She & Him

Another round of Michele McPhee vs. Gov. Patrick.

The next time you notice a bumper sticker that reads “Honk If You Paid For This Sweet Ride”; or maybe one that says “My Other Car Is The One You Didn’t Pay For,” pay attention. Because it may be very likely that there is a welfare recipient behind the wheel of the donated vehicle who got the car for free — along with a year subscription to AAA; taxpayer-funded insurance; free excise tax; and who knows, maybe even one of those free Fast Lane toll paying mechanisms that the lawmakers and politicians drive around with.

Free for them, that is. The vehicles cost Massachusetts taxpayers $500,000 — not to mention the salaries of the people who oversee the hackarama bureaucracy that doles the cars out.

Apparently, this is the reform Deval Patrick has been referring to. He is going to lay off police officers, firefighters and teachers across the state and give people who don’t pay taxes new cars. This is as absurd as giving pink slips to Registry of Motor Vehicle workers making less than $50,000 a year so that he can hire career hack Eddie Jenkins.

Maybe Patrick needs to become familiarized with the term “reform,” which the dictionary describes this way: “to make changes for improvement in order to remove abuse and injustices.”

Isn’t it an injustice to expect Massachusetts taxpayers to pay a new sales tax; while continuing to face the highest gas tax in the country; while paying $7 bucks to get off the island of Eastie? I would say yes.

I am bewildered by the foot-dragging that is going on with the part of the reform definition that describes making changes for improvement. Because nothing has improved for us.

UPDATE: More from the Globe and Herald.

SECOND UPDATE: From the Globe, Herald, NECN and Michael Graham.

THIRD UPDATE: More from Scot Lehigh, WBUR, the Globe and Herald.