CLT UPDATE
Monday, July 21, 2008
The end is upon us -- join the celebration!
Get a load of these fresh numbers from
our
Survey USA Fast Track on what voters are and aren't willing to do to
help the state dig out of its crushing debt burden....
Who's the big winner in all of this dreadful news? The group pushing
that November ballot question to repeal the state income tax.
Keller @ Large Blog
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Public to Toll Hikers: Drop Dead
By Jon Keller
No one would really be surprised by the
results of a poll released last week that showed, well, Massachusetts residents
really, really don’t like tax hikes.
But the results of the poll taken by SurveyUSA for WBZ-TV ought to serve as a
warning to state lawmakers as they wrestle with a host of bond bills, including
an effort to shore up the shaky finances of the Massachusetts Turnpike....
Sure the state is between the proverbial rock and a hard place on roadway debt,
but then so are the taxpayers these days. You can’t ask people who can’t afford
to fill up their tanks any more to dip further into their pockets [by raising
the gas tax]. In addition to being unfair, it would increase the level of public
anger to such a point that that income tax repeal on the November ballot would
just go sailing through.
A Boston Herald editorial
Monday, July 21, 2008
Taxpayers yell ouch!
The case of a Boston firefighter who took part in a national
bodybuilding competition while collecting a tax-free disability pension sparked
an outcry for public-pension reform, with good reason. The rip-off was
stunningly bold.
The episode resonates because it is symptomatic of the Bulgerization of the
system — the attitude, on Beacon Hill and beyond, the system is fair game to be
milked to the maximum....
But as a
Pioneer Institute study last year concluded, the system is “riddled with
exceptions, ambiguities and loopholes” that add $125 million a year to pension
costs and $3 billion to the state’s long-term pension liability.
The century-old retirement system is in dire need of reform, as is the
game-the-system attitude harbored by all too many members of the public work
force.
A Telegram & Gazette editorial
Monday, July 21, 2008
Pension rip-offs
Gaming the system a widespread problem
Albert Arroyo, the Boston firefighter and professional
bodybuilder, paid 13 visits to Dr. John F. Mahoney, including five examinations
in the 13 months before Mahoney concluded in April that Arroyo was "totally and
permanently" disabled from a back injury....
Mahoney's assertion that he had no idea Arroyo was a bodybuilder prompted a
sharp rebuke yesterday from Samuel R. Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal
Research Bureau, a business-supported watchdog agency.
"Dr. Mahoney's statement that he did not notice Mr. Arroyo's bodybuilding
physique with his shirt off is not believable," Tyler said. Such a "go along"
attitude by Mahoney and others, Tyler, added, "contributes to abuse of the
disability retirement system, and those abuses are costing taxpayers millions of
dollars."
Mahoney is no stranger to firefighters with back and spine injuries. He was the
Fire Department's in-house medical officer for two years in the early 1980s. And
city records made available to the Globe under a public records request indicate
that since 2001, Mahoney has seen 25 firefighters whose injuries he determined
to be so severe that the city should award them accidental disability
pensions....
"I knew my practice would be destroyed. I accept that," Mahoney said. "I am
prepared to get [expletive]. . . . Holy [expletive]. I am [expletive] and it was
in the stars."
He added: "I'm going to look like a foolish doc getting money from the city,
knowing someone's a bodybuilder and writing a letter that he's disabled, and not
knowing he's a scam artist." ...
The Arroyo case has further fueled criticism over alleged fire department
pension abuses, which in April spawned a federal grand jury investigation.
Scores of firefighters have been subpoenaed and federal agents have issued
sweeping subpoenas for thousands of documents from several city agencies.
One question that has left many perplexed is why nearly 75 percent of all
firefighters who retired between 2005 and 2007 received accidental disability
pensions, many of them after languishing on injured leave, at 100 percent of
their pay, tax-free, for several years.
The Boston Globe
Monday, July 21, 2008
Doctor defends firefighter diagnosis
Says he didn't know about bodybuilding
News this week that the total cost of Boston's Central Artery
Tunnel project, the Big Dig, will top $22 billion once interest payments are
included set off a predictable dance of denial on Beacon Hill....
Reforms? Saving money? Pardon us if we chuckle. Neither the governor nor the
Legislature has given any indication of a willingness to make the tough choices
reform requires. The governor's plan to spend $3 billion repairing 250 to 300
bridges over the next eight years involves borrowing $1.1 billion against future
federal highway reimbursements. This governmental equivalent of a payday loan is
hardly a model of fiscal prudence....
It's hard not to believe that the governor and the Legislature will eventually
turn to higher taxes and tolls to meet the Big Dig debt while continuing to fund
every other spending request and pet project that comes their way.
The governor and the Legislature have to learn to say "No!" when state retirees
seek a raise despite the fact that the state's pension plan remains underfunded.
They will have to say "No!" to requests for hundreds of millions more for
education.
They will have to say "No!" to the idea that some state workers can retire in
their 50s and collect 80 percent of their pay for the rest of their lives.
They will have to say "No!" to cities' and towns' requests for ever more state
aid.
That means municipal governments will have to say "No!" to employee raises and
spending hikes.
If the leaders of government at all levels cannot or will not say "No!" then the
taxpayers will have to say "Yes!" on the ballot question this fall to repeal the
state income tax.
If elected officials will not control spending of their own free will, the
taxpayers will compel them to by shutting down the flow of cash that makes it
possible.
An Eagle-Tribune editorial
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Big Dig debt means state must say 'No' to other plans
Jaws clenched, blood pressures spiked, and radio talk-show
hosts spontaneously combusted when the Globe reported last week that the $15
billion Big Dig - formerly known as the $12.2 billion Big Dig, and more formerly
as the $7.7 billion Big Dig, and even, once upon a time, as the $2.5 billion Big
Dig - will in fact cost a staggering $22 billion and not be paid off until 2038.
The Page 1 story was filled with infuriating details, such as the revelation
that 80 percent of Massachusetts Highway Department employees are being paid
with borrowed money. Bay State politicians originally sold voters on the Big Dig
in part by assuring them that Washington would pick up 90 percent of the cost.
In reality, nearly three-fourths of the tab is coming from the pockets of
Massachusetts drivers and taxpayers....
Then there are all the other public employees milking the Massachusetts pension
system....
Column after column could be filled with the ways the Massachusetts political
class and its hangers-on play taxpayers for suckers - the gold-plated tax breaks
for moviemakers, the insanely lucrative sick-time buybacks, the indefensible
police details, the public-sector-only paid holidays, the "temporary" tax hikes
that last forever, the state budgets that keep growing even as family budgets
shrink.
It will never end - not until the suckers get riled up enough to fight back. Not
until they start throwing incumbents out of office, instead of blindly
reelecting them. Not until they stop letting themselves be treated as ATMs for
politicians and doormats for public-employee unions. Not until they force their
public "servants" to defer to them, instead of the other way around.
"Are you on your hind legs?" Willie Stark would say. "Have you learned that much
yet?" Well, have you?
The Boston Globe
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Are we angry enough to fight back?
By Jeff Jacoby
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
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 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.
 |
|
Chip Ford |
Keller @ Large Blog
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Public to Toll Hikers: Drop Dead
By Jon Keller
Get a load of these fresh
numbers from
our Survey USA Fast Track on what voters are and aren't willing to
do to help the state dig out of its crushing debt burden.
My guess is the 40% willing to see higher Pike tolls to pay for the Big
Dig and road and bridge repairs (58% are opposed) reflects the fact that
many drivers don't ever use the Pike. Because when you look at the other
crosstabs, you see overwhelming opposition, in the 70-to-90% range, to
more wide-ranging toll hikes, higher gas taxes, or a steeper income tax.
Notice also how disgust with the situation and the prospect of paying
runs sharply higher among women than men. Why? Women tend to be the
family bookkeepers more often than men, and are, in general smarter.
Who's the big winner in all of this dreadful news?
The group
pushing that November ballot question to repeal the state income tax.
The Boston Herald
Monday, July 21, 2008
A Boston Herald editorial
Taxpayers yell ouch!
No one would really be
surprised by the results of a poll released last week that showed, well,
Massachusetts residents really, really don’t like tax hikes.
But the results of the poll taken by SurveyUSA for WBZ-TV ought to serve
as a warning to state lawmakers as they wrestle with a host of bond
bills, including an effort to shore up the shaky finances of the
Massachusetts Turnpike.
Asked if they would support “increasing tolls on the Mass Pike to help
pay for Big Dig debt and repairs on other state roads and bridges,” 40
percent of the 500 surveyed said they would, and 58 percent were
opposed. Now that’s about as good as it’s going to get.
Putting tolls on other state highways? That was opposed by 72 percent of
those surveyed, compared to 24 percent who were supportive of the idea.
But when asked about raising the gas tax (no amount was mentioned for
the increase), a whopping 89 percent said fuhgedaboudit! The results for
those supporting an increase in the income tax to pay for Pike and
highway costs were similar - 87 percent opposed, 10 percent in support.
Sure the state is between the proverbial rock and a hard place on
roadway debt, but then so are the taxpayers these days. You can’t ask
people who can’t afford to fill up their tanks any more to dip further
into their pockets. In addition to being unfair, it would increase the
level of public anger to such a point that that income tax repeal on the
November ballot would just go sailing through.
The Telegram & Gazette
Monday, July 21, 2008
A Telegram & Gazette editorial
Pension rip-offs
Gaming the system a widespread problem
The case of a Boston
firefighter who took part in a national bodybuilding competition while
collecting a tax-free disability pension sparked an outcry for
public-pension reform, with good reason. The rip-off was stunningly
bold.
The episode resonates because it is symptomatic of the Bulgerization of
the system — the attitude, on Beacon Hill and beyond, the system is fair
game to be milked to the maximum.
While erstwhile Senate president William M. Bulger didn’t invent
pension-law manipulation, his successful bid to boost his six-figure
pension as UMass president by counting his housing allowance as income
certainly inspired a trend, with former public college presidents among
the first trying to board the gravy train.
Last year, three former lawmakers took the housing-allowance dodge a
step further. Thomas N. George, Marie J. Parente and Susan W. Pope hoped
to get a $5,900-a-year pension bump by counting as income office and
travel allowances, and even the value of their Statehouse parking
spaces. The Retirement Board properly rebuffed the maneuver.
An equally outrageous claim came from an aide to House Speaker Salvatore
F. DiMasi. At age 42, with only 20 years in public employ, Donna Sweeney
qualified for a $4,000 pension. However, she inflated it five-fold to
$20,000 by being “fired” rather than resigning, invoking a provision
intended to protect state employees from political firings.
Inexplicably, the Retirement Board accepted the claim, even though the
provision does not cover deals in which employee and supervisor turn a
resignation into a firing.
Then there’s the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
early-retirement giveaway. A Boston Globe exposé last August detailed a
policy enabling MBTA employees to draw substantial pensions before age
50 — and go on to second careers. Former general manager Michael Mulhern,
for instance, reportedly got a pension of about $130,000 a year, then
snagged a $225,000 post running (of all things) the MBTA Employees
Retirement Fund.
Also double dipping are scores of retired educators across the state who
the Globe found are collecting both a public pension and full-time
salary under a much-abused “critical need” exemption. The pension and
salary of Framingham Superintendent Eugene Thayer, for example,
reportedly totaled about $277,000.
The public pension system covers all state and local government
employees, including teachers — some 176,000 public employees and 96,000
retirees, all told. Most clearly do not abuse it.
But as
a
Pioneer Institute study last year concluded, the system is “riddled
with exceptions, ambiguities and loopholes” that add $125 million a year
to pension costs and $3 billion to the state’s long-term pension
liability.
The century-old retirement system is in dire need of reform, as is the
game-the-system attitude harbored by all too many members of the public
work force.
The Boston Globe
Monday, July 21, 2008
Doctor defends firefighter diagnosis
Says he didn't know about bodybuilding
By Walter V. Robinson
Albert Arroyo, the Boston
firefighter and professional bodybuilder, paid 13 visits to Dr. John F.
Mahoney, including five examinations in the 13 months before Mahoney
concluded in April that Arroyo was "totally and permanently" disabled
from a back injury.
Although Mahoney said Arroyo doffed his shirt during appointments, the
neurologist at Caritas Carney Hospital insisted he never noticed
Arroyo's near Hulk-like physique - until he saw Arroyo's photo in the
Globe a week ago.
"If someone is doing bodybuilding and doesn't tell me, how the hell
would I know?" said Mahoney when the Globe asked him Friday about
Arroyo, a professional bodybuilder since 2003.
Mahoney said he noticed nothing amiss when he examined Arroyo, who
looked to him like any patient who has "lost some weight and was working
hard on his physical therapy and being fit."
He added: "When I saw that picture in the paper, I didn't recognize him
as the man who came to my office."
Mahoney's assertion that he had no idea Arroyo was a bodybuilder
prompted a sharp rebuke yesterday from Samuel R. Tyler, president of the
Boston Municipal Research Bureau, a business-supported watchdog agency.
"Dr. Mahoney's statement that he did not notice Mr. Arroyo's
bodybuilding physique with his shirt off is not believable," Tyler said.
Such a "go along" attitude by Mahoney and others, Tyler, added,
"contributes to abuse of the disability retirement system, and those
abuses are costing taxpayers millions of dollars."
Mahoney is no stranger to firefighters with back and spine injuries. He
was the Fire Department's in-house medical officer for two years in the
early 1980s. And city records made available to the Globe under a public
records request indicate that since 2001, Mahoney has seen 25
firefighters whose injuries he determined to be so severe that the city
should award them accidental disability pensions. Of the 25
firefighters, 21 have had their disability pensions approved; four
others are awaiting final approval.
The Arroyo case has focused attention on the doctors who give the
approvals for firefighters to collect tax-free, lifelong disability
pensions.
On May 3, just 15 days after Mahoney decided Arroyo could no longer
work, the firefighter competed in a national bodybuilding competition
and finished eighth.
With Mahoney's letter, Arroyo filed for the disability pension in April.
On May 21, Fire Commissioner Roderick J. Fraser Jr., citing the
bodybuilding, asked the Boston Retirement Board to reject the
application. The board, in turn, wrote Mahoney to ask if he stood by his
diagnosis. Mahoney, without answering that question, responded on June
23 that he did not know Arroyo was a bodybuilder. The Fire Department
quickly shifted Arroyo from injured leave at full pay and tax-free, to
sick leave. Last Thursday, Fraser ordered Arroyo to show up today for
his job as a fire inspector. If he does not, he faces possible
termination.
Mahoney's name was incorrectly redacted by the Retirement Board before
the city gave the Globe Arroyo's records on July 11. Mahoney said during
a lengthy interview that when he saw Arroyo's photo last Monday, he
concluded that his career would be ruined when his identity became
known.
"I knew my practice would be destroyed. I accept that," Mahoney said. "I
am prepared to get [expletive]. . . . Holy [expletive]. I am [expletive]
and it was in the stars."
He added: "I'm going to look like a foolish doc getting money from the
city, knowing someone's a bodybuilder and writing a letter that he's
disabled, and not knowing he's a scam artist."
Even so, Mahoney said that were it not for the restrictions imposed on
him by the doctor-patient relationship, people would understand that his
diagnosis was legitimate. But he acknowledged that the firefighter's
back problems may have resulted from the strict weightlifting regimen
that bodybuilders follow and might not be job-related.
Ten days ago, Arroyo told a Globe reporter he would not answer
questions. Last night, his lawyer, James E. Dilday, who is in Vietnam on
business, also declined to comment.
The Arroyo case has further fueled criticism over alleged fire
department pension abuses, which in April spawned a federal grand jury
investigation. Scores of firefighters have been subpoenaed and federal
agents have issued sweeping subpoenas for thousands of documents from
several city agencies.
One question that has left many perplexed is why nearly 75 percent of
all firefighters who retired between 2005 and 2007 received accidental
disability pensions, many of them after languishing on injured leave, at
100 percent of their pay, tax-free, for several years. Their pensions,
once approved, guarantee them 72 percent of their pay, also tax-free.
Boston's disability rate is three times greater than other large cities.
In January, the Globe reported that, between 2001 and 2006, 102 Boston
firefighters who received disability pensions reported that their
career-ending injuries happened while they were temporarily filling in
for superiors at the superior's rate of pay. An additional 30
firefighters had similar applications pending. On average, that means
that each of the 102 will receive an extra $250,000 over the course of
his lifetime.
Many of those injuries were sustained by high-ranking district chiefs
who were subbing, sometimes for a day, in desk jobs held by deputy
chiefs. At the time, Fraser said he thought some of the claims were
fraudulent.
All of those claims were certified as legitimate by physicians.
Mahoney, for his part, denied that he is a "go-to" doctor for
disability-seeking firefighters and said virtually every firefighter he
sees had been referred to him by the Fire Department's medical office.
Yesterday, Dr. Michael G. Hamrock, the department's physician, said that
he does refer some firefighters to specialists who will treat them
immediately with "a goal of getting them back to work." But he said
Mahoney is not among those who receive such referrals.
Hamrock pointed out that the Firefighters Union contract permits injured
firefighters to choose their own physicians. "Those who choose to see
Dr. Mahoney do so on their own," he said.
Tyler said the lack of skepticism by Mahoney and other doctors who are
sought out by firefighters has played a critical role in the ballooning
number of disability retirements. "These doctors need to be held more
accountable because it is their certification of a firefighter's medical
condition that significantly influences the decisions to grant these
lifetime disability pensions."
Any doctor, Tyler said, "who certifies a disabling injury that is
determined not be legitimate should face consequences."
The Eagle-Tribune
Sunday, July 20, 2008
An Eagle-Tribune editorial
Big Dig debt means state must say 'No' to other plans
News this week that the
total cost of Boston's Central Artery Tunnel project, the Big Dig, will
top $22 billion once interest payments are included set off a
predictable dance of denial on Beacon Hill.
Massachusetts taxpayers are on the hook for $18 billion of this massive
sum as the share paid for by the federal government, once promised at 90
percent, turned out to be little more than one-quarter of the actual
cost. Much of this staggering amount has been financed, and debt
payments will continue through 2038, siphoning funds away from other
necessary road and bridge work.
If you think Massachusetts' roads and highways are in bad shape now,
imagine them after another 30 years of neglect.
The study by the Boston Globe revealed the true scope of Big Dig costs.
It prompted new speculation that the state will be forced to increase
the gas tax, hike tolls or add new tolls to meet the project's debt
payments, now at $600 million a year, while pursuing other highway and
bridge repairs.
A transportation commission last year said Massachusetts needs an
additional $15 billion to $19 billion over the next 20 years to fix and
maintain existing roads and bridges — 543 of the state's bridges have
been deemed structurally deficient. The commission recommended raising
the current 21 cents per gallon state gas tax by 11.5 cents per gallon
and creating a new 5 cents per mile highway user fee on state roads.
But the administration of Gov. Deval Patrick insists new taxes or tolls
are off the table right now. A spokesman said the governor instead is
focusing on reforms to save money.
Reforms? Saving money? Pardon us if we chuckle. Neither the governor nor
the Legislature has given any indication of a willingness to make the
tough choices reform requires. The governor's plan to spend $3 billion
repairing 250 to 300 bridges over the next eight years involves
borrowing $1.1 billion against future federal highway reimbursements.
This governmental equivalent of a payday loan is hardly a model of
fiscal prudence.
When it comes to having the gumption to enact reforms and reduce
spending, the administration and the Legislature are like the character
from the musical "Oklahoma!" who sings:
"I'm just a girl who can't say no,
I'm in a terrible fix.
I always say come on let's go,
Just when I oughta say nix."
It's hard not to believe that the governor and the Legislature will
eventually turn to higher taxes and tolls to meet the Big Dig debt while
continuing to fund every other spending request and pet project that
comes their way.
The governor and the Legislature have to learn to say "No!" when state
retirees seek a raise despite the fact that the state's pension plan
remains underfunded.
They will have to say "No!" to requests for hundreds of millions more
for education.
They will have to say "No!" to the idea that some state workers can
retire in their 50s and collect 80 percent of their pay for the rest of
their lives.
They will have to say "No!" to cities' and towns' requests for ever more
state aid.
That means municipal governments will have to say "No!" to employee
raises and spending hikes.
If the leaders of government at all levels cannot or will not say "No!"
then the taxpayers will have to say "Yes!" on the ballot question this
fall to repeal the state income tax.
If elected officials will not control spending of their own free will,
the taxpayers will compel them to by shutting down the flow of cash that
makes it possible.
The Boston Globe
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Are we angry enough to fight back?
By Jeff Jacoby
"Friends, red-necks,
suckers, and fellow hicks," he would say, . . . "That's what you
are. And me - I'm one, too . . . Oh, I'm a sucker, for I fell for
that sweet-talking fellow in the fine automobile . . . But I'm
standing here on my own hind legs, for even a dog can learn to do
that, give him time. I learned. It took me a time but I learned, and
here I am on my own hind legs." And he would lean at them. And
demand, "Are you, are you on your hind legs? Have you learned that
much yet? You think you can learn that much?"
- From "All The King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren
Jaws clenched, blood
pressures spiked, and radio talk-show hosts spontaneously combusted when
the Globe reported last week that the $15 billion Big Dig - formerly
known as the $12.2 billion Big Dig, and more formerly as the $7.7
billion Big Dig, and even, once upon a time, as the $2.5 billion Big Dig
- will in fact cost a staggering $22 billion and not be paid off until
2038.
The Page 1 story was filled with infuriating details, such as the
revelation that 80 percent of Massachusetts Highway Department employees
are being paid with borrowed money. Bay State politicians originally
sold voters on the Big Dig in part by assuring them that Washington
would pick up 90 percent of the cost.
In reality, nearly three-fourths of the tab is coming from the pockets
of Massachusetts drivers and taxpayers. What we were told in the 1980s
would set us back about $350 million will actually cost us more than 50
times as much.
Well, as Willie Stark would say, are you on your hind legs yet? Are you
good and angry?
Last week also brought the story of Albert Arroyo, a Boston firefighter
who applied for disability retirement in March on the grounds that he
was left "totally and permanently disabled" after tripping on a
staircase in March. He went on injured leave and continued to collect
his full salary, tax free. But Arroyo's "total and permanent
disability," it appears, wasn't very disabling. In May he entered a
men's bodybuilding competition, and finished eighth. When the fire
commissioner learned of Arroyo's bodybuilding prowess, he shifted him
from injured leave to regular sick leave. (On Friday, Arroyo was ordered
to return to work.)
Does it infuriate you to learn that this was not the first time Arroyo
went on leave for an "injury," but the sixth? Or to learn that more than
100 Boston firefighters have recently won lucrative disability pensions
under circumstances so suspicious that the FBI is investigating?
Then there are all the other public employees milking the Massachusetts
pension system. Dozens collect payouts of more than $100,000 a year -
former state Senate president William Bulger, for example, rakes in more
than $197,000, a fitting cap to a long career spent gorging at the
public trough. Scores of "double-dippers" retire early on full pensions,
then get themselves hired back on the public payroll at full salaries.
When ex-Big Dig director Michael Lewis retired last year, his pension
was tripled and became immediately payable under a nutty state law that
rewards government employees whose positions are eliminated. For the
rest of his life, Lewis will receive more than $72,500 annually, despite
the fact that he is only 46, and is making $130,000 a year as Rhode
Island's secretary of transportation.
Column after column could be filled with the ways the Massachusetts
political class and its hangers-on play taxpayers for suckers - the
gold-plated tax breaks for moviemakers, the insanely lucrative sick-time
buybacks, the indefensible police details, the public-sector-only paid
holidays, the "temporary" tax hikes that last forever, the state budgets
that keep growing even as family budgets shrink.
It will never end - not until the suckers get riled up enough to fight
back. Not until they start throwing incumbents out of office, instead of
blindly reelecting them. Not until they stop letting themselves be
treated as ATMs for politicians and doormats for public-employee unions.
Not until they force their public "servants" to defer to them, instead
of the other way around.
"Are you on your hind legs?" Willie Stark would say. "Have you learned
that much yet?" Well, have you?
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