A publication of the MA Collectors & Treasurers Association

The Collector Treasurer Spring Meeting to focus on the importance of retirement planning

In this edition

News & Information Page

2018 Spring Meeting Notice 1

PACT Application Information 2

Calendar of Events 2

Comings & Goings 5

News from Beacon Hill 6

Reports Page

The President’s Message 3

Education Committee 4

Legislative Committee 4

Executive Director’s Notes 2

Registration for MCTA’s Spring Meeting is now open on the Association’s

website – masscta.com. We hope you have saved the date of April 11 and

are planning to join us at Sterling Country Club for a great day of learning.

The theme of the meeting is the importance of retirement planning, not

only for the town but for you!

Whether your retirement is just a few years away, you are mid-career or

you are just starting out, our speakers will focus on the value of planning

with respect to your financial and healthcare needs as a public pension

retiree. The Education Committee is pleased to have secured some great

speakers in Monica Smigliani from MIIA, Karl Kroner and Robert Young

from Empower Retirement and is working to possibly add a few more

folks to the agenda.

MCTA’s lobbyist Steve Roche and Legislative Committee Chair John Clark

will also be on hand to update members on the important legislative

priorities that the Association has been actively pursuing. UniBank has

graciously agree to sponsor our morning refreshment and will have folks

in attendance should you need to catch up with them.

The cost of the Spring Meeting is $25 if registered by April 4.

We look forward to seeing you in Sterling on

April 11!

Volume 31 | Issue 4 Winter 2018

Executive Director’s Notes

2 MCTA’s Fall/Holiday Meeting – November 15, 2017

Left: Michelle Hill, MCTA 2nd Vice President,; RMV Registrar Erin Deveney and Kevin Merz, MCTA President

Calendar of Events

Spring Meeting

Sterling National Country

Club, Sterling, MA | April 11,

2018

New Collector/Treasurer Day

Municipal Office Building,

Dudley, MA | May 9, 2018

Annual Conference

Resort & Conference Center,

Hyannis, MA |June 10 – 13,

2018

Annual School

August 13-17, 2018

REMINDER: PACT applications must be approved in order to take the Certification Exam. The deadline

to apply to test for 2018 is May 31. Information, including the application and the list of requirements is

available on our website (masscta.com)

“The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness

to learn is a choice.” Brian Herbert

In the past two week I have had the opportunity to learn many new things

about MCTA and its members as the Executive Board met, the Education

Committee met and I’ve interacted with some folks about different

legislative issues. With all the things that going on in and around the

association it amazes me how much time, effort and learning all of you do

not only to be successful in your jobs but in support of MCTA and good

government practices. MCTA is a strong association because so many of

its members are dedicated to learning, support each other and commit to

better practices for the future.

I look forward to continuing to learn alongside you at our meetings in

April, June and August!

~ Hillari Wennerstrom, Executive Director

The Treasurer Collector is a quarterly publication by the Massachusetts Collectors and Treasurers Association. President Kevin Merz 1st Vice President John Clark 2nd Vice President Steve Lonergan 3rd Vice President Michelle Hill Treasurer Victor Garofalo Secretary Rich Carmignani Office: 510 King St, Littleton, MA 01460 (978) 952-6644 Executive Director Hillari Wennerstrom Office Assistant Diane O’Donnell Email: masscta@gmail.com | Website: masscta.com

Above: The Class of 2017 – Newly Certified Collectors Left: (l-r) Michelle Hill, MCTA 2nd Vice President; Erin Deveney, Registrar, MA Registry of Motor Vechiles; Kevin Merz, MCTA President

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Kevin Merz, CMMC, CMMT Treasurer – Collector Town of Ipswich

President’s Message

I’d like to wish a Happy New Year to all of our members. I hope you all had a wonderful 2017 and I sincerely hope your 2018 is even better! What a mad ending to the year in Collector’s Offices throughout the Commonwealth. With the changes to the federal tax code beginning in 2018, thousands of taxpayers raced to pay their 2018 property taxes before the year ended. Long lines and phones ringing off the hook was the scene at every Collector’s Office that week. Some Collectors in Massachusetts were only allowing taxpayers to pay up through the 3rd quarter of FY18 taxes, some through the 4th quarter of FY18 and some were allowing prepayments into FY19. It was great to see the great posts on the Listserv advising others what was legally allowed to be collected and I think that helped many Collectors feel confident with the answers they were giving their residents, Town Managers or Selectmen. Finally, on Wednesday, December 27, the IRS issued a statement that clarified that the taxes paid in 2017 for 2018 taxes would be tax deductible as long as they were assessed in 2017. I printed out a copy and posted it in the hallway so taxpayers could read it while waiting in line. That was the busiest week between Christmas and New Years I have ever seen and it sure didn’t help that one of the three people from my office was on vacation that week. But, I’m sure I wasn’t the only office shorthanded that week and feeling so overwhelmed that I couldn’t wait until the office closed on Friday. In the end, we all persevered and were able to help the taxpayers in our communities save thousands of dollars. 2018 promises to be a good one for our Association. We have an extremely strong Executive Board that regularly meets to ensure our Association is running properly and is financially strong. Our Education Committee continues to meet and find relevant speakers for all of our upcoming meetings. Our Legislative Committee is constantly receiving emails about what is happening at the State House and they are contacting Legislators when needed. And of course, Diane and Hillari are at the MCTA office providing the hard work to keep our Association running day after day. I look forward to seeing everyone at our Spring Meeting in April.

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Education Committee Report

As a reminder for members planning on taking the certification test in August, applications are due by May 31, 2018. Please visit MCTA’s website for the testing requirements. In addition, you can review the courses you have attended online in the For Our Members section.

The November Annual/Fall Holiday meeting was very educational and well attended. A total of 230 were in attendance with 109 were Finance Directors, Treasurers, and Collectors, 46 Assistant’s and other Municipal employees, 5 retired members, and 70 Associate members. Thank you to all the Associate members who contributed to this event and any other event we have held. You are a valuable asset to the organization in bringing us all together for events like this one.

We started the event with Jim Powers, CPA from Powers & Sullivan, LLC. The audience was very engaged in his lecture and left many with a desire for more. Then leading into a presentation from the RMV Registrar, Erin Deveney. She explained the ATLAS program and the releases and the dates to follow. Release 1 will start March 26, 2018 which will be driver’s license and ID services. In addition on March 26 RMV will roll out the REAL ID. Visit https://www.mass.gov/guides/real-id. Release 2 will be in November 2019 which will be the vehicle services. RMV did explain they will be purging records 10+ years old. The decision to do so left many Treasurers/Collectors concerned. The Holiday meeting ended with the distribution of door prizes. Congratulations to all the lucky winners.

The education committee will be seeking further classes on the subject of fraud due to the interest from the November meeting. Since this meeting, I was subject to an interesting fraud case myself. As we speak, I am still grasping to air on the idea someone can do this so here goes my story. This week my office experienced a pay exception through our bank. Generally when we get those it is for stale dated checks or failure to issue for reissues of checks. So the exception came over as asking us to pay for an item we had failed to issue. Well, sometimes this can happen but the first reaction is to never pay without research. Well we did not have to even start researching as the exception was clearly an imposture. Everything was wrong with the check except the routing number and account number. The one item that triggered the exception was the incorrect check number. After a long day of calls to the bank, the police, and then the company, I found out the company had someone fax over our check to them and they manually keyed in an app called Versa Check to recreate the check so they can deposit it. The sad thing is anyone can do this and get away with it, the only reason they did not was the incorrect check number. Be aware of your services and always stay alert to all your transactions. Even with security in place and all the awareness and education, anything can get by you. The outcome was the company itself; anyone can stop your check from point A to destinations and re-create the check for deposit. But the more you are aware, the better your chances are of not being attacked by fraud.

Michelle Hill, CMMC, CMMT MCTA Third Vice President Treasurer, Collector, Clerk Town of Southwick

Legislative Committee Report

While the major legislative news has been mostly on the federal level—the new tax laws that most of us were impacted by at calendar year end (thankfully, MCTA President Kevin Merz provided last minute guidance that helped our understanding of how to deal with prepaid third, and fourth quarter, Real Estate Tax), the MA State legislative session should be heating up soon. At the October 20th Legislative Committee meeting in Sturbridge (many thanks Barbara Barry for hosting) the committee voted to move forward with proposing the amending of Chapter 44, Section 20 to include greater flexibility with regard to note premiums. Since that time, Senator Cindy Friedman has agreed to sponsor this late file legislation. In fact, the bill has already been given a docket number, Docket number 2466. Steve Roche, Steve Lonergan, Rick Manley and I plan on sitting down with Senator Friedman at the end of the month to strategize on promoting the proposed legislation. The Mass State Revenue Committee will be addressing the new Federal Tax Laws with regard to State and Local taxes (SALT), its impact on Massachusetts residents / taxpayers and ways to help those the will be negatively affected by its passing.

Continued on page 5

Continued on page 5

Legislative Report (continued)

The MCTA has been asked to weigh in; we have a seat on the panel that includes the MMA and the MGFOA. This hearing will take place on January 23, 2018. There are a number of areas of concern including the impact on municipal revenues that support local budgets and on the ability of cities and towns to afford necessary capital spending. The topics being addressed by the panel are: Impact Limitation of State and Local Tax Deduction (SALT) The SALT limitation effectively increases the cost of property taxes for taxpayers who have used schedule A (itemized deductions) to reduce federal income tax liability. The increased after tax cost of property taxes could reduce the willingness for municipal taxpayers to support local spending on public services. It could particularly reduce support for overrides for local operations spending (including schools) and debt and capital expenditure exclusions for capital projects. It is reasonable to think that overrides and exclusions will be harder to win. Some economists say that limits on the SALT deduction - along with other tax law changes - will slow the growth in home prices. This would have an impact on property tax “new growth” that it used to pay for public services. Slowing growth in home prices could also have an impact on property values generally. This could result in a lower “levy ceiling” than would otherwise be the case and put pressure on cities and towns that have a levy and levy limit close at or approaching the levy ceiling. Impact of the Increase in the Standard Deduction (100 percent) There is some concern (Governing, January 17, 2017) that the increase in the personal exemption will result in fewer taxpayers using schedule A to itemize deductions, including the charitable contribution deduction. A reduction in contributions would reduce revenues to many local charitable organizations that help with a wide variety of local social service, cultural and other programs that are core parts of communities. Impact of Limit on Mortgage Interest Deduction (MID) The MID limitation could contribute to slower growth in home prices (see above) Impact of Reduction in Personal and Corporate Tax Rates (from Hilltop Securities) The reduction of income tax rates is expected to reduce the attraction of corporations and high income taxpayers to tax exempt bonds. This would have the effect of increasing the interest rate paid by cities and towns and borrowing costs for capital projects. Impact of Repeal of Tax-Exempt Advance Refunding Bonds (from Hilltop Securities) The elimination of tax-exempt ARBs will take an important savings tool off the table that cities and towns use to reduce costs during an economic down-turn when interest rates generally drop. Hopefully by the time the Spring Newsletter is published, the Legislative Committee will have some positive updates!

John Clark, CMMC, CMMT MCTA First Vice President Treasurer-Collector Town of Billerica

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Comings & Goings

Laurie Gaudet is the new Treasurer/Collector in the Town of

Shrewsbury, replacing Carolyn Gaudet.

Dawn Priest is the new Treasurer of the West Groton Water Supply

District, replacing Diana Cole.

Kathryn Kougias is the new Treasurer/Collector in the Town of

Nahant, replacing Kathryn Famulari.

Susan Bobe is the new Treasurer in the Town of Bernardston,

replacing Stacey Mousseau.

Rodney Conley is the new Treasurer/Collector in the City of Lowell, replacing Cheryl Robertson.

Kerri Bertone is the new Treasurer/Collector in the Town of

Franklin, replacing James Dacey.

News From Beacon Hill

As I write this report, we have just concluded a very busy day for the MCTA on Beacon Hill. MCTA Legislative Committee members Chris Sweet and Gerry Lane joined me at the State House for two important hearings. First, we attended the Public Service Committee on House 1411, the MCTA proposal to provide a stipend for assistant collectors and treasurers. Chris and Gerry did a great job testifying and answered a few questions from the Committee members. We think they appreciated the difficulty that communities are having retaining qualified staff. After completing our work at that hearing, we moved on to a special hearing called by the Revenue Committee to discuss the impact of the federal tax cut and jobs bill signed at the end of 2018. As you know, there was a lot of confusion about the payment of state and local taxes (SALT) before December 31, 2017. This was an informational hearing that featured testimony from various experts. Speakers included Governor Baker’s Secretary of Administration & Finance (and former Massachusetts Revenue Commissioner), Michael Heffernan. Secretary Heffernan assured the Committee that our state “has not been put in an emergency situation by federal tax reform.” Other groups speaking at the hearing included the Mass. Taxpayers Foundation, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Mass. CPA Society, Boston Legal Services, and the Mass. Budget & Policy Center. I was able to secure a spot for the MCTA on a panel that included the MMA and other local finance officials. Gerry Lane and Chris Sweet again presented comments on behalf of your organization. They were well received by the Revenue Committee and were invited to come back for another Committee hearing in a few months, after the dust has settled a bit. One of my ongoing objectives for the MCTA is to have your voice heard on Beacon Hill – building the MCTA’s presence at the State House. Chris and Gerry did a great job! As you will see elsewhere, Senator Cindy Friedman submitted our late-file as lead sponsor. We’re now starting the next step in the process, securing additional legislative sponsors and pushing for a public hearing on the bill. One final item – some good news! The MCTA Prudent Investor” bill, Senate 1123 – was just voted favorably by the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government. It’s great to finally see some movement on one of the MCTA proposals. Under the Joint Rules of the House and Senate, legislative committees must report on every bill filed this session by February 7, 2018. There are literally thousands of bills awaiting action and the next 2 weeks will be hectic as we track dozens of proposals that the MCTA supports and opposes.

Stephen Roche, MCTA’s Registered Agent

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Fall Meeting – November 15, 2017