Every time Citizens for Limited Taxation wants
a tax cut, or resists a tax hike, we are asked by our opponents:
"Where would you cut"? And we consistently maintain that, as
taxpayers who provide the state budget revenues, it is not our
job to answer that question before we get to keep some of our
own money.
This is not to say we wouldn’t like to have a list. Clearly the
best people to know exactly where to cut are the state
department heads. So we were delighted when Governor Patrick
asked them to come up with recommendations on cutting the state
budget within their areas of expertise, and looked forward to
seeing the suggestions.
The deadline for submitting the recommendations to the Governor
was last week. But when asked by a reporter, the Patrick
Administration said it wouldn’t share; not sharing with the
media means not sharing with the taxpayers – whose money is
under discussion here.
How "can we, together", if, together, we don’t have all the
information? So CLT is filing a freedom of information request
so that all citizens can be included in the debate on how to
deal with the predicted budget deficit.