Public Service:
An Open Letter to Beacon Hill: A Taxpayer's Lament

(Readers, feel free to print this letter, sign it and mail it to your Senator or Representative - or e-mail it if you prefer.. You can go to the Government link on our home page to get their addresses.)

Dear Senators and Representatives,

I'm sure glad you're all "holding the line" on taxes up on Beacon Hill. But just in case you didn't get the message last year, here are some things to think about.

You seem to have trouble comprehending what it means to be fiscally responsible. So I thought I would share with you some perspective on the budget issues you are struggling to resolve. This is the way a non-politician (i.e. taxpayer) looks at some of the items in the Senate Budget unveiled yesterday:

The University of Massachusetts' president's office is preserved under the Senate plan but sees a small cut in funding. - This is a token gesture made to look like a cut. Bulger is a big spender and always has been. A life-long politician with expensive tastes and a dubious history of near-scandals, he is in contempt of a congressional committee investigating organized crime and would have been fired and put on trial if he were in the private sector. It's a disgrace to the people of this state. Oh, I forgot you're politicians. You don't feel shame. Never mind.

Higher education under the Senate plan is slashed by $103 million compared with $165 million, or 20 percent per campus under the House plan. - Here comes another tuition increase (i.e. another tax hike). UMass raised tuition 10% last year about this time then again after the budget was "finalized". But you forgot to cut the bureaucracy so the bloated cost structure remains intact. Thanks for nothing.

The Senate plan pays $3 million less than the House for State Police overtime, but uses the $3 million to fund a new class of recruits. - This is good in the fact that they pay much less for new recruits than for "seasoned" officers; but what about paid details and the Quinn Bill? Get rid of details and reform the Quinn Bill and you can afford the new recruits. Let's face it - most officers are more revenue agent than law enforcement.

The Senate budget hikes the payments health insurers must pay into a pool (known as the free care pool) that hospitals use to treat the uninsured, from $100 million annually to $157 million. - First of all, if the insurance companies are forced to pay more, who pays the bill? The consumer. Second, how much of the cost of serving the uninsured is due to illegal aliens or non-working poor? Third, is there anybody out there that thinks that the price they pay for health insurance is either reasonable or affordable? Lastly, will more government or less government help to solve the problem? This is not a trick question.

Lottery aid and additional assistance - two massive state accounts that support local fire, police and school budgets - are cut by $184 million, or 15 percent over last year. - This is a cut to cities and towns that effectively pushes the pain to the local level from the state level. Why don't we just cut 15% of the money the cities and towns send to the state and use that money to fund these local services locally? Then, just maybe, you will have some incentive to fix the way these programs are structured at the state level.

To help communities cope with the increasing cost of antiterrorism efforts, the Senate plan creates a new $40 million account for fire, police and emergency medical services, paid for by a $25 "first responder surcharge" on homeowner's insurance premiums. - Another increase to my homeowner's insurance bill (i.e. another tax increase). Thanks for nothing.

Raids transfer funds - A quick fix that doesn't resolve the problem but postpones it until next year.

Sells state land - A one-time option that doesn't resolve the problem but postpones it until next year.

Pacheco Law [modified ever so slightly] - Another bone thrown to organized crime. excuse me, organized labor. Every think-tank study, objective review and business analysis in the past ten years has panned this law as an anti-competition, blatant pay-off to the unions. That means it costs more to do business and guess who pays the price. The consumer. (A.k.a. the taxpayer)

The Senate bill also preserves the $100 million Prescription Advantage program and reopens enrollment in the landmark drug insurance plan, after a four-month freeze. About 80,000 seniors are enrolled in the plan. Local services for elders, and elderly home care were both cut. - Ok, so I am still paying for indigents, illegal aliens and welfare recipients to get low-cost or free prescription drugs. But my 90 year-old grandmother loses her visiting nurse or her home health aid - which means that my family has to make accommodation for her in our home or pay for the service. Anyway you slice it I get less service and still have to pay more out of my pocket. Another tax increase.

I guess it's all in the way you look at it. You sit up on the hill looking down, so I can understand how things may look Ok to you. But down here at street level we live by a different set of rules. I understand that you may not have understood the concept that the consumer is, in fact, the taxpayer. Now you should be able to see the connection.

Sincerely,

____________________ (A.k.a. Taxpayer)

P.S. Keep it up boys and girls and maybe the next time we can get 55.3% voting for the
repeal of the income tax.