Page 8 THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2022 ~SOUNDS OF EVERETT~ A Fine Job In praise of the DPW who put in some tough street plowing during the recent blizzard. It’s obvious they were prepared and ready. It’s always a battle with parked cars that had nowhere to go except on the street. But the DPW, under the leadership of Director Jerry Navarra and the city’s DPW snow plowing crew did a great job. Hats off to Mayor Carlo DeMaria too! Kick-out of The Winner They should change the word football to “field goal” because it’s the cheapest three points in winning a game as was noted in the recent NFL playoffs. Who do I like in the Super Bowl on February 13? I like and dislike the Rams, but neither team should be in this usually classic game. How boring. Family Dollar fined $1.5M for thousands of meal break violations at Massachusetts locations A ttorney General Maura Healey recently announced that Dollar Tree Stores, Inc. d/b/a Family Dollar has been cited $1.5 million in penalties for more than 3,900 violations of the state’s meal break law. Family Dollar was issued two citations by the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office for failing to provide employees who worked for more than six hours in one day at least 30 minutes for a meal break, affecting 620 employees across 100 locations throughout Massachusetts – the majority of which are in low-income neighborhoods. Family Dollar, a Virginia-based company, employs more than 900 people at its Massachusetts stores and operates more than 15,000 stores across the country. “Workers give us their time, energy, and efforts to keep businesses running and our economy afloat,” said Healey. “These citations should send a message to all companies that they need to do right by their employees and provide meal breaks consistent with the law.” The Attorney General’s Office’s Fair Labor Division began investigating Family Dollar after receiving multiple complaints that employees were not given proper meal breaks because of persistent staffing shortages. Investigators were able to determine that from 2018 to 2019 the company routinely cut the necessary payroll hours, leaving stores understaffed. This resulted in hundreds of employees being unable to leave their stores or take meal breaks. Employees were routinely required to remain on store premises, even when they were able to punch out for FAMILY | SEE PAGE 26 Baker files FY 2023 budget and tax relief proposals O n January 26, 2022, the Baker-Polito Administration filed its Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) budget proposal, a $48.5 billion plan that continues to support economic growth across Massachusetts and sustains efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic – while fully funding the Student Opportunity Act and making key investments in other critical areas, including housing and health care. Alongside this fiscally responsible and balanced budget proposal – submitted as “House 2” in the Massachusetts House of Representatives – the Baker-Polito Administration is filing a comprehensive tax proposal to provide relief for housing and childcare costs, eliminate the income tax for hundreds of thousands of low-income taxpayers and maintain Massachusetts’s competitiveness. The proposed changes would allow nearly $700 million to remain in the hands of taxpayers on an annual basis starting immediately in tax year 2022. “Our Fiscal Year 2023 budget will help position Massachusetts strongly for the future by making key investments to support economic growth, sustain our nation-leading educational system, and support the health and wellbeing of our residents,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “At the same time, we are able to grow our reserves to historic levels and offer a tax relief proposal that will provide substantial relief for low-income seniors and working families. We look forward to working with our legislative colleagues to adopt a spending plan for FY23 that supports a strong and equitable economic recovery across the Commonwealth.” “The FY23 budget recommendation maintains our Administration’s strong support for cities and towns with another increase in local aid consistent with tax revenue growth alongside other substantial investments to help the economic growth and development of Massachusetts communities,” said Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito. “This plan takes advantage of our strong fiscal position to increase opportunity for individuals and families BAKER | SEE PAGE 9 For Advertising with Results, call The Advocate Newspapers at 617-387-2200 or Info@advocatenews.net
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