Citizens for Limited Taxation & Government
"The Commonwealth Activist Network"
18 Tremont Street #608 * Boston, MA 02108
Phone: (617) 248-0022 * E-Mail: cltg@cltg.org
Visit our web-page at: http://cltg.org
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*** CLT&G Update ***
Tuesday, May 20, 1997

Greetings weary taxpayers;

I hate to say we told you so . . . heck, no I don’t: We told you so!

Today the state Senate debates its version of the budget, and when this morning’s *Boston Globe* lead editorial reads, "Fiscal wisdom on Beacon Hill" we should all grab our wallets, quickly and tightly.

"The Massachusetts Senate deserves credit in its proposed budget for using the state’s own estimated $400 million windfall responsibly," the Globe crows in its opening paragraph, so we quickly realize we’re in trouble. Why is it that when there’s a deficit, the burden falls onto us taxpayers to bear, but when there’s a surplus of our taxes—it’s "the state’s" windfall to spend, "responsibly" -- *or* *at* *all*?

That revenue surplus *belongs to us taxpayers* -- allegedly taken from us to bail the state out of those crises—not to fund more and bigger government down the road! What supreme arrogance!

We recently warned that if we don’t take back all those tax increases imposed to solve the Dukakis "fiscal crises" of the late-‘80s—now that the debt is about to be paid off in full -- They’d find new ways to spend it. They have, and They will continue to find new "unmet needs" until it’s gone and They have to come back and hit us up for more.

"First of all," the editorial continues, "the Senate resists the temptation to spend the entire surplus on tax cuts . . . most of the bonanza would be reinvested."

Now that must have been a tough call for the Beacon Hill Banditos! Remember, when They ran the state into fiscal meltdown, how quick They were with not one, but two income tax increases, first from 5 percent to a "temporary" 5.75 percent, followed by *another* income tax hike to 6.25 percent (proving that a tax increase can indeed be temporary—but only if it’s *increased* again!). We all know the meaning of "invest", and if there are any who don’t, it’s political double-speak for "spend".

"Like a prudent consumer who uses his Christmas bonus to pay off his credit card debt, the Senate would direct $134 million toward retiring the last of the "fiscal recovery bonds" the state was forced to float at the end of the 1980s. Similarly, the Senate would pay off its car loans by spending $10 million on police cruisers. And it would dedicate $100 million to the state’s rainy day fund, which was just expanded through separate legislation to a more realistic $850 million."

Don’t you wish you could force your employer to cough up any amount you dreamed up for your next "Christmas bonus," like the Legislature did to us in the late-‘80s? Hell, I’d pay off all my debts, head out on a shopping spree for a few new cars, and stuff a bundle into *my* "rainy day" savings account too! That’d be one fine "bonus" for sure, but unfortunately my employer, CLT&G, won’t spring for it. Will yours?

Besides, this is *not* a "bonus". It’s more comparable to a year-round salary increase—it keeps rolling in even after the holidays!
"The $15 million allocated for electronic bracelets and other forms of alternative sentencing, for example, is taken out of the prison bond bill."

"Spend it while you’ve got it" is not the exception to the Beacon Hill Rule, so this spending spree comes as no great surprise—and is the reason why it’s so important that we take back *our money* while there’s something left to take back!

"The Senate also makes important investments in programs. Day care for low-income families is expanded to $75 million. Money for early-childhood education is doubled. Legal immigrants hurt by federal welfare policies get more support than in budgets proposed by the governor or the House."

Here come more of those pesky "investments" again—all those "unmet needs" that build up new and bigger dependent constituencies, who’ll be "dying in the streets" if "selfish" we should demand an end to the "temporary" tax increases. How "greedy" of us to expect our tax burden—the highest income tax of any state—to be restored to the former pre-crisis level now that the fiscal crises They created during the 1980s "Massachusetts Miracle" have been paid off in full.

This is becoming so sickening . . . and so predictable. Just how much do They think They can get away with before motivating us to take action?

Isn’t it time to "invest" a little back into the plundered taxpayers of Massachusetts . . . "For The Children" of the overburdened!

Chip Ford
Co-director