Business groups last year succeeded in blocking a ballot question proposing a millionaire’s tax by convincing the Supreme Judicial Court that the question tried to do too many unrelated things at once — hike taxes on the rich, apportion some of the money to transportation, and apportion the rest of the money to education.
Now the Massachusetts Package Stores Association is using the same argument to challenge a ballot question put forward by Cumberland Farms and approved by Attorney General Maura Healey. The proposed question would create a new beer and wine liquor license for food retailers, remove the statewide cap on how many licenses a company could hold, require retailers to verify every customer’s age, and provide additional funding to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission.
The package store association is calling it a “Frankenstein-like ballot initiative certain to create voter confusion,” according to a brief filed by a legal team including Robert Cordy, a former SJC justice himself.
In their decision on the millionaire’s tax, the SJC concluded that “we are unable to discern a common purpose or unified public policy that the voters fairly could vote up or down as a whole.” Indeed, voters were faced with deciding whether they wanted a higher tax on the rich and whether the money should go to education and transportation. The court concluded those were three separate decisions that could not be combined into one ballot question.
With the Cumberland Farms proposal, there are again multiple policy decisions at play. But it’s conceivable they all stem in some fashion or another from the primary purpose of the question — the creation of a beer and wine license for food stores.
The package store association is trying to head the ballot question off in court to avoid the much higher cost of fighting it at the ballot box. In 2006, when supermarkets tried to expand their reach in wine sales, the package store owners fought them off but the war cost the two sides a total of $12 million. Since then, a number of other potential fights have been averted, but it’s unclear whether that will happen again.
Cumberland Farms has gathered signatures for its ballot question and seems poised to do battle. The convenience store chain, which operates 567 convenience stores in seven Northeastern states and Florida, was sold to EG Group of the United Kingdom in October.
Benjamin Weiner, the president of the package stores association whose family owns Sav-Mor Spirits, issued a statement saying the Cumberland Farms ballot question has turned the alcoholic beverages industry upside down. “This appeal is a Strength in Unity moment for all locally owned retailers of beer, wine and spirits against a retail Goliath from the UK that is trying to dupe voters into giving them unparalleled control of the Massachusetts marketplace,” the statement said. “One only needs to look at the unrestrained alcohol problems that are plaguing the UK to see where this will lead. The Cumberland Farms Initiative is an abuse of the initiative petition process that never should have gotten this far.”
Jon Hurst, the president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, told the Boston Business Journal there may be another way out of the situation. He raised the possibility the Legislature could deal with issues raised by the Cumberland Farms question as well as the operation of beer gardens next year.
“We may wait to see if there’s a ‘grand bargain’ to be had,” he said.
BEACON HILL
Drivers get ready. A new law severely restricts cellphone use while driving. (CommonWealth)
The auditing firm hired to review actions by the Registry of Motor Vehicles has turned over to legislators records from interviews with current and former state employees that the company initially said it would release only if they were subpoenaed. (Boston Globe)
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
A developer withdrew its bid for a tax break in Framingham because it appeared the City Council would reject it — not because the financial incentive was bad policy but because Mayor Yvonne Spicer supported it. (MetroWest Daily News)
Cape Cod fishermen are celebrating a new federal restriction on large herring vessels fishing within 12 miles of the coast from the Canadian border to Connecticut, and within 20 miles of shore along the Outer Cape coastline south to the waters off Martha’s Vineyard. (Cape Cod Times)
The search for three New Bedford fishermen missing after a boat capsized has been suspended. (Standard-Times)
ELECTIONS
A Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll shows a close four-way race in the New Hampshire Democratic primary, with Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, and Joe Biden in a statistical tie. (Boston Globe) Meanwhile, Deval Patrick is scrambling to find a toehold in the Granite State. (Boston Globe)
After a recount, Pittsfield Mayor Linda Tyer picks up two votes and is officially reelected. (Berkshire Eagle)
At WGBH, David Bernstein games out some potential scenarios for the Super Tuesday presidential primary in Massachusetts.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
The Worcester Red Sox ended up where they started in terms of a name — they’ll be called the WooSox. (Telegram & Gazette)
Paul Grogan of the Boston Foundation and Karen Kelleher of LISC offer four steps the state can take to address the housing crisis. (Boston Globe)
A.C. Moore is closing its 145 arts and crafts stores, 11 of them in Massachusetts. Some will be acquired by rival Michael’s. (MassLive)
Wilson’s Department Store will close after 137 years in Greenfield. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)
Attorney General Maura Healey’s office is focusing on Nate Lion’s Appliance World in Fall River following the chaos stemming from the store’s abrupt closure, which left orders incomplete, including one for a women’s shelter. (Herald News)
EDUCATION
Facing declining enrollment and financial turmoil, City on a Hill Charter School will close its New Bedford campus and layoff staff at its Roxbury school. (Boston Globe)
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
The rate of growth in Massachusetts opioid deaths continues to slow, but now fentanyl is present in almost every overdose fatality. (State House News)
With legislation to impose such a ban statewide sitting on Gov. Charlie Baker’s desk, Boston’s Public Health Commission voted last night to prohibit sale of mint and menthol nicotine and tobacco products in Boston convenience stores. (Boston Herald)
Nursing homes in Massachusetts have been claiming they’re in financial trouble for some time, and a new report seems to confirm that. (MassLive)
Lia Spiliotes, the CEO of Community Health Programs in Great Barrington, says the big challenge under the Affordable Care Act is hanging on to coverage once you have it. (CommonWealth)
ARTS/CULTURE
A restoration project is under way at the John Adams birthplace in Quincy. (Patriot Ledger)
DigBoston editor Jason Pramas looks at the real history of what Thanksgiving, or what many are now calling the National Day of Mourning, celebrates.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Hurt by the trade war with China and competition from Canada and Wisconsin, Massachusetts cranberry farmers are cashing out with a state program to turn their bogs into wetlands. (WBUR)
MEDIA
Margaret Low, after five years running events at The Atlantic, is moving to Boston to run WBUR. (CommonWealth)
A Report for America partnership with the Associated Press will add a state house reporter in 13 states where news coverage is thin. The states are Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, and Utah. (Nieman Journalism Lab)
Margaret Sullivan accuses Bloomberg, the news organization, of covering presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg in compromised fashion. (Washington Post)
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