New this article was coming - BEWARE QUESTION #3!!!!! ZOMFG

[Viking Kitten]

Wow, that was indeed a surprise to see in the Glob.

Years ago there was a movie called "Dave" where Kevin Kline is asked to pretend to be POTUS when the real president had a stroke. Kline brought in his buddy (Charles Grodin?) who was an accountant and they literally audited the gov't budget line by line by line.

Simplistic, yes, but I would love to see an independent auditor go line by line over Mass's budget and publish the results.

 

[MisterHappy]

never happen. Too many worms to be relased from their cans

Example: http://www.boston.com/news/local/ma...1/report_finds_disarray_at_city_fleet_garage/

complete Charlie Foxtrot, and it was "a bit worse" than anticipated.

 

[In God We Trust]

I'm all for the tax cut, but it is a futile gesture in the end. When the state's budget gets cut, where do you think "they" are going to trim expenses? It will be essential services that take the hit, not the pensions, pay raises and welfare checks. Illegals will still get health care, hack jobs will still spring from thin air like mushrooms after a rain.

The roads may crumble and the inner cities may become a free fire zone, but Deval will still have money for State Police details when he goes on vacation and the director of the highway line painters oversight committe will still get his no-show check. "they" will also find some other way to gouge us like raising excise tax or rasing registry fees, or lowing the speed limits.....etc. While everything you guys are saying is true, we can't win no matter how we vote.

 

[sportycliff]

"It is not an exaggeration to say that the resulting massive spending cuts would eliminate or erode a wide range of services -- from education and public safety to health care and human services -- that for decades the citizens of Massachusetts have counted on the government to provide," said the report by the business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

The real reason it'll never pass, can't take away the sheeps crack...

 

[JimB]

I got a big wad of cash that says the sheeple of Massachusetts will vote this down... They have drank the Kool aid and believe what is told to them by the main stream media. I say it goes down 63% - 37%
I of course will be voting for the sales tax repeal to 3% (love an underdog role).

i think your wrong, i do think its gonna pass. we've all heard the story
about firefighters, police and the cops, and state and city workers,
and how big of a disaster its gonna be. i'll give the citizens of this state
a little more credit, my opinion is it will pass by better than 60%

 

[Bob P]

i think your wrong, i do think its gonna pass. we've all heard the story
about firefighters, police and the cops, and state and city workers,
and how big of a disaster its gonna be. i'll give the citizens of this state
a little more credit, my opinion is it will pass by better than 60%

I think it just might. I haven't seen this much voter anger since 2 1/2 passed in the late 70's - coincidentally the LAST time we had a Dem Gov.

 

[Rob Boudrie]

i'll give the citizens of this state
a little more credit, my opinion is it will pass by better than 60%

Unlikely. Consider a few variables:

A = The percentage of the population whose famiily takes in public assistance, free health care, etc.
B = The percentage of people who directly or indirectly depend on a state paycheck
C = The number of people who have a pension of lifetime medical, plus those related to such people

A+B+C will probably approach 50% alone - meaning that the pro-tax forces only need to get a small percentage of the votes of those without a strong self interest motivation to defeat the proposition.

 

[Friday]

Well, if it does pass, what do you think will happen? Didn't the voters pass something similar years ago? What was the response from the statehouse? They ignored it.

I often wonder if Charlie Baker's pledge to eliminate 5000 state jobs will backfire- I believe state workers are the largest voting block in the commonwealth!

 

[Amazon]

^^ I wondered about that myself. Although I get what he's saying, I felt it could have been said in a way that wouldn't strike fear in the hearts of ALL state workers.

Then again - I suppose they all vote D anyway.

But is it truly a matter elimitaing "X" number of jobs, or someone finally having what it takes to equialize the gov't pay and beni's with the private sector?

 

[Mass-diver]

i think your wrong, i do think its gonna pass. we've all heard the story
about firefighters, police and the cops, and state and city workers,
and how big of a disaster its gonna be. i'll give the citizens of this state
a little more credit, my opinion is it will pass by better than 60%

I agree as well. I haven't seen any polls, but it has a good shot. People are fed up!