For Immediate Release
Once again the misnamed
Massachusetts
Taxpayers Foundation has issued another timely
anti-taxpayer “analysis” promoting a vote against a
tax cut for regular, average taxpayers; this latest
report titled "The Enormous Consequences of Question
1."
But what do you call a report that
begins with a premise then purchases the “facts” to
support the premise, then promotes it as impartial?
Pure political propaganda.
You won’t find MTF’s vaunted
“analysis” of the effects of Question 1 listed in
the NO ballot committee’s campaign finance reports
as a contribution or expenditure. It’s not
there. It’s filed separately with the state
Office of Campaign & Political Finance on the
agency’s CPF Form 22: Ballot Question Spending
Reports of Corporations and Other Groups.
http://www.mass.gov/ocpf/bq_exp.htm
MTF isn’t alone filing the payment
for its bogus study and its cost, $8,750 paid to
Global Insight of Lexington, MA. That was
merely its quarter-share of the total cost for the
pure political propaganda report.
MTF was joined by other fat-cat
big-business interests: The Greater Boston
Chamber of Commerce, and Associated Industries of
Massachusetts, all reported payments of $8,750 on
Aug. 28. The Massachusetts Business Roundtable
didn’t pay its $8,750 share until
Sep. 4. The total cost for this “analysis”
apparently was $35,000 split among them.
Lest there be any doubt about the
corporate fat-cats’ intent, all one needs to do is
read Line 4 and see how each group answered it --
with a handwritten checkmark declaring opposition to
Question 1 and signed “under the penalties of
perjury.”
4. The expenditures below
were made to "oppose” “Question 1" relating to
"Repeal of the State Income Tax"
The expenditures were made to oppose
Question 1. So too was the product they
bought.
Mass. Taxpayers Foundation - 8/28/08
http://www.mass.gov/ocpf/22s/2008_mtf_60_q1.pdf
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce -
8/28/08
http://www.mass.gov/ocpf/22s/2008_gbcoc_60_q1.pdf
Associated Industries of Mass. -
8/28/08
http://www.mass.gov/ocpf/22s/2008_aim_60_q1.pdf
Mass. Business Roundtable - 9/4/2008
http://www.mass.gov/ocpf/22s/2008_mbr_5_q1.pdf
Also of note is the Coalition for Our
Communities in its latest report lists even the
$22,793.86 inkind contributions from Stand For
Children of Portland, Oregon, for the services of
its finance & administration director, Jennifer
Cuellar-Smith, while she’s stationed here
temporarily from her West Coast home. But
there is no mention whatsoever of any contribution
from MTF, either direct or inkind. That is
found on MTF’s separate CPF Form 22, along with
those of its fat-cat corporate allies.
Of the $2,534,922.52 received by the
NO committee in direct and inkind contributions
since its startup in April, there is not one mention
of MTF’s considerable support and Michael Widmer’s
personal effort on its behalf. Among the
$443,437.52 of inkind contributions to the committee
there is and has been no listing for MTF whatsoever.
That is found somewhere else, if you know where to
look: CPF Form 22.
Again the so-called Mass. Taxpayers
Foundation is flying under the radar like a stealth
fighter jet. Is it concerned that its IRS
tax-exempt status might be threatened by its overt
political activity in opposition to a citizens’
ballot initiative?
So far the
Coalition for Our
Communities – the NO on Question 1 ballot committee
– has raised $1,470,500 of its total receipts from
out-of-state public employee unions. That is a
whopping 70 percent of its funding total, as
of October 1 with still a month to go.
Since April, the entire $2,091,485 it
has raised has come almost exclusively from union
coffers, but for $450 from four Massachusetts
citizens. This is hardly a grassroots effort.
And this total doesn’t count the fat-cat
big-business contribution and its pure political
propaganda stealth campaign.
The NO committee has received an
additional $443,437.52 in inkind contributions,
again primarily from labor and public employee
unions.