CLT
UPDATE
Friday, December 5, 2003
Boston DNC Convention:
Anatomy of an inevitable taxpayer mugging
As Mayor Thomas M. Menino fails to provide firm estimates of what the Democratic National Convention will cost City Hall, the Romney administration says state taxpayers won't put a dime toward funding the big
event.
The Boston Herald
Friday, December 5, 2003
Romney: Taxpayers won't foot DNC bill
Even if organizers do fulfill the $32.5 million commitment, that would still leave state and city taxpayers on the hook for $8 million. That figure could rise further if security costs increase beyond the current estimate of $25 million.
The Boston Globe
Friday, December 5, 2003
Convention funds near goal, DNC says
There are a mere six Republicans in the state Senate. That is not good for democracy. But the Democrats won't be content until all 40 seats are in their hands — even if they have to steal them....
It's pathetic that the Democratic Party, so dominant in the Legislature, must resort to illegal behavior to maintain an iron grip. The Republican Party has been forced to sue to change the election date. We think it will prevail because the law is clearly on its side: No election may be held until 15 weeks after the office is vacant.
An Enterprise editorial
Friday, December 5, 2003
Democrats try to steal an election; business as usual
None of the eight ballot initiatives that Attorney General Thomas Reilly cleared earlier this year submitted any signatures by Wednesday's
deadline.
The MetroWest Daily News
Friday, December 5, 2003
Pike toll question dies
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
We've now got on our website a time-line document of
the boondoggle that's about to cost taxpayers millions: the
Democratic National Convention, aka "Boston 2004." I've been
following this scam knowing full well that in the end it will cost us
taxpayers dearly; I've been saving each news report I came across for
over a year. During the past week I began compiling it as the inevitable
is becoming more clear, as anticipated. The time has come to make it
known.
"Anatomy of an inevitable taxpayer mugging"
is now available to the world. "Direct costs of outright taxpayer subsidies, indirect costs imposed by public employee unions pressure, and implied or perhaps explicit quid pro quo benefits to corporate large donors are just as inevitable as
'cost overruns' were to the Big Dig, as we predicted back in the mid-80s."
Grab your wallets, taxpayers!
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How about that? None of the eight initiative
petitions filed back in September ever got sufficient signatures. Yet
opponents of the process howl that it's "too easy"?
"Too easy" for groups that -- despite the Herculean
hurdles -- could produce signatures,
perhaps.
"Too easy" for groups that need go get almost
double the constitutionally-required number of signatures just to
discourage very expensive and time consuming frivolous signature
challenges by opponents who don't want the measure to make it onto the
ballot for voters to decide; opponents that attempt to drain a
campaign's funds early even if their legal challenge fails. (This is
why many ballot question proponents have learned to pay petitioners
for that recently-required buffer: It's less expensive to
spend the money up front to insure that you don't need to spend even
more later in defensive legal fees!)
"Too easy" for groups like CLT, when it was worth our while:
before the alleged "representatives of the people" decided
they could ignore the peoples' will with impunity -- give them what the
former senate president called "the
middle-finger salute" -- and we determined the ultimate
exercise in democracy is as corrupt as the rest of so-called
"representative government" in Massachusetts.
But we always got our required signatures, unless
assaulted by a legal challenge, as in one instance by the Massachusetts Teachers Association.
Then we were defeated
over 26 signatures after the state teachers union intimidated
and dragged senior citizens before the courts. This outrage went on
for many weeks.
Still we were close. Even after this despicable and
desperate assault by the greedy teachers union -- which spent millions then to
defeat us -- we were short by only 26 signatures, but we
fought tooth-and-nail for every one of them.
"Too easy" to qualify for the ballot?
Ask those eight who just recently tried.
Few can meet the threshold; few ever do.
CLT has consistently done it: Proposition 2½, the
Dukakis Surtax, Question 3 in 1990, the Income Tax Rollback in 2000 (my
two mandatory seat belt law repeals in 1986 and 1994, my efforts with
term limits in 1990 and 1994) and has contributed to others. It can be
done.
It just takes knowing how and a commitment few are
prepared to invest or exert.
But it is never easy. Ever.
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Chip
Ford |
The Boston Herald
Friday, December 5, 2003
Romney: Taxpayers won't foot DNC bill
By Ellen J. Silberman
As Mayor Thomas M. Menino fails to provide firm estimates of what the Democratic National Convention will cost City Hall, the Romney administration says state taxpayers won't put a dime toward funding the big event.
"The governor believes that taxpayers shouldn't have to finance any of the costs related to a political convention," said Republican Gov. Mitt Romney's spokeswoman, Shawn Feddeman.
Feddeman said the state will tally all its convention-related expenses - including state police overtime - and seek reimbursement from convention organizers after the Democrats leave town in July.
Whether the state's expenses will be covered by the $25 million in federal aid the city is seeking to defray security costs or by private fund raising is unclear.
The Herald reported yesterday security costs for the four-day event at the FleetCenter are soaring and expected to exceed $40 million.
The rising security costs come at the same time Boston 2004, the mayoral-run host committee, is struggling to secure $50 million in private donations to pay for the convention.
City officials Wednesday acknowledged their initial $10 million security budget was too low. But Menino yesterday denied the security bill would be $40 million. He declined to say how much he expected city taxpayers to shell out to cordon off the FleetCenter and protect the Democratic presidential nominee.
"The numbers aren't in yet," Menino told reporters, calling the Herald's report "erroneous." A letter circulated by New York lawmakers seeking $25 million apiece for Boston and New York City, which will host the Republican National Convention, estimated each city's security cost in excess of $40 million.
A similar letter drafted by the Massachusetts delegation said the combined security costs are "expected to exceed $80 million." Whatever the final security cost, Bay State Republicans say Menino should be keeping Boston residents in the loop.
"Ultimately, (Boston) taxpayers are going to get stuck with the bill," said Dominick
Ianno, executive director of the Massachusetts Republican Party. "We should have a better idea of what this is going to cost us."
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The Boston Globe
Friday, December 5, 2003
Convention funds near goal, DNC says
By Rick Klein and Yvonne Abraham, Globe Staff
Amid signals that their fund-raising is lagging, national Democrats yesterday put an upbeat spin on their convention in Boston next summer, entertaining reporters from across the country with a flashy ice show and saying their planning is ahead of schedule.
Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said the convention host committee is close to fulfilling its initial commitment of raising $32.5 million from private sources, in cash and in-kind contributions. He said the convention has enough cash already in the bank to cover all its bills through the first quarter of next year.
"They've done everything they said they would do, and they're very close to finishing up," McAuliffe said of the host committee. "We're in great shape. The mayor has done a great job. The host committee has done a great job."
But convention organizers declined requests to detail their fund-raising progress yesterday. A top convention official said last night that the host committee is "within striking distance" of raising $30 million, but declined to be more specific.
Last month, the Globe reported that the host committee had raised just $3 million in cash contributions and $4 million in in-kind donations in the year since winning the convention, after bringing in pledges of an unprecedented $20 million before winning the bid. Since that report, organizers have finalized just three more donations, each of less than $50,000, according to the host committee.
Even if organizers do fulfill the $32.5 million commitment, that would still leave state and city taxpayers on the hook for $8 million. That figure could rise further if security costs increase beyond the current estimate of $25 million. Last month, US House members from New York State, who were appealing for money for the Democrats in Boston and the Republicans in New York, wrote in a letter to top congressional lawmakers saying that "an accounting of the cost estimates for each city exceeds $40 million." Officials with the convention in Boston say that the letter was mistaken."No one from the city, the host committee, or any of the legislative offices ever saw that letter," said Julie Burns, executive director of Boston 2004, the host committee. "It misrepresented Boston's position." Organizers conceded yesterday that they don't know what the final price tag for security will be.
"If fund-raising's down and expenses are up, it's cause for concern," said Dominick
Ianno, executive director of the Massachusetts Republican Party. "You know who's going to fill the difference: the taxpayers." The convention's original budget was $49.5 million, but organizers say they now expect it to be closer to $65 million, because the federal government designated it a National Special Security Event. Congress is poised to approve $25 million for the convention, and the rest of the budget will be made up of some combination of private and public funding. Mayor Thomas M. Menino has said he will try to avoid the use of city taxpayers, and he favors the state picking up any slack because state tax coffers will benefit most from convention-related business. But Governor Mitt Romney opposes the use of tax money for political events, said Shawn Feddeman, Romney's press secretary.Yesterday Democrats sought to keep the focus away from fund-raising issues, instead touting Boston as a great place to launch their presidential nominee next spring. With 530 members of the national news media at the FleetCenter for a "walk-through," convention committee CEO Rod O'Connor took a partisan swipe at the GOP for its choice of a convention venue. "The Republicans have gone to New York to exploit a terrible moment in our history," O'Connor said. "We have come here to ignite a revolution."
The reporters were entertained by a video from the 2000 convention -- a montage of balloon drops set to rousing music -- and ice skaters decked in red and blue, gliding along the ice holding signs that said "234" and "Days to Go," and "Can't Wait to See You In July."
Organizers said planning was on track, but some potential obstacles emerged as convention officials led members of the media around the FleetCenter and its environs. A lack of media work space will mean some reporters and photographers will be stationed in tents next to the arena, and others will probably be placed in office buildings on the other side of the Central Artery. In addition, two additional rows of skyboxes will have to be constructed inside the arena to accommodate the expected crush of reporters.
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The Brockton Enterprise
Friday, December 5, 2003
An Enterprise editorial
Democrats try to steal an election; business as usual
There are a mere six Republicans in the state Senate. That is not good for democracy. But the Democrats won't be content until all 40 seats are in their hands — even if they have to steal them.
When Sen. Cheryl Jacques, D-Needham, said she would resign on Jan. 4, 2004, Democrats were initially upset because it meant they would not be allowed to have a special election on March 2, the same day as the presidential primaries.
A special election on that date, when Democrats would be turning out in droves, would guarantee that Jacques' seat, which had been held by a Republican until 1992, would stay in Democratic hands. "What to do," Democrats wonder. "Why, we'll just ignore the law and do what we want," they declared.
Why not? It's not as if anyone is going to stop them. Democrats who have led the Senate for decades regularly bent the law for their own good. In 1992, Senate President William Bulger waited for months before calling a special election for the vacant Second Worcester and Middlesex District seat so the final election could fall on the day of the presidential primary. Even with such chicanery, Robert Antonioni of Leominster, a Democrat, barely defeated his Republican opponent.
Now, new Senate President Robert Travaglini is pulling the same sleight of hand, except he is calling an election illegally early to give Democrats the best chance to win. And he is being aided and abetted by Secretary of State William Galvin, a Democrat.
When Jacques said she was resigning, Galvin said an election could be held no earlier than April because Jacques planned to hang on until January. Now, Galvin is claiming Jacques has already resigned.
Really? Then why is she still drawing a paycheck and collecting pension credits?
It's pathetic that the Democratic Party, so dominant in the Legislature, must resort to illegal behavior to maintain an iron grip. The Republican Party has been forced to sue to change the election date. We think it will prevail because the law is clearly on its side: No election may be held until 15 weeks after the office is vacant. That makes March 2 too soon.
This is a black mark on the record of Travaglini, who falsely claimed he is just trying to save taxpayers money, and a stain on the secretary of state's office, which is putting party politics above the law. For the most part, though, it is business as usual in Massachusetts.
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The MetroWest Daily News
Friday, December 5, 2003
Pike toll question dies
By Michael Kunzelman, Staff Writer
A proposed law that called for abolishing all Massachusetts Turnpike tolls west of Rte. 128 failed to qualify for the November 2004 ballot when its sponsors missed Wednesday's deadline for submitting signatures.
The ballot initiative would have required the Pike to remove all tolls between Weston and the New York border and on the Tobin bridge by January 2005.
To qualify for next fall's ballot, the plan's sponsors had to collect at least 65,825 registered signatures. But they didn't submit a single signature by Wednesday's 5 p.m. deadline, according to Secretary of State William Galvin's office.
"They're done for this (election) cycle," said Galvin spokesman Brian
McNiff.
Alisia Jezierny, a 24-year-old restaurant worker from Newton who helped organize the ballot initiative, didn't return a telephone call seeking comment.
The toll foes weren't alone in failing to qualify for the ballot.
None of the eight ballot initiatives that Attorney General Thomas Reilly cleared earlier this year submitted any signatures by Wednesday's deadline.
The only initiative that appeared to meet the signature requirement was a proposed constitutional amendment that calls for obligating the governor and the Legislature to provide universal, affordable health care for every Massachusetts resident, according to
McNiff.
If Galvin's office certifies its signatures, the proposed amendment must be approved by two successive sessions of the Legislature before it could reach the ballot in 2006, at the earliest.
In addition to abolishing Pike tolls in the western part of the state, Jezierny's proposed law would have revamped the board that oversees the Turnpike Authority and allowed drivers to appeal their Fast Lane violations to a court instead of the Pike.
Turnpike board member Christy Mihos, an outspoken supporter of eliminating tolls, said he is disappointed the initiative isn't moving forward.
"My sense is that it was a serious effort, but I wasn't really involved in it," the Cohasset businessman said. "I'm sure it would have run very strong in certain parts of the state. People who aren't paying tolls probably could care less about the fight."
Mihos, meanwhile, is pushing his own plan to eliminate tolls.
During the Pike board's Nov. 21 meeting, Turnpike general counsel Michael Powers told Mihos it would take at least a year and cost about $1 million to study the ramifications of abolishing tolls west of Rte. 128.
Mihos said the study shouldn't take nearly that long.
"We've only been running this road for 49 years," he cracked. "I think we already know what the issues are."
The other proposed laws that failed to qualify for the ballot would have:
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