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 ***
Friday, June 6, 1997

Greetings activists;

Every once in a while the antics on Beacon Hill are just so ridiculous that they deserve a good laugh, and the State House News Service provided an irresistible report that I just have to forward for your reading pleasure. Remember, this is "The Best Legislature Money Can Buy" doing the peoples’ full-time business as only They can!

But first, a touch of outrage courtesy of the Beacon Hill Cabal.

(It’d be more than "a touch" were it not for the initiative process and our eventual ability to *do* something about it—but more on that option later!)

Chip Ford
Co-director

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Forwarded Message:
Subj: HOUSE SURPLUS BILL FUNDS NEW PROGRAMS, CREATES NEW PROBLEMS
Date: 97-06-03 03:33:05 EDT
From: State House News Service
To: SHNS Subscribers


HOUSE SURPLUS BILL FUNDS NEW PROGRAMS, CREATES NEW PROBLEMS

SHNS....JUNE 2, 1997....The House Ways and Means Committee today approved a bill spending much of the fiscal 1997 state surplus, a measure designed to relieve pressure on state debt, but one so different from the Senate version it might slow down passage of next year’s state budget. . .

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Forwarded Message:
Subj: SONG A HIT WITH STATE ADMINISTRATION, BUT BUSINGER GETS DEAF EAR
Date: 97-05-29 05:46:03 EDT
From: State House News Service
To: SHNS Subscribers

SONG A HIT WITH STATE ADMINISTRATION

SHNS.....MAY 28, 1997......The [State Administration] committee’s session today was, in a word, odd. At one point Rep. Mary Jeanette Murray (R-Cohasset) was invited to testify, stormed up to the committee table, and said, "If there’s bills with my name on them, give ‘em a favorable," apparently confusing the chairmen, who asked if she were actually going to testify on anything.

A chastened Murray said, "Oh, I thought this was an exec," short for executive session, then rattled off the bill numbers of about a dozen measures she favored. Then she left.

The Committee was also serenaded by the Greendale Retired Men’s Glee Club of Worcester, who lobbied in song for passage of "The Great State of Massachusetts" as official glee-club song of the commonwealth.

The song was inspired by the visit of former Worcester Mayor George A. Wells to the 1960 inaugural of President John F. Kennedy. Wells noticed the excellent glee club songs the other states had, while the Bay State had none, and composed "The Great State of Massachusetts" on the way home from Washington, said glee club director Lee Bartlett.

Bartlett motioned over and over for committee members to join in the singing. Rep. Alan Swan (D-Springfield) and Sen. Matthew Amorello (R-Grafton), did so, Amorello blushing bright red.

After several choruses - "From here the great ships sailed outward, to make this nation known/From here the rockets first shot upward, to probe the great unknown" - a member of the committee moved the bill be given a favorable report to the House. The glee club immediately launched into a rendition of "Let’s Go Fly a Kite."

A court officer staffing the hearing of the Judiciary Committee in the next hearing room stuck his head in the door, apparently dispatched by the chairman of that committee to quiet down the goings-on in State Administration. But, realizing the singing was actually testimony, the officer soon left.