"Checks on the state's to-do list
GLOBE EDITORIAL August 6, 2008
VOTERS ARE said to like divided government, with one party heading the executive branch while another controls the Legislature. This is supposed to provide checks and balances, but just as often it can result in gridlock. The session just completed shows that much can be accomplished when the two branches work together....
Also see: Massachusetts' One-Party State
Patrick, legislative leaders, and especially their staffs did the unsexy policy work needed to cobble together strategies for the big issues facing states today. The result: A $1 billion life sciences initiative; a sweeping energy bill with a focus on conservation and renewables; a $3 billion bond to accelerate repairs on deteriorating roads and bridges; $500 million in new revenues; an intact health reform law with 340,000 new patients enrolled in insurance plans. "Green" causes fared particularly well, with the biggest environmental bond bill ever, and commitments to carbon reduction and open-space preservation....
Of course the Globe is happy: they pushed all this crap.
Some in the business community have complained of rising costs in these initiatives, pointing to tax loophole closings, new environmental regulations, and increased contributions to the healthcare law. But Patrick was scrupulous about seating business representatives at the table while the big changes were hammered out, to the benefit of corporate interests. For example, the tax loophole closings and cigarette tax hike were partly offset by an overall reduction in the corporate tax rate.
Plus, as the state GOP likes to boast, taxes were cut more than 40 times by four successive Republican administrations. Given plunging revenues and the press of healthcare and other needs, the fairly modest tax hikes are more a course correction than a radical shift.
This past session suggests what is possible when most oars are pulling in the same direction."
And the governor they love agrees with them.
Imagine that?
Governor Deval Patrick hailed a series of clean energy initiatives and economic investments yesterday as he deemed the 18-month legislative session "one of the most productive in a long, long time."
Standing in front of posterboard signs that said "Clean Energy Leader," "Growing the Economy," and "Engaged Governing," Patrick spouted off a list of accomplishments including a $1 billion package to bolster the state's life-sciences industry, laws that promote environmental policies and combat global warming, and the preservation of the legality of same-sex marriage.
"It was still, by any measure, an extraordinarily productive session," he said at a news conference packed with administration officials and Cabinet members.
Patrick said the major disappointment of the session was what he called the failure of lawmakers to pass his property tax relief initiatives, an issue that played a significant role in his campaign two years ago.
Yeah, the ONE THING that would HELP the PUBLIC at large!!!!
There never was a legislature that met a tax it didn't like here in Mass.
The governor blamed the Legislature for not endorsing a string of his proposals that could have lowered property taxes, including licensing three resort casinos and allowing communities to raise local meals and hotel taxes.
Right, casinos are the answer!
Hanging over the heads of state lawmakers is a November ballot question that would eliminate the state's 5.3 percent income tax, costing the state about $12 billion in annual revenue.
The Wall Street Journal weighed in yesterday with an editorial backing the repeal, which would destroy many of Patrick's spending plans.
"Nobody likes paying taxes, nobody," Patrick said. "But I do think there's a price for civilization."
And SOME DON'T HAVE TO, either!!!
Does that mean SHOVELING the revenues out to banks, Hollywood, and corporate favs, gov?
That's the "price" of civilization?"
Oh, yeah, about that INCOME TAX: notice how the Globe sticks that in at the end of the story.
Yeah, they wouldn't want to say too much about that since they are IN FAVOR of KEEPING the tax -- despite the WASTE and LOOTING of this government!!
Please read: The Boston Globe and Taxachusetts
