News

Verga campaign amends finance report to clarify contributors

By Richard Gaines
Staff Writer
Published: September 13, 2008

The Committee to Elect Tony Verga has amended its pre-primary campaign finance report to show a $400 contribution from the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.

The amended report corrects a filing that initially attributed the $400 contribution for Verga last May to the Committee to Elect John Binienda. Binienda, D-Worcester, is the House chairman of the Legislature's Joint Revenue Committee. At the time of the contribution, Binienda's Revenue Committee was killing a package of local option taxes and closing a telecom tax loophole worth more than $1 billion statewide and more than $1 million a year to Gloucester in new local revenues.

The Times yesterday reported on the financial commitment to Verga's re-election to the Fifth Essex District seat by House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, his leadership including Binienda, and special interest opponents of the local option tax package, known as the Municipal Partnership Act.

While Verga's campaign has noted more than 60 percent of his contributors are local, that's not the case when it comes to dollar amounts. About two-thirds of the $65,564 Verga raised this year came from out of the district, most of it given by Verga's colleagues in the leadership team of Speaker DiMasi, and special interest political action committees such as the Realtors and lobbyists.

Based on the faulty filing, the Times reported that Binienda had made two contributions to Verga, the first the $400 that was actually given by the Realtors, and $100 later.

Contributions of more than $100 from a legislator to a legislator are illegal.

Binienda complained to the Times that the story made him appear to have broken the law, and later to the Verga campaign. After Binienda's call, Verga's campaign treasurer, Jeff Worthley, informed the Times that the mistake was his and that it had been corrected in an amended filing. Neither Binienda nor Verga had returned phone calls to the Times for the original Friday story.

Eric Berman, spokeman for the Realtors, said the organization chose to make the contribution to Verga's campaign because of his accessibility and his vote against "transfer" taxes, local option requests by towns to tax real estate transactions.

Berman said Verga last voted against a transfer tax, sought by the town of Chatham on Cape Cod, in 2006.

Richard Gaines can be reached a rgaines@gloucestertimes.com