Machine Gunning The Lifeboats
Howie Carr with a great 10-point plan to resolve Massachusetts’ $400 million budget crunch … which may not sound like much with the numbers thrown around lately in DC, but for a state with 6 million people, legally obliged to balance the budget each year, it’s a pile.
His plan has a lot of great ideas. It centers on firing hacks, and accomplishes that largely by machine-gunning the lifeboats in which they float … redundant courthouses and toll booths. Also, he calls for reigning in fat bennies unknown in the Dread Private Sector.
I’d add point 11 and nominate it for point 1: make the Legislature part-time again, with $10,000 stipends and no legislative aides except on Spartan, overworked committee staffs. Make every day Evacuation Day.*
$15,000 for a chairmanship, $20,000, if you like. Howie wants more Republicans to challenge the Democratic payroll patriots … I guarantee you half the seats in the almost entirely Democratic House would be vacated in a matter of weeks. As for reducing the state payroll, Howie’s headed in the right direction, but doesn’t go far enough. Anyone who is not directly involved with serving the public in a vital function or directly supervising someone who is … gone.
One other thing, Howie graciously allows the odious 19-cent gas tax hike is a lesser evil than costly, inefficient, larcenous, layabout toll collectors … who recently experienced a mysterious Easter Sunday pandemic that left tollbooths unmanned and backed up holiday traffic for hours. I’d note they also want to jack up the sales tax from 5 to 7 percent, and say forget it on both counts. Cuts only until they make up the difference. May sound draconian, impractical, vital services lost, suffering all around. But the ship of this state is so rat-infested that to save it, we must sink it. You can’t machine gun the lifeboats on one hand and toss out life preservers on the other. Not if you don’t want any survivors.
My suggestion, if they feel they must have tolls: Jack all tolls up to $10 … heck, $20 … and install booths on the border, as well. Replace the signs that say “Welcome To Massachusetts!” with ones that say, “Last Exit Before Toll … Turn Around, If You Know What’s Good For You!” It would be more honest and might eventually inspire the populace to do something about the wasteful thievery they keep endorsing every two years.
* The highest but not the only hack holiday in Massachusetts, Evacuation Day commemorates that glorious day in 1776 when the beseiged British abandoned Boston under George Washington’s guns. It happens to fall on St. Patrick’s Day and applies only to government offices in Boston and a couple of surrounding towns. It is the day on which, we used to say in the State House press corps, you could fire a cannon up the halls and not hit anyone. Bunker Hill Day is another. It commemorates the sacrifice of patriots who bled for us, but is observed only by those who bleed us.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:02 am Comments (1) on Sunday, April 26, 2009
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April 26th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
[...] for it, and wait patiently for our chance to take the shot. I also like Jules Crittenden’s #11/#1: having these people work part-time appeals on general principles. The less time that they’re [...]