Jon Keller does a full interview with Gov. Patrick on the WBZ website. They talk National Guard, gay marriage, and Mitt Romney. But the most timely and urgent part revolves around Patrick’s Municipal Partnership Act, with which Keller is plainly in sympathy, giving Patrick every opportunity to ask for the public’s help in pressuring the legislature. It’s not too surprising: For all of Keller’s vinegar, he’s essentially been calling for reforms like what Patrick’s proposed — perhaps only tougher.
Anyway, have you called your Reps and Senators in support of the Municipal Partnership Act? 617-722-2000.
To boil it down, the act would:
- 1. Raise local revenues by:
- Ending the 92-year-old telephone pole tax exemption
- Allow cities and towns to have a small meals and rooms tax: 1-3%
- Allow cities and towns to save money by:
- Allowing employees to join the state’s health insurance pool, which is good care that costs less
- Requiring their underperforming pension funds to join the state system: When local pension funds underperform, the money has to be made up from property tax $.
Just really simple, common sense stuff. Give them flexibility in raising revenue, and don’t make them waste what they’ve got.
What’s this business the the governor is open to “deputizing” workers at Massachusetts work sites, allowing employees to gather information on co-workers and then dime them out to the AG (almost wrote KGB). What’s this all about?
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I’ve always found Martha Coakely a wee bit scary. After she railroaded three innocent people into prison (a death sentence for one of her victims) she seems to be all over the plavce with selective prosecutions. She like T Reilly have treated the “Big Dig” like the third rail.Now this bizarre news. How long did it take the givernor and the AG to hatch this idea? I don’t even think it’s legal. Wouldn’t a warrant be necessary?
I don’t think I’m allowed to post an article here.
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Patriot Ledger
21 May 2007
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State House News Service
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Patrick supports deputizing workers
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Union would collect personal data on job sites
and send it to state AG to verify
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Long article alleging that the governor is expressing that he is not opposed to having employees at work sites do surveillance (no enforcement) on co-workers and employers. The article is vague and convoluted, but nonetheless worrisome. The whole point is to keep non union employees/illegal aliens off of union job sites, but it in reality opens Pandoras box.
…posting a link to the article you are referring to
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I haven’t read the article (it’s fairly long), but it seems to me that workers can do things you describe already. It’s fairly silly for Patrick to have called it “deputizing.”
I’ll try and google it.
…I posted the link to the article. It’s in the text in my comment. I don’t know how links appear in your browser here, but in Internet Explorer they are in blue text.
http://www.metrowest…
. . . why she isn’t supporting the Governor on this.