Charlie Baker does it again

I didn’t think he could do it.  I didn’t think Charlie Baker could outdo the last absurd things he said – you know, the thing about homeless people having to prove residency before getting a bed at a homeless shelter.  Or the one before that, where a $1.7 million salary plops you into the middle class.

But I was wrong.  Oops, he did it again!

If you can’t see the video, here’s what happened:

As a selectman, Baker voted for a budget that included a proposition two and a half override.

“Proposition two and a half override is a great thing. Gives voters the final say and that’s the way it should be,” he said.

But did Baker himself support the override?

“I don’t remember, to tell you the truth,” he said.

Well, let’s see if we can’t jog poor ol’ Charlie’s remembery.

But as a selectman in Swampscott, a town of 14,000, Baker approved budgets that raised property taxes, and he supported a tax levy override to fund town operations that raised taxes beyond the cap set by Proposition 2 1/2…. He voted to approve annual town budgets, voted to place the override on the ballot, and later voted for the override at the ballot box.

D’oh!  Well, maybe he wasn’t that involved in the issue, and that’s why it slipped his mind.

Baker was deeply involved in the budget process during his three years on the board. His colleagues and the town administrator, Andrew W. Maylor, said they looked to him for guidance on almost every major fiscal issue.  “I don’t think we ever resolved any issue until we heard from Charlie and what he thought,” said Adam P. Forman, a former selectman who served with Baker.

D’OH!!!  Yeah, but there must’ve been only one.  Anyone could forget just one incident like that.

As selectman, Baker had supported in 2006 a $2.3 million override of the town’s Proposition 2 1/2 tax limit.

Now, some local folks are remembering another override that Baker supported – this one for $2.5 million in 2001. Baker made out a $1,200 check to the campaign, the biggest single donation made to the effort, according to one of the leaders of the effort…. Baker spokesman Rick Gorka said in a statement: “Charlie has said many times that he and his wife have supported certain overrides in Swampscott, both at the ballot box and financially, primarily to fund public schools.”

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