the state can receive unrestricted general government aid if they have declared themselves a sanctuary city.