Excuse the foray into local politics, but that rustling I felt in my pocket this morning turned out to be the Massachusetts Legislature spending my money in election-year porkbarreling. Rather than return the state income tax rate to 5 percent like they promised nearly two decades and as voters demanded half-a-decade ago, instead they passed a nearly $600 million “economic stimulus” package. If they were truthful, they’d call it a voter stimulus package, designed to stimulate voters to re-elect them. How about $12 million to spruce up the area around Fenway Park. After all, nobody will go to Red Sox games if the area doesn’t look all spiffy, right? Then there’s the $250,000 for Sail Boston 2007, a private non-profit seeking to bring tall ships to Boston. Hey I love tall ships, but is this a necessary function of government.
The Head of the Charles regatta, an excuse for college kids and alumni from snooty Ivy League schools to get drunk while watching boat races netted $350,000 for “public safety costs.” Who else gets the government to pay for their police details?
Another cool half million is set aside for a new bath house on Constitution Beach in East Boston. Yes, because anyone wants to go to the beach in East Boston. Yecch. Wait, didn’t Constitution Beach undergo a complete rehabilitation in 1996? Why, yes it did.
Go to the link above and see some more examples of government waste at work. There are gazebos and marinas (right here in Salem!) and insect studies and a carriage museum and more.
Where’s my tax cut?
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How’s this: just divide up the $600 mil among the residents of MA, and it’s about $94.50 each. I promise I won’t attend the Regatta or Fenway Park (I’ve lived here over 25 years without seeing them, so why spoil such a good record?) The Treasurer can send my $94.50 via Paypal.
I live in TN, and we’ve had the income tax debate on and off for a while. Right now, we have a 9.25% sales tax rate across the board, and NO income tax. Politicans proposed cutting the sales tax and instituting an income tax. There’s no way I can support that, because the next time they “need” money because of a “hard” economy, the first thing they’ll do is jack the sales tax rate back up. Cutting spending is just too revolutionary an idea, I suppose.