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I was recently involved in another blog debate, and thought it was worth passing on an excerpt from it, as it answers a recommendation from opponents of Question One: That instead of attempting to repeal the state income tax we elect new legislators who’ll recognize and address our concerns.
Their solution is, “Work the changes you want through the system.” I asserted that here in “The Birthplace of Liberty” this is currently not possible. An important part of this discussion follows:
“Chip, question: What are we going to do, if we pass this law and our political hacks refuse to innact [sic] it like they did before? Would the taxpayer be lawfully in the right to refuse to have any state tax withheld or not pay the taxes?
“This is not a democracy, we have a representative form of Government. Is there anything that says as a Representative they have to vote the will of the people? …”
I replied:
Nope, not a thing. Our legislators can do pretty much as they please — and they do. Our only recourse is to replace them when they run for reelection — but that’s near-impossible in Massachusetts. Many brave and dedicated souls have tried, but few have succeeded — so much so that fewer attempt this exercise in futility each election cycle.
Consider the following:
Our “full-time” legislators collect $58,000 a year base salary, taxpayer-funded of course. This is automatically adjusted every two years, so it might be higher now than when I last looked.
Our “full-time” legislators have been on vacation since the end of July, when they suspended formal sessions until after the election. They are “in the district” campaigning for reelection full time, at taxpayer-expense, especially if they are one of the few who have opposition.
Any challenger for an incumbent’s seat is working 9-5 to support their family, campaigning only in his or her free time.
Legislators begin the day after their election raising campaign funds for the next election — spend the next two years non-stop building up a campaign war-chest for their reelection campaign. Two years of fundraising, not to mention the advantage of “name recognition” over any upstart and insolent challenger two years down the road.
Challengers only begin to raise campaign expenses when they decide to run.
A specific case, state Senate President Therese Murray:
The Associated Press recently reported that, though unopposed in this upcoming election, she has accumulated $300,000 added to her campaign war-chest, just this year:
“Senate President Therese Murray is running unopposed in the primary and general elections, but still raked in more than $300,000 in campaign donations this year.
“The donations came from lawyers, CEO’s, union officials, mortgage bankers and homemakers. Most were from outside her Plymouth district, according to a review of campaign finance records.”
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/politics/view/2008_09_08_Senate_President_Therese_Murray__unopposed__but_raises__300_000/
When she was last challenged in 2004, by Republican novice Tim Duncan, out came the battalion of union thugs to threaten and intimidate his family, disrupt his fundraising event.
To read this citizen-challenger’s own personal account and see photos and a video of the confrontation, go to:
http://cltg.org/cltg/clt2004/04-05-25.htm
So, challenging and defeating a tax-borrow-and-spend legislator carries significant personal risk, along with massive disadvantages. And we wonder why so few choose to run for office against the entrenched?
The only solution is to vote out any incumbent who is not satisfying your view of how goverment should be, every time without exception, taking every opportunity whenever you find a challenger to that incumbent on your ballot. So far that has not worked either, though we have tried to assist the underdog heroes and heroines through CLT’s 2 1/2 PAC.
Over 34 years we’ve tried everything. Nothing has significantly changed The System here in Massachusetts — besides our Prop 2 1/2 — a political culture quite unique across the United States.
See: http://cltg.org/cltg/clt2008/08-09-09nr.htm#memo
With passage of Question 1, at least voters will get the pols’ attention that we’re “mad as hell and not taking it any more.” If the pols give us the Beacon Hill middle finger salute once again, sooner or later voters will reach the necessary critical mass and throw the bums out. The question is, will that happen before the pols bankrupt the state and us taxpayers? Either or both are not too far off any more.
See: http://cltg.org/time_bomb.htm
Tags: Income Tax Repeal, Question 1, Question One
September 13th, 2008
It’s now post-Labor Day, and as November approaches so too does the election – and our choices for what government will look like in the future, both across the fruited plain and within the confines of Massachusetts. Campaign Season ‘08 is off and running.
Here in the Bay State – “The State of Permanent ‘Fiscal Crisis’” – we know one thing for sure: Come November 5th the voters will have decided whether we have a state income tax to be raided by every special interest from Pittsfield to Provincetown, or will have abolished it and taken back never-ending political spending on never-ending “unmet needs.”
Will taxes go down – or will taxes go up?
That’s what Question 1 on the November ballot will decide.
On the ballot in 2000 was our question to roll back the state income tax to 5 percent, its historic and traditional rate until 1989 when the Dukakis administration and the Democrat Legislature hiked it “temporarily” until it reached 6.25 percent a year later. With their overwhelming vote, the voters dropped it from 5.85 to 5 percent incrementally by 2003. The Legislature, giving voters the now-familiar Beacon Hill Middle-Finger Salute, “froze” it “temporarily” at 5.3 percent in 2002 – where it has remained ever since.
As a sop tossed to taxpayers and voters, they established a set of arcane rules by which the “frozen” 5.3 percent rate would gradually diminish until reaching the voters’ mandated 5 percent rate. We taxpayer activists shook our heads and cynically laughed at the prospect of that ever occurring, even when and if all the Legislature’s criteria ever happened to be met – like all the stars and planets coming together in unique alignment.
See: http://cltg.org/cltg/cltg2002/
That was over six years ago. We were asked why we were so “cynical,” if you can believe it. Six years later our cynicism has proven itself to be the proper response, the ONLY response, once again.
Nelson Benton, editor of the Salem News, in his weekly opinion column of Aug. 29 reported: “State revenue figures had reached the point where the income-tax rate might have been adjusted downward from the current 5.3 percent to 5.25 percent, according to a formula put into effect in 2002. But that was before adjusting for inflation. So, no surprise — it’s not going to happen.”
No surprise at this address. We “cynics” told you it’d never happen back in 2002.
Six years later and the state’s in yet another “fiscal crisis.” This state is ALWAYS in a “fiscal crisis” – the “crises” grow bigger every year, after the Legislature spends the annual revenue surpluses of some additional billion dollars, then borrows more on top of that to spend on yet more programs to address insatiable “unmet needs.”
In 2002, during that “fiscal crisis,” the Legislature increased the state budget to over $23 billion – with “The Largest Tax Increase In State History,” according to the Boston Globe no less. http://cltg.org/cltg/cltg2002/02-07-23.htm#Globe
By comparison, the budget just passed in July increased state spending to $28 billion, an increase of $5 billion (FIVE BILLION DOLLARS) over the six years during which the last step of the voters’ tax rollback mandate has gone ignored – we’re STILL paying the 5.3 percent income tax rate.
How did we ever get “so cynical”?
Our same critics now are arrayed to oppose Question 1 and will pour millions into their campaign striving for its defeat. They warn of doom and gloom, their only and predictable strategy, and wonder how voters ever got so cynical about government.
If you aren’t asking for more of the same, the only thing you CAN do is vote for Question 1 – because already the tax-borrow-and-spend crowd is looking at the NEXT tax hike if voters are so foolish as to squander this opportunity.
The State House News Service reported on Aug. 28 (”New state budget $1 Billion out of balance, leader says fall session possible”):
“The news makes for a fiscal quagmire for Patrick and Democratic legislative leaders as they look ahead to fall elections. And it likely means continued focus on budget balancing, including potential spending cuts and additional new taxes, and difficulty during the 2009-2010 legislative session paying for investment-based priorities like education, transportation and the 2006 law expanding access to health insurance.”
On November 4 at your polling place, you’ll get to make your decision: Lower or higher taxes – black and white. “YES” on Question 1 will provide for lower taxes. “NO” on Question 1 will provide the green light for more and more taxes, more of the same governing. Make sure you cast your vote, for it will pave the way for the future – the state’s, the special interests’, and your own.
Tags: broken promises, income tax, Question One Question 1, repeal
September 2nd, 2008
The end is here. The Legislature and governor are now confronted with the inevitable stark reality, on their watch: The dissolution of state government. Due to their malfeasance and decades of incompetence, mismanagement, and arrogant overspending year after year that preceded them, the situation has reached critical mass. The state is imploding under the weight of overspending and debt. The preferred method, taxing their way out of self-imposed fiscal crisis after crisis, is virtually off the table this time. The public mood is angry. Very angry. Across the board, in every demographic. By huge margins. [See the WBZ/Survey USA poll results]
With Question One, outright repeal of the income tax, hanging over their collective head like Damocles’ sword, the pols dare not make the wrong move — and they know it. As the Eagle-Tribune editorial [Jul. 20 - Big Dig debt means state must say 'No' to other plans] reiterates, the Patrick administration “insists new taxes or tolls are off the table right now.” You bet they are, “right now.” If Question One should fail, it won’t be “right now” any longer — it’ll be back to “Party time!” and business-as-usual with the pols for as long as they can get away with it. That’ll require a massive tax increase quickly, to stretch the gravy train ride a bit longer.
This governor and this Legislature are the last ones standing in the game of political musical chairs — the losers. There was always going to be some administration and some Legislature left holding the bag for decades of refusing to address the critically mounting crisis of overspending, and these are the ones it falls on. The bill they’ve run up is due, and taxpayers are about to cut up the Beacon Hill credit card.
The end is here. This was always the only way it could end, the only way it would. For decades, if our money was available they spent it; if they didn’t take enough from us they simply took more under any guise or pretense. With the foxes guarding the hen house, making the self-serving election rules and legislating obscene incumbent advantages, they virtually insured their permanent seats on Beacon Hill for as long as they wanted them — until a better, richer-paying opportunity opened in the public sector. They lived and “performed” for their fat pensions and retirement benefits when the game was over for them.
It’s over now. Passage of Question One assures that. Oh sure, they might exert one last futile act of desperation and ignore the repeal to keep the gravy train from running off the tracks, but the public at last has had enough. This won’t end with citizen apathy this time — each voter’s personal situation financially will see to that. Just think, as voters go to the polls in November they’ll also be confronted by the winter season’s first home heating bills, expected to double over last year’s. They’ll be in no mood for being suckered again to keep the carefree Beacon Hill fat cat lifestyle rolling. It’ll get ugly this time — real ugly. Political career-ending ugly.
Legislators know this too, for “right now.” Join us in celebrating The End of State Government As We Know It. Be part of bringing down this multi-tiered system of corruption, this long-evolved culture of cronyism, of government of, by, and for the insiders. Vote YES on Question 1 and repeal the income tax — and vote against every tax-borrow-and-spend incumbent on the ballot who brought us to this point and the state to its knees.
Tags: fiscal crisis, income tax, Question 1, Question One, state budget
July 21st, 2008
The day of reckoning has arrived. At last, “The Best Legislature Money Can Buy,” after decades of mal- and mis- and nonfeasance, has managed to plunge the state into near if not outright bankruptcy.
Massachusetts has the highest per-capita debt burden of any state in the nation, and it’s about to assume even more. Lot’s more. And we haven’t even yet gotten to the “Ticking Time Bomb” explosion of unfunded public employee pensions and benefits!
Not only are the inmates running the asylum — they’re preparing to burn it down!
Count on the so-called Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation — front for Fat Cat Big Business and Banking — to come up with its usual solution: Tax the average citizens even more! The voice of the amen chorus, the Boston Globe editorial elites, as would be expected are right there seconding the motion loudly.
Last year’s state revenue tax take was $1.152 billion more than fiscal 2007, a 5.8 percent increase. The Legislature spent every cent and then some. The budget it and Governor Patrick just approved for this new fiscal year totals $28.11 billion, a 4.86 percent increase over last year’s spending. It even raided the “rainy day fund” to spend more. Still not enough. So it passed another $800 million in new taxes. Still not enough. The “fulltime” Legislature is expected to approve $10 billion in borrowing before it goes home on vacation until after the November election — three months away
And now we learn even all that is still not enough: The Legislature plans to back another $2.5 billion of borrowing in our name to bail out the Mass Pike/Big Dig gross mismanagement fiasco.
We thought the most recent price tag of $15 billion for the Big Dig was ridiculous — especially since it was promised to come in under $5 billion when it was sold to the public in the mid-80s by the Dukakis administration. It was that same administration which also burdened taxpayers with the “temporary” income tax hike we’re still paying 19 years later. Back then the federal government, we were promised, would be picking up 90 percent of the cost. Initially it picked up a significant portion — until the feds recognized the state’s gross mismanagement and cut back, then cut off any additional funding. That stuck the remainder of the bill on the state to fund/finance, stuck it on taxpayers and tollpayers.
Of course the state has no money that doesn’t come out of our pockets, mine and yours and everyone else’s who works for a living.
It’s all over but for shutting off the lights. This irresponsible and unaccountable spending frenzy is now so ingrained on Bacon Hill that the pols no longer have a chance of stopping it or themselves. It’s become simply what they do.
We can no longer trust those running the state to do anything but worsen our plight. They simply don’t care to reform themselves, have no desire to recover from their spending addiction. They’ve hit bottom and are still digging the hole deeper and dragging us down into it.
Now more than ever, we citizens, we taxpayers, we voters — WE must take matters into our hands if we’re to survive as more than passive cash cows existing only for the ruling elite to milk. We must stand together and send a resounding NO MORE! We must vote YES with one voice on Question 1 in November and repeal the income tax. Not only are we saying “Not one cent more,” but “That’s it, the game is over!”
And while we’re at it, throw out every bumbling, profligate, tax-borrow-and-spend incumbent who has a challenger on the ballot.
Doing anything less than both is the act of a cash cow mooing as it’s led into the slaughterhouse.
Tags: Bankruptcy, Cash cows, Yes on Question 1
July 19th, 2008
