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CLT UPDATE
Friday, April 22, 2016
NH letter-writer's
criticism of
Barbara in Herald
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
When I read the below letter to the
editor in the Boston Herald yesterday my first thought was,
"Why is someone from New Hampshire criticizing Barbara
Anderson and complaining about Proposition 2˝? Shouldn't he
be more concerned with New Hampshire's much higher property
tax rates?"
Apparently that question will go unanswered, but Chip
Faulkner responded this morning with his own corrective letter to the
editor. We await its publication, but for you his response
follows, below.
As we the CLT staff strive to right the boat and get
it back on course after Barbara's passing, I hope to put out another
Update over the weekend catching up with the FY'17 state budget process
now underway on Beacon Hill. At this point, it has been a good
start, with the House's initial spending plan coming in at "$39.5
billion, actually [it] proposed spending less than the fiscally
conservative Republican in the
Corner Office," according to the State
House News Service. But — already
1,307 amendments to increase spending have been filed by House members.
"The Massachusetts House on Monday morning begins
churning through its annual budget deliberations," the State House News
Service added. "The House is expected to pass its amended budget over to
the Senate by week's end."
Last Sunday morning Jon Keller interviewed House
Speaker Robert DeLeo on his WBZ TV-4 program, "Keller @ Large." At
the end of
the interview (at 3:55 minutes into it), Jon asked the Speaker if
there are any moves underway to attack Proposition 2˝ now that Barbara
is gone.
Jon Keller: Are you fully
committed as the Speaker to preserving Prop 2˝ as-is going
forward?
Speaker DeLeo: "Yes. ... Whether there will be
any amendments to the budget when we debate it, well, we'll
see ... I haven't heard any appetite at all ... I have
really seen no strong effort to really change the law at
all."
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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The Boston Herald
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Letter to the editor
Mass. still a mess
Howie Carr’s favorable view of the late activist
Barbara Anderson’s fiscally conservative impact
on Democratic hack politics in Massachusetts
leaves out the fact that the state government is
a financial basket case (“The
true savior of Mass. taxpayers,” April 10).
Proposition 2˝ gutted local funding for public
education, and the state is deep in debt. I am
sure Anderson meant well, but her efforts at
fiscal reforms failed.
— Jonathan A. Melle,
Amherst, N.H.
To the Editor:
Letter writer Jonathan Melle says the late
activist Barbara Anderson and Proposition 2˝
“gutted local funding for public education and
the state is deep in debt.” (“Mass. still a
mess,” Boston Herald, April 21).
Proposition 2˝ had nothing to do with the
state’s debt – overspending for decades by a
Legislature packed with tax and spend Democrats
was, and still is, the problem. Proposition 2˝
did away with fiscal autonomy, transferring
control of school budgets from wildly
overspending school committees and their teacher
union allies back to the taxpayers. Thank God
for Barbara.
For the last three decades Massachusetts has
been among the leaders nationally in education
spending, classroom size, teachers’ salaries,
etc. There’s currently a movement to abolish
Common Core precisely because it would lower
educational standards and undo the very high
standards the Bay State enjoys compared to most
other states.
According to USA Today, Massachusetts now ranks
7th nationally among states spending the most on
education – some “gutting.” Recently a Herald
editorial pointed out that the average Boston
School teacher makes $107,562 in salary and
benefits ― paid two grand a week and having the
summer off. Blame Barbara Anderson and
Proposition 2˝!
— Chip Faulkner
Director of Communications
Citizens for Limited Taxation
(Also former public and private school teacher
for 9 years, and former vice-president of the
second-largest teachers union in New York City
for 3 years)
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NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this
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: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪
PO Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
▪ 508-915-3665
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