Meeting The Man

Barbara Anderson on a nice little conversation she had with Gov. Patrick.

…Gov. Deval Patrick came to Marblehead for one of his community meetings. I was there to take notes for this column so I didn’t raise my hand to ask a question. But suddenly I found myself answering one from the governor when he asked for a show of hands on who supports, and who doesn’t, a graduated income tax.

I was a definite “doesn’t,” so to my surprise he walked over to my chair and asked, “Why?”

It’s funny how disoriented you can be when someone who is there to answer questions suddenly asks one. I had never met Gov. Patrick, but I’m sure I made an impression by first looking behind me and saying, “Who, me?” and when he nodded, asking “Why what?”

When I finally got around to it, I explained that the grad tax (which would require voter approval for a constitutional amendment) always loses because voters understand how varied rates would allow the Legislature to pick us off one bracket at a time, ratcheting up every two years; and Massachusetts taxes are already the fourth highest in the nation per capita.

“No, they’re not,” the governor argued.

“Yes, they are,” I said. This first meeting was going well.

UPDATE: From Wayne Woodlief, the Herald and the Sun-Chronicle.

SECOND UPDATE: More from the Globe.

THIRD UPDATE: More from the Globe, Herald and WBZ.

The Anderson Tapes

Barbara Anderson on the Bay State’s tax fetish.

Governor Deval Patrick, in an effort to let us know how serious the budget crisis is, says that “if we fired every single state employee, we’d still have a billion-dollar hole.”

Of course we would. Many of those employees would go out on instant pensions. Others would collect unemployment, have state-subsidized health insurance, or get a job at one of the independent authorities where they would start to accrue bigger pensions like those available at the MBTA after 23 years.

Would we still have a $28-billion state budget to go with the billion-dollar budget hole? Who would be running it and spending the money? Governor, what’s your point? That payroll costs aren’t much of the problem?

Can we stop being silly now?

At least Patrick’s sticking to his demand for “reform before revenues.” Unfortunately, the Legislature is sticking to its resistance to reform.

As various Democrats have said: “We can’t reform our way out of this crisis.”

Translation: “Let’s go directly to the revenues.”

So the Senate opened its budget debate by passing a 25-percent sales tax hike and local option taxes. Maybe it will get to reforms after my column deadline. Darn, it’s hard to write while holding my breath.

UPDATE: More from Cape Cod Today, Wayne Woodlief, the AP and Boston Phoenix.

SECOND UPDATE: More from Adrian Walker, Scot Lehigh, WBZ, WCVB, Red Mass Group, the Globe and Herald.

Newburyport Republican Committee Upcoming Events

The next Newburyport Republican Committee meeting will be held at the Starboard Galley on Wednesday May 27th at 7:00pm.

All residents of Newburyport and surrounding cities are welcome.

Guest Speakers include Barbara Anderson of Citizens for Limited Taxation & contributor to the Newburyport Daily News, and Elliott Margolis & Gail Burke of Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility

The Newburyport Republican Committee be conducting a food drive at the meeting benefiting the Newburyport Salvation Army. Please bring one of the following items to the meeting: Toothpaste, Deodorant, Laundry detergent, Toilet paper, Vaseline, Talcum Powder, Coffee (both decaffeinated and regular), ketchup (medium size and plastic) mayonnaise, mustard, relish (this is a list of the most needed items at the Salvations Army’s Donation Pantry.

For More information please contact Larry Giunta

The Newburyport Republican Committee will be hosting a “Support the Troops Drive” on June 27th.
The committee would like to invite all residents, active military members and area veterans to help with this effort. Anyone interested in assisting with the Troops Drive, please contact Paul Breau for more details.

Taxpayers Struggle To Keep Deval Administration Growing and Well Paid

Last week, the Boston Herald reported that Deval Patrick’s transportation secretary, Bernard Cohen, has given his his own staff 195 pay increases, even after he pressured MBTA general manager Dan Grabauskas into rescinding pay raises to his own employees.

The state transportation chief who pressured T general manager Dan Grabauskas into rescinding pay raises this week said he won’t halt 195 pay hikes he granted his own staff.

“I think it’s pretty hypocritical for the secretary to look at other agencies and departments and grandstand when he has different standards in his own shop,” said Sen. Richard Tisei (R-Wakefield).

Transportation secretary Bernard Cohen asked Grabauskas to halt the raises the T chief gave 273 employees this week as an effort to “leave no stone unturned in restoring fiscal health to all transportation agencies.”

But at his own transportation agency, Cohen granted pay hikes ranging from 1 percent to 7.5 percent last year. Some of the annual raises far exceed the hike given to Grabauskas staffers, who were supposed to get a 3 percent raise each of the next three years.

[...]

The annual raises, which Cohen has final say over, are based on merit and performance evaluations. Employees must be in the bottom half of the agency’s salary range and produce exceptional work in order to get more than a 6 percent raise.

Grabauskas granted an automatic 9 percent raise to non-union staffers to keep them in line with a recent union pay hike last week, but then rescinded most of the raises when Cohen leaned on him. News of the pay hikes broke shortly after Grabauskas hinted at a potential fare increase unless the state helped with an $8.2 billion debt load.

Adding insult to injury, the Herald reported today that the state payroll has exploded, even with the current economic downturn.

Gov. Deval Patrick has added almost 2,000 new workers to the state payroll in the past year even as he warns of dire budget cuts in the face of a $1 billion deficit, a Herald review shows.

And his administration continues to dole out millions in overtime, with nearly 80 prison guards raking in more than $100,000.

A mid-year Herald payroll analysis reveals that since July 2007, the number of state jobs has jumped by about 1,900, many of them new hires in the Department of Correction and MassHighway.

The soaring payroll comes at a time when the state is stepping in to bail out a debt-ridden Mass Pike and being asked to do the same for the MBTA, and the governor is requesting special powers to cut the budget this fall if the local economy continues tanking.

“It’s very worrisome,” Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, said of the hiring frenzy. “It’s a problem, given that we’re probably heading into a recession, and we’ve been borrowing extensively.”

Barbara Anderson, of Citizens for Limited Taxation, told the Herald it’s time for state officials to get off “the gravy train.” They’re riding the gravy train alright… and Deval Patrick is the engineer.

Augustfest In South Boston

Must be a fine gig to be an employee of the state, especially those attending the National Conference of State Legislatures, many of whom gallivanted with some free booze in South Boston.

While taxpayers toiled yesterday, several state workers and lawmakers from around the country spent the afternoon sipping free beer in an air-conditioned South Boston convention hall.

Tuxedo-clad bartenders doled out cups of free lager to conventioneers at the National Conference of State Legislatures, including several Massachusetts legislative aides and state workers on taxpayer time. The beer garden, sponsored by the Beer Institute lobbying organization, was bustling all afternoon as several convention-goers made multiple trips to the free bar, sampling Corona with lime, Miller Lite Chills, Blue Moon, Bud Light and Heineken.

One group of Massachusetts legislative aides wore Mardi Gras beads and laughed as they slurped down ales.

“We’re having a field day here,” a young female aide told the Herald.

Among the employees spotted imbibing at the beer garden were two Senate administrative staffers, five legislative aides and an employee of the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism.

A few have expressed weak words of condemnation.

No Massachusetts pols were spotted at the open bar but several out-of-state lawmakers were bellying up, including senators and representatives from Kansas, Oklahoma, Ohio, Florida, Delaware, Georgia and Utah and a Minnesota representative on the transportation committee investigating last week’s deadly bridge collapse.

Barbara Anderson of Citizens For Limited Taxation was a bit disappointed in the juvenile behavior of attendees, saying ‚Äúif they‚Äôre going to be attending a conference to discuss serious things like health care and casino gambling and fair taxation, then they should probably be sober when they‚Äôre doing it.”

I guess the saying ought be when in Massachusetts, do as the Kennedy’s do–so bottoms up, and have another drink, after all, besides the taxpayer money spent to pay aides and legislators to get sloshed, the entire week-long conference is costing Joe Massachusetts Taxpayer $1.5 million.