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Post Office Box 1147 ●
Marblehead, Massachusetts 01945 ●
(781) 639-9709
“Every Tax is a Pay Cut ... A Tax Cut is a Pay Raise”
45 years as “The Voice of Massachusetts Taxpayers”
— and
their Institutional Memory — |
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CLT UPDATE
Saturday, May 25, 2019
Reports
on the passing of Chip Faulkner
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CLT News Release
Friday, May 24, 2019
Taxpayer advocate Francis J. "Chip" Faulkner dies at 73
Longtime taxpayer advocate Chip Faulkner
died Friday, May 24. He was 73.
Faulkner had been suffering from pancreatic
cancer for the past 15 months, said his brother, Donald
Faulkner. He died at a hospice in the area....
Faulkner joined Citizens for Limited
Taxation in 1979 to work on the signature drive that led to
Proposition 2½, a ballot question approved by Massachusetts
voters in November 1980....
Faulkner served as the group’s associate
director, working with the late Barbara Anderson to limit
both government spending and taxation in Massachusetts. More
recently he served as the group’s communications director.
He also ran the political action committee allied with
Citizens for Limited Taxation.
Over the years Faulkner fought successfully
against a state income tax surtax and a ballot question that
would have established a graduated income tax, and in 2000
for a ballot question rolling back a previous (supposedly
temporary) increase in the state income tax by state
legislators.
For about a dozen years or more Faulkner
hosted a once-a-month gathering of conservatives and
centrists in Lexington on Friday mornings that featured
guest speakers, question-and-answer times, and discussions
about the issues of the day.
As master of ceremonies Faulkner often
displayed his wit, telling funny stories about his
experiences at political events.
“He was the most easygoing guy I ever met,
especially for a political activist,” said Chip Ford,
executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation, who
first met Faulkner in 1986 when both were trying to repeal a
then-new state law requiring occupants of a motor vehicle to
wear a seat belt. “And a sense of humor you wouldn’t
believe. This guy was like a library of jokes. He had a joke
for every occasion.”
Author and columnist Don Feder, who
originally hired Faulkner when he was executive director of
Citizens for Limited Taxation 40 years ago, spoke at
Faulkner’s Friday morning group several times. The point of
the group was to advance ideas Faulkner believed in, not
himself.
“I don’t think Chip was the kind of guy who
would ever ask, ‘What’s in it for me?’” Feder said. “He only
wanted to advance the cause.” ...
Feder said Faulkner loved telling jokes in
the office but also was always helpful when called upon.
“There were several things that stood out
about him. He was a very committed conservative, very
dedicated to the cause. He was hardworking – extremely
hardworking. He had a great sense of humor. And he was
always in a good mood,” Feder said. “One of the nicest
people that I knew in Massachusetts politics – in fact, one
of the nicest people I met generally in my life.” ...
“He was a workaholic. He could collect
signatures like nobody I ever met in my life,” Ford said.
“He just loved going out and meeting people and collecting
signatures.”
The New Boston Post
Friday, May 24, 2019
Taxpayer Advocate Chip Faulkner Dies
—
Stalwart of Citizens for Limited Taxation
By Matt McDonald
Chip Faulkner, an ardent supporter of tax
relief and veteran of many Beacon Hill battles, died Friday
after fighting pancreatic cancer for the past year.
"Chip Faulkner was a relentless advocate for
taxpayers across Massachusetts," Citizens for Limited
Taxation (CLT) said. "He organized and coordinated over a
dozen successful volunteer statewide petition drives, and
was himself one of the state's most prolific signature
gatherers for those and many other petition drives. Some of
his accomplishments include the Proposition 2½ petition
drive and campaign for property tax relief, repeal of the
state income tax surtax, defeat of the 1994 graduated income
tax ballot question, and the 2000 rollback of the
'temporary' state income tax increase ballot question."
State House News Service
Friday, May 24, 2019
Veteran tax relief advocate Chip Faulkner dies at 73
By Michael P. Norton
Francis “Chip” Faulkner, a long-time
advocate against raising taxes, died Friday of pancreatic
cancer, according to Citizens for Limited Taxation. He was
73.
Faulkner, of Attleboro, had worked for
Citizens for Limited Taxation since 1979, when he was hired
along with anti-tax advocate Barbara Anderson to work on the
ballot campaign to pass Proposition 2½. The ballot question,
which passed in 1980, limits the amount by which cities and
towns can raise property taxes each year.
Faulkner went on to hold multiple roles
within the organization and its affiliated political action
committee, including spokesman and associate director....
Faulkner held a master’s degree from St.
John’s University and a bachelor’s degree from the College
of the Holy Cross. He taught high school and junior high
school in New York before joining Citizens for Limited
Taxation.
“Chip Faulkner was a respected and outspoken
taxpayers’ advocate with a sharp sense of humor,” Chip Ford,
executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation, wrote
in a press release announcing Faulkner’s death.
The Springfield Republican
Friday, May 24, 2019
Anti-tax activist Chip Faulkner dead at 73
By Shira Schoenberg
Francis “Chip” Faulkner (shown in a photo from 1978). Sun
Chronicle file photo.
Anti-tax crusader Francis “Chip” Faulkner
has died at age 73.
Faulkner, who lived in Wrentham and more
recently Attleboro, was a key figure in the group Citizens
for Limited Taxation, which got the landmark property
tax-limiting initiative Proposition 2½ passed in 1980....
“He was a tremendous force on behalf of the
taxpayer in Massachusetts and for that we owe him a debt of
gratitude. Job well done,” state Rep. Jay Barrows,
R-Mansfield, said....
Wendy Wakeman, director of the Massachusetts
Republican Party, remembered Faulkner as a big help in a GOP
wave in 1990 that elected William Weld governor and Joe
Malone treasurer.
“He was always the guy at the other end of
the phone to give advice or raise money,” she said.
She called Proposition 2½ “a watershed”
piece of legislation that stopped large property tax
increases....
Jeff Bailey of Attleboro, a fellow
Republican activist, said he was good friends with Faulkner.
“He just loved the country and the state of
Massachusetts and was absolutely tireless in his efforts,”
Bailey said....
“Chip Faulkner was a relentless advocate for
taxpayers across Massachusetts. He organized and coordinated
over a dozen successful volunteer statewide petition drives,
and was himself one of the state’s most prolific signature
gatherers for those and many other petition drives,” CLT
executive director Chip Ford said.
The Attleboro Sun-Chronicle
Saturday, May 25, 2019
Prop 2½ advocate Chip Faulkner dies
By Jim Hand
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Chip Ford's CLT
Commentary
It was another grim day for CLT, members
like you, and the countless friends of Chip Faulkner
with his passing early yesterday morning
– the loss of another
leading taxpayer champion. While his health was
declining over the past year he put up a great fight,
remained in good spirits, and whenever I called him was
available to help however he could. Though we
recognized that the outcome was inevitable the
abruptness of the end was startling. When I spoke
to him two weeks ago he told me that everything seemed
to be under control, at least as much as could be
expected, and that his condition was steady. Then
he was suddenly back in the hospital, and too soon gone.
There are still no definite arrangements
for a date and time of services, but I'll let you know
as soon as I'm informed. I've been told only that
they will be held at the
R.J. Ross Funeral Home in Wrentham sometime next
week. (The funeral home is owned by former-state
Senator Richard Ross, Republican of Wrentham, a
neighbor, friend, and frequent ally of Chip Faulkner and
CLT before he was defeated for reelection last
November.)
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Chip Ford
Executive Director |
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The New Boston Post
Friday, May 24, 2019
Taxpayer Advocate Chip Faulkner Dies — Stalwart
of Citizens for Limited Taxation
By Matt McDonald
Longtime taxpayer advocate Chip Faulkner died
Friday, May 24. He was 73.
Faulkner had been suffering from pancreatic
cancer for the past 15 months, said his brother,
Donald Faulkner. He died at a hospice in the
area.
Born Francis Joseph Faulkner, he grew up in the
City Mills neighborhood of Norfolk,
Massachusetts. He was living in next-door
Wrentham when he was hospitalized recently.
Faulkner joined Citizens for Limited Taxation in
1979 to work on the signature drive that led to
Proposition 2½, a ballot question approved by
Massachusetts voters in November 1980.
That law, which is still on the books, limits
increases in a town or city’s tax levy to 2.5
percent per year plus allowances for new growth,
unless voters approve an additional increase at
the polls. It slowed the frequent steep hikes in
local property taxes that were common during the
1970s, as towns and cities struggled to pay for
the level of local-government services they were
providing at the time.
Faulkner served as the group’s associate
director, working with the late Barbara Anderson
to limit both government spending and taxation
in Massachusetts. More recently he served as the
group’s communications director. He also ran the
political action committee allied with Citizens
for Limited Taxation.
Over the years Faulkner fought successfully
against a state income tax surtax and a ballot
question that would have established a graduated
income tax, and in 2000 for a ballot question
rolling back a previous (supposedly temporary)
increase in the state income tax by state
legislators.
For about a dozen years or more Faulkner hosted
a once-a-month gathering of conservatives and
centrists in Lexington on Friday mornings that
featured guest speakers, question-and-answer
times, and discussions about the issues of the
day.
As master of ceremonies Faulkner often displayed
his wit, telling funny stories about his
experiences at political events.
“He was the most easygoing guy I ever met,
especially for a political activist,” said Chip
Ford, executive director of Citizens for Limited
Taxation, who first met Faulkner in 1986 when
both were trying to repeal a then-new state law
requiring occupants of a motor vehicle to wear a
seat belt. “And a sense of humor you wouldn’t
believe. This guy was like a library of jokes.
He had a joke for every occasion.”
Author and columnist Don Feder, who originally
hired Faulkner when he was executive director of
Citizens for Limited Taxation 40 years ago,
spoke at Faulkner’s Friday morning group several
times. The point of the group was to advance
ideas Faulkner believed in, not himself.
“I don’t think Chip was the kind of guy who
would ever ask, ‘What’s in it for me?’” Feder
said. “He only wanted to advance the cause.”
Faulkner showed up at Feder’s house in Holliston
during the fall of 1979 when Feder and his
family were moving to Seattle. He helped them
pack, and at the end there was one wheelbarrow
that didn’t fit in the Ryder moving truck.
“So rather nonchalantly, Chip said, ‘Well how
much do you want for it? I could use a
wheelbarrow,’ ” Feder recalled.
Feder said Faulkner loved telling jokes in the
office but also was always helpful when called
upon.
“There were several things that stood out about
him. He was a very committed conservative, very
dedicated to the cause. He was hardworking –
extremely hardworking. He had a great sense of
humor. And he was always in a good mood,” Feder
said. “One of the nicest people that I knew in
Massachusetts politics – in fact, one of the
nicest people I met generally in my life.”
Faulkner grew up in Norfolk during the 1950s and
1960s, when it was a sleepy little town
dominated by the state prison, where his father
worked as a house officer. In 1958 he was the
pitcher on the team that won the town’s Little
League championship, said his brother, Donald
Faulkner, who also played on the team.
Raised a Catholic, Chip served as an altar boy
at St. Jude Church in Norfolk from ages 7 to 17.
Chip graduated from King Philip Regional High
School in Wrentham in 1963, as class president.
While there he played hockey and baseball and
ran track.
From there he went to the College of the Holy
Cross in Worcester, majoring in history. He
graduated in 1967. He then earned a master’s
degree in Asian studies at St. John’s University
in the Queens borough of New York City.
(Climbing Mount Fuji in Japan was one of his
favorite achievements, his brother said.)
During the 1970s Faulkner taught high school and
junior high school on Long Island and in New
York City for about nine years. During part of
that time he lived in a fifth-story walk-up
apartment in Chinatown in Manhattan. He also
drove a cab part-time in New York.
But he had an interest in politics, and
eventually he came home. In the late 1970s he
ran for state representative as a Republican,
winning three of the four towns in the district
(Norfolk, Millis, and Wrentham) but losing the
largest town, Walpole, where his Democratic
opponent came from, and thus the election.
The campaign introduced him to several
conservatives in Massachusetts, including the
founder of Citizens for Limited Taxation, Edward
F. King.
When Chip joined Citizens for Limited Taxation
in 1979 he went all in, including for some of
the organization’s less glamorous tasks.
“He was a workaholic. He could collect
signatures like nobody I ever met in my life,”
Ford said. “He just loved going out and meeting
people and collecting signatures.”
He used that gregariousness to inform his
political analysis. He decided early on that
Donald Trump had a chance in the 2016
presidential election, when he noticed that the
guys at the Attleboro-area sports pubs he
frequented all supported Trump.
“Not some or many of them, but all of them,”
Faulkner later wrote. “They made no bones about
it and were quite vocal in their support. I
remember thinking: ‘This is blue state
Massachusetts. What is it like in the rest of
the country!’ “
At Holy Cross he was a classmate of liberal
MSNBC television host Chris Matthews. For their
50th reunion in 2017, Matthews and Faulkner
debated politics before a packed hall, during
which Faulkner reminded Matthews that they had
both been members of the college’s Conservative
Club while students.
Also during that debate, Faulkner later
recalled, he described the Democratic leadership
in Washington as consisting of Chuck Schumer,
Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie
Sanders, adding: “The average age of these four
is deceased!”
Faulkner never married. He had no children and
no surviving nieces or nephews.
His sister, Judith DeBeck, of Norfolk, died in
December 2017.
He leaves his brother, Donald Faulkner, and
Donald’s wife, Linda, of Rochester,
Massachusetts.
Funeral arrangement had not been announced as of
early Friday afternoon. They are being handled
by R.J. Ross Funeral Home in Wrentham.
State House News
Service
Friday, May 24, 2019
Veteran tax relief advocate Chip Faulkner dies
at 73
By Michael P. Norton
Chip Faulkner, an ardent supporter of tax relief
and veteran of many Beacon Hill battles, died
Friday after fighting pancreatic cancer for the
past year.
"Chip Faulkner was a relentless advocate for
taxpayers across Massachusetts," Citizens for
Limited Taxation (CLT) said. "He organized and
coordinated over a dozen successful volunteer
statewide petition drives, and was himself one
of the state's most prolific signature gatherers
for those and many other petition drives. Some
of his accomplishments include the Proposition
2½ petition drive and campaign for property tax
relief, repeal of the state income tax surtax,
defeat of the 1994 graduated income tax ballot
question, and the 2000 rollback of the
'temporary' state income tax increase ballot
question."
Massachusetts voters in 1980 approved
Proposition 2½, by a 59-41 margin, and the
ballot law continues to limit the annual growth
of local property taxes.
Faulkner, who held several posts at CLT and
often testified before the Legislature, also
taught high school and junior high school in New
York City for nine years, according to CLT,
earned a master's degree from St. John's
University and received his bachelor's degree
from the College of the Holy Cross.
According to CLT, Faulkner recalled his "most
enjoyable debate" as the one in 2017 with
MSNBC's Chris Matthews at their 50th Holy Cross
college reunion, where Faulker reminded Matthews
that back then both had belonged to the
college's Conservative Club.
Services, which will be announced at a later
date, will be held at the R.J. Ross Funeral Home
in Wrentham, Mass.
The Springfield Republican
Friday, May 24, 2019
Anti-tax activist Chip Faulkner dead at 73
By Shira Schoenberg
Francis “Chip” Faulkner, a long-time advocate
against raising taxes, died Friday of pancreatic
cancer, according to Citizens for Limited
Taxation. He was 73.
Faulkner, of Attleboro, had worked for Citizens
for Limited Taxation since 1979, when he was
hired along with anti-tax advocate Barbara
Anderson to work on the ballot campaign to pass
Proposition 2½. The ballot question, which
passed in 1980, limits the amount by which
cities and towns can raise property taxes each
year.
Faulkner went on to hold multiple roles within
the organization and its affiliated political
action committee, including spokesman and
associate director. He gathered signatures and
helped run anti-tax campaigns, including a
successful 2000 campaign that rolled back an
increase to the state income tax rate, and the
defeat of a 1994 proposal for a graduated income
tax.
Faulkner held a master’s degree
from St. John’s University and a bachelor’s
degree from the College of the Holy Cross. He
taught high school and junior high school in New
York before joining Citizens for Limited
Taxation.
“Chip Faulkner was a respected and outspoken
taxpayers’ advocate with a sharp sense of
humor,” Chip Ford, executive director of
Citizens for Limited Taxation, wrote in a press
release announcing Faulkner’s death.
Faulkner is survived by his brother and
sister-in-law, Donald and Linda Faulkner of
Rochester. Anderson, his long-time partner, died
in 2016.
Services will be held at the R. J. Ross Funeral
Home in Wrentham. Details have not yet been
announced.
Attleboro Sun-Chronicle
Saturday, May 25, 2019
Prop 2½ advocate Chip Faulkner dies
By Jim Hand
Francis “Chip”
Faulkner (shown in a
photo from 1978) was
an advocate for the
law that eventually
became known as
Proposition 2½.
Sun Chronicle file
photo
ATTLEBORO — Anti-tax crusader
Francis “Chip” Faulkner has died at age 73.
Faulkner, who lived in Wrentham and more
recently Attleboro, was a key figure in the
group Citizens for Limited Taxation, which got
the landmark property tax-limiting initiative
Proposition 2½ passed in 1980.
The law, which still stands today, rolled back
property taxes in the early 1980s and then
limited future increases to 2.5 percent.
Faulkner, who died Friday, and Barbara Anderson
worked to get voters to approve the idea and
then defended it fiercely for years.
“He was a tremendous force on behalf of the
taxpayer in Massachusetts and for that we owe
him a debt of gratitude. Job well done,” state
Rep. Jay Barrows, R-Mansfield, said.
Faulkner and Anderson were outspoken power
brokers in Republican politics in the 1980s and
1990s.
The CLT endorsement was sought after by
Republican politicians throughout that time.
The group also got involved in other
anti-government issues, fighting against
state-mandated seat belt use, for example.
Wendy Wakeman, director of the Massachusetts
Republican Party, remembered Faulkner as a big
help in a GOP wave in 1990 that elected William
Weld governor and Joe Malone treasurer.
“He was always the guy at the other end of the
phone to give advice or raise money,” she said.
She called Proposition 2½ “a watershed” piece of
legislation that stopped large property tax
increases.
The measure was called draconian at the time,
she said, but it proved workable as cities and
towns were able to pass overrides to raise
larger tax increases when necessary.
Faulkner stayed active and even held Friday
morning discussion groups, she said.
Jeff Bailey of Attleboro, a fellow Republican
activist, said he was good friends with
Faulkner.
“He just loved the country and the state of
Massachusetts and was absolutely tireless in his
efforts,” Bailey said.
A native of Norfolk, Faulkner was a 1963
graduate of King Philip Regional Junior Senior
High School in Wrentham, where he was class
president, and the College of the Holy Cross in
Worcester, where he was a classmate of MSNBC
journalist Chris Matthews.
On the local level, Faulkner was a frequent
speaker at Wrentham town meetings, railing
against town spending and school building
projects.
Later he moved to Attleboro, where he was less
active.
A statement from CLT said Faulkner died Friday
morning. He had been on leave from CLT because
of pancreatic cancer.
“Chip Faulkner was a relentless advocate for
taxpayers across Massachusetts. He organized and
coordinated over a dozen successful volunteer
statewide petition drives, and was himself one
of the state’s most prolific signature gatherers
for those and many other petition drives,” CLT
executive director Chip Ford said.
Ford said Faulkner leaves behind his brother and
sister-in-law, Donald and Linda Faulkner of
Rochester.
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Citizens for Limited Taxation ▪
PO Box 1147 ▪ Marblehead, MA 01945
▪ (781) 639-9709
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