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CLT UPDATE
Thursday, May 1,
2014
On Illegal Government
Campaigning
|
What do the hacks at the State House call it when
they chicken out of ever having to vote on raising the gasoline tax
again, and instead make the increases automatic and eternal ... but
not until after the November elections?
“A tough decision.”
What gall. They’re too cowardly to actually take
a roll-call vote that might come back to bite them, and then they
turn around and pat themselves on the back for their courage in
running away.
It’s all in the “talking points” that Gov. Deval
Patrick’s administration has put out for its coatholders to use to
stop the repeal of the automatic gas tax increase that the
Legislature passed last year....
What the Legislature did is not head on, it’s
sneaky and backhanded. If the voters don’t repeal this automatic
increase, the gas tax will go up ... and up ... and up ... forever,
world without end, amen.
Of course, this isn’t really a tax increase.
According to Deval, it’s an “inflationary indexing,” or a “funding
mechanism” or an “inflation tie-in.”
“What does the inflation tie-in mean for the
average driver? Roughly $5 per year — or the price of two cups of
coffee.”
Ah yes, the old two-cups-of-coffee argument.
It’s either that or “a sandwich.”
Why is it always the taxpayers, and not the
leisure classes, who have to give up the two cups of coffee, or the
sandwich?
The Boston Herald
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Hacks’ auto tax hike talking points a real gas
By Howie Carr
Proponents of repealing the gas tax inflation
indexing law are calling for an ethics investigation into the
Massachusetts Department of Transportation after they obtained an
email written by an assistant secretary distributing talking points
to senior state officials as part of a “push to defeat the gas tax
ballot question” on track to appear before voters in November.
The email, dated March 26, was sent on a
Wednesday morning from the state email account of Assistant
Secretary of Communications Cyndi Roy Gonzalez to senior MassDOT
officials, including Secretary Richard Davey, MBTA General Manager
Beverly Scott and Registrar of Motor Vehicles Celia Blue.
A spokeswoman from the Stop Automatic Tax Hikes
ballot campaign said the email had been provided to the group by one
of the 19 recipients of Gonzalez’s email, but she declined to
specifically identify the source. “Someone who doesn’t want to go to
jail,” said spokeswoman Holly Robichaud.
Attorney Marty Lamb and Rep. Geoff Diehl, both
organizers behind the ballot question, asserted the email represents
a violation of state law prohibiting the use of public resources for
campaign purposes. The group has filed a public records request
seeking all emails sent or received by Davey and Gonzalez between
Oct. 1, 2013 and April 29, 2014.
“Clearly if the government has time to campaign
on public time with taxpayer dollars, they don’t need a tax
increase,” Lamb said a press conference outside the State House
Wednesday....
Jason Tait, a spokesman for the Office of
Campaign and Political Finance, said the ban on using public
resources for political campaigning does extend to ballot campaigns
where the majority of “issues” with the law arise.
Gov. Deval Patrick said he knew nothing about the
call for an Ethics Commission investigation, but said, “I would be
more than surprised if something untoward was done.” ...
Gonzalez’s email to senior MassDOT officials and
communications aides both expresses an opinion on the ballot
question and provides background information on the impact of
repealing the gas tax indexing law.
“If we are serious about investing in
transportation then we must vote no on the repeal. Otherwise we will
no doubt find ourselves in the very place we started – crumbling
roads and bridges, public transit in peril, and a maintenance
backlog we can’t afford to address,” stated one of the talking
points disseminated by Gonzalez.
The other 16 talking points suggest that
opponents of the ballot question should discuss how the indexing law
ensures “that the purchasing power of the gas tax keeps up with the
price per gallon,” how the Legislature and Gov. Patrick made “tough
decisions” about revenues even though “no one likes to pay more.”
and how for the average driver the indexing measure means “roughly
$5 per year - or the price of two cups of coffee.”
State House News Service
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Gax tax indexing opponents say talking points email deserves probe
The group behind a bill to repeal the gas tax is
demanding an ethics probe of transportation officials they say used
taxpayer-funded resources for political purposes by sending out a
talking-points email openly declaring the agency’s “push to defeat”
the ballot question.
“When citizens go to the trouble of collecting
signatures and all the efforts that’s involved in putting something
on the ballot, they shouldn’t be going up against the well-financed
superpower of the government, who fights against them,” said Gregory
Sullivan of the Pioneer Institute and a former state Inspector
General.
“The secretary of transportation should
immediately take action to make sure this doesn’t happen again and
to take appropriate action against the people involved. Everybody in
government knows you’re not supposed to use your office for
political purposes for campaigns — period.” ...
Supporters of the repeal filed a complaint with
the state Ethics Commission yesterday demanding an investigation,
and released an email they say came from MassDOT’s Cyndi Roy to
nearly two dozen other MassDOT officials that read: “As we gear up
to make our push to defeat the gas tax ballot question this
November, (you) will find these talking points helpful.”
Roy also offered to provide employees with
“specific examples of projects that could be jeopardized” if the gas
tax repeal succeeded, according to the email.
Roy did not return calls and emails yesterday.
“This is taxpayer dollars being used to make sure
that more taxpayer dollars is spent on those agencies,” said state
Rep. Geoff Diehl (R-Whitman), a repeal committee chairman. “We’re
basically having our own money used against us.”
The Boston Herald
Thursday, May 1, 2014
MassDOT gas tax memo sparks cry for ethics probe
Here’s how this fall’s referendum to repeal
the hacks’ automatic increases in the gas tax is going to be
paid for.
If you’re against this odious taxation
without representation, you’ll be paying for the campaign to
repeal it at the ballot box — with your donations. You will
likewise be paying for the campaign to relieve the hacks of
their responsibility to take a tough vote — with your tax
dollars.
This is how it works now in Massachusetts.
Heads they win, tails you lose.
That was the whole point of the complaint
filed with the State Ethics Commission yesterday....
According to Rep. Geoff Diehl (R-Whitman),
some of the state-funded coordination has been going on between
the tax-’em-back-to-the-Stone-Age coatholders at the State House
and the Greater Worcester Chamber of Commerce. The hacks are
tapping into the general funds to finance their campaign,
because otherwise they’d have to rely solely on contractors and
the pinky-ring union thugs who are counting on the confiscated
cash to pay for their featherbedding prevailing-wage
projects....
By the way, it’s not just the gasoline tax
that pays for roads and bridges.
Ever hear of the automobile excise tax? Or
the 6.25 percent sales tax on automobiles bought in the
commonwealth? How about the tolls? And don’t forget the Registry
of Motor Vehicles — an agency that costs $60 million to run, and
brings in $600 million or so every year.
The game here is, get the gas tax going up
automatically, with no pols ever having to vote to increase it
again. Then the hack-erama can funnel those endless millions to
the connected contractors and the don’t-kill-the-jobs unions,
both of which will then kick back to the state Democrat machine
to keep the regime humming.
The Boston Herald
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Either way, you pay
By Howie Carr
By a nearly unanimous vote, the House passed
its version of the annual budget late Wednesday after tacking on
more than $100 million to the roughly $36.2 billion spending
document that hit the floor Monday.... Only Reps. James Lyons
and Marc Lombardo opposed the bill in the 148-2 vote.
Debated lasted through three days, and the
final vote occurred right around the stroke of midnight. The
budget will now go to the Senate where it will again go under
substantial revision.
State House News Service
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
State Capital Briefs
Budget Passes House 148-2
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
While the House passed its version of the Fiscal
Year 2015 (which begins on July 1) budget last night after
"debating" it for three days, that news was swallowed by events.
Earlier yesterday the Tank the Gas Tax ballot campaign filed a
complaint with the state Ethics Commission calling for an
investigation into improper use of "taxpayer-funded resources for
political purposes."
Already the Patrick Administration is pulling out
the stops to defeat this ballot question at any cost. They know when
it's on the ballot and before the voters the automatic gas tax
increases is doomed; they're running scared early
— earliest we've ever seen.
The transportation hacks may call it merely
innocent "talking points," but what is the purpose of talking
points?
The statement “If we are serious about investing
in transportation then we must vote no on the repeal" has only one
clear and undeniable objective: Defeat of the ballot question.
Otherwise why bring it up?
Nothing in the Tank the Gas Tax ballot question
threatens "investing in transportation." It threatens only
legislators who will be forced to vote on the record for any
future gas tax hikes they deem necessary for such "investments"
— and that's exactly what they're
elected and we pay them to do.
If they don't want to do what we pay them for,
then they should seek employment elsewhere. Why else
were they hired?
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Chip Ford |
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The Boston Herald
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Hacks’ auto tax hike talking points a real gas
By Howie Carr
What do the hacks at the State House call it when they chicken out
of ever having to vote on raising the gasoline tax again, and
instead make the increases automatic and eternal ... but not until
after the November elections?
“A tough decision.”
What gall. They’re too cowardly to actually take a roll-call vote
that might come back to bite them, and then they turn around and pat
themselves on the back for their courage in running away.
It’s all in the “talking points” that Gov. Deval Patrick’s
administration has put out for its coatholders to use to stop the
repeal of the automatic gas tax increase that the Legislature passed
last year.
A referendum question on repealing the automatic tax increase will
be on the ballot in November. The hacks claiming the state is broke
will have millions upon millions of public-sector union dollars to
buy TV ads. The anti-tax forces, who will be portrayed as heartless
evil Koch Bros., will have a budget of approximately $87.
Let’s go right to the talking points.
“No one likes to pay more.” That’s true, which is why the state
hacks don’t plan on paying any more themselves. Deval and his
payroll patriots have their state cars. And the solons get their
per-diems, which means they collect a stipend for actually driving
to work in the morning, although you’ll be shocked to learn that
some of them have been caught putting in for expenses even when they
don’t drive to work in the morning.
“But together, the Legislature and the Governor made the tough
decision to face our transportation challenges head on.”
Well, no. “Head on” is when you actually have to tell your
constituents whether or not you want to beggar them to pay for T
hacks who retired with full pensions at age 41.
What the Legislature did is not head on, it’s sneaky and backhanded.
If the voters don’t repeal this automatic increase, the gas tax will
go up ... and up ... and up ... forever, world without end, amen.
Of course, this isn’t really a tax increase. According to Deval,
it’s an “inflationary indexing,” or a “funding mechanism” or an
“inflation tie-in.”
“What does the inflation tie-in mean for the average driver? Roughly
$5 per year — or the price of two cups of coffee.”
Ah yes, the old two-cups-of-coffee argument.
It’s either that or “a sandwich.”
Why is it always the taxpayers, and not the leisure classes, who
have to give up the two cups of coffee, or the sandwich?
State House News Service
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Gax tax indexing opponents say talking points email deserves probe
By Matt Murphy
Proponents of repealing the gas tax inflation indexing law are
calling for an ethics investigation into the Massachusetts
Department of Transportation after they obtained an email written by
an assistant secretary distributing talking points to senior state
officials as part of a “push to defeat the gas tax ballot question”
on track to appear before voters in November.
The email, dated March 26, was sent on a Wednesday morning from the
state email account of Assistant Secretary of Communications Cyndi
Roy Gonzalez to senior MassDOT officials, including Secretary
Richard Davey, MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott and Registrar of
Motor Vehicles Celia Blue.
A spokeswoman from the Stop Automatic Tax Hikes ballot campaign said
the email had been provided to the group by one of the 19 recipients
of Gonzalez’s email, but she declined to specifically identify the
source. “Someone who doesn’t want to go to jail,” said spokeswoman
Holly Robichaud.
Attorney Marty Lamb and Rep. Geoff Diehl, both organizers behind the
ballot question, asserted the email represents a violation of state
law prohibiting the use of public resources for campaign purposes.
The group has filed a public records request seeking all emails sent
or received by Davey and Gonzalez between Oct. 1, 2013 and April 29,
2014.
“Clearly if the government has time to campaign on public time with
taxpayer dollars, they don’t need a tax increase,” Lamb said a press
conference outside the State House Wednesday.
Diehl is scheduled to debate the gas tax indexing law with Davey on
WATD radio on Thursday evening.
Davey told the News Service that there was nothing improper about
the email, which was sent internally to staff and not the general
public to provide information and analysis of the ballot question so
that officials would be prepared to answer questions from the
public.
“Of course not, that’s preposterous,” Davey said with regard to
allegation that the email violates conflict of interest laws. “Our
team has been asked by various groups what the repeal of the gas tax
indexing really means and unfortunately those interested in seeing
it repealed have not been honest about what it means. I don’t see
this as political activity. I see this as our duty, which is to
inform the public what a ballot initiative would mean.”
Davey said he would “absolutely” turn over any email as required
under public records law, and was not worried about a possible
Ethics Commission investigation.
“I have complete confidence that today’s charges will be seen as
more political than anything else,” Davey said.
The secretary has made no secret of his opposition to the ballot
question, which Davey argues will take needed financial resources
away from his department after the Patrick administration fought
much of last year to increase revenue in order to make investments
in public transit, roads and bridges.
Reps. Marc Lombardo, Leah Cole and Ryan Fattman and Republican state
committeeman Steve Alyward also attended the press conference
outside the State House.
“It’s really a sad day when the corruption found in D.C., as
exemplified by the IRS’s use of taxpayer funds to target political
campaigns, has now made its way to Beacon Hill,” Diehl said.
While the conflict of interest law and public campaign finance law
both prohibit the use of public resources - including email - for
the purpose of political campaigning, appointed public officials in
policy-making roles within government are given some latitude to
present information to inform public debate and speak publicly about
ballot questions that fall into their policy arena.
Jason Tait, a spokesman for the Office of Campaign and Political
Finance, said the ban on using public resources for political
campaigning does extend to ballot campaigns where the majority of
“issues” with the law arise.
Gov. Deval Patrick said he knew nothing about the call for an Ethics
Commission investigation, but said, “I would be more than surprised
if something untoward was done.”
Gonzalez’s email to senior MassDOT officials and communications
aides both expresses an opinion on the ballot question and provides
background information on the impact of repealing the gas tax
indexing law.
“If we are serious about investing in transportation then we must
vote no on the repeal. Otherwise we will no doubt find ourselves in
the very place we started – crumbling roads and bridges, public
transit in peril, and a maintenance backlog we can’t afford to
address,” stated one of the talking points disseminated by Gonzalez.
The other 16 talking points suggest that opponents of the ballot
question should discuss how the indexing law ensures “that the
purchasing power of the gas tax keeps up with the price per gallon,”
how the Legislature and Gov. Patrick made “tough decisions” about
revenues even though “no one likes to pay more.” and how for the
average driver the indexing measure means “roughly $5 per year - or
the price of two cups of coffee.”
Asked if he was bothered by the claim that someone on his staff
leaked the Gonzalez email, Davey said, “I don’t think that’s true at
all.”
Michael Norton contributed reporting
The Boston Herald
Thursday, May 1, 2014
MassDOT gas tax memo sparks cry for ethics probe
By Chris Cassidy and Jordan Graham
The group behind a bill to repeal the gas tax is demanding an ethics
probe of transportation officials they say used taxpayer-funded
resources for political purposes by sending out a talking-points
email openly declaring the agency’s “push to defeat” the ballot
question.
“When citizens go to the trouble of collecting signatures and all
the efforts that’s involved in putting something on the ballot, they
shouldn’t be going up against the well-financed superpower of the
government, who fights against them,” said Gregory Sullivan of the
Pioneer Institute and a former state Inspector General.
“The secretary of transportation should immediately take action to
make sure this doesn’t happen again and to take appropriate action
against the people involved. Everybody in government knows you’re
not supposed to use your office for political purposes for campaigns
— period.”
The Herald first reported Sunday that the Patrick administration had
crafted and circulated the email with talking points advocating
against the repeal of the state’s gas tax, scheduled to appear as a
ballot question in November.
Supporters of the repeal filed a complaint with the state Ethics
Commission yesterday demanding an investigation, and released an
email they say came from MassDOT’s Cyndi Roy to nearly two dozen
other MassDOT officials that read: “As we gear up to make our push
to defeat the gas tax ballot question this November, (you) will find
these talking points helpful.”
Roy also offered to provide employees with “specific examples of
projects that could be jeopardized” if the gas tax repeal succeeded,
according to the email.
Roy did not return calls and emails yesterday.
“This is taxpayer dollars being used to make sure that more taxpayer
dollars is spent on those agencies,” said state Rep. Geoff Diehl
(R-Whitman), a repeal committee chairman. “We’re basically having
our own money used against us.”
A spokesman for the Office of Campaign and Political Finance said
the finance law prohibits the use of public resources for political
purposes, including ballot questions, and that extends to employee
time and government emails.
A spokesman for the Ethics Commission said the agency does not
discuss individual cases.
Late yesterday, the state Republican Party released a second email
from a lawyer at the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce to the
state’s association of chambers distributing the talking points and
claiming Roy offered “if anyone wants to have the Secretary come
speak at an event they are happy to accommodate.”
The Boston Herald
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Either way, you pay
By Howie Carr
Here’s how this fall’s referendum to repeal the hacks’ automatic
increases in the gas tax is going to be paid for.
If you’re against this odious taxation without representation,
you’ll be paying for the campaign to repeal it at the ballot box —
with your donations. You will likewise be paying for the campaign to
relieve the hacks of their responsibility to take a tough vote —
with your tax dollars.
This is how it works now in Massachusetts. Heads they win, tails you
lose.
That was the whole point of the complaint filed with the State
Ethics Commission yesterday. The Patrick administration sent out
“talking points” to be used in the pro-hack campaign (which I wrote
about last Sunday). They were emailed to 18 overcompensated payroll
Charlies by yet another state employee who is also the spouse of
Deval’s one-time budget boss.
Yes, another nationwide search.
According to Rep. Geoff Diehl (R-Whitman), some of the state-funded
coordination has been going on between the tax-’em-back-to-the-Stone-Age
coatholders at the State House and the Greater Worcester Chamber of
Commerce. The hacks are tapping into the general funds to finance
their campaign, because otherwise they’d have to rely solely on
contractors and the pinky-ring union thugs who are counting on the
confiscated cash to pay for their featherbedding prevailing-wage
projects.
The kleptocracy’s television campaign will feature “crumbling”
bridges and apocalyptic potholes, as if we don’t see them every day
already. But here’s what the tax-fattened hyenas will never admit:
If they’re really running out of dough (and they’re not) all they
have to do is vote to raise the gas tax.
But the solons don’t want to go on record as voting for anything
that might cost them their phony-baloney sinecures on Beacon Hill.
Hell, they’re too frightened to even debate anything controversial —
the leadership has forbidden any mention in the current budget
deliberations about the welfare fiasco or local aid (it’s being cut
to working-class towns and increased to non-working-class cities
like Lawrence).
By the way, it’s not just the gasoline tax that pays for roads and
bridges.
Ever hear of the automobile excise tax? Or the 6.25 percent sales
tax on automobiles bought in the commonwealth? How about the tolls?
And don’t forget the Registry of Motor Vehicles — an agency that
costs $60 million to run, and brings in $600 million or so every
year.
The game here is, get the gas tax going up automatically, with no
pols ever having to vote to increase it again. Then the hack-erama
can funnel those endless millions to the connected contractors and
the don’t-kill-the-jobs unions, both of which will then kick back to
the state Democrat machine to keep the regime humming.
Mistah Speakah, stop them, before they steal again!
State House News Service
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
State Capital Briefs
Budget Passes House 148-2
By a nearly unanimous vote, the House passed its version of the
annual budget late Wednesday after tacking on more than $100 million
to the roughly $36.2 billion spending document that hit the floor
Monday.
The House added $43.6 million in a major health and human services
amendment, $17.8 million in a labor and economic development
amendment and $18 million for social services and veterans. The
budget, which did not include the taxes Gov. Deval Patrick proposed
in his budget, cleared the House with broad, bipartisan support.
Only Reps. James Lyons and Marc Lombardo opposed the bill in the
148-2 vote. Debated lasted through three days, and the final vote
occurred right around the stroke of midnight. The budget will now go
to the Senate where it will again go under substantial revision.
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Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪
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▪ 508-915-3665
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