CLT
UPDATE
Friday, September 17, 2004
Support or adopt a reformer
After a week of examining 183 outside sections in the $649 million supplemental budget sent to his desk late last Thursday, Gov. Mitt Romney said the 10 days allotted to review the bill is too little, given all the earmarks and special projects included in the package.
"Many of these projects we have never heard of. When I say we, I mean no one in state government – the administration – had ever heard of until we saw them in this legislation," Romney said of the earmarked projects in the bill. "And virtually all of them come with no explanation." ...
In the bill "it’s just money and the name of the project," Romney said, declining to comment on any specifics in the bill.
State House News Service
Thursday, September 17, 2004
Romney: Lawmakers okayed projects that no one has heard of
[Hudson] could net nearly $500,000 in unexpected cash as well as funding for a study of the Assabet River if a new supplemental appropriations bill is approved this weekend.
Hudson is slated to receive $172,931 in unrestricted local aid as well as $700,000 for school special education costs.
The town had budgeted conservatively, expecting only $400,000 in aid through the special education circuit breaker, said Executive Assistant Paul
Blazar, so a $300,000 surplus is a welcome surprise....
The bill also calls for $500,000 to partially fund a study of sediment and dam removal of the Assabet River, if the Assabet River Consortium decides to pursue it....
Fire Chief Fred Dusseault said he was not sure what he would buy for the department, but that between homeland security demands and local firefighting needs "the department is always looking at various pieces of equipment that would benefit the community."
The MetroWest Daily News
Friday, September 17, 2004
Town may get nearly $500,000 more from state
than it had anticipated
After Town Meeting approved a general override of $422,000 this spring that will permanently increase residents' tax rate ... the town has been informed that it will receive an additional $440,523 from the state in charter school reimbursement funds....
"Will we be receiving our tax money back, or just how will the money be spent," the resident asked in e-mail to the Reporter.
Town Accountant Bart Snow indicated that it doesn't work that way. The money will not be returned to the taxpayers, nor will the Town Meeting vote be cancelled.
The charter school reimbursement funds will go into the town's general fund, as mandated by state law, and will be figured in next year's free cash reserves, explained Snow.
The Marblehead Reporter
Thursday, September 9, 2004
Where will charter reimbursement funds go?
Two years ago, our selectmen at the time ... voted to place an override on the ballot that told senior citizens, and the rest of us, that if we didn't vote for teacher pay raises, we wouldn't have our trash picked up and would have to haul it to the dump ourselves....
Marblehead voters passed another permanent override this spring because as usual, the schools were short. The amount of the override was $422,000. Marblehead has just received an unexpected charter school reimbursement from the state of $440,523. This means that our present town budget has roughly this amount more than it needs, so the tax rate should not increase to include the override, right? ...
If it somehow gets spent instead, then someone please add legalized theft to the list of legalized extortion and lying and bring me a recall petition for Marblehead town government in general. I'll sign.
The Marblehead Reporter
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Letter to the editor from Barbara Anderson
Recall the extortionists
Governor Mitt Romney is laying plans for an unprecedented television advertising blitz that will use his image to turn local legislative races into a statewide referendum on reform, taxes, and Beacon Hill cronyism as part of a broad GOP strategy to cut into the Democrats' overwhelming majority in the Legislature....
Breaking records for GOP spending, Romney and the party has used roughly $2.7 million from a federal campaign account since January 2003 to help build the long-dormant party apparatus, and distributed another $1 million from the state Republican Party account to 92 candidates over the last several months, records show. The accounts still have about $1 million on-hand for the final push this fall, the records show....
Democratic Party chairman Philip Johnston doubted Romney's statewide ad campaign would impact local races, saying such contests are decided by local issues and local personalities. "I don't think he has the kind of popularity that he can turn into any significant defeats of Democratic legislators," he said.
The Boston Globe
Friday, September 17, 2004
Romney targeting legislative races
Will be featured in ads for GOP candidates
Citizens for Limited Taxation is not doing a petition drive this year. We are still working on the last initiative petition, our income tax rollback which passed 59-41 in 2000 – but was "frozen" in 2002 by the Legislature despite a previous governor’s veto.
We won’t ask CLT activists to futilely collect signatures and support another ballot campaign until we can sustain a veto when the legislative leadership ignores a voter mandate and moves to repeal or "freeze" a citizens-created law.
So all of our effort this fall is going into support for Governor Romney’s reform agenda, and into ousting disrespectful and arrogant legislators.
CLT NEWS RELEASE
September 16, 2004
CLT Presents "The Super Sixty-Seven"
(since yesterday it's now up to 70!)
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
Yesterday we launched our fall offensive.
Along with the above news release, we've begun
providing information on how YOU can help yourself and us in taking back
an out-of-control state government. We've provided a list of the
candidates who the CLT 2˝ PAC has endorsed and will be working with to
help elect. Go
to the list and find a candidate near you -- then contact their
campaign and volunteer, or send the campaign a contribution.
There will be no more petition drives, no tax
rollback, no accountability or respect until we put the fear of the
electorate into entrenched Beacon Hill lifers -- and that means tossing
some of the rascals out on their butts. But that won't happen without
support for these daring new challengers.
The cry in the past has been "there's nobody to
vote for against the rascal." That's no longer true. If there's not
a challenger running against your incumbent -- adopt a candidate:
find one nearby and work to help elect him or her! One party cannot
continue ruling over us ... or things will only get worse. And yes, they
can get worse.
So far we've managed to dodge a tax increase -- but
embolden the incumbents and watch what happens after the election when
change is too late.
On the other hand, elect a slate of reform
challengers, turn over the rock on the status quo in the Legislature,
and watch how quickly we earn the Beacon Hill survivors' respect at
last.
As we and others predicted,
the Beacon Hill feeding frenzy is on -- an election year tactic to bring
home the bacon and gather in the votes. Unfortunately this is not
limited to one party, and explains why we were again
betrayed by our allies-of-convenience in the minority party.
The Legislature couldn't find the money to honor the
voters' mandate and follow through with our tax rollback in the
supplemental budget that now sits on the governor's desk, but they found
the money to stuff it full of pork for their districts -- Democrats and
Republicans alike.
Of the 183 "outside sections" of the
supplemental budget, "Many of these projects we have never heard of. When I say we, I mean no one in state government – the administration – had ever heard of until we saw them in this legislation,"
Governor Romney observed. This is government at its worst.
"Fire Chief Fred Dusseault said he was not sure what he would buy for the department, but that between homeland security demands and local firefighting needs
'the department is always looking at various pieces of equipment that would benefit the
community.'"
"Is always looking" is the operational
phrase.
"More Is Never Enough!" (MINE) ... and more
never will be.
Marblehead recently had an override to fund schools.
Then Marblehead to its surprise received more than enough state funding
to make the override unnecessary. Will the town fathers and mothers
return the needless tax increase to taxpayers?
"Town Accountant Bart Snow indicated that it doesn't work that way. The money will not be returned to the taxpayers, nor will the Town Meeting vote be cancelled."
Like the voters' statewide tax rollback, it's MINE
now.
That attitude must be changed. Now's our best chance
to change it.
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Chip
Ford |
State House News Service
Thursday, September 17, 2004
Romney: Lawmakers okayed projects that no one has heard of
After a week of examining 183 outside sections in the $649 million supplemental budget sent to his desk late last Thursday, Gov. Mitt Romney said the 10 days allotted to review the bill is too little, given all the earmarks and special projects included in the package.
"Many of these projects we have never heard of. When I say we, I mean no one in state government – the administration – had ever heard of until we saw them in this legislation," Romney said of the earmarked projects in the bill. "And virtually all of them come with no explanation."
Under state law, Romney has until Sunday to issue vetoes or amendments, sign the entire bill or let it become law without his signature. The governor said he and his staff have been "racing" through the bill all week, in many cases calling cities and towns to inquire about a certain project.
In the bill "it’s just money and the name of the project," Romney said, declining to comment on any specifics in the bill.
Romney’s communications director Eric Fehrnstrom could not say whether the governor would announce any vetoes Friday, and said the governor has meetings scheduled for Friday morning on the supplemental budget.
"We wouldn’t make any announcements until we knew we had all our ducks in a row," Fehrnstrom said. "And right now, conversations continue."
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The MetroWest Daily News
Friday, September 17, 2004
Town may get nearly $500,000 more from state
than it had anticipated
By Carolyn Kessel Stewart, Staff Writer
HUDSON -- The town could net nearly $500,000 in unexpected cash as well as funding for a study of the Assabet River if a new supplemental appropriations bill is approved this weekend.
Hudson is slated to receive $172,931 in unrestricted local aid as well as $700,000 for school special education costs.
The town had budgeted conservatively, expecting only $400,000 in aid through the special education circuit breaker, said Executive Assistant Paul
Blazar, so a $300,000 surplus is a welcome surprise.
The money will be split between the town and schools. The town will apply its share, $154,000, to next year's general fund, Blazar said, and the schools will pave the Apsley Administration Building parking lot with its share.
The bill called for $75 million to be distributed in local aid to cities and towns, as well as other local spending on transportation and local projects. Gov. Romney has until Sunday to veto any portion of the bill.
"I think there is a very good chance," this bill will go through, said state Sen. Pamela
Resor, D-Acton.
"A lot of these are very important projects to local communities," she said. But, "it is very tough to predict what this governor will veto."
The bill also calls for $500,000 to partially fund a study of sediment and dam removal of the Assabet River, if the Assabet River Consortium decides to pursue it.
The state Department of Environmental Protection has determined a phosphate emissions limit for towns that discharge treated wastewater into the river, but the phosphate stuck in the riverbed still needs to be removed.
The Consortium is a collaborative, including Marlborough, Maynard, Northborough, Shrewsbury, and Westborough, that is working to improve the environmental health of the river basin.
The Army Corp of Engineers had originally considered doing the study, but the grant was not funded by Congress, Blazar said.
Each city and town will also receive one-time firefighting equipment grants of at least $5,000 each.
Fire Chief Fred Dusseault said he was not sure what he would buy for the department, but that between homeland security demands and local firefighting needs "the department is always looking at various pieces of equipment that would benefit the community."
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The Marblehead Reporter
Thursday, September 9, 2004
Where will charter reimbursement funds go?
By Bette Keva
After Town Meeting approved a general override of $422,000 this spring that will permanently increase residents' tax rate by slightly less than 10 cents or $50 on an average tax bill, the town has been informed that it will receive an additional $440,523 from the state in charter school reimbursement funds.
With approximately the same amount of money coming into the town as it was short to cover school costs, one resident wanted to know if the override would be cancelled.
"Will we be receiving our tax money back, or just how will the money be spent," the resident asked in e-mail to the Reporter.
Town Accountant Bart Snow indicated that it doesn't work that way. The money will not be returned to the taxpayers, nor will the Town Meeting vote be cancelled.
The charter school reimbursement funds will go into the town's general fund, as mandated by state law, and will be figured in next year's free cash reserves, explained Snow.
"We anticipate what revenues we will take in based on the year ending June 30, but we don't know what we are going to take in in June. We do the best job we can and it's usually pretty accurate," said Snow.
"What is $400,000 in a more than $50 million budget? Less than 1 percent," he added. "Lots of local receipts would vary by that amount of money."
Local receipts, composed of excise tax, interest and fees, "are all quite variable. The motor vehicle excise alone could be $400,000. If you had a special town meeting every time you got news that revenues went up or down, you could have one every week."
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The Marblehead Reporter
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Letter to the editor from Barbara Anderson
Recall the extortionists
Like many other Marblehead voters, I was appalled to learn that John Liming had lied on his resume and I certainly understand the arguments for his resignation. However, I declined to sign the petition calling for it because I'm placing this discussion in context.
Two years ago, our selectmen at the time - which includes three of the people presently unhappy with John Liming - voted to place an override on the ballot that told senior citizens, and the rest of us, that if we didn't vote for teacher pay raises, we wouldn't have our trash picked up and would have to haul it to the dump ourselves. In fact, the reason I voted for Liming was that he pledged that he would never vote to extort money from us in this way.
Lying or legal yet shameful extortion: gee, what a choice. Guess I'll go with the selectman who isn't costing me money.
We may soon be able to add legalized theft to the list. Marblehead voters passed another permanent override this spring because as usual, the schools were short. The amount of the override was $422,000. Marblehead has just received an unexpected charter school reimbursement from the state of $440,523. This means that our present town budget has roughly this amount more than it needs, so the tax rate should not increase to include the override, right? While there is no process for the unneeded $422,000 to be withdrawn, it should remain on the books as excess capacity and avoid any need for another override for school operations, right?
If it somehow gets spent instead, then someone please add legalized theft to the list of legalized extortion and lying and bring me a recall petition for Marblehead town government in general. I'll sign.
Barbara Anderson
Village Street
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The Boston Globe
Friday, September 17, 2004
Romney targeting legislative races
Will be featured in ads for GOP candidates
By Frank Phillips & Raphael Lewis, Globe Staff
Governor Mitt Romney is laying plans for an unprecedented television advertising blitz that will use his image to turn local legislative races into a statewide referendum on reform, taxes, and Beacon Hill cronyism as part of a broad GOP strategy to cut into the Democrats' overwhelming majority in the Legislature.
Republicans will also employ direct mail campaigns, mount an extensive grass-roots operation, and employ a computerized voter identification system to target 20 to 30 legislative districts where Romney ran strong in 2002, and where local candidates have demonstrated they have a chance of beating the Democratic incumbents, strategists said.
Breaking records for GOP spending, Romney and the party has used roughly $2.7 million from a federal campaign account since January 2003 to help build the long-dormant party apparatus, and distributed another $1 million from the state Republican Party account to 92 candidates over the last several months, records show. The accounts still have about $1 million on-hand for the final push this fall, the records show.
"We are looking to turn the momentum around," said Alex Dunn, Romney's hand-picked political strategist, who speaks bluntly about the weaknesses of the state Republican Party until the new push.
Dunn said that he anticipates Romney will go on television this fall to tout a broad reform theme designed to define the issues and to lure independent and Republican voters to the polls. He declined to provide further details of the statewide television effort, but said it is likely to feature Romney appealing to voters to bolster the Republicans' numbers at the State House.
The governor will hit the Democrats for their refusal to embrace his plans for overhauling state government, "cleaning up the mess" on Beacon Hill, lowering income taxes, and empowering educators. Romney will not push two controversial public policy issues that he has championed as governor -- the creation of a fool-proof death penalty law and a constitutional ban on gay marriage, Dunn said.
With his political reputation at stake in these elections, Romney has turned to Michael Murphy, a national Republican consultant who guided the governor through his election campaign and now advises him on political strategy. Murphy, whose clients ininclude Arnold Schwarzenegger and US Senator John McCain, will design the ads.
"I have been talking to Murphy on questions about certain races, but his focus is on the statewide message," Dunn said.
As part of the strategy, Romney, who has been criticized by Democrats for frequent out-of-state trips over the summer, is expected to campaign on behalf of individual legislative candidates in their district at least one day a week until the Nov. 2 election. On Tuesday, Romney made several campaign stops in Boston, Framingham, and Shrewsbury to tout his legislative campaign effort.
Romney has said he wants to avoid personality clashes with top legislative Democrats, but in private letters to supporters he singled out House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran as symbolic of the old politics he wants to change.
In the letters, Romney described the House speaker as backroom political figure who is "arrogant" and accused him and the Democrats of employing "underhanded tactics" to "tarnish my image" and to attack him personally.
"If you think about it, Tom Finneran represents all that is bad about politics," Romney said in one recent mass fund-raising letter, in which he charged that the speaker and the Democrats are playing hardball. In a postscript, he notes: "Tom Finneran is the poster child for patronage, waste, and blocking my reforms at every turn."
Nonetheless, in an interview, Dunn denied the GOP will direct its public attacks at Finneran. "We don't need to demonize Finneran," he said.
In the 2002 gubernatorial election, the Romney campaign, in an ad that many analysts said turned a tight election in his favor in the last few days, featured photos of Finneran and Senator Robert E. Travaglini, now Senate president, beside Romney's Democratic opponent Shannon O'Brien. The ad called them the "gang of three" and suggested voters should put a Republican outsider to rein in the legislative leaders.
"Those comments are particiularly acidic," said state Representative Eugene L. O'Flaherty, a Democrat from Chelsea and House chairman of the Judiciary Committee. "I believe it is only designed to counteract a very effective leadership by Finneran to get a message out there that the governor's proposals are nothing but fluff, and the Legislature has passed reforms that I believe are reflective of his leadership."
Democratic Party chairman Philip Johnston doubted Romney's statewide ad campaign would impact local races, saying such contests are decided by local issues and local personalities. "I don't think he has the kind of popularity that he can turn into any significant defeats of Democratic legislators," he said.
Republican strategists agree that, despite the help from the state party and Romney, local issues will help decide the contests, and the individual candidates will be in charge of their races.
How well Romney does could be key to his potential future as a candidate for the White House. One of his potential selling points to national Republicans is that he can be popular and can successfully challenge Democrats in Democratic strongholds such as Massachusetts. By personally campaigning and appearing in advertisements, he is putting his political prestige on the line.
Republicans are narrowing the list of targeted seats down from the 134 candidates that Romney and other Republicans cited when they were boasting about the number of recruits for the fall's office. Dunn estimates that the list of winnable seats is between 24 and 30. Republicans hold seven seats in the 40-member Senate and 22 in the 160-member House, far from enough to insulate Romney's vetoes from Democratic overrides.
The state Republican Party gave nearly $1 million to 92 GOP legislative candidates in the first eight months of the year, according to records kept by the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance -- but about $100,000 went to helping then-Representative Scott Brown win a special Senate election to fill the seat vacated by Cheryl Jacques of Needham.
Of the $1 million spent so far, most has been dispersed in the form of access to detailed voter registration databases, valued at around $10,000 each, that Romney campaign officials credit with his big win in 2002. Dozens of candidates have also received $3,000 in cash.
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