Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Comments

  1. You have have thee choices under the rules.

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    p>Ask your Rep to file an amendment to earmark the appropriate line item, understanding that your increase will be taken from other programs funded under that line item. (Of course they all may have asked for earmarks that defund you.)  

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    p>Ask your Rep to restore your line item and reduce the same amount from another line item you think is undeserving and pissing of their constituency.    

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    p>Ask your Rep to restore your line item appropriating the amount from the anticipated revenues from the balanced adequate tax pacage she or he just voted for.

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    p>Don’t you think it’s time we all stuck our heads out of our individual issue silos, looked around at all the public structures and programs that make our communites livable and worked together to provide the necessary (small p) political support for our Reps to stand up and vote for a balanced adequate tax package?

    • These are great, and are no doubt the only options “under the rules”.

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      p>It misses the point: I want the lege to increase taxes.

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      p>We’ve done more than enough cutting, it’s long-past time to raise revenues.

      • use the message in the post to compose your own message to your entire personal list and tell them to call their own reps to vote for a balanced adequate tax package on Monday April 27. So far the calls are coming in 3 to 1 against.  

        • Thanks Harmony and Judy for pushing this action.

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          p>Our legislators need to hear that we want them to raise taxes.  Raise them significantly and raise them NOW.

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          p>I’ll help spread the word.

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          p>–Leo

  2. The politicians must be very happy.  It has all worked as planned.  They waste billions in corruption and negligence.  The day of reckoning comes.  They slash our services with cruel abandon, women and children first.  They wait for the progressives to lobby for the ransom money, which will then flow in perpetuity.  

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    p>We tax ourselves without asking for any reform or transparency or accountability as a condition.  

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    p>The pols look like heroes for restoring bits — just the minimum they can get by with —  of what was rightfully ours.  They safely continue their secret plundering of the treasury, assured that we don’t really mind.  

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    p>A tale of two governments, theirs and ours.  

    • Shirley,

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      p>I agree with you that we do need both reform and revenue. In fact, if you check out the three main objectives of ONE Massachusetts – the group organizing this Virtual Rally – you’ll see that they are:

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      CIVIC ENGAGEMENT – OUR GOAL: By 2013, the voice and input of the state’s multi-racial, multi-ethnic communities will create a counterweight to the currently dominant voice and will be tangibly reflected in the public decision making process.  

      REVENUE – OUR GOAL: By 2013, a fair, adequate, and stable tax system will be implemented. It will raise sufficient revenue so that state and local governments can fund the array of services needed.

      GOVERNMENT REFORM – OUR GOAL: By 2013, a transparent, accessible and accountable state and local policy-making process will be in place.

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      p>The fact is that decades of state tax cuts have left our state with a structural deficit and unlike the federal government, our state cannot legally run a deficit.

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      p>So the choice this week, while the House of Representatives considers amendments to our budget, most likely involves a combination of cutting the public structures we depend on, and raising adequate, balanced revenues to address both the structural deficit and the resulting cuts (not just devastating cuts!).

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      p>Meanwhile, by making the processes of state and local government more open, accessible, and understandable, and by  providing opportunities for Massachusetts residents to be involved in those processes, we can begin to rebuild confidence in the relationship between constituents and our elected representatives – and confidence in what we can accomplish together as a state.

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