Zlotnik Shares Info About Beacon Hill

Zlotnik Shares Info About Beacon Hill

+ click to enlarge State Rep. Jon Zlotnik, D-Gardner, spoke at the Greater Gardner Chamber of Commerce Friday. Left, Michael Gerry of the North Central Massachusetts Workforce Investment Board listens intently. News staff photo by Andrew Mansfield GARDNER  With the Legislature set to debate the state budget in late April, state Rep. Jon Zlotnik, D-Gardner, is working to keep his constituency informed. On Friday morning, he roused up a few folks from the local business crowd with a talk about economics and politics at the Greater Gardner Chamber of Commerce, covering a smorgasbord of topics. “There’s not much I can tell you for certain (regarding the state budget) other than it’s going up,” he said, explaining it will rise 4 percent from last fiscal year as the state economy has been growing. He spoke about Gov. Charlie Baker’s recently unveiled five year, $900 million economic development bill to further boost the state’s economy, which would primarily be funded from bond proceeds and not the operating budget, meaning if passed his administration would have the ability to use borrowed money for economic development items. Among the items in the plan is $500 million for the MassWorks Infrastructure Program and another $75 million for the redevelopment of brownfields, which are former industrial or commercial sites affected by contamination and in need of environmental clean-up. Zlotnik said MassWorks grants are “really the only way you can get a sizable chunk of money” for infrastructure projects, saying they have “broad and consistent legislative support.” Gardner is no stranger to MassWorks and brownfields grants. Such funding has been used for implementing the urban renewal plan for downtown and Mill Street, home of the former S. Bent factory and Garbose metal recycling sites which contained some hazardous materials. Last October, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito came to Gardner to award the city $3.2 million in MassWorks grant funding for urban renewal projects. “MassWorks and brownfields (funding) has been key to the development of Gardner,” said Economic Development Coordinator Joshua Cormier. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention our support for MassWorks. The city has used it quite a bit.” He expressed an interest to Zlotnik in seeing if within Baker’s economic proposal there is any funding for demolition, as the city is working on removing dilapidated downtown buildings such as the old cinema on Parker Street. Liquor laws One of the issues Zlotnik has targeted since he came to office in 2013 has been to change state liquor laws, which he said are “overly complicated.” He sponsored a bill to allow small pub breweries such as the Gardner Ale House to distribute their own beer, selling it at events or to retail stores. For example, he said under current law, the Ale House would have to hire a distributor to deliver a batch of one of its beers to a liquor store to be sold, which given the small size of the brewery, is not very economical for the distributors. The rule also limits the marketplace freedom of the brewers, he said. The proposed bill limits self-distribution to 50,000 gallons annually, which Zlotnik said is a “very small amount” in the context of the beer industry. The bill has passed in the Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure committee, a necessary step before it can be voted on. Attorney John Flick of Flick Law Group has experience representing brewers and spoke about how Portland, Oregon, has seen a rise in microbreweries with a more open-competition approach. “If you look nationwide, it’s becoming more microbrewery centric,” he said. “It’s definitely an industry that’s got legs,” said Zlotnik. Millionaire’s tax Zlotnik also took the time to comment on the “millionaire’s tax” ballot initiative that could be voted on in 2018, but that is already garnering political attention as citizen signatures are being gathered. The proposal would raise the state income tax of millionaires from about 5 percent to 9 percent, putting them in a higher bracket for state income tax than the rest of the population. Because the ballot initiative would require an amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution which calls for a flat tax, the proposal would need to garner 50 yes votes from legislators on two occasions before it could appear on the 2018 ballot. Between the House and Senate there are 200 state legislators and Zlotnik said he didn’t think it would be difficult for the proposal to get enough support for it to ultimately be decided by voters. But he will be voting against the proposal, citing concerns over ballot initiatives and their summarized paragraph descriptions that delve into regulation and go beyond answering a simple “yes or no” question. “It sets a really dangerous precedent. I think fundamentally this is an inappropriate ballot question. We’re putting more and more complex issues at the ballot. I think it’s a lot to ask (of voters),” he said. He said as of now, he does not have a stance on whether or not he agrees with the idea of progressive taxation in general, saying it would “come down to specifics.”