Ocean Spray: court rejects most of grower’s lawsuit

Chancellor William B. Chandler III dismissed fraud claims made by New Jersey cranberry grower A.R. DeMarco Enterprises, as well as claims challenging the motives of Ocean Spray’s board, company spokesman Chris Phillips said.

DeMarco claimed in the lawsuit that Ocean Spray’s directors have lobbied the U.S. Agriculture Department to restrict production in order to force some financially strapped members to sell back their stock. Ocean Spray, based in Lakeville, Mass., is a marketing cooperative owned by more than 900 cranberry and citrus growers. (Bloomberg News)

Massachusetts facing worst
financial crisis since ’30s

BOSTON – Massachusetts’ budget crisis deficit could exceed $2 billion next year, the worst fiscal crisis since the 1930s, said Eric Kriss, the chief budget officer of Governor-elect Mitt Romney.

“The most serious fiscal crisis in 60 years deserves the most far-reaching reforms in 60 years,” Kriss said during a recent speech to the state Chamber of Commerce. “As Mitt Romney has said repeatedly, this is going to take four years or longer to achieve.”

Kriss said Romney will try to save billions of dollars from the state’s $23 billion budget by restructuring government. U.S. states this year are facing their worst fiscal straits since World War II, the National Governors Association reported recently. Total state revenue fell 6 percent last year, the first time there’s been a decrease since the 1940s.

Massachusetts forecasts another steep drop in state tax revenue because of a sluggish economy and a decline in the stock market. The state’s tax revenue fell 10.4 percent in its last fiscal year, ended June 30. Massachusetts, which raised taxes last year about $1.3 billion to shore up a budget deficit, ranks 8th in per-capita spending at $4,945. State spending has increased 113 percent between 1992 and 2002, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers. (Bloomberg News)