And apparently, he’s also a man of many press releases. But they are very telling, actually. Like the one on March 11:
Statement: Kurt Hayes responds to Governor’s plan for government run price-fixing of healthcare plans
“I strongly disagree with the plan of Governor Patrick to address skyrocketing health care insurance premiums by imposing a government run price-fixing scheme in Massachusetts.
Price fixing scheme? Rhetoric much? My god, Hayes wants you individual-market and self employed people to pay whatever it is the health insurance companies want you to pay, unfair or not! Yup, you too can have your premiums increase by 15-30% a year! Go you! Aren’t you glad Kurt Hayes is there to protect you from the big bad government trying to save you money??
Then, he’s all for level funding local aid on March 15:
Press Release: Kurt Hayes announces support for bipartisan Local Aid Resolution
State Representative candidate Kurt Hayes has announced his support for a bipartisan Local Aid Resolution to level-fund local aid in the 2011 budget year. As cities and towns once again find their budgets under tremendous strain during the continuing economic crisis, 18 Democrats and 15 Republicans signed on to the bipartisan Local Aid Resolution offered by Representative Brad Jones.
But never mind how that sort of support for towns and cities will be paid for, with his constantly-advocated lowering of taxes. Kurt Hayes, you see, like most Republicans, likes the fuzzy math.
And of course, Hayes is all “throw the book at them and make them pay for it, too” – on April 30 he criticizes Jen Benson for voting against the $5/day surcharge on inmates of prisons, despite the fact that this makes absolutely NO sense. First of all, it’s the state’s responsibility to incarcerate the convicted, since these were crimes against the state and the state prosecutes them. That means paying for it too. But secondarily, the last thing you want to do to a just-released prisoner is saddle them with debt they cannot pay. Gee, that’s going to make it easier to reintegrate back into society. But in Kurt Hayes book, I suppose, doing your time is not enough – he wants to take blood from a stone.
That’s just a sampling of the crazy stupid on that page. I’m just quoting up to April, here.
But Kurt Hayes continues the streak with a recent nonsense attack on Rep. Jen Benson, on her vote for a sales tax holiday. I’m certain, absolutely certain, that had she voted against it, he would attacked her all the same.
Kurt Hayes, the Republican candidate from Boxboro, accused Benson of trying to hoodwink voters a year after she supported increasing the sales tax from 5 percent to 6.25 percent.
“This is clearly an election year maneuver by Rep. Benson attempting to fool voters into thinking she is looking out for taxpayers,” said Bob Lashua, a spokesman for Hayes’ campaign. “Her true anti-taxpayer record in the Statehouse indicates otherwise.”
[…]
Hayes, who supports the sales-tax holiday, pointed to Benson’s initial support for that tax increase, as well as her vote at Lunenburg Town Meeting last year to increase the meals tax, as evidence of her double-speak.
You see, Kurt Hayes doesn’t know much except about attacking. Actually considering one’s vote, the budget, and evaluating the current circumstances, about these he knows nothing. But Rep. Benson knows a lot about it, having sat on the Lunenburg school committee before becoming a state Rep.
Benson said she spoke to many small business owners and retailers in the district who told her about the boost past holidays have given their business in the summer.
[…]
“I don’t see that as a contradiction in any way,” she said.“We made a difficult choice and I voted for the sales tax increase because I wanted it to go to local aid. When we didn’t see an increase in local aid, I voted against the overall budget,” Benson said.
She said she saw the sales-tax increase “as an opportunity to avoid property tax increases in my communities.”
Benson also argued that positive tax collections to close out fiscal 2010 prove the state can afford the sales-tax holiday this year, estimated to cost about $15 million.
The Patrick administration announced early this week that tax collections in June were $138 million higher than expected and the state could close fiscal 2010 with a $67 million surplus in anticipated tax revenue.
“We’re above benchmark in our revenue and we can afford to do this and it gives retailers a boost for the back-to-school market. It’s a win-win,” Benson said.
So let me get this straight…Benson looks out for her constituents hoping to save the local aid package. When the legislature doesn’t put the new sales tax revenue towards local aid, she voted her conscience against the budget. Then, the state’s doing really well, and revenues are unexpectedly up from the projections. So she votes for the sales tax holiday because we can afford it and it’ll help boost retail sales.
I really do hope that the voters of the 37th district are better than the lies and misleading statements coming from Hayes.
Please consider donating to Jen Benson on my ActBlue page for the LiL Progressives! Help us combat the failed rightwing ideas that Kurt Hayes espouses.
