CLT UPDATE
Sunday, October 25, 2009
What others are saying about CLT's predicament
Just what Governor Deval Patrick needs
during an election year.
A well-organized group of passionate liberals begging him to resurrect a
concept that every governor since Michael Dukakis tried to bury.
Taxachusetts....
“We have spent 300 years in this state building the public structures
that educate our children, keep our water clean, protect our
environment, and protect the elderly and the disabled,’’ said Judy
Meredith, a longtime human services lobbyist. “We need the resources to
repair them and reform them.’’
Meredith and her group, ONE Massachusetts, is calling upon like-minded
citizens to e-mail Patrick this week and demand “balance’’ - what they
define as “a combination of federal funds, rainy day funds, minimum
cuts, and more revenue options.’’
About 2,500 community activists are part of the ONE Massachusetts
network.
Their message - raise taxes, don’t cut state programs - could be enough
to launch the next Barbara Anderson on a new, antitax crusade.
The Boston Globe
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The tax brigade builds...
By Joan Vennochi
Time and again, Citizens for Limited Taxation has come
to the rescue of Massachusetts taxpayers. Will the taxpayers now come to the
rescue of CLT?
For 35 years, CLT has been an unwavering foe of high taxes and government
arrogance, two commodities for which Massachusetts is well-known. It was created
in 1974 to fight a proposal for steeply graduated income-tax rates, a proposal
it defeated in the 1976 election. When the grad-tax returned to the state ballot
in 1994, CLT led the fight to defeat it once again....
CLT is almost preposterously tiny, and it has always operated on a shoestring.
Its four paid staffers make far less than many of their opponents - the
legislators, lobbyists, and union officials whose appetite for higher taxes and
more government spending never seems to diminish. Barbara Anderson, the
incorruptible happy warrior who became CLT’s executive director in 1980, earns
just $10 an hour.
But even a shoestring budget needs to pay for shoestring, and CLT is no longer
sure it can do so....
Were it not for CLT, Massachusetts taxpayers and businesses would be forking
over far more of their wealth to the tax man than they do. In addition to
blocking graduated tax rates and reining in property taxes, CLT forced the
repeal in 1986 of an income surtax enacted under Governor Michael Dukakis and
led a successful ballot campaign in 2000 to roll back state income taxes. Though
it hasn’t won every battle, it has never shied from the battlefield.
With hard work and good humor, CLT has made Massachusetts a much better place
than it would otherwise be. It has survived a lot in the past 35 years, but it
cannot survive indifference. If you’re free on Nov. 15, you might want to join
Barbara Anderson for its fund-raising brunch.
The Boston Globe
Sunday, October 25, 2009
...so who will save us now?
By Jeff Jacoby
CLT has fallen on hard times. They need to raise immediate
funds to keep their doors open. Please join me in making a donation to this tax
fighting organization by clicking
here. Without CLT the politicians will have a license to run amok.
The Boston Herald
Friday, October 23, 2009
The Lone Republican
By Holly Robichaud
Save CLT
Chip Ford's CLT Commentary
Greetings activists and supporters:
The responses
keep
coming to the news that CLT may go out-of-business after this year's
brunch. This morning Barbara was Jon Keller's guest on his weekly Keller
@ Large Sunday segment on WBZ TV-4. Jon and Barbara discussed
CLT's current financial problem, how CLT has always lived on the edge
hand-to-mouth, the reasons for its present situation, and its future:
Keller: Citizens for Limited Taxation Needs Support
It's encouraging to see the sudden response coming in
from members -- and especially from others who've not been CLT members
until now. Reservations for the November 15th brunch continue to arrive
in the mail, along with belated contributions from members and even from
some sending an additional check or PayPal
credit card contribution to
keep CLT alive.
As you can see from Joan Vennochi's Boston Globe
column, the tax-borrow-and-spend Gimme Lobby is gearing up for a new
assault on our wallets. You may remember that Judy Meredith called
the recent 25 percent increase in the sales tax "neither adequate nor
balanced," according to the State House News Service on
Apr. 28. She and her Gimme Lobby "network," ONE Massachusetts, has
been organizing and pushing for higher taxes; the graduated income tax
again, among an array of other increases including the gas tax.
I hope CLT is still around to stand up to them and
push back.
And we hope to see you on November 15th!
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Chip Ford |
The Boston Globe
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The tax brigade builds...
By Joan Vennochi
Just what Governor Deval Patrick needs during an election year.
A well-organized group of passionate liberals begging him to resurrect a
concept that every governor since Michael Dukakis tried to bury.
Taxachusetts.
It’s true. Some Massachusetts taxpayers are outraged. Not because state
government is taking too much of their money, but because the recession
and declining state revenue mean government has less of their money to
spend.
“We have spent 300 years in this state building the public structures
that educate our children, keep our water clean, protect our
environment, and protect the elderly and the disabled,’’ said Judy
Meredith, a longtime human services lobbyist. “We need the resources to
repair them and reform them.’’
Meredith and her group, ONE Massachusetts, is calling upon like-minded
citizens to e-mail Patrick this week and demand “balance’’ - what they
define as “a combination of federal funds, rainy day funds, minimum
cuts, and more revenue options.’’
About 2,500 community activists are part of the ONE Massachusetts
network.
Their message - raise taxes, don’t cut state programs - could be enough
to launch the next Barbara Anderson on a new, antitax crusade.
It could electrify the burgeoning Anyone-But-Deval political movement.
That would be good news for state Treasurer Timothy Cahill, who plans to
challenge Patrick as an independent; and even better news for Republican
gubernatorial candidates Charlie Baker and Christy Mihos.
Or maybe the message will connect in another way.
Maybe Massachusetts citizens will focus on a transportation system in
financial distress; a judicial system that is so underfunded it can no
longer deliver justice, according to the chief justice of the state’s
Supreme Judicial Court; and safety net programs so threatened that the
mentally disabled and their advocates are reduced to holding vigils in
the governor’s office.
If they focus on those needs, argues Meredith, more citizens may
conclude that increasing the gas tax is the only way to solve the
transportation crisis; reorganization isn’t enough. It’s OK to lift
sales tax exemptions on cardboard boxes and cement mixers. It makes
sense to do away with film tax credits, even if it means seeing less of
Cameron Diaz in Boston. Why not tax professional services, such as those
supplied by lawyers, accountants, hairdressers, manicurists; and
political consultants? And how about repealing those tax breaks given to
Fidelity and John Hancock back in the 1990s?
Still, it seems like a tough time to sell new taxes to many people,
including the governor.
Patrick faces a challenging political environment, illustrated by low
approval ratings and the need to call in his friend, President Obama, to
help raise money and fire up supporters.
Now, he has to weigh pressure from a tax-loving liberal base against the
antitax sentiments of more moderate voters.
Over the past year, much of the news out of Beacon Hill reminded
Massachusetts of everything they dislike about state government.
A House speaker and a state senator were indicted on corruption charges.
Outrageous examples of state pension abuse raised the rhetoric level of
radio talk show hosts and the blood pressure of average citizens.
The governor’s attempt to slide a state senator and supporter into a
$175,000 job in a state bonding authority became such a flashpoint, the
lawmaker walked away from the job. Meanwhile, state troopers still
collect overtime as they direct traffic around construction work sites.
When the public is periodically enraged by examples of patronage, waste,
and corruption, it’s harder to engage in a rational discussion of how
much money should be spent on health care, human services, public
safety, schools, and local aid.
But we should have it. With Bay State unemployment at 9.3 percent, the
highest rate since 1976, there is an argument that more people need help
from government.
The theme plays right into the hands of a candidate like Baker. The
Harvard Pilgrim CEO promises no new taxes, as well as the repeal of the
sales tax increase that became law this year.
Meredith calls Baker “the most charming slash-and-burn artist that this
human services advocate has ever seen.’’
Slash-and-burn versus balance. Patrick, then Massachusetts voters, must
choose their course.
The Boston Globe
Sunday, October 25, 2009
...so who will save us now?
By Jeff Jacoby
Time and again, Citizens
for Limited Taxation has come to the rescue of Massachusetts
taxpayers. Will the taxpayers now come to the rescue of CLT?
For 35 years, CLT has been an unwavering foe of high
taxes and government arrogance, two commodities for which Massachusetts
is well-known. It was created in 1974 to fight a proposal for steeply
graduated income-tax rates,
a proposal it defeated in the 1976 election. When the grad-tax
returned to the state ballot in 1994, CLT led the fight to
defeat it once again.
In 1980, CLT stunned the Massachusetts political
establishment with its successful crusade to slash property and
auto-excise taxes, which were then among the highest in America. CLT’s
weapon was
Proposition 2½, a ballot question vehemently denounced by the
state’s liberal elite, including the League of Women Voters, the
Massachusetts League of Cities and Towns, and the Massachusetts Teachers
Association. In an editorial, The Boston Globe blasted the measure’s
“meat-ax approach’’ and condemned its proponents as “fanatical critics
of municipal government’’ who were oblivious to the devastation they
would cause.
But the voters followed CLT, and approved Proposition
2½ by a wide margin. Far from wreaking havoc across the commonwealth,
the law became “the most powerful engine of change in recent
Massachusetts political history,’’
as the
Globe would later acknowledge - the single greatest factor in “the
state’s amazing turnaround.’’
In 1996, the nonpartisan civic-affairs journal
CommonWealth
described Proposition 2½ as “the most sweeping public policy reform
in recent Massachusetts history - and one that did not come about from
the efforts of ‘progressive’ reformers.’’ Nevertheless, it pointed out,
CLT accomplished much that even “good-government liberals might well
applaud,’’ including a decreased reliance on regressive property taxes,
a more sensible real-estate assessment system, better management of
municipal budgets, and - since Proposition 2½ allows local communities
to
override the statutory levy limit with voter approval - more
democratic decision-making, at least when it comes to property taxes.
CLT is almost preposterously tiny, and it has always
operated on a shoestring. Its four paid staffers make far less than many
of their opponents - the legislators, lobbyists, and union officials
whose appetite for higher taxes and more government spending never seems
to diminish. Barbara Anderson, the incorruptible happy warrior
who became CLT’s executive director in 1980, earns just $10 an hour.
But even a shoestring budget needs to pay for
shoestring, and CLT is no longer sure it can do so. Between the
recession and the
exodus of fed-up citizens from Massachusetts, CLT’s membership has
shrunk dramatically, from 10,000 in the mid-1990s to only around 3,000
today. CLT has also lost some of its most generous donors - among them
Richard Egan, the founder of EMC Corp.,
who died in August.
As a result,
CLT announced last week, “we are hurting financially more than ever
before.’’ The group’s annual fund-raising brunch on Nov. 15 may be its
last hurrah: If turnout is low, says co-director Chip Ford, CLT will
shut down on Nov. 16.
No organization lasts forever, and at 35 CLT has
already outlived many advocacy groups. No doubt diehard welfare-statists
and big-government lefties would be happy to attend CLT’s funeral. No
doubt many Massachusetts residents have more pressing personal concerns.
But with state government once more a wholly-owned
subsidiary of the Massachusetts Democratic Party,
with the state’s sales tax rate now up to 6.25 percent, and with
Beacon Hill hungrily seeking for more revenue, the prospect of CLT’s
demise should be setting off alarms.
Were it not for CLT, Massachusetts taxpayers and
businesses would be
forking over far
more of their wealth to the tax man than they do. In addition to
blocking graduated tax rates and reining in property taxes, CLT forced
the repeal in 1986 of an income surtax enacted under Governor Michael
Dukakis and led a successful ballot campaign in 2000 to roll back state
income taxes. Though it hasn’t won every battle, it has never shied from
the battlefield.
With hard work and good humor, CLT has made
Massachusetts a much better place than it would otherwise be. It has
survived a lot in the past 35 years, but it cannot survive indifference.
If you’re free on Nov. 15, you might want to join Barbara Anderson for
its fund-raising
brunch.
The Boston Herald
Friday, October 23, 2009
The Lone Republican
By Holly Robichaud
Save CLT
For more than two decades there has been one organization that has
fought Bacon Hill politicians from taxing us into oblivion. They passed
Prop 2½ and have stopped the numerous attempts to repeal it. Moreover,
they have repeatedly exposed wasteful spending. What is the organization
fighting this uphill battle? Citizens for Limited Taxation!
You might remember that they recently caught the State Representative
buying alcohol in New Hampshire avoiding the new taxes.
CLT has fallen on hard times. They need to raise immediate funds to keep
their doors open. Please join me in making a donation to this tax
fighting organization by
clicking here. Without CLT the politicians will have a license to
run amok.
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material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes
only. For more information go to:
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