Revere may cash in on scofflaws

REVERE – City Councilors worried about municipal spending cuts, even employee layoffs, meet tonight to discuss taking legal action against businesses and residents who do not pay permit fees or fines.They want city Solicitor Paul Capizzi to take legal action on the city?s behalf against an array of scofflaws who, to date, have avoided paying fines ranging from trash and parking violations to license fees.Councilors are reviewing the proposal as Mayor Thomas Ambrosino looks for ways to reduce a $1 million city budget shortfall.Ambrosino in March said he hopes to avoid layoffs by leaving eight jobs in major city departments vacant instead of resorting to employee layoffs to cut costs.This week he said layoffs are becoming more likely given uncertainty surrounding state aid to the city and rising city costs, including health insurance.Avoiding layoffs means leaving three Fire Department jobs, three or four police jobs and one or two Publics Works department positions vacant after the employees holding them retire.Ambrosino has not seriously considered laying off city workers since the financial rough period of 2002 and 2003 when city spending dipped $1 million into the red.Those cuts were triggered by reductions in state assistance to the city. Gov. Deval Patrick and the Massachusetts House this year proposed slightly increasing the state?s current allocation to Revere from $13 million to $13.1 million, not including school assistance money.House lawmakers on Thursday approved a package of tax hikes, including a dollar increase on a pack of cigarettes and a series of business tax loophole closings – the first major tax package since 2002.The cigarette tax would generate an estimated $175 million and would go into effect in July if the bill becomes law. It sparked some of the sharpest exchanges during the hours-long debate on the floor of the House, which finally approved the measure by a vote of 131-23.Backers said the cigarette tax would not only bring in needed revenue with the state facing a $1.3 billion budget gap but also would sway some young people against taking up the habit – and encourage older smokers to quit.An amendment approved during the debate would dedicate the revenues of the cigarette tax to health care to help ease financial pressure on the state?s landmark health care law, which is struggling with a larger than expected enrollment.Critics said they agreed smoking is bad, but said hiking taxes doesn?t make any sense in the face of a looming recession.They also the new tax would increase the cost of a carton of cigarettes to about $68 dollars – compared with about $33 in New Hampshire – and would send smokers fleeing over the border.