To: Bernard Cohen, Secretary of
Transportation
From: Citizens for Limited Taxation
September 15, 2008
Re: Paid Police Details
We commend Governor Patrick for
taking the first step to replace police details with
civilian flagmen like those which are used in the
rest of the country.
CLT has supported replacing police
details with civilian flagmen for many years, to no
avail. We have attended hearings on the issue in the
past but cannot get to Boston tonight; still we want
to be on record as supporting Governor Patrick on
this. We would also recommend an amendment to the
prevailing wage law that would allow students and
senior citizens to take the jobs, as they do in
other states.
If he does this, we applaud him. But
if police union intransigence kills this small
attempt at reasonableness, and makes it clear that
larger attempts will never succeed, we can continue
to use paid police details as a poster child for
passage of Question One this November, a reason to
resist any new taxes, and an example of why
government in Massachusetts doesn’t work.
Perhaps if voters are finally fed up
in November, you can use repeal of the income tax to
achieve not only replacement of all police details
with civilian flagmen, but some of your other
union-control initiatives as well.
Chip Faulkner, associate director
Contact: 508-384-0100