William Joseph Sweeney

Economy

That means if I am in the legislature and we are awarding the Economic Development Incentive Program tax credits we will target business that embrace employee ownership and workplace democracy.  That means ensuring through legislation that the Massachusetts Small Business Development Center is coaching and giving grants to cooperatives, employee owned businesses and businesses that embrace Workplace Democracy.  This is how we solemnly and respectfully treat tax money.  We put it into use for the common good. Learn more

Education

So I am running for State Rep, among other reasons, because the time has come for us to deliver debt-free public higher education for our people. Learn more

Environment / Energy

We have to produce clean energy to be sustainable.  We need Zero Emissions Buildings, we need solar and we need wind power – but it is only going to happen if the people and their representatives get together at the table with business and industry. Learn more

And here in Massachusetts we have a excellent model for stopping pollution – the Toxic Use Reduction Act.  We used to have “Acid Rain” because of the toxins in the clouds causing statues to melt and fish to die – it was awful.  You don’t hear about it any more because people and state government got together with business and industry to fix the problem. Learn more

We need to stop pollution at its source. Learn more

Healthcare

I support the Medicaid Buy In as proposed and passed by the Senate but has gone into legislative limbo in the House.  I support the House and the recently passed healthcare bill to create the Community Hospital Acceleration Revitalization and Transformation (CHART) fund.  It would create a formula that seeks to put an assessment on commercial payers and acute hospitals that had more than $750 million in total net assets in fiscal year 2017 and less than 60 percent of their patients on Medicaid.  The funding would be directed to community hospitals that treat medicare and uninsured patients as a large portion of their population. Learn more

I do believe that a consortium of states working together could potentially form a regional partnership which provides an extensive, basic coverage plan for all citizens.  I would pursue and encourage the pursuit of that approach using the lessons learned in Vermont as both the starting point and as guidance. Learn more

When it comes to Massachusetts trying to enact its own version of Single Payer / Medicare for All I am skeptical and believe we need to proceed cautiously. Learn more

I also support the efforts at the State House to let Medicaid work more like private insurance, by introducing a formulary as a way to have more leverage over out of control prices for drugs. Learn more

Housing

We have to get people out of un-affordable housing and out in to the areas where people can afford to live and yet still be able to get to a job that pays the bills.  That means opening up new arteries of public transportation, using modern technologies that reduce or eliminate emissions and electrifying our transportation system. Learn more

Infrastructure / Transportation

When it comes to Transportation – the simple fact is we need to invest heavily in our existing transportation infrastructure.  And as much as it pains me to say it we are going to have to borrow to do it. Learn more

We have to get people out of un-affordable housing and out in to the areas where people can afford to live and yet still be able to get to a job that pays the bills.  That means opening up new arteries of public transportation, using modern technologies that reduce or eliminate emissions and electrifying our transportation system. Learn more

Taxes / Budget

My read is that we already can tax Capital Gains differently from W-2 income, and believe deeply that we should tax Capital Gains differently than we tax W-2 income, and we should tax it at a much higher rate relative to the taxes on W-2 income – and not beginning with the 1 millionth dollar but beginning with the first dollar.  And we should look at all the other income derived for different classes of property and establish an appropriate tax rate for each of them as is provided in our existing Constitution without the Millionaires Tax amendment.  And I believe that this approach was reaffirmed as recently as 2004 in the case of Peterson vs. Commissioner of Revenue. Learn more

To the best of my knowledge right now every $1 Billion dollars we would borrow it would translate into an annual $60 million dollars in debt service over 30 years.  If you agree that we may tax at different rates upon income derived from different classes of property like the Mass constitution says,  then I would adjust the tax rates to cover the debt service on the loans for Transportation infrastructure and go further in the good years to try and pay it off early. Learn more