Over our years of activism on
initiative petitions, we have filed complaints with OCPF about taxpayer money
being spent to defeat our ballot questions.
However, we mostly dealt with
signs in public building windows, and notes sent home with schoolchildren by
public school teachers – and these violations of campaign finance law didn’t
take place until the heat of the ballot campaign, in the fall before the
election.
Until now, we hadn’t seen
executive action during the signature-collecting phase; and even in the fall,
notices from the executive branch were usually careful to pretend to be
“informational,” carefully avoiding recommendations for a Yes vote, or for
public employee action “against the ballot issue.”
So we were very surprised to
see “Tank the Gas Tax,” which is working on its petition to repeal future
automatic gas tax increases (without another legislative tax-hike vote), having
to complain already about the use of taxpayer dollars to defeat this initiative.
Apparently an email sent by the Assistant Secretary of Transportation to 19
employees shamelessly asked them to “gear up…to defeat the gas tax ballot
question this November.”
We think Tank’s complaint to
the Ethics Commission is entirely appropriate and hope that it is responded to
quickly, before more taxpayer dollars are spent. We urge the media to watch for
future violations, on any of the prospective ballot questions, including those
on which the Patrick Administration might want a Yes vote. Taxpayers must never
be forced to “contribute” to campaigns that are against their own considered
best interests.
# # #
Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪ PO
Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
▪ 508-915-3665
BACK TO CLT HOMEPAGE