A PROMISE TO KEEP: 5%
A Ballot Committee of
Citizens for Limited Taxation & Government
PO Box 408 * Peabody, MA 01960
Phone:(617) 248-0022 * E-Mail: cltg@cltg.org
Visit our web-page at: http://cltg.org
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*** Promise Update ***
Friday, February 13, 1998
Greetings:
Today our ballot question petition to "keep the promise" and roll back the 1989 "temporary" income
tax hike began the next phase: Our challenge for more signatures before the Suffolk Superior Court
(see news release below).
As you know, the seven-days-a-week overtime marathon that a few of us have had to endure for the
past six months since last Labor Day Weekend—and which should have concluded on December 3rd
when we turned in the signatures—continues, entirely due to collecting too few signatures this time.
Our legal expenses continue to skyrocket as our initiative petition is dragged through step after step of
the legal system -- and we will continue as long as the funds are there to pay them . . . *but be advised
that the funds are quickly running out.* As long as the money holds out, we expect to prevail.
Looking back at our recent shaky experience with volunteer signature gathering, and with the growing
practice of other ballot committees in using paid petitioners, at my recommendation CLT&G is now
considering a new policy before we ever again consider taking on another petition drive at the direction
of our members.
If we *ever again* are induced to conduct a petition drive, expect to be asked either to: 1) provide a
"Personal Commitment Pledge" to collect at least 100 signatures—and receive regular progress report
phone calls to insure that your commitment is being kept—or, 2) donate at least $100.00 up front so we
too will be able to hire paid petitioners who will collect your 100 signatures for you to insure our success
and avoid a needless and expensive additional legal battle because of too few signatures.
$100,000 or Personal Commitment Pledges equal to 100,000 signatures will be in the hands of CLT&G
prior to the first-Wednesday-in-August filing deadline with the attorney general. If we don’t reach that
goal in advance, then we will not file the petition, we will call off the drive for lack of support.
That’s the only way I can see of avoiding another total life commitment by Barbara, me, and a handful
of others, and the whopping legal expenses funded by a limited group of dedicated members and
unfairly-burdened contributors after the fact, to make up for a lack of effort by too many who stand to
benefit handsomely from the sweat of our now-necessary around-the-clock effort.
Chip Ford—
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The Boston Herald
Friday, February 13, 1998
Anonymous firms funding investment-tax cut bid
By Ellen J. Silberman
A stealth group of corporations—including one of the nation’s oldest investment banks—is secretly funding the ballot initiative that could drop the tax on investments.
Operating as the Committee for Fair and Simple Taxation, or Comfast, these mystery donors paid $138,000 to get the tax-cut question on November’s ballot. . . .
[ . . . ]
The Office of Campaign and Political Finance Wednesday sent Comfast a letter saying its contribution to the Committee for Tax Fairness appeared to be legal. Comfast would only have to reveal its donors if it began to raise money specifically for the ballot initiative, the letter said.
[ . . . ]
Comfast spent $140,000 to pay an outside firm to collect the 64,928 signatures it needed to geth the tax break on the ballot. . . .
---------- End of Boston Herald report ----------
PS. By comparison, CLT&G’s ballot committee, A Promise to Keep:5%, spent less than $40,000 for our petition drive expenses.
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-------- From State House News Service --------
BALLOT COMMITTEES FIND FUNDING FROM DIVERSE SOURCES By Trevor Hughes STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE.....JAN. 21, 1998....
[ . . . ]
The Committee for Tax Fairness spent $140,000 in five months to place an initiative lowering the state’s unearned-income tax rate on the November ballot.
[ . . . ]
The Free the Pike campaign, which wants to remove tolls on the MassPike, spent about $80,000 putting its question on the ballot.
[ . . . ]
The three groups behind the clean-campaign finance initiative spent a total of $94,000.
[ . . . ]
The Committee [sic - Citizens] for Limited Taxation & Government spent about $40,000 on its ballot campaign to lower the state income tax to 5 percent from 5.95 percent.
[ . . . ]
-------- End of State House News Service Report --------
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A Promise to Keep: 5%
NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release: February 13, 1998
Promise Petition goes to Court on Friday the 13th
Unfortunately for the Teachers Union, 13 has been our lucky number since Howard Jarvis began the Tax Revolt with Proposition 13 in California.
Another lucky number: 2,074. As we check the Central Voter Registry database for the 11,000 Promise signatures that were not certified by local registrars last fall, so far we’ve found 2,074 registered voters who signed the petition but were not counted. We expect to find even more as Promise staff and volunteers look at additional communities.
The preliminary hearing is today, Friday, February 13th, at 2:00 PM before Suffolk Superior Court—though it will be held in Room 8A at the Middlesex Courthouse in East Cambridge. Although we expect to be there, our attorney warns us all that the hearing will consist mostly of technical matters with little decision-making or action.
Eventually, we will object to the Teachers’ intervening in our action to add signatures, which is really between us and the Secretary of State at this point. We expect to add far more than the presently needed 356 registered voters.
It has been agreed that the Secretary of State will transmit the Promise petition to the clerk of the House of Representatives so that a legislative hearing can be scheduled while the Court hears the case.
Chip Ford and Barbara Anderson
Co-chairmen, A Promise to Keep: 5%
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You can e-mail A Promise to Keep: 5% at --> cltg@cltg.org
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