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CITIZENS
for
Limited Taxation & Government
Post Office Box 408 Peabody, Massachusetts
01960 (617) 248-0022
E-Mail: cltg@cltg.org Web-page: http://cltg.org
CLT&G
Update
Wednesday, October 7,
1998
Harshbarger Calls CLT&G "No New Taxes" Pledge
"STUPID"
In a speech yesterday to the South Shore Chamber of Commerce, Attorney General and
Democratic gubernatorial nominee L. Scott Harshbarger termed the CLT&G "No New
Taxes" pledge "Stupid"!
Though he still has yet to respond to
our invitation, his official response seems anticlimactic after his numerous public
comments.
In Monday night's debate, Scot Lehigh
reports in today's Boston Globe, "Acting Governor Paul Cellucci used
Democratic rival Scott Harhbarger's refusal to sign a no-new-taxes pledge as a bludgeon to
batter his foe . . ."
"Do you remember the last time we
had a governor who wouldn't take the no-new-taxes pledge?" Gov. Cellucci asked.
"It was a disaster."
And once again, the man who has never
been in a position to vote for anything charged, "I never voted for a tax
increase, unlike Paul Cellucci."
For the record:
Since 1983, on recorded roll call votes
of interest to taxpayers, through 1990 when Senator Paul Cellucci left the Legislature to
become Lt. Governor, he voted with the taxpayers 73 times, against us twice, and missed
one vote that CLT used in its annual ratings. This has given Gov. Cellucci an overall
CLT&G legislative rating of 97 percent.
In 1983 he voted for an increase in the
gas tax, and; in 1985 he voted for the hotel/motel/jet fuel tax, aka, the "Boston
Bailout" tax.
From 1987 through 1990 Senator Paul
Cellucci had a 100 percent CLT pro-taxpayer rating, the only senator with a
perfect voting record.
The "No New Tax" pledge, as
Republican consultant Charlie Manning noted in today's Boston Globe, "became
the cornerstone of much of the fiscal and economic success in Massachusetts over the last
eight years because everybody knew that raising taxes was off the table."
But Harshbarger calls it
"stupid."
As Forest Gump would say, "Stupid
is as stupid does."
Chip Ford
Citizens for Limited Taxation & Government
The Massachusetts taxpayers' "Special Interest" 1
The CELLUCCI
COMMITTEE and The SWIFT COMMITTEE
55 Union Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02108
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 6, 1998
Out of Touch Harshbarger
Labels No-New-Taxes Pledge "Stupid"
The Cellucci-Swift campaign today criticized Scott Harshbarger for his out of touch
statement during a speech at the South Shore Chamber of Commerce in which he called the
no-new-taxes pledge "stupid."
"Scott Harshbarger calling the no-new-taxes pledge 'stupid' just shows how arrogant
and out of touch he really is with the voters of Massachusetts," said Cellucci-Swift
Campaign Manager Rob Gray.
Harshbarger Question & Answer at South Shore Chamber of Commerce October 6, 1998:
South Shore Chamber
Question: "With regard to the no-tax pledge that Cellucci has mentioned. Could
you address specifically why you are reluctant to sign that and how your position differs
from Paul Cellucci's on that issue?"
Scott Harshbarger: "This is not the best political answer, but I think it's a
stupid pledge for several reasons. One is for Paul Cellucci to ask me to sign that is
ridiculous."
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1 "Special Interest" as defined by
Attorney General Harshbarger in his Lowell debate with Gov. Cellucci on October 5, 1998
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