CLT
UPDATE
Monday, November 10, 2003
Another "high hack
holiday" fills the legislative void
Now the state is considering adding another to its lengthy lineup of locally-observed holidays, under a proposal that would make President John F. Kennedy's birthday on May 29 an official holiday....
The Kennedy birthday would mark a 14th paid holiday for Massachusetts state employees....
"This is another one of those things that sets Massachusetts apart from states that don't have a constantly embarrassing government," said
Barbara Anderson, executive director of Citizens for Limited
Taxation. "Why don't they ask what they can do for their country, or their state, by being on the job?"
The Boston Globe
Saturday, November 8, 2003
4th down and holiday
We're supposed to be encouraged because consumer confidence rose, but then we're warned not to let this confidence stray into irrational exuberance, because business owners are not so confident. Indeed, there are fears that the purchasing bounce of the quarter that ended Oct. 1 was largely because of tax refund checks, and now that those are spent, the demand for goods will again subside.
Those fears may be well founded. There are any number of measures to track the health of the economy, but I think one of the most significant is not how much people's income went up, or even how much they are spending, but how much they have left over after they get done paying off government's cut, by whatever name -- taxes, fees or "voluntary assessments."
It is called "disposable income." And it is headed down....
All these efforts, whatever their name and whatever the pitch, mean the same thing: Government will do anything and everything to keep growing, and therefore, disposable income is shrinking. If you want to kill a recovery, that's about the most potent way to do it.
The Eagle-Tribune
Sunday, November 9, 2003
Unending growth of government threatens recovery
By Taylor Armerding
House Speaker Thomas Finneran physically returned from his Hawaiian vacation six weeks ago, but some at the Statehouse are wondering if mentally, Finneran is still relaxing on the sands of Waikiki Beach.
Since House members "returned" from vacation Sept. 30, they have met for formal, roll-call-taking sessions only four times. In the past two weeks, they've spent a total of three hours in their voting chairs.
That's surprising, considering Finneran listed 20 potential formal sessions on a calendar he sent to House members back in September....
It's not that lawmakers don't expect to vote on Finneran's list of issues. They do. But they're prepared for Finneran to try and ram the bills through in a series of late-night, last-minute sessions, with little debate and few opportunities to offer amendments.
The Eagle-Tribune
Sunday, November 9, 2003
Finneran's back but doing little
By Meredith Warren
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
Nothing much is happening up at the State House these
days as the session runs out the clock, mostly because "Waikiki" Tom
Finneran is preparing the stage for another of his middle-of-the-night,
up-or-down-vote, Animal House marathon sessions. In just over a week The
Best Legislature Money Can Buy will call it a game and our
"full-time" legislators will go home for the remainder of the
year ... as if we're going to miss their place-holding stagnation since
they passed the budget early last summer.
But there's yet another state employees
holiday proposed in the Legislature, so watch that
up-or-down vote closely.
"Full-time" legislators indeed, but all
things considered perhaps we're better off when they avoid
"work," for as Judge Gideon Tucker pointed
out in 1866, "No man's life, liberty or property is safe
while the Legislature is in session." Of course here in
Massachusetts sessions never end; justification just
disappears. The "job" is termed "full-time" by the
pols only because calling it that helps pad their pockets with pay and
perks.
Now there's another big push for a John F. Kennedy
holiday. Its proponents had better get moving if they seriously hope
to get another taxpayer-funded official day-off soon. Those who consider JFK more
relevant than George Washington or Abraham Lincoln -- who've had their
two birthday holidays combined into a single "Presidents Day"
-- are fading fast, replaced by those with no firsthand nostalgia for
returning to the halcyon days of "The New Frontier."
Indeed what a celebration this would be falling on
May 29, further rationalizing Beacon Hill's traditional Memorial Day
Week.
They're reaching for yet another "high hack holiday," as Boston
Herald columnist Howie Carr has termed these unique-to-Massachusetts
celebrations. Soon it will be easier if these public servants just
mark their calendars with the days they will be
working for their taxpayer-funded salaries and benefits.
Oh right -- they've already done that
and it's meaningless, as Eagle-Tribune State House correspondent
Meredith Warren reported yesterday.
What the Beacon Hill crowd needs is a time-clock, a
supervisor ... a boss.
That's supposed to be us.
But when has that mattered to this
Beacon Hill cabal when the majority keeps voting for self-abuse and
electing tyranny?
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Chip
Ford |
The Boston Globe
Saturday, November 8, 2003
4th down and holiday
By Sasha Talcott
We have Evacuation Day to commemorate the British exit from the Colonies in 1776 and Bunker Hill Day to mark the battle that was supposed to have been fought there, but (as any true New Englander knows) wasn't. And, of course, there's Patriots Day.
Now the state is considering adding another to its lengthy lineup of locally-observed holidays, under a proposal that would make President John F. Kennedy's birthday on May 29 an official holiday. It's a prospect that has Kennedy aficionados aflutter.
"It's just appropriate that the world recognizes what a great man he was and continues to be," said Ann Scanlon, director of communications at the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation. "It doesn't surprise us that everyone is rallying around this day."
The idea, which came before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary this week, has been tossed around the State House for two decades, pitting
JFK-idolizing politicians against those who worry that the May 29 date cuts too close to Memorial Day.
The Kennedy birthday would mark a 14th paid holiday for Massachusetts state employees. Only six states allow workers more paid holidays, according to the Council of State Governments.
"This is another one of those things that sets Massachusetts apart from states that don't have a constantly embarrassing government," said
Barbara Anderson, executive director of Citizens for Limited
Taxation. "Why don't they ask what they can do for their country, or their state, by being on the job?"
Let the word go forth to a new generation of state employees. A vote is expected on the measure in the next few months.
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The Eagle-Tribune
Sunday, November 9, 2003
Unending growth of government threatens recovery
By Taylor Armerding, Staff Writer
I'm getting dizzy from all the numbers over the past couple of weeks.
Dizzy because they are all so contradictory. On the one hand, we're supposed to be popping champagne corks because the economy grew at such a robust rate over the most recent quarter -- a mammoth 7.2 percent -- but then we're supposed to restrain our celebration because jobs didn't grow at a similar rate. In fact, they didn't grow at all.
We're supposed to be encouraged because consumer confidence rose, but then we're warned not to let this confidence stray into irrational exuberance, because business owners are not so confident. Indeed, there are fears that the purchasing bounce of the quarter that ended Oct. 1 was largely because of tax refund checks, and now that those are spent, the demand for goods will again subside.
Those fears may be well founded. There are any number of measures to track the health of the economy, but I think one of the most significant is not how much people's income went up, or even how much they are spending, but how much they have left over after they get done paying off government's cut, by whatever name -- taxes, fees or "voluntary assessments."
It is called "disposable income." And it is headed down. According to the Commerce Department, disposable income rose by 1.4 percent in July and 0.7 percent in August, but then dropped 1.2 percent in September.
What causes this? Of course, one's view of the world tends to guide what one thinks. Hence, some think it is caused by jobs lost to "outsourcing" -- the movement of American manufacturing jobs offshore, largely to the Far East. Some, like the Democratic candidates for president, contend that George W. Bush has single-handedly destroyed 3 million jobs. Some blame corporate pirates like Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco.
So, in the interests of full disclosure, I am among those who believe the most potent threat to economic recovery is the insatiable growth of government.
The most glaring example of this is the state budget, where in spite of the fact that it grew by several hundred million dollars this year, all we hear about are draconian "cuts" of nearly $3 billion. Think about what that means: Just to maintain government services at a level equal to last year means the citizenry has to increase their tax payments by $3 billion, or more than 13 percent. That is insatiable growth.
Ah, but Gov. Mitt Romney and the Legislature made all those exquisitely painful cuts, we are told, and therefore the growth is slowing, if not shrinking.
Not nearly enough. It is just bulging out in other places. Besides $650 million in new fees, the state has cut local aid to cities and towns. So, our city and town governments are using that as a reason to dig deeper into homeowners' pockets.
Supposedly, we are all protected from this by Proposition 2½. But the end runs around it are increasing. The most direct end run -- the override -- has been there from the start. But overrides are so unpredictable, you know, since a majority of taxpayers are frequently too dumb to understand how much they need to have their taxes raised.
It's easier, and more certain, to get around it in other ways. The earliest of these came a long time ago, when municipalities spun off their water and sewer departments to make them "self-supporting" -- off the budget and therefore beyond the reach of Prop.
2½.
But now there is a new crop of end runs. Used to be that if the town wanted to sponsor more affordable housing, buy open space or preserve its historic character, it did it within the budget. Now, we need a special, separate fund for those things brought to us by the Community Preservation Act, which adds up to 3 percent to our property tax bill. It's not a tax, of course. It's a voluntary "surcharge." True, it takes a vote to impose it, but then it's there for at least five years.
While it was nonbinding, Salem just voted to endorse a 4 percent tax on tickets to local tourist attractions. Topsfield still covets a tax on Topsfield Fair tickets. These are an easier sell because it comes mainly out of the pockets of people from "somewhere else." But, if those become reality, you can be sure every other community will find a way to suck money out of whoever passes through their borders.
All these efforts, whatever their name and whatever the pitch, mean the same thing: Government will do anything and everything to keep growing, and therefore, disposable income is shrinking. If you want to kill a recovery, that's about the most potent way to do it.
Taylor Armerding is associate editorial page editor of The Eagle-Tribune.
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The Eagle-Tribune
Sunday, November 9, 2003
Finneran's back but doing little
By Meredith Warren, Staff Writer
House Speaker Thomas Finneran physically returned from his Hawaiian vacation six weeks ago, but some at the Statehouse are wondering if mentally, Finneran is still relaxing on the sands of Waikiki Beach.
Since House members "returned" from vacation Sept. 30, they have met for formal, roll-call-taking sessions only four times. In the past two weeks, they've spent a total of three hours in their voting chairs.
That's surprising, considering Finneran listed 20 potential formal sessions on a calendar he sent to House members back in September.
But those calendars weren't a total waste of paper.
House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones, R-North Reading, and state Rep. Harriett Stanley, D-West Newbury, keep the schedules in their desks as records of the times Finneran decides the House can take the day off. Jones marks those days with a pink highlighter; Stanley prefers filling in the canceled sessions with a large black X.
"It's really embarrassing," Stanley said. "We ought to be working for our salary."
What could soon be used as scrap paper is the list of "goals for the coming fall" that Finneran attached to the calendar. It includes nine items Finneran wants the House to consider. They include affordable housing, unemployment insurance, creating a DNA database for use in criminal investigations, Medicaid, and the budget-busting School Building Assistance Program.
You can cross the DNA database off the list. It's the only list item the House has attended to since Sept. 30.
And with all those important topics to discuss, you know what House lawmakers talked about at their caucus last week? The Statehouse's new information technology system.
"The clock is ticking," said freshman state Rep. Barbara L'Italien, D-Andover. "The Senate's been doing, the governor's been doing, but the Speaker seems very detached. He's running the clock, and a lot of people don't like that. It doesn't make us look very good."
It's not that lawmakers don't expect to vote on Finneran's list of issues. They do. But they're prepared for Finneran to try and ram the bills through in a series of late-night, last-minute sessions, with little debate and few opportunities to offer amendments.
"They'll shoot out a bill, and expect no one to debate it," Jones said.
Haverhill state Rep. Brian Dempsey, D-Optimist, pointed out that just because the legislative year ends Nov. 19, the session doesn't end until next summer. That means all the issues the House doesn't get to this year, will just carry over to January.
Tick, tick, tick.
Meredith Warren covers the Statehouse for The Eagle-Tribune.
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