Good God, they spend months telling us how much more in tolls and gas taxes we need to pay in taxes, and then we get this?
I’m so happy that the legislature is considering raising the retirement age for the T to 55. That is a big help, and should convince us all that the government is spending the money it takes from us wisely.
Also, makes the attitudes expressed here a bit embarassing in retrospect, or should.
Really, the only solution to the thieving fiasco that is our state government is to have many, many more Republicans in the legislature. It is enough to make one weep that this is so far from a possibility that the lunatic Greens have nearly as good a shot of becoming a major opposition as the GOP.
Which means that government will remain as corrupt as ever, providing just enough “services” for our money to keep us from storming Beacon Hill, and when problems like this come to light from time to time, the individuals will be hastily fired, and the problem will be described by Democrats as an “isolated incident.” But they aren’t isolated.
if it was not completely wrong. The 5 stooges proposal is the following:
<
p>
<
p>That would be, 55! (or less if you have 20 years in)
<
p>So that brain trust which you want more of had their leadership meeting. You know it’s a leadership meeting since they all pull an additional stipend to lead no one (thanks R’s) to come up with 55, and you want more of that. Guess what, no thanks.
The whole idea of democratic self-interest government is to be a little more efficient and effective than your opposition appears to be, at the least.
<
p>And when the opposition is not inefficient and ineffective, we don’t see huge demands placed on those in charge.
With the caveat that I don’t agree with CentralMassDad that Republicans are the proper opposition. I would love to see a left-wing party become a significant opponent, whether the Green-Rainbows or the Working Families Party or something new–a party that would presumably contain the many progressives currently in the legislature.
(I was looking forward to titling a comment with your handle. A practice of yours I note.)
<
p>Increasingly I think the problem is with the civil service, how it is organized, and what we need from government. Our current system was intended as a hedge against patronage. At that it works pretty well. However, it seems to me that it has ossified into something that resists efficiency, values process above results, and inertia over initiative.
<
p>The Democratic Party seems overly entangled with government workers, so that it is difficult for it to be an agent of change. I tend to think that changing mission and working conditions so that government is more effective would ultimately benefit its workers. They’d feel more pride in their jobs. It would be easier to pay them better. I don’t see that happening very soon, but, even despite its fumbles, the Patrick Administration seems the most willing to take on such issues. If we had had 16 years of Deval rather than 16 years of Republican governors, we’d probably be in a hugely better place.
<
p>Maybe the Greens or an NDP transplanted from here from Canada might be an improvement. I don’t see how that could happen.
<
p>I certainly don’t see the Republicans fixing things. Even Mitt, over whose technocratic skill GOP guys wax nostalgic, was willing to sacrifice next year’s budget for this year’s tax cut. Not appealing. The selfish and insular values of the tax-cutting, I-don’t-want-no-services crowd in the GOP is more likely to aggravate problems than resolve them.
<
p>The one value of Republicans is that they usefully point to the existence of inefficiencies, waste, and poor management. Maybe more of them would help with that. Except the Republicans nationally have gone insane. So maybe not.
<
p>The Republicans who dominated the corner office for the sixteen years prior to Governor Patrick were far more eager to throw partisan brickbats at Democrats than actually do anything different. During each of those administrations, their own actions (when they bothered to hang around Massachusetts at all) epitomized “inefficiency, waste, and poor management.”
<
p>I surely plead guilty to charges of being partisan, but even so — can you please identify any act of Jane Swift that created or advanced efficiency, value, and good management?
<
p>I’m still on the fence about a third party. The Republican party in Massachusetts has been brain-dead for twenty five years — the rest of the body has finally caught up. I wonder about mounting a hostile takeover.
<
p>What if Progressives did a political leveraged buyout of the Massachusetts GOP?
I wouldn’t trust those morons to run a footrace, much less a government. The Quebec Liberals, though, I could endure.