Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Going to Extremes as the Downturn Wears On and On and On…….

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Going to Extremes in the NYTimes is long on horror stories from all over the country telling us what happens when government services are withdrawn and disrupt lives of ordinary citizens, but short on ordinary citizens mobilizing to do something about it.

Faced with the steepest and longest decline in tax collections on record, state, county and city governments have resorted to major life-changing cuts in core services like education, transportation and public safety that, not too long ago, would have been unthinkable. And services in many areas could get worse before they get better.

The length of the downturn means that many places have used up all their budget gimmicks, cut services, raised taxes, spent their stimulus money — and remained in the hole. Even with Congress set to approve extra stimulus aid, some analysts say states are still facing huge shortfalls.

At least in Massachsetts we have a growing number of people fighting for 21/2 prop overrides in their own communities to protect their libraries  for example.

And last spring regional ONE Mass members were able to convince their own Reps,  nine smart souls  to stand up for a progressive tax increase that would have raised $450 million to prevent some the devestating cuts that eventaully took place in the FY 11 budget. (Well we had to start somewhere, and we promise you there is hope if we fuel it with action by working together across the state.)  

Crossposted on ONE Massachusetts on a beautiful Saturday morning in August.

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  1. Republicans are slated to win a bunch of seats. In the Senate, PA, DE, and CO look bad, for example. That means irresponsible fiscal austerity plus a risk of deflation, another dip in recession, and a lot more pain.

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    p>After all, fiscal austerity is working so well in Ireland!

  2. in MA, CA and other locations show we still have along way to go before we’re really cutting “to the bone”?

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    p>

    Bell, California, a 2.5-square-mile city just outside Los Angeles

    City Manager – $800,000
    chief administrative officer – $787,637
    his assistant -$376,288
    Police chief -$457,000

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    – Mass Probation Department Excesses (Going from 2 officers to 11 in Belchertown… how much would going back to 2 Probation officers save the state?)

    – DeLeo was instrumental in getting much of the $6 million for the three-month pilot project, and was fairly proud of the hometown bacon when he attended a press conference at the Winthrop Town Pier Tuesday. But there was no way he was joining US Representative Edward J. Markey and other dignitaries on a ceremonial cruise to Rowe’s Wharf. (do we need to spend $6 million on this NOW?)

    – Gov Patrick approves a 10-year master plan for at least $750 million in new construction and renovation projects. On June 14, the University of Massachusetts Building Authority had voted to proceed under a Project Labor Agreement (PLA), meaning that only workers who pay dues to a union will be hired for one of the largest building projects now in the offing. Since roughly 80 percent of the construction workforce in Massachusetts is open-shop (non-union), the PLA amounts to naked political favoritism for organized labor — and a raw deal for everyone else. (Using non-union workers would employ 12-15% more workers and reduce the unemployed)

    When Suffolk University’s Beacon Hill Institute analyzed the costs of building126 Boston-area schools, it found that PLAs inflated the winning bids for construction projects by almost 14 percent, and added an extra 12 percent to the actual construction costs. When it comes to public construction, PLAs all but guarantee that taxpayers will be overcharged.

    As The Wall Street Journal observed wryly in April: “Boston’s Big Dig, Seattle’s Safeco Field, Los Angeles’s Eastside Reservoir project, the San Francisco airport, Detroit’s Comerica Park — all were built under PLAs marked by embarrassing cost overruns.”

    According to a statewide Suffolk University-7 News survey taken in March, Massachusetts residents have no use for PLAs either. Asked whether private contractors working on public projects should be compelled to hire exclusively through union hiring halls, 69 percent said No. Opposition to excluding non-union laborers from work that their taxes help fund was expressed by clear majorities of both men (77 percent) and women (61 percent); of Democrats (52 percent), Republicans (88 percent), and independents (76 percent); of whites (69 percent) and minorities (67 percent). The same was true when respondents were sorted by age or geography — strong majorities were against union-only mandates. Even among union households, 59 percent were opposed.

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    p>The gutless manipulative practice of cutting programs so we feel the pain while we continue to waste money at extravagant rates continues. This $26 Billion being passed next week is another colossal waste of borrowed money. Since we don’t have the political will to make cuts where needed, our only hope is dried up funding… and now the Dems are stopping even that from happening. The real shame is they are simply delaying the inevitable by a year.

    • …will defend the shenanigans in Bell.  In fact I heard about it from one of your favorite MSNBC hosts (I forget whether Keith or Rachel) and trust me – they were’nt praising the situation.

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      p>Your other examples look like stimulus and pro-worker so I’m fine with those.

        • …though I suppose a few new jobs are good for those who got the jobs in this economy.  I was mostly refering to the various projects.

          • Many people (maybe you are one of them) believe “anybody” working doing “anything” is great and that’s the beauty of the Stimulus Bill. Well, don’t be complaining that we are shutting off street lights and disbanding the Police Department while we employ people making 6 figures for “do nothing” jobs.

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            p>I don’t want the lights to go out but I don’t want to pay more taxes until all these other wasteful jobs are eliminated. If it takes some “pain” to make that happen then I’ll be happy to force politicians make these “tough” choices as they try to manipulate our heart strings into “giving up”. The State could easily withstand a 5% cut across the board… and then restore areas which end up needing help… then cut another 5%…

  3. Rate charts for the Income Tax going back to the age of greatness for this country

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    p>When the USA was #1 in infrastructure, #1 in college graduates, #1 in technical innovation, and #1 in gross national product the maximum income tax rate was 90% and the top 5% paid at least 70%.

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    p>That was how the USA could afford to build the interstates, build the land grant college system, and fight wars without mortgaging their children.

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    p>There used to be a culture of honor where those who had more contributed more.

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    p>Now we have a culture of greed, and “What is mine is mine” and who gives a !!#$$%!! about the country, the roads, the public higher education system, etc.

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    p>Thank you Ronald Reagan for gutting the honor and future of the USA with voo-doo economics based on greed and dismantling long term planning and honest revenue structures and regulation.

    • Thank you Ronald Reagan for gutting the honor and future of the USA with voo-doo economics based on greed and dismantling long term planning and honest revenue structures and regulation.

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      p>And thank you to the first George Bush for nailing it with that comment.

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      p>Did you know he inspired a pretty awful band to name themselves Voodoo Economics.  

      • escapees of former government administrations are saying about the world situation now.  Cathrine Austin Fitts, Paul Craig Roberts or Dr Robert Bowman the father of Raygun’s Star Wars debacle say now?

    • Also under Eisenhower, what kind of industrial competition were we getting from Germany, how about from Japan, China… maybe India. Yet another example of people trying to cut/paste situations from the past (in this case ancient history) and trying to correlate current events.

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      p>You and others seem to think taxing the rich will fix all our problems. It is almost worth trying just to show you our problems go far further than this simple task. Like fixing our education system is as simple as spending more money.

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      p>PS Just curious but how long do you think Eisenhower would extend unemployment benefits? How would Eisenhower handle 12 million illegals in our country? What would Eisenhower think of abortion, gay marriage, bank/auto bailouts? Requiring all US citizens purchase healthcare insurance?

      • What we are seeing IMHO, is the result of a systematic collapse in civic virtue on the part of American elites – irrespective of ideology – and its trickle-down effect to the general public .

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        p>Christopher Lasch did the definitive work on this cultural collapse and its social consequences from the Left. William Grieder and E.J. Dionne discussed its political consequences, in particular the collapse of the grassroots Democratic Party in the 1970’s.

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        p>Plenty of conservatives wrote (and write) honestly about this, going back to Kevin Phillips in 1989. Intellectually honest conservatives include Bruce Bartlett and Richard Posner.

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        p>Even Pat Buchanan has a glimmer of insight; however his flatliner racism impeaches his credibility.

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        p>Jimmy Carter and the elder George Bush were both croaked within their own parties because they tried to honestly confront this cultural corruption.  

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        p>Scott Brown was elected because he, to date successfully, exploits it.

        • I am not against people having a civic duty. I volunteer tons of my time to various non-profit activities and feel “I” am the big winner since I get such a kick out it. However, I don’t bemoan people (and parents) who don’t participate since it really is their loss.

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          p>I think the “elite” are actually doing a good job and would place the blame more on the middle class and lower class for not doing their part. There is nothing more rewarding than helping people out who are doing their part to help themselves out, but I get particularly aggravated when people try helping others who don’t seem to give a damn about themselves or anything. My blood boils when I see someone “demanding” something from a volunteer, charity or public assistance organization. I thin a lot of people got turned off to helping others when they see that “others” don’t seem to be bothered by their situation. I even see this in my family where I spends a lot of time fixing a bike for one of my kids only to see the bike out in the rain and needing repair… again. At some point you lose interest in fixing the bike.

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          p>Similar to giving money to a charity and then you find out the charity is pissing your donation away on wasteful spending… probably the last time you will donate to that charity.

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          p>IMO, I see a similar situation wrt the public’s view on civic virtue.

          • … is closer to what I would call civic obligation.  I don’t begrudge people who decline charitable involvement; that’s their right.  If you are saying that a social contract cuts both ways, I agree with you.

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            p>I am, however extremely concerned when those who have positions of authority sacrifice dependent populations (however defined) on the altar of ideological or intellectual arrogance.

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            p>I have nothing against elites per se if they are:

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            p>      Open, that is to say welcoming, to outsiders of talent, discipline, and probity.

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            p>      Accountable, in knowing the difference between short-term self-indulgence and long-term strategy.

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            p>      Stewards of the public trust, where that trust is impacted by their professions.

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            p>What I see in politics and read in public policy journals too often reminds me of narcissism run amok, with little concern for the facts on the ground.

  4. In today’s NYT

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    How did we get to this point? It’s the logical consequence of three decades of antigovernment rhetoric, rhetoric that has convinced many voters that a dollar collected in taxes is always a dollar wasted, that the public sector can’t do anything right.

    The antigovernment campaign has always been phrased in terms of opposition to waste and fraud – to checks sent to welfare queens driving Cadillacs, to vast armies of bureaucrats uselessly pushing paper around. But those were myths, of course; there was never remotely as much waste and fraud as the right claimed. And now that the campaign has reached fruition, we’re seeing what was actually in the firing line: services that everyone except the very rich need, services that government must provide or nobody will, like lighted streets, drivable roads and decent schooling for the public as a whole.

    So the end result of the long campaign against government is that we’ve taken a disastrously wrong turn. America is now on the unlit, unpaved road to nowhere.  

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    p>PS to the editors :Even for the strong of heart how annoying to get to the bottom of this comment to press quote or preview to have to look at W’s furrowed brow.  

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