Page 18 THE REVERE ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2021 If you have any questions about this week’s report, e-mail us at bob@beaconhillrollcall.com or call us at (617) 720-1562. GET A FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO MASSTERLIST - Join more than 22,000 people, from movers and shakers to political junkies and interested citizens, who start their weekday morning with MASSterList—the popular newsletter that chronicles news and informed analysis about what’s going on up on Beacon Hill, in Massachusetts politics, policy, media and infl uence. The stories are drawn from major news organizations as well as specialized publications selected by widely acclaimed and highly experienced writers Chris Van Buskirk and Keith Regan who introduce each article in their own clever and never-boring, inimitable way. MASSterList will be emailed to you FREE every Monday through Friday morning and will give you a leg up on what’s happening in the blood sport of Bay State politics. For more information and to get your free subscriptions go to: www.massterlist. com/subscribe. THE HOUSE AND SENATE: There were no roll calls in the House or Senate last week. This week, Beacon Hill Roll Call reports on the percentage of times local senators voted with their party’s leadership in the 2021 session. No additional roll calls in the Senate are planned until 2022. Beacon Hill Roll Call uses 111 votes from the 2021 Senate session as the basis for this report. This includes all roll calls that were not quorum calls or on local issues. The votes of the 34 Democrats were compared to Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Creem (D-Newton), second-incommand in the Senate. We could not compare the Democrats’ votes to those of Senate President Karen Spilka (D-Ashland) because, by tradition, the Senate president rarely votes. The senator who voted with Creem the least percentage of times is Sen. Diana DiZoglio (DMethuen) who voted with her only 83 times (74.7 percent). Rounding out the top three who voted with Creem the least number of times are Sens. Walter Timilty (D-Milton) who voted with her 91 times (81.9 percent) and Marc Pacheco (D-Taunton) who voted with her 96 times (86.4 percent) All in all, 31 of the 34 Democrats (99.1 percent) voted with Creem 90 percent or more of the time -- including 11 (32.3 percent) who voted with Creem 100 percent of the time and six who voted with Creem all but one time. The votes of the two Republican senators were compared with those of GOP Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester). In 2021, as in 2020, none of the two voted with Tarr 100 percent of the time. In 2021, the Republican senator who voted the lowest percentage of times with Tarr was Sen. Patrick O’Connor (RWeymouth) who voted with Tarr 82.8 percent of the time. Sen. Ryan Fattman (R-Sutton) voted with Tarr 90 percent of the time. SENATORS’ SUPPORT OF THEIR PARTY’S LEADERSHIP IN 2021 The percentage next to the senator’s name represents the percentage of times the senator supported his or her party’s leadership in 2021. The number in parentheses represents the number of times the senator opposed his or her party’s leadership. Some senators voted on all 111 roll call votes. Others missed one or more roll calls. The percentage for each representative is calculated based on the number of roll calls on which he or she voted. Sen. Joseph Boncore has resigned HOW LONG WAS LAST WEEK’S SESSION? Beacon Hill Roll Call tracks the length of time that the House and Senate were in session each week. Many legislators say that legislative sessions are only one aspect of the Legislature’s job and that a lot of important work is done outside of the House and Senate chambers. They note that their jobs also involve committee work, research, constituent work and other matters that are important to their districts. Critics say that the Legislature does not meet regularly or long enough to debate and vote in public view on the thousands of pieces of legislation that have been fi led. They note that the infrequency and brief length of sessions are misguided and lead to irresponsible late-night sessions and a mad rush to act on dozens of bills in the days immediately preceding the end of an annual session. During the week of December 13-17, the House and Senate each met for a total of 24 minutes. Mon. Dec. 13 House 11:00 a.m. to 11:12 a.m. Senate 11:05 a.m. to 11:18 a.m. Tues. Dec. 14 No House session No Senate session Wed. Dec. 15 No House session No Senate session Thurs. Dec. 16 House 11:00 a.m. to 11:12 a.m. Senate 11:06 a.m. to 11:17 a.m. Fri. Dec. 17 No House session No Senate session Bob Katzen welcomes feedback at bob@beaconhillrollcall.com Carpenito Real Estate would like to wish your Family a Happy and Blessed Holiday Season and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year! Stay well and Stay safe. 335 Central Street, Saugus, MA 01906 (781) 233-7300 View all our listings at: CarpenitoRealEstate.com Like us on Facebook advocate newspaper Facebook.com/Advocate.news.ma View the interior of this home right on your smartphone. PRINCIPAL RESIDENCE PROBATE, MASSHEALTH AND CAPITAL GAINS TAX CONSIDERATIONS I f you transfer your home to an irrevocable trust in order to protect the home from the possibility of going into a nursing home, there are several benefi ts of doing so. First and foremost, once your home is transferred to an irrevocable trust, the fi veyear look back period commences in order to protect the home in the event of one or both of the Donor’s of the trust enters a nursing home and needs to apply for MassHealth benefi ts. Another benefi t of an irrevocable trust is the avoidance of probate upon the death of the Donor(s) of the trust. Certainly, if a husband and wife own the home as tenants by the entirety, probate would be avoided upon the fi rst spouse to die. If the surviving spouse does not take action to place the home either into a revocable trust or irrevocable trust, upon the death of the surviving spouse, the children would have to initiate probate proceedings in order to obtain title to the home. A simultaneous death, although very unlikely, would also result in the children having to probate the estates of both spouses. Having a funded irrevocable trust would obviously avoid the negative ramifi cations of that unlikely event. When you place your home into an irrevocable trust, you also obtain the benefi t of being able to sell your home and take advantage of the Internal Revenue Code Section 121 capital gains tax exclusion on the sale of your principal residence. The trust will be drafted as a grantor-type trust for not only income tax purposes but for capital gains tax purposes. For a husband and wife, this means the fi rst $500,000 of capital gain is exempt from taxation. For a single person, the first $250,000 of capital gain is exempt from taxation. The home must be your principal residence for at least two of the fi ve-year period immediately preceding the date of sale. What is becoming more of a concern with deeding the home outright to the children reserving a life estate in the home by the parents is the greater likelihood of a child dying prior to the parents. With life expectancy so long with medical technology, it is not uncommon for one of the parents to reach the age of 90, 95 or even 100. Consequently, may have a situation where a child dies of some cause age 65 or 70. These situations unfortunately do occur. In the deed with a life estate plan, since the home was deeded directly to the children, the child who has now died has an estate that needs to be probated. If, however, the home was placed into an irrevocable trust, the predeceased child’s trust share would be held in further trust for his or her children. If that child had no children, his or her share would be distributed to the surviving siblings. This dispositive scheme would be pursuant to the terms of the trust, not the Last Will and Testament. There would be no involvement by the probate court. This would result in signifi cantly less legal fees, time and complexity when compared to the probate process. Joseph D. Cataldo is an Estate Planning/Elder Law Attorney, Certifi ed Public Accountant, Certifi ed Financial Planner, AICPA Personal Financial Specialist and holds a Master’s Degree in Taxation.
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