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Page 14 THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – Friday, January 17, 2020 Carbon Tax Bill could increase taxes by $1,263, cut private sector jobs I n July 2019, the Fiscal Alliance Foundation announced the results of a study into the effects of House Bill 2810, An Act to promote green infrastructure and reduce carbon emissions. The study was commissioned by the Foundation and conducted by the Beacon Hill Institute (BHI). Professor David Tuerck, BHI’s president, who was scheduled to testify on January 14 at the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy hearing on the carbon tax bill. The study found that the averCouncil on Aging to host Valentine Party M age Massachusetts household would see its tax bill increase by $755 in the first year. By the fifth year, that annual tax load would increase to $1,263. Massachusetts would see a loss of 11,090 private sector jobs in its first year, increasing to 18,240 by its fifth. The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance (MassFiscal) made the following statement: “The Massachusetts carbon tax is just that, a tax and nothing more. It would eliminate tens of thousands of private sector jobs and result in a $755 tax per household. The only thing it wouldn’t significantly eliminate is carbon emissions. The study commissioned by the Foundation indicates the reduction would be negligible. It’s another example of a reckless proposal, echoing many points found in Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal, conceived without any thought to its consequences,” said MassFiscal Spokesperson/ Board Member Paul D. Craney. Under the carbon tax bill, the environmental benefits to the Commonwealth would be insignificant. Massachusetts accounts for only 0.12 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, meaning the tax would reduce global emissions by 0.0027 percent in the first year of implementation, increasing to 0.0035 percent by the fifth year. Practically speaking, this diminutive benefit would not mitigate sea water levels, cure asthma or impact the daily lives of any living creature on earth. “The Massachusetts carbon tax bill does not address the most obvious problem for the bill’s effectiveness, which is that Massachusetts cannot control what air enters the state and what air leaves the state,” said Craney. “As more lawmakers get swept into the hysteria of the climate alarmists, and tie their hopes behind a misguided and very expensive carbon tax bill, it means they are not working on solving other more important environmental problems facing the state like the cleanup of the polluted Merrimack River and addressing the recycling industry’s rising costs,” said Craney. Subaru Forester raffle to benefit The Angel Fund for ALS Research W AKEFIELD – The Angel Fund for ALS Research ayor Carlo DeMaria and the Council on Aging (COA) have planned the annual senior Valentine’s Party for Thursday, February 13 at the Connolly Center beginning at noon. This year the COA has chosen to have a Chinese Food Luncheon and Dinner Show that will feature a local comedienne and Boston’s own “Sinatra,” Joe Chiarenza. Tickets are available for purchase beginning January 20 in the COA Office at the Connolly Center. Tables of 8 and 10 are available. Please join us for this exciting event and bring your sweetie. For additional information please call Dale at 617394-2323. Celebrate Carnivale/Mardi Gras at the Connolly Center J oin Mayor Carlo DeMaria and the Council on Aging (COA) in celebrating Carnivale at the Connolly Center on Tuesday, February 25. This traditional celebration – in places like Venice and New Orleans – allows us to let our hair down as we prepare for the Lenten season. Our special event limited to 25 seniors will feature a mask making class with our own Margaret Cornelio. Following the class, you will enjoy special treats that are synonymous with Carnivale and Mardi Gras. There is a nominal fee to participate in this event. Please sign up with Margaret or Dale in the COA Office or call them at 617-394-2323. Like us on Facebook advocate newspaper Facebook.com/Advocate.news.ma wants to put you behind the wheel of a brand-new 2020 Subaru Forester! The organization, in partnership with Subaru of Wakefield, is sponsoring a raffle with a grand prize of a 2020 Subaru Forester valued at $24,228. The winner of the raffle may elect the car or a cash prize of $15,000. Proceeds from the raffle will benefit Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) research at the Cecil B. Day Laboratory for Neuromuscular Research at UMass Medical School. “Subaru of Wakefield is excited to be working with The Angel Fund for ALS Research to offer this fantastic opportunity to not only win a new Forester, but to also support ALS research,” Subaru of Wakefield’s Sal Barbagallo said. “The Angel Fund is a great organization that raises money for research to fight and cure this devastating disease. We hope all our customers and supporters will join us in this fight by purchasing a raffle ticket.” “The Angel Fund is honored, and elated, to host this raffle with Subaru of Wakefield,” Angel Fund President Rich Kennedy added. “The proceeds of the raffle will be used to fund the research conducted by world-renowned ALS researcher Dr. Robert H. Brown, Jr. and his research team.” The Forester is on display at the Subaru of Wakefield showroom at 618 North Ave. in Wakefield. Complete details and features of the car, including its retail value, are available on The Angel Fund for ALS Research website at www.theangelfund. org. Tickets are $100 each and can be purchased through The Angel Fund online at www.theangelfund.org or by calling The Angel Fund at 781-245-7070. Raffle ticket buyers must be 18 years of age or older. A maximum of 750 raffle tickets will be sold, and online ticket sales will end at 12 a.m. on February 28, 2020. The drawing will be held on February 29, 2020. For additional information about the raffle or The Angel Fund for ALS Research, call 781245-7070 or visit the website www.theangelfund.org. Editor’s note: The Angel Fund for ALS Research is a nonprofit charity located in Wakefield, Mass. ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects neurons in the brain and the spinal cord. People living with ALS slowly lose the ability to control the muscles needed to move, speak, eat and breathe, which often leads to total paralysis and death within two to five years of diagnosis. While 10% of ALS is familial in origin because of a genetic defect, the other 90% of ALS cases are considered sporadic, or without a family history. There is no cure for this fatal disease Cancer mortality rate in steady decline T he cancer death rate declined by 29 percent from 1991 to 2017, including a 2.2 percent drop from 2016 to 2017, the largest single-year drop in cancer mortality ever reported. The news comes from “Cancer statistics, 2020,” the latest edition of the American Cancer Society’s annual report on cancer rates and trends. The article appears online in “CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians” and is accompanied by a consumer version, “Cancer Facts & Figures 2020.” The steady 26-year decline in overall cancer mortality is driven by long-term drops in death rates for the four major cancers – lung, colorectal, breast and prostate, although recent trends are mixed. The pace of mortality reductions for lung cancer – the leading cause of cancer death – accelerated in recent years (from two percent per year to four percent overall), spurring the record one-year drop in overall cancer mortality. In contrast, progress slowed for colorectal, breast and prostate cancers. Overall cancer death rates dropped by an average of 1.5 percent per year during the most recent decade of data (2008-2017), continuing a trend that began in the early 1990s and resulting in the 29-percent drop in cancer mortality in that time. The drop translates to approximately 2.9 million fewer cancer deaths than would have occurred had mortality rates remained at their peak. Continuing declines in cancer mortality contrast with a stable trend for all other causes of death combined, reflecting a slowing decline for heart disease, stabilizing rates for cerebrovascular disease and an increasing trend for accidents and Alzheimer’s disease. Lung cancer death rates have dropped by 51 percent (since 1990) in men and by 26 percent (since 2002) in women, with the most rapid progress in recent years. For example, reductions in mortality accelerated from three percent per year during 2008-2013 to five percent per year during 2013-2017 in men, and from two percent to almost four percent in women. However, lung cancer still accounts for almost one-quarter of all cancer deaths, more than breast, prostate and colorectal cancers combined. The most rapid declines in mortality occurred for melanoma of the skin, on the heels of breakthrough treatments approved in 2011 that pushed one-year survival for patients diagnosed with metastatic disease from 42 percent during 2008-2010 to 55 percent during 2013-2015. This progress is likewise reflected in the overall melanoma death rate, which dropped by seven percent per year during 2013-2017 in people ages 20 to 64, compared to declines during 20062010 (prior to FDA approval of ipilimumab and vemurafenib) of two percent to three percent per year CANCER | SEE PAGE 19

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