“Fiddle dee dee. War, war, war. This war talk is spoiling the fun at every party this spring. I get so bored I could scream.”
–Gone With the Wind
Beacon Hill Dems informally caucused at the Parker House today where Bob DeLeo expressed his shock that Gov. Patrick had presented a tax plan that would actually raise enough revenue to deal with the Commonwealth’s structural problems–the shrinking education education aid and rotting infrastructure. Like General Sherman marching through Atlanta, Patrick isn’t taking prisoners, but DeLeo doesn’t seem to want a fight.
BOSTON — House Speaker Robert DeLeo called the governor’s request for $1.9 billion in new tax revenue “fantasy land” during a private political caucus with Democrats on Wednesday, expressing concern about voter backlash in next year’s election cycle, according to multiple sources who attended the meeting.
…. after nearly a year of building public recognition of the need to invest in an aging state infrastructure and transportation system, DeLeo told the members he feels that Patrick “changed the atmosphere” with the size of his tax reform proposal, according to several lawmakers who attended.
In DeLeo’s estimation, the scope of the tax package – including eliminating popular tax exemptions, taxing candy and soda, and raising the gas tax and cigarette tax – took the focus off transportation needs and left voters with a sense that Beacon Hill is simply asking for more money as it has in the past.
“There’s a sense now of, ‘Here we go again,'” one House member told the News Service.
DeLeo spoke to the News Service after the meeting, saying he convened the members to discuss next year’s election and make members aware of the resources available to them and the need to be raising money. The PAC is planning its first fundraiser of the year in May.
“You can’t start too early, so I just wanted to make sure everyone realizes that there’s more to running than just on election years. You have to be out there,” DeLeo told the News Service.
The speaker said the meeting gave him a good opportunity to hear from a number of members about where they stand on tax increases, and he heard a range of opinions from those who support the governor’s plan and those who feel they can’t support new taxes in their district.
“I honestly don’t know where we are on this,” DeLeo said. “At the end of the day I think we’re going to have a resolution that’s going to address some of the issues before us and at the same time be fiscally prudent,” DeLeo said.
Poor Bob DeLeo. Patrick just doesn’t give a damn. Not that he has to. I never got the impression that our Governor had a lot of friends in the legislature. Maybe I’m wrong. But DeLeo sounds afraid, or at least non-plussed.
“I don’t want to hear that we don’t vote for taxes, because we do,” DeLeo reportedly told the caucus, according to one lawmaker, who requested anonymity to discuss the private meeting.
This meeting was private, and the comments were cryptic.
Asked what he learned at the meeting, Rep. Theodore Speliotis (D-Danvers) quipped, “Not enough,” on his way out of the hotel.
Rep. Michael Moran, a Boston Democrat and floor leader for DeLeo, said, “We learned that people don’t like taxes.” Though Moran acknowledged there are some in the House who support Patrick’s plan, he said “the lower the tax, the more people like it.”
The purpose of the meeting was for
the members to discuss next year’s election and make members aware of the resources available to them and the need to be raising money. The PAC is planning its first fundraiser of the year in May.
But you have to wonder what this meeting was ultimately about. If DeLeo doesn’t come up with some revenue, things are going to hit the fan. And that’s not fantasy land.
In other words, the purpose of today’s meeting was to reel in Democratic members who were considering thinking on their own by reminding them that they’d be left out in the cold if they crossed DeLeo. I mean, abandoning the Commonwealth in an hour of need is no big deal, but there’s an election to worry about!!!!!
This seems like a good time to call every state Representative and make it clear that seventy seven percent of Massachusetts Democratic voters support the Governor’s plan. I know I don’t have to, because Denise Provost is surely way ahead of me on this, but I’ll call her anyway.
It also sounds to me as though it’s time to retire Mr. DeLeo. As investors like to say — a change is leadership is required.
If you can’t be loyal to the Dem Speaker you can be loyal to the Dem Governor instead. Also, kittyoneil are you a Deleo fan as evidenced by your downrates?
and their tax cuts left this Commonwealth starved for revenue. I hope DeLeo’s car craters in one of the potholes on our roads thanks to this sorry situation.
Downrate for that? Too polite. This is the quality of life in our state these hacks are bringing down.
Deleo is a child of God, too.
injury or death. I meant broken axle. How many people in this state who don’t want to pay an extra $200 in taxes have shelled out more than that for car repairs thanks to our crappy roads.
didn’t mean to downrate
Led the House when the legislature increased taxes on meals, hotels and motels, cigarettes, corporations, alcohol, and sales. Because of this, the number of republicans in his body doubled in the next election. The above characterizations are really unfair. Also, the idea that him talking taxes with his members is somehow strong arming them is misleading. Is Deval doing the same when he invites groups of lawmakers into his office and pitches his tax plan? He wields more power over their districts than Deleo or Therese Murray do, so his tactics must be considered much worse right?
All the tax increases to which you refer don’t begin to offset the lost revenue from the tax cuts this heavily Democratic legislature passed at the request of Messrs. Weld, Cellucci, Romney. Nor do they begin to address the need we have for revenue.
In a hugely Republican year nationwide, the number of Republicans in his chamber doubled…from 10% to 20%. Sorry, an 80% majority should be able to get things done without this fraidy-cat shit. This guy makes Harry Reid look like Huey Long.
The Speaker has lots of power over members in terms of office space, committee and leadership assignments, and whether their bills get heard. The Governor has next to no power in this regard.
This legislature is notorious for being thoroughly dominated by leadership, and nothing even comes to the floor unless you do things his way.
It’s safe to disagree without downrating.
It’s also safe to downrate without disagreeing.
that the “view voters” button is too damn close to the downrate button. Grr.
.
Two times a tiny number is still a tiny number.
Saying that “the number of republicans in his body doubled in the next election” is meaningless hand-waving. After all this “doubling”, the GOP holds 29 of 157 seats (three are vacant at the moment). In order to even attain a majority (79 votes), they need 50 more votes — more than double their current ranks. They need 24 more votes to stop the Democrat party from vetoing an action of a Governor.
The GOP is oceans away from being a meaningful political force in the Massachusetts House.
You apparently confuse “power over their districts” with “power over their political future”. Sadly, Mr. DeLeo makes those two very very different (I grant that he is not the first). Power over political future means making sure the legislator sits on no committees, gets no patronage positions, gets no help from various political associations, gets an office in a hall somewhere, gets to sit at the back of the room, waits forever to be allowed to speak, and so on and so forth.
Governor Patrick has no such power over legislators, Mr. DeLeo (as Speaker) has virtually all of it (in the House). And yes, his tactics are very much worse than Governor Patrick’s.
It’s time to elect a new Speaker — perhaps a Representative who actually represents the Democratic voters of the Commonwealth.
…but maybe some with less desirable ones. What is really needed is a rules rewrite so that the Speaker does not have so much power. I wonder if there is a way for progressives to put up a different candidate then exert grassroots pressure on their own reps to vote for that candidate.
I suspect you’re right that every Representative serves on at least one of the nine House Committees or twenty eight Joint Committees. Surely, however, some of those are considered more preferable than others. Surely the Speaker has a great deal of influence about the committee assignments of each member.
We surely need to do something, I like your suggestion.
My take is this is due to a combination of his casino stance and the fact that he’s not a rubber stamp for the Governor.BUT he has passed numerous pieces of significant legislation that those on this board should respect. There are the tax pieces I mentioned above, transportation, ethics, pension, education, and Quinn bill reforms, as well as the transgender bill. That’s a pretty good record on progressive issues.
Perks handed out to reps are known as ‘DeLeo Dolars’… The man has been in the CommonWealth HoR for the leadership of three former speakers, all of whom were indicted… and he played important roles in at least two of them.
The HoR is so deeply corrupt, and has been fo so long, that DeLeo couldn’t possibly have the context to judge ethical behavior and the so called ‘ethics reform’ he passed has been toothless and fruitless.
My direct experience advocating for the poor the elderly and the disabled with 7 different Speakers is that Bob DeLeo is a good Legislative Leader who knows how to build a consensus around complicated controversial issues by creating a space where his colleagues can learn and debate with each other on the merits of the issue and how every any proposed solution with affect their own constituents.
It is true that elected officials weigh opinon equal to fact, but it ain’t their own opinion that weighs the most, or the Legislative Leadership’s opinion it’s their constituents opinion.
And that’s why smart and savvy advocates organize grassroots district based campaigns that feature networks of local opinion leaders sharing their informed opinions with their own Legisaltors.
And that’s why smart and savvy Legislators work day and night for 23 months on their next campaign by listening to their constituents. (They generally take the rest of November off after election Day).
This tax vote will be a defining issue on election day in 20 short months from now. And if I were Bob Deleo I would be reminding my Members to pay attention to educating and listening to their consitituents about what they think about the Governor’s proposal. Not to him, not to the Governor, but to their constitutents.
You can get to work now. It’s the PERFECT time.
We need to be advocating for this in all kinds of districts: using these 40-year-old T cars means breakdowns that will have slowdown effects that push out to the suburbs.
We are a Commonwealth, and we have to take the case to everyone.
I am nearly always on the same page as you. I get the argument you make here, and I nearly — but not quite — agree with you.
I’d like to note that you are not Mr. DeLeo, and when you encourage [your] members to pay attention to “educating and listening to their constituents”, your encouragement has a different meaning from Mr. DeLeo’s. Any moderately skillful politician understands how to say one thing and mean just the opposite:
Here’s my problem. We know that the overwhelming majority of Democratic party voters support the Governor’s tax bill. That’s already true, most polls show it, and I think Mr. DeLeo knows it.
I don’t think it should require a massive grassroots outpouring to persuade a Democratic speaker to support a tax bill that an overwhelming majority of Democratic voters already support.
But let’s try to create one anyway.
We’re already planning to drum up massive grassroots outpourings to elect an interim senator, to elect a Democratic governor, and to elect a Democratic president.
It isn’t that I’m opposed to the idea, it’s that I don’t think it should be required.
I’m reminded of teenagers and dishes. I’m accustomed to needing to remind my boys that they need to clean the kitchen — I’m still really impressed when their visiting friends get up and start the cleanup on their own without my needing to say anything.
I would like to be able to assume the support of Democratic party leaders who allegedly represent me on issues where my opinion falls squarely in the middle of an overwhelming majority of my peers. I feel that way about Harry Reid, I felt that way about Nancy Pelosi, and I feel that way about both Mr. DeLeo and Ms. Murray.
First from their own districts – Senate President Murray from Plymouth and Barnstable (Plymouth and Barnstable — Consisting of the towns of Kingston, Pembroke and Plymouth in the county of Plymouth; and the towns of Bourne, Falmouth and Sandwich in the county of Barnstable), she lives in Plymouth. House Speaker DeLeo from the 19th Suffolk (Nineteenth Suffolk, Consisting of Revere: Ward 1: Precincts 1, 2, Ward 2, Ward 3: Precincts 2, 3, Ward 5: Precinct 3; Winthrop), lives in Revere.
Now do a little research on the voting records of those cities and towns and see how their constituetns have voted on various tax increase initiatives and recent 2 1/2 over rides. And guess what kind of phone calls they are getting.
Next they have to get elected to their own Legislative Leadership positions from their own Democratic Caucus members. One of the key questions new and veteran Members ask is “Will this person appoint me to those committees where I can influence some policies that will positively impact my constituents.”
So for example, Members from Greater Boston want to get on Transportation if they want to improve the MBTA and Members from Western Mass want to get on Transportation to direct dollars to regional transit authorities and screw the MBTA.
Legislative Leaders appoint Chairs and Vice Chairs of 28 substantive Joint Committees and standing committees like Ways and Means and Ethics who they trust will do the kind of substantive homework that Representative Strauss and Senator MCGee are doing now on Transportation today.
And they appoint people who are well liked and trusted by their colleagues and therefor “opinion leaders” in their Branch. Joint Committee Chairs and Standing Committee Chairs work very very hard. Brain Dempsey Chnair of House Ways and Means and Steve Brewer of Senate Ways and Means have been meeting one on one with every single member of their branch to listen to their list of budget priorities and asking them if they are willing to vote for new revenues to support the requests. They are each keeping a chart. . Each Chair of a Joint Committee has a couple of research staff to help them become “experts” able to debate technical issues in formal and informal conversations in floor debate and in (gasp) private meetings.
So I digressed a little but I wanted to discribe the mechancis of Legislative Leaders use to build a informed consensus among their membership. They will read the polls handed to them by various groups, and will distribute them to their members, but frankly don’t take them for granted as accurate.
They listen to the two constituency groups that voted for them.
information on how things work. This is the kind of thing most of don’t and can’t know without someone telling us.
…but not IMO how it SHOULD work, hence my call for a rules rewrite. Eac chair should be elected separately by each chamber from among themselves. Committee members should be chosen by lottery or by giving each member a choice by order of seniority; same for office space. All legislation filed by any member should be refered to the appropriate committee to hear it and mark it up in a timely fashion with favorable reports being acted upon by the full chamber in the order in which they were reported out. A representative elected by 1/160 of the Commonwealth or a senator elected by 1/40 should not have such disproportionate power.
Committees should, if possible, have members with experience in that area — even if those members don’t happen to be the most senior nor winners of a lottery. Trouble is, experience isn’t binary… it takes a human to gauge how relevant somewhat similar experience is, etc.
Remember, in many ways the speaker only has the power that membership anoints. The rank and file could, in theory, band together and demand that the speaker cool it, lest he be replaced. Unfortunately, it seems to have devolved to some sort of Lord of the Flies situation.
I get and appreciate your explanation.
My point is that I believe that in this case, the process is headed towards the wrong outcome. In the same way that a tiny fraction of national voters (currently Nevada) should not drive the policy agenda of the US Senate, so also should the opinion of Revere voters not drive the policy agenda of Massachusetts.
I’m not sure that I’m ready to sign up for Christopher’s proposal (I’m not against it, I’m just aware of the potential for unexpected consequences). I am sure, however, that we desperately need a major tax increase. I am also sure that an overwhelming majority of Massachusetts Democratic voters agree (I grant you that the margin may be 65/35 instead of 77/23).
It seems to me that since Democrats have controlled both branches of the legislature for decades, and we have been underfunded for decades, that there is ample evidence that what we’re doing isn’t working.
If it was, our transportation infrastructure would not be in the shoddy mess it’s in. Our cities and towns would not be facing the catastrophic shortfalls looming in the next few weeks.
We are among the wealthiest states in the wealthiest nation in human history. We can and must do better, and I expect the process by which we fill these offices to result in men and women who lead without being forced.
You guys can organize 10 neighbors and friends to lobby your own reps and senators on the need for rules reform that gives rank and file legislatos more power if you pledge to organize 10 neighbors and friends to lobby their own reps and senators on tax reform that raises the necessary 1.9 milolion dollars to repair and restore our transportation, education and human service infrastucture. I’ve been doing both for years, with some, but not enough, success on both counts. Peace and have a good Easter.
n/m
…the first thing your rep or senator will ask is “Do you live in the District?”
From their perspective, that’s a valid question.
I know that Judy Meredith referred to “your own” electeds, but what can I say: Department of Redundancy Department.
Because of the dismissive tone. The recent legislative sessions have been among the most successful in history. People should not expect continued support if they’re not only not going to recognize their supporters, but are also going to mock them.
The Governor controls a lot of the money that goes back to legislators’ districts. This Speaker actually has a reputation for inclusiveness, by the way.
Also, the T’s and th state’s structural deficits are largely due to the big dig debt and the voter mandated income tax rollback, respectively.
And who ALONE has the power to reverse that ill-concieved policy?
Governor Patrick and Senate President Murray both rolled out transportation reform proposals a couple of years ago. Sadly neither attempted to do so. I’d be all for unloading the T’s debt on the state. It would take something not dissimilar to what they’re talking about with the deficit in Washington. Some combo of cuts and new or increased revenues would be needed to balance the budget.
At least DeLeo shows some mercy to the taxpayers of this state. He was the catalyst who passed health care reform (kinda similar to Gov. Walker of WI). Speaker DeLeo knows MA has one of the highest state debt-per-capita, slighly behind California, and we all know a screwed up that state is. This is a major issue, if you don’t believe me, ask Obama, who ran ads railing against our debt under the Romney Adm.
I do believe Speaker DeLeo realizes the we are tapped out and cannot afford to give more money to fund MBTA expansion (we should be cutting back on the T, IMO), which inevitable end up like the Greenbush Line, a half-billion boondoggle that should have cost just $20 million. NO THANKS GUV!
n/t
Don’t let facts get in the way.
L.A Times California’s budget windfall could end soon, officials say
“The governor’s budget office advises in a report that the surprise $5-billion bump in revenue in January may be an accounting anomaly.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/feb/18/local/la-me-state-budget-20130219
Don’t pop the champagne bottle.
except the article says nothing about the state being anything close to “screwed up.” It says not to expect a HUGE SURPLUS and go committing it to additional spending or (cough, George W. Bush, cough) budget-busting tax cuts.
Ruin the narrative the Globe has created for you. Deval good. Legislature bad. It’s just so easy to believe and repeat.
who’s in agreement with this post has a history of calling out the Globe on its bullshit. Everyone knows Deval has not been perfect. But we need a strong vision. He laid one out. And DeLeo says it’s “fantasy land.” He wants to scale back for what? Afraid to take the case for sufficient revenue to the voters? Afraid he might only have 120 of 160 seats if he can’t make the case?
Heavy handed Speaker- Finneran is long gone.
Tax averse legislature- not even close since Finneran left. Tax increases have far surpassed cuts since.
DeLeo dollars/ earmarks for votes- never seen any evidence of this. Sour grapes from power struggle losers and anti- govt aholes who mock moth studies and grants to the Y.
HoR is corrupt- obviously has its fair share, but so does the admin. (See Burgess, Walsh, McLaughlin, Bell, the guy from the parole board, etc. etc.)
I just don’t understand the vitriol for a democratic leader who has been surprisingly supportive of progressive causes because he’s probably coming out with a “less ambitious” tax plan that will actually have a chance at passing. Even the Governor has called his own plan a “starting point for discussion.”
“surprisingly supportive” is an interesting euphemism for someone who decided to stop kicking and screaming simultaneously while they were being dragged into the 20th century: not fighting a battle you know you’re going to lose isn’t the same as supporting the other side.
So what’s the new, improved, not ‘outdated’, storyline? Is it that Robert DeLeo, a man who’s tutelage in the HoR began under Charles Flaherty, blossomed under Tom Finneran and flourished under Sal DeMasi is… what… Thomas a Becket? He’s seen the error of his ways and it flying the straight and narrow?
The very fact that this story is ABOUT DeLeo getting them all together, off the record, in one room and their subsequent re-emergence into sunlight suddenly singing the same tune is refutation adequate to your argument.
is not that high a bar. This is the state of Ted Kennedy. We just sent Elizabeth Warren to the U.S. Senate. It is telling that you find it “surprising” that a House Speaker would be at all supportive of anything progressive.
I continue to submit that any legislative body that is 80% Democratic should do far better. Tax increases may have exceeded cuts. They damn well better given how much was cut in the preceding 20 years. They still didn’t get us out of a revenue shortfall, and your very sentence concedes that the revenue increases have at least in part been offset by more cuts.
supposed to be to kittyoneil, not petr!
Get a list of the hacks and run challengers against every one,
Get a list of fence sitters and let’s blow up
Their phones with calls and fill their inboxes. As STom put it up thread time to man the barricades gents!
good job in this thread.
other commenters — CW is that the gov purposefully “bid high” with the tax increase to allow the lege to pass 1/2 of one. everyone is playing their part.
markb or perhaps charley in your promoting comments: if it’s true that in fact that was gov’s intent all along, then what is the beef here? deleo playing his part with the term “fantasy land”?
The Governor did not overshoot the need. And 1/2 of one is better than nothing but not sufficient to set things right.
the wasteland of my town and many others.
I think Patrick has been a pretty good governor, but my suspicion is that he’s never been accepted by the the legislators nor has he tried very hard for that to happen. (Maybe some of the people who know Beacon Hill can comment)? I think he doesn’t have to worry about re-election and so he tossed a bomb in DeLeo’s lap.
Why am I laughing at DeLeo? Because I don’t think he and much of the legislature don’t quite realize how much cities and towns are hurting? Things are about to hit the fan in my town, and that’s because state aid is way, way down.
I simply don’t believe that tax increases have surpassed cuts since Finneran left. At all.
This is an ad hominem argument as free from merit as it is ignorant of our history.
I’ve watched the Massachusetts house for nearly forty years. I came of age in Washington DC, during the sixties. I cut my political teeth on the Washington Post during the Katharine Graham years. Please spare me your lectures about political narratives.
I don’t need the Globe’s help to recognize when a particular politician puts his own personal political interests above the common good, the opinion of a majority of the voters, and the opinion of a supermajority of his or her own party’s voters. I certainly don’t need you to help me preserve my independence from the evil influence of the notorious manipulators at Morrissey Boulevard.
The legislature has been dominated by an overly powerful speaker for decades. It is no accident that the three prior speakers were felons.
It’s long past time to put a stop to it, even if it means breaking some political china along the way (sorry, Judy, but I think you’re mistaken on this one).
House Speaker Robert DeLeo continued to wait for the rescue helicopter to take him away from Gov. Deval Patrick’s “fantasy land” of higher taxes and trains
life on Beacon Hill continued to revolve around DeLeo – more specifically his indecision about taxes. House Democrats sojourned to a conclave at the Omni Parker House this week to discuss election business, a conversation that inevitably turned to tax increases, according to those in attendance.
DeLeo told the House members that Patrick’s request for $1.9 billion was “fantasy land,” according several lawmakers who attended, but did not get into detail about the transportation financing plan he will soon ask them to support, or when it might surface.
Though his word choice may have been more spicy than previous assertions that Patrick’s plan was “somewhat excessive,” DeLeo’s position on the governor’s budget hasn’t changed. Neither has his comfort level with any of the various revenue options on the table, complicated yet again by concerns raised by credit rating agencies.
“I honestly don’t know where we are on this,” DeLeo said.
Until he does, the MBTA decided to roll the dice with a $1.8 billion budget that includes a “placeholder” for $118 million to close a perennial budget gap without fare hikes or service cuts, assuming the Legislature will come through with enough cash to make either unnecessary.
Rep. William Straus and Sen. Thomas McGee’s Transportation Committee also moved to extricate $300 million from Patrick’s $19 billion transportation bond bill, polling a bill that would increase funding for local road and bridge repair separately from the larger financing package.
Presumably the House financing plan will include a enough new revenue to cover the $100 million in additional local infrastructure aid, and municipalities are crossing their fingers that earmarking will not bog down the bill as it did last year until half the construction season was over.
From appropriately skeptical wonderfully funny GABRIELLE GURLEY at Commonwealth’s Download
I have a lot of respect for a lot of posters on this chain. I respectfully disagree with not giving more credit to recent legislative efforts. I could go on about the enemy of th good and blah blah blah but I won’t. You should be encouraged by how close Stan Rosenberg, Sonia Chang Diaz, Ellen Story, and Byron Rushing are to the center of decision making. I only ask that you investigate what actually happens on Beacon Hill before drawing your conclusions. Ask those guys what they think of their leaders. They, and we, all have the same goals. They just have to be pragmatic.
Apologies, but I have more to as on this:
1. I’d like to note that the Governor said during his reelection campaign that he would not support any broad based tax increases. To me, this indicates that he too, when having to face reelection, saw some value in moderation on taxes. Now that he plans to leave public life he sees the light. So, I think some recognition of the difficulty of supporting these types of proposals is warranted.
2. For all my talk about DeLeo in this chain, he’s not the issue (on this issue). The Senate is dominated by suburban/ borderline rural leaders. They HATE the gas tax. Fare increases don’t affect their districts. The gas tax and income tax do. Fortunately for them, they can sit back and are the best of the Guv and House proposals, and potentially improve on them. Their membership, as a whole, is actually more progressive. I think that bodes well. I’d guess we get: deval- $1.9b; house- $700m; senate- $1.1b; law-$1.3b. I could live with that.
the inside (and the Boston Globe) in 1st Hampden/Hampshire District. I have no deep insight into how things work on Beacon Hill. I do know people can be funny up there. I once had a call from the staffer of a very powerful state legislator whom I once blogged about; I had said this person had less power than another person. I was also a municipal conference where Therese Murray couldn’t believe the number of us who were in favor of increase taxes. It was a slightly surreal experience for her.
With that said, I know my rep and senator and they know me. I know Stan Rosenberg (my parents held his first coffee hour when he first ran). I trust Ellen Story to represent my interests. Gale Candaras has bigger fish to fry in her district than my town, but I trust her well enough as well. When it comes down to it, I’ll take what I can get.
I’ve actually learned a lot from you and Judy on this thread. My purpose on this post was to increase the pressure on the legislature. That’s one of the few weapons I, far from the madding crowd have to wield.
Last week I testified before the Revenue Committee in support new, substantial, progressively-raised revenue. There IS support for new revenue out there (confirmed by Nov. 2012 and public opinion polls and my own community organizing). And we know that constituents are contacting their legislators (right?).
So my question is, why isn’t that message getting to the Speaker? Are his constituents — the legislators — not communicating their constituents’ concerns? Are defensive politics (poorly calculated) trumping good stewardship and policy?
Right now, as the die is being cast, ramping up constituent outreach, AND, even more importantly, organizing others to do the same, is time-critical.
If you haven’t called, call. If you have called, circle back and ask, “Why is the Speaker saying such negative things as I’ve heard reported?”
If you haven’t organized your team/networks to do the same, get to it… And if you want materials or a starter plan to adapt to your time/community or just touch base about mobilizing around revenue, I know Progressive Mass is ready and eager to help organize! (just want to dive right in? progressivemass.com/ourcommunities)
Funding our future and investing in our communities is important. We NEED to raise substantial new revenue, fairly, in order to re-invest adequately in the infrastructure, services and resources that make Massachusetts a great place to live, work and raise a family.
We have two responsible, progressive plans on the table that achieve these goals. I’d be pleased to see the Speaker propose a third. But the half-measures he’s signalling are wholly inadequate — not to mention bad politics (They’ll just have to come back for more taxes again, and soon. Hey Mr. Speaker, a tax increase provokes howls at $5 or $500! Hey legislature, masochist much?! If you’re asking for increases, do it right; do it once.).
There are many ways to peel this orange, but do it we must. Let’s get this done.
I screwed up all the hyperlinks. Sorry. I’d edit to fix if I could! Short of that, here’s what I was trying to link:
– testimony
– public opinion polls
– poorly calculated defensive politics
– Make a call to your legislators, now
– Organizing resources for Our Communities/revenue
– Substantial new revenue