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CLT UPDATE
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Report on the Celebration of
Life of Barbara Anderson
|
Over 100 people attended a
celebration of life for late taxpayer advocate Barbara Anderson, the
longtime executive director of Citizens For Limited Taxation, at
Lombardo's in Randolph on Sunday. Attendees included Gov. Charlie
Baker, Weymouth Mayor Bob Hedlund (on crutches), Senate Minority
Leader Bruce Tarr, Rep. Geoff Diehl, Jim Braude, Margery Egan, Howie
Carr, Bob Katzen, Avi Nelson, Charlie Manning, Garrett and Jill
Quinn, Frank Conte, Chip Ford, Chip Faulker, Gerald Amirault, Jim
and Patty Saso, Paula Kay, and Holly Robichaud.
CLT founder Ed King, Jon
Keller, and Grover Norquist did not attended, but sent special
remarks that were read aloud at the celebration.
POLITICO
Monday, June 6, 2016
Massachusetts Playbook
By Lauren Dezenski
Before her death, Barbara had forbidden any funeral
services. But her partner Chip Ford and her longtime associate at
Citizens for Limited Taxation Chip Faulkner figured she wouldn’t
have objected too strenuously to a “Celebration of Life,” with hors
d-oeuvres and a cash bar.
The unbilled headliner was Gov. Charlie Baker, who
stopped by on the way back from the UMass Medical Center
Commencement in Worcester. After he graduated Harvard, Charlie’s
first job was as the flack to the Mass. High Tech Council, which was
run by CLT’s closest political ally, Howard Foley. (Foley has since
moved to Colorado.) In the brutal 1980 statewide campaign to pass
Prop 2½, high tech provided the cash, and Barbara furnished the
troops on the ground.
The taxpayers won, 59-41.
“Prop 2½,” Charlie said, “was the most important
political event in Massachusetts of my lifetime.” ...
Also among Barbara’s friends in attendance was
Gerald “Tooky” Amirault, who was railroaded into prison for 18 years
in the Fells Acre Daycare frame. It was Barbara’s final wish that he
get some measure of justice, or at least have his ankle bracelet
removed after 12 years on parole.
At Lombardo’s yesterday, Tooky finally got a chance
to speak directly to Baker, one-on-one. We all understand that it’s
up to Tooky to make the initial outreach to the Parole Board, but it
would help if he knows how the governor feels about his petition.
Not only Charlie but his State Police detail shook Tooky’s hand as
they left Lombardo’s; I take that as a good sign.
I’ll try to keep you informed how Amirault’s final
struggle to win at least some redemption unfolds....
I ended by reading from a
column Barbara wrote for the Salem Evening News on Christmas Eve
2001. She certainly wasn’t religious in the traditional sense of the
word, and I remember being surprised when I originally read her
column. When she passed, I mentioned it to Chip Ford, and he’d
forgotten all about the piece.
But eventually Chip retrieved it, and sent it to me,
so yesterday I wanted to share Barbara’s own words with her friends.
They seemed appropriate for the occasion. She mentioned how after
her own father’s death, she and her son traveled to his funeral in
Pennsylvania. After he was interred, she and Lance returned to the
cemetery for one final farewell.
“I wasn’t praying, mourning or wishing,” she wrote,
“just discussing the view.
“Suddenly, over my son’s shoulder, I saw my father
passing by, as if on the caboose platform of a train, going
backwards. He waved in that funny backhanded way he used to wave
from his chair when I left the house, and said, ‘Bye Bon,’ his
nickname for me. He looked very excited about the trip.
“… I’m sure it wasn’t deliberate… It was just that
my sometime psychic self was tuned in to the right place and looking
in the right direction as he went past. I wasn’t looking for a
‘sign.’ But there it was, and doubting Thomas that I am, having seen
it with my own eyes, I’m a believer.
“Whether you are a believer, or not, if there are
missing guests in your cabin this season, it may be nice to imagine
them at another table somewhere, with other departed souls you have
loved.”
Goodbye Barbara. I hope we meet again sometime, in
another cabin, at a different table.
The Howie Carr Show
Website
Monday, June 6, 2016
Celebration of Life for Barbara Anderson
By Howie Carr
Supporters and opponents of the late anti-tax
advocate Barbara Anderson gathered Sunday in Randolph to remember
her good natured individualism, civic activism, political savvy,
professionalism and not insignificant success in lowering the tax
burden for the people of Massachusetts. She and I were often – make
that, usually – on opposite sides of issues. (The video presentation
at the event included a sound bite from Barbara's coming to Channel
Five to rebut an editorial I wrote.) Yet the debate on both sides
was sincere, well researched and respectful of the exchange of
ideas.
Radio and TV commentator Jim Braude spoke of the
hundreds of joint appearances the two had on various tax limit
referenda when he was head of the Tax Equity Alliance of
Massachusetts. They brought the debate from one end of the
Commonwealth to the other, doing as many as five debates in a day,
often travelling in the same car. An unlikely twosome, they came to
enjoy a special relationship. Braude said that, despite the hours he
had spent doing research and aggregating data to buttress his
positions, Anderson nearly always won over the crowd with the
clarity of her viewpoint, her smart communication skills and the
authenticity of the case she made to legitimately concerned
taxpayers.
Anderson was widely known as the mother of Prop 2½,
which Governor Charlie Baker called the most significant act of the
last 35 years. It wasn't just that it capped the seemingly endless
growth of property taxes, he told the gathering. Prop 2½ forced
cities and towns to professionalize their tax administration and
regularize and institutionalize 100 percent valuation. That reform
served as the foundation for a rational distribution of local aid.
Since then, all communities have been playing by the same rules and
have had to do so with a far greater degree of transparency. In
reflexive Democratic circles, those pluses of Prop 2½ are often
overlooked, as is the positive contribution of Anderson to civic
engagement....
For many media folks, myself included, she also
became a go-to person for thoughtful analysis of government
proposals and problems. She was always determined that the voices of
ordinary citizens would be heard, and hers was heard most of all.
The Cape Codder
Monday, June 6, 2016
Barbara Anderson memorialized
By Marjorie Arons-Barron
Over 130 people, including Gov. Charlie Baker,
celebrated the life of late Marblehead resident Barbara Anderson in
a small service Sunday at Lombardo’s in Randolph.
Anderson’s partner of 20 years, Chip Ford, executive
director of Citizens for Limited Taxation (CLT), and Chip Faulkner,
CLT’s communications director, organized the "Celebration of the
Life" of Barbara Anderson, who led CLT for 35 years.
Anderson was one of the chief architects of the 1980
controversial Proposition 2½ referendum. The 35-year-old law still
caps the state’s 351 municipalities annual tax levies to 2½ percent
of the market value of property....
Anderson passed away on April 8 at 73, and it was
her wish to have no wake or funeral service, according to
organizers. Therefore, it was decided that a celebration of her life
after an appropriate period would fit within her parameters, said
organizers.
A video presentation of clips from Anderson’s long
crusade to get Proposition 2½ passed, a PBS special on her, and
other personal clips were shown interspersed with personal
remembrances from Baker, Howie Carr, Avie Nelson, Bob Katzan as well
as some of her opponents, Margery Eagan and Jim Braude.
Baker said, according to organizers, that Anderson
was clearly the force behind 2½, which lowered property taxes, and,
while there were some legislative changes made to 2½ after it was
passed, Anderson and CLT fully supported those changes and worked
with the legislature to ensure they didn't change the spirit of the
initiative, organizers said. Many of the speakers talked about the
way Anderson was able to take a complicated subject and explain it
in words that anyone could understand.
The Marblehead Reporter
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Friends celebrate Barbara Anderson's life
|
Lombardo's on Sunday
Barbara's 2001 Honda CRV festooned with her collection of bumper
stickers
parked beneath the Lombardo's welcome sign
Sunday's Speakers
Above, Chip Ford
Executive Director, CLT & Barbara's partner of two decades
opening the celebration of her life.
Above, Chip Faulkner
Communications Director, CLT
welcoming our guests.
Above, Margery Eagan
Co-host with Jim Braude of WGBH Radio's Boston Public Radio,"
former Boston Herald columnist.
Above, Jim Braude
Barbara's longtime debate opponent while director of the Tax Equity
Alliance of Massachusetts.
Co-host of WGBH Radio's "Boston Public Radio."
Host of WGBH TV's "Greater Boston."
Above, Governor Charlie Baker
Above, Avi Nelson
Longtime popular talk show host, TV political commentator.
Above, Howie Carr
Boston Herald's ace columnist, longtime WRKO talk show host,
and along with Jerry Williams and Barbara, one of "The Governors"
on the popular radio show during the mid-80s — mid-90s.
Above, Ted Tripp
President of the North Andover Taxpayers Association, columnist,
and longtime CLT activist.
Above, Bob Katzen
Publisher of Beacon Hill Roll Call and longtime friend. Bob filled
in
for Howie Carr as one of "The Governors" on Jerry Williams' talk
radio show.
|
Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
On the rainy afternoon last Sunday we gathered for the
Celebration of Life of Barbara Anderson and it was good to
see so many old friends. I hadn't seen many of the 130
attendees for a long time, some for years. I just wish
I'd had more time to spend with each. It was a hectic,
exhausting few weeks for Chip Faulkner and me, especially
Sunday, but the results were well worth it. So many
thanked us for doing it, for putting together the
remembrance they wanted to send Barbara off properly on her
next journey.
Just over a week ago I discovered a treasure trove of ancient VHS
video cartridges stashed away over a decade ago in the CLT storage room,
a box of some 40-50 cartridges. I spent the next 14 hours on a
Barbara Anderson marathon video binge, looking for material we could use
for the remembrance. By 4:30 the next morning I had enough when I
stumbled across an hour-long PBS special documentary by Christopher
Lydon covering all of Barbara's life up to election night 1986 with
CLT's big victory repealing the state income surtax.
We opened the remembrance event playing half of that PBS documentary,
then introduced our speakers and played other video segments featuring
Barbara between introductions. We closed with the final half of the
documentary.
All our speakers related great memories of Barbara and some hilarious
anecdotes from their time spent with her. I can't thank each of
them enough for their personal tributes.
CLT member Michael Gendre video-recorded the entire event, which we
hope to make available online soon. The video production compiled
and presented by volunteer Ed Corris, converted from the three-decades
old VHS tapes to digital DVD, also should eventually be available for
anyone who's interested in watching it.
To those who found the time to attend, I thank you very much for
being there and hope you left Lombardo's with what you wanted and
expected,
memories reenergized.
On a personal note, as usual, I was at the other end of the camera so
have no photos of me. At past events where I was the "official"
CLT photographer, Barbara would take a few shots of me while I spoke
— but she wasn't there and I didn't think
of it. If anyone happened to snap one of me I'd appreciate having
a copy to add to our website (the larger the file size the better).
Onward and forward. As I promised Barbara, CLT will go
on, is moving ahead, and remains "The Voice of the Taxpayers."
Defeat of the sixth graduated income tax is in our sights.
Let's do it for Barbara.
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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The Howie Carr Show
Website
Monday, June 6, 2016
Celebration of Life for Barbara Anderson
By Howie Carr
About 100 of her friends and colleagues bid the mother of Proposition 2½
a final farewell yesterday afternoon at Lombardo’s in Randolph, almost
two months after her passing at the age of 73.
Before her death, Barbara had forbidden any funeral services. But her
partner Chip Ford and her longtime associate at Citizens for Limited
Taxation Chip Faulkner figured she wouldn’t have objected too
strenuously to a “Celebration of Life,” with hors d-oeuvres and a cash
bar.
The unbilled headliner was Gov. Charlie Baker, who stopped by on the way
back from the UMass Medical Center Commencement in Worcester. After he
graduated Harvard, Charlie’s first job was as the flack to the Mass.
High Tech Council, which was run by CLT’s closest political ally, Howard
Foley. (Foley has since moved to Colorado.) In the brutal 1980 statewide
campaign to pass Prop 2½, high tech provided the cash, and Barbara
furnished the troops on the ground.
The taxpayers won, 59-41.
“Prop 2½,” Charlie said, “was the most important political event in
Massachusetts of my lifetime.”
I agree, and it was nice to hear him say it. Once the hacks, at both the
municipal and state levels, no longer had carte blanche to beggar the
working classes, everything changed. Barbara accomplished so much more –
the fights against the progressive income tax, the repeals of the
income-tax “surcharge” and the “temporary” income-tax increase, the
Governors’ radio show, etc. – but Prop 2½ was the big enchilada, the
sine qua non.
Also among Barbara’s friends in attendance was Gerald “Tooky” Amirault,
who was railroaded into prison for 18 years in the Fells Acre Daycare
frame. It was Barbara’s final wish that he get some measure of justice,
or at least have his ankle bracelet removed after 12 years on parole.
At Lombardo’s yesterday, Tooky finally got a chance to speak directly to
Baker, one-on-one. We all understand that it’s up to Tooky to make the
initial outreach to the Parole Board, but it would help if he knows how
the governor feels about his petition. Not only Charlie but his State
Police detail shook Tooky’s hand as they left Lombardo’s; I take that as
a good sign.
I’ll try to keep you informed how Amirault’s final struggle to win at
least some redemption unfolds.
Among those who spoke yesterday were Avi Nelson, and Jim Braude, her
long-time sparring mate, and Margery Eagan. Those in the audience
included state reps. Geoff Diehl (who won a Barbara Anderson-like
underfunded victory to repeal the automatic gas tax in 2014), Dave
DeCoste, Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, Weymouth Mayor Bob Hedlund
(in a leg cast after a softball injury), ex-state Reps. Royall Switzler
and Bill Vernon, consultants Charley Manning and Holly Robichaud, and
many many more. It was great to see everybody!
My remarks were briefly interrupted when a rap concert erupted at the
wedding reception being held in the function room next door. I tried not
to let it destroy my faith in the integrity of the hip-hop movement and
the aspiring rappers who had driven down from Mattapan to turn their
lives around.
I ended by reading from a
column Barbara wrote for the Salem Evening News on Christmas Eve
2001. She certainly wasn’t religious in the traditional sense of the
word, and I remember being surprised when I originally read her column.
When she passed, I mentioned it to Chip Ford, and he’d forgotten all
about the piece.
But eventually Chip retrieved it, and sent it to me, so yesterday I
wanted to share Barbara’s own words with her friends. They seemed
appropriate for the occasion. She mentioned how after her own father’s
death, she and her son traveled to his funeral in Pennsylvania. After he
was interred, she and Lance returned to the cemetery for one final
farewell.
“I wasn’t praying, mourning or wishing,” she wrote, “just discussing the
view.
“Suddenly, over my son’s shoulder, I saw my father passing by, as if on
the caboose platform of a train, going backwards. He waved in that funny
backhanded way he used to wave from his chair when I left the house, and
said, ‘Bye Bon,’ his nickname for me. He looked very excited about the
trip.
“… I’m sure it wasn’t deliberate… It was just that my sometime psychic
self was tuned in to the right place and looking in the right direction
as he went past. I wasn’t looking for a ‘sign.’ But there it was, and
doubting Thomas that I am, having seen it with my own eyes, I’m a
believer.
“Whether you are a believer, or not, if there are missing guests in your
cabin this season, it may be nice to imagine them at another table
somewhere, with other departed souls you have loved.”
Goodbye Barbara. I hope we meet again sometime, in another cabin, at a
different table.
The Cape Codder
(and other Wicked Local newspapers)
Monday, June 6, 2016
Barbara Anderson memorialized
By Marjorie Arons-Barron
Supporters and opponents of the late anti-tax advocate Barbara Anderson
gathered Sunday in Randolph to remember her good natured individualism,
civic activism, political savvy, professionalism and not insignificant
success in lowering the tax burden for the people of Massachusetts. She
and I were often – make that, usually – on opposite sides of issues.
(The video presentation at the event included a sound bite from
Barbara's coming to Channel Five to rebut an editorial I wrote.) Yet the
debate on both sides was sincere, well researched and respectful of the
exchange of ideas.
Radio and TV commentator Jim Braude spoke of the hundreds of joint
appearances the two had on various tax limit referenda when he was head
of the Tax Equity Alliance of Massachusetts. They brought the debate
from one end of the Commonwealth to the other, doing as many as five
debates in a day, often travelling in the same car. An unlikely twosome,
they came to enjoy a special relationship. Braude said that, despite the
hours he had spent doing research and aggregating data to buttress his
positions, Anderson nearly always won over the crowd with the clarity of
her viewpoint, her smart communication skills and the authenticity of
the case she made to legitimately concerned taxpayers.
Anderson was widely known as the mother of Prop 2½, which Governor
Charlie Baker called the most significant act of the last 35 years. It
wasn't just that it capped the seemingly endless growth of property
taxes, he told the gathering. Prop 2½ forced cities and towns to
professionalize their tax administration and regularize and
institutionalize 100 percent valuation. That reform served as the
foundation for a rational distribution of local aid. Since then, all
communities have been playing by the same rules and have had to do so
with a far greater degree of transparency. In reflexive Democratic
circles, those pluses of Prop 2½ are often overlooked, as is the
positive contribution of Anderson to civic engagement.
In watching the various video montages and listening to personal
remembrances, I was struck by the difference in the tenor of political
discourse then and now. In the midst of debates over Prop 2½, a
graduated income tax, repealing an income tax rate hike, and other
ballot questions, the public and the media did get hot under the collar.
But those disputes were statesmanlike compared to the schoolyard name
calling and ad hominem attacks, the insults and the slurs, to which
Donald Trump has subjected us today.
Anderson and her Citizens for
Limited Taxation colleagues stuck with their issues but worked with
the state legislature, the Mass. Municipal Association and others to
work out compromises when referenda results (never the best way to pass
complicated laws) needed to be modified. For many media folks, myself
included, she also became a go-to person for thoughtful analysis of
government proposals and problems. She was always determined that the
voices of ordinary citizens would be heard, and hers was heard most of
all.
The Marblehead Reporter
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Friends celebrate Barbara Anderson's life
By William Dowd
MARBLEHEAD — Over 130 people, including
Gov. Charlie Baker, celebrated the life of late Marblehead resident
Barbara Anderson in a small service Sunday at Lombardo’s in Randolph.
Anderson’s partner of 20 years, Chip Ford, executive director of
Citizens for Limited Taxation (CLT), and Chip Faulkner, CLT’s
communications director, organized the "Celebration of the Life" of
Barbara Anderson, who led CLT for 35 years.
Anderson was one of the chief architects of the 1980 controversial
Proposition 2½ referendum. The 35-year-old law still caps the state’s
351 municipalities annual tax levies to 2½ percent of the market value
of property.
On Nov. 4, 1980, 83 percent of Massachusetts voters cast ballots. More
than 1.2 million out of 2.4 million shaded in Question 2, effectively
enacting Proposition 2½.
Anderson passed away on April 8 at 73, and it was her wish to have no
wake or funeral service, according to organizers. Therefore, it was
decided that a celebration of her life after an appropriate period would
fit within her parameters, said organizers.
A video presentation of clips from Anderson’s long crusade to get
Proposition 2½ passed, a PBS special on her, and other personal clips
were shown interspersed with personal remembrances from Baker, Howie
Carr, Avie Nelson, Bob Katzan as well as some of her opponents, Margery
Eagan and Jim Braude.
Baker said, according to organizers, that Anderson was clearly the force
behind 2½, which lowered property taxes, and, while there were some
legislative changes made to 2½ after it was passed, Anderson and CLT
fully supported those changes and worked with the legislature to ensure
they didn't change the spirit of the initiative, organizers said. Many
of the speakers talked about the way Anderson was able to take a
complicated subject and explain it in words that anyone could
understand.
“It was clear to all those present that Anderson was never interested in
fame or fortune and firmly resisted the calls for her to run for
governor,” organizers said in a statement. “Her main objective was to
get lower taxes for everyone.”
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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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