I was the guest speaker at a meeting of the
Attleboro Republican City Committee on Monday evening.
Attleboro has one of the most active and highly-organized committees
in the state. They have their own headquarters in a large office
just off downtown Attleboro and hold several meetings through the
year including a giant summer barbeque that attracts politicians
from all over the state. Two of their leaders, Sue Blais and Howard
Bibeault have run seminars around the state on procedures to follow
in getting elected to the State Legislature.
I started off my talk with how I knew I was in friendly territory
because Attleboro had the third highest “yes” vote (71.8%) on our
Proposition 2½ ballot question of the 351 Massachusetts cities/towns
— only Saugus and Danvers were higher. In fact, about a week or two
before that 1980 election there was a huge Prop 2½ rally that packed
an Attleboro hall featuring then-CLT board member Ron Graham and me
as speakers.
I also reminded the attendees that Prop 2½ was not just about
property taxes. CLT’s property tax cap law also includes an
almost two-thirds cut in the auto excise, from $66 per
thousand of assessed value down to $25 per thousand. “To put
it into perspective,” I explained, “if you have a car valued at
$10,000 you would have paid $660 each year, but because of CLT’s
ballot question you now pay $250 — a savings of over 400 dollars,
every year, year after year — thanks to CLT and so long as Prop
2½ is protected.”
I went on to detail a number of other CLT successes since
Proposition 2½ including our successful opposition to the Graduated
Income Tax question on the 1994 ballot. I informed the audience of
the looming threat of another grad tax ballot question, that
signatures are currently being collected to put a constitutional
amendment on the 2018 ballot that would graduate the income tax
rates. The battle will be re-joined.
Near the end of my talk, I had a friend go through the audience
passing out CLT’s latest membership mailing along with donor cards
and return-addressed envelopes. I pointed out to those gathered
that CLT is funded entirely by grassroots members and that finances
are lower than usual for this time of year – that more contributions
are needed quickly to get CLT through the end of 2015.
Next Wednesday evening I'll be the guest speaker at the
North Attleboro Republican Town Committee meeting.
