CITIZENS
for
Limited Taxation
Post Office Box 408
Peabody, Massachusetts 01960 (508) 384-0100
E-Mail: cltg@cltg.org
Website: http://cltg.org
NEWS RELEASE
April 15, 2000
RE: HOUSE BUDGET
Contact: Barbara Anderson - 508-384-0100
Chip Ford - 781-631-6842
House Recklessly Spends Income Tax Revenues
The Massachusetts House is throwing money away in
order to get rid of excess income tax revenue only to later argue that "the
commonwealth can't afford" the income tax rollback in November.
As it spends the commonwealth into the next fiscal
crisis, the House ignores the pathetic pleadings of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation
and other "responsible" organizations to not increase the budget during these
good economic times to unsustainable levels.
Meanwhile, the MTF (Massachusetts Totally-Clueless
Foundation) leads the opposition to the income tax rollback, the one chance we have to
slow down the overspending. Michael Widmer, get a clue: if the politicians have it, they
will spend it.
Voters also must wake up. In November 1998, they gave
legislators a constitutionally guaranteed pay raise, thinking that this would prevent the
politicians from voting for their own pay hikes; on the same ballot, voters supported the
Clean Election Law.
Legislators will get their automatic pay raises, and
now they are giving themselves more office slush funds and preparing to eventually add
more leadership positions with higher bonuses, while killing the Clean Elections Law and
also removing some existing restrictions on lobbyists.
To quote comedian Lily Tomlin: "No matter how
cynical I get, I just can't keep up." But this doesn't mean we shouldn't try.
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