November 28, 2006
SunTalk Live with Sen. Panagiotakos
Tonight (Nov. 28) at 7 p.m., I'll discuss ideas on what Gov.-elect Deval Patrick should focus on in setting his legislative agenda for the state. My special guest is Sen. Steve Panagiotakos, who is a member of Senate President Rrobert Travaglini's management team and will be a prime mover and shaker in the coming year. Callers should dial in by 7 p.m. to reserve a spot on the show or you can just listen in. The number is 978-364-8255. We'll be taking calls from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Some of the topics we're sure to cover:
1. Patrick's proposal to unify health insurance prrograms for all government workers, both local and state. This would help municipalities in their push for contract reform.
2. Education aid to cities and towns. The formula hasn't been changed in more than a decade. Is it time for an independent study group to establish new criteria for the way the state doles out aid to communities?
3. Job creation: Where can the state do a better job to reduce business regulations and costs that are making it harder for companies to reside here?
If you have comments, send them to this blog and also dial in to the show tonight.
Posted by at 10:04 AM
November 21, 2006
SunTalk Live Tonight
Tonight (Tuesday, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.) I'll be fielding questions and comments from readers in our new open forum telephone show: SunTalk Live. This feature is a collaboration between The Sun and the creative people at Subjectalk, an innovative telephone company that is developing new phone-based technologies. By dialing 978-364-8255, you can reserve a spot with a moderator to talk on the show. If you stay on the line, you can listen to the entire show with othyer listeners. You don't even have to ask a question to participate: just stay on the line and hear the conversation.
While the show begins at 7 sharp, it is advised that callers dial in a few minutes early to reserve a spot. Callers can dial in after 7 p.m., and hopefully I'll be able to get to all the questions, but I urge you to get in early..
Last night, SunTalk Live made its debut with Sun sports blogger Teddy Panos. He talked NFL football with callers and also held a segment with Sun sportswriter Rick Harrison where Thursday's high school football games were analyzed. Rick also made his weekly predictions on the games. It was a fun time.
So if you're basting the turkey or just hanging around, give SunTalk Live a call. I'll be happy to discuss any topic and I'll surely have some of my own. That 978-364-8255.
Posted by at 9:13 AM | Comments (1)
Lynchonomics Unplugged
City Manager Bernie Lynch writes a thoughtful, clear-headed commentary to Tuesday's Sun explaining how the city has gotten into its fiscal deficit. It is a fair, balanced and brutally frank piece that puts into laymen's terms what is the problem: the city council, relying on fiscal assumptions supplied by the prior city administration, built a fiscal 2007 budget that was out of balance. The funds needed to back up the assumptions didn't materialize, leaving the city in a $5 million to $6 million hole. Lynch also makes it clear that the city has been spending more money through the years than the revenues it has taken in. This has caused city officials to deplete the cash reserves repeatedly to balance the budget and keep taxes low.
An independent audit by the firm Powers & Sullivan has confirmed much of what Lynch had previously documented. The city manager concludes that the council and taxpayers must face up to these fiscal challenges with an infusion of new revenues this year to close the gap. He is proposing at mix of tax and fee increases to raise about $7 million. Such a move would increase tax bills by about $210 a year for the average homeowner,however, the increase for most middle-class Lowell homeowners would probably be in the $300 to $400 range.
While Lowell isn't broke - Lynch notes that there is about $5 million in reserves that should be maintained to protect the city's bond rating - the city must build up its free cash accounts to take on future projects or to deal with emergencies, according to Lynch.
The city manager also describes the reasons behind Chelmsford's projected $1.3 million deficit and how the town is dealing with it.
The question I want answered is this: Once taxes are increased to close the budget gap in FY07, does that revenue turn into a surplus in succeeding years if a requisite amount of spending cuts are made?
Posted by at 8:49 AM | Comments (3)
November 13, 2006
Will 'Blue' Washington Make America Proud?
The election is over and what can you say? Americans wanted a change and they turned to the Democratic Party for leadership.
Democrats roared back to life with sweeping victories across the nation, regaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate for the first time since the Clinton administration.
I admit I was mildly surprised by the onslaught, seeing that incumbent Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a moderate Republican with a 62 percent favorability rating - and who had repeatedly voted against the war in Iraq - was turned out of office by Rhode Islanders by a one-trick (anti-war) Democrat. A Chafee losing in Rhode Island is like a Kennedy getting the boot in Massachusetts. It's deeper than tradition. It's an icon.
If Chafee had won, the Republicans would have had a 50-50 split in name only in the Senate, but now they are a miniority party.
So I have omelet on my face. I predicted that the GOP would retain both the House and Senate by two seats each. WUML-radio hostess Christine Dunlap and my favorite Democrat loyalist, Marie Sweeney, rubbed it in pretty good in an appearance that I made on the show. My comeback was quick: I came within 55,000 votes nationwide of making my prediction, that''s how close the two senate races were and the 10 House races.
But enough about my forecasts, the question now is what will the Democrats due with their new found Pelosi Power and Reid Rage?
For the past 12 years, the Democrats have been critics of Republican presidents and policies. Can they make the switch to actually promoting an agenda of original, thoughtful ideas? I hope so. I hope they use this opportunity to work for the American people's interests and not the party's interest. But I doubt it. This two-year period will be used as a foundation for the 2008 Presidential election. Quite frankly, I don't think anything will get done - except more budget-busting programs will now go toward Democrat interests instead of Republicans.
I still hope the Democrats prove me wrong. I would like nothing better than to see a reasonable game-plan adopted in Iraq, immigration reform, an increase in the minimum wage, Social Security reform, etc. This might sound ambitious, but it really isn't for our $162,000 a year lawamkers. They've done more studies than the entire student body at Harvard, but have failed to act on any of them. They can do it if they wanted to what is right, rather than what is popular..
With election victory comes the responsibility of leadership. The Republicans did provide leadership for eight years before losing sight of their basic core values. They descended into corruption and scandal, and were rightly bounced from control. The Democrats now have a golden opportunity to set a new direction. Will they seize the day for truth, justice and the American way or or squander it?
Posted by at 3:42 PM | Comments (14)
Hold onto Your Wallets
It's already started, the Democratic Revolution in Massachusetts.
Without determining how to make government more effiecient to produce savings, Gov.-elect Deval Patrick is already seeking $120 million to add 1,000 police officers to the streets and all-day kindergarten for our schools.
The Legislature, dominated by Democrats, will likely oblige as the honeymoon begins with Deval the Great in office.
Departing Gov. Mitt Romney put a $450 million kibosh on the Democrats raid of the $1.7 billion rainy day fund, but that's likely to be restored by the new governor once he gets the keys to the public treasury in January. Expect Deval to ask the Legislature to override Romney's veto. Either that, or he'll produce his own carbon-copy supplemental bill of the Democrats' raid, which was designed to be a pre-Election Day appetizer for special interest groups through the Bay State.
Taxes are already rising in cities and towns. Just think: Lowell will face its first substantive tax-and-fee (hidden tax) increase in years if the City Council approves Manager Bernie Lynch's plan to close the $5.4 million deficit. The average homeowner will face a $200 a year increase, plus a $25 fee increase to the trash bill. Chelmsford, Tewskbury, Tyngsboro and other towns are also facing tax increases to wipe out deficits. Now the state will likely to seeking an increase, or setting us up for one when the rainy day fund is depleted and another recession strikes.
Don't they ever learn? "They" as in our elected legislators?
One good thing that Deval the Great is proposing is for the state to take complete control of the health-care plans offered by municipalities. The governor believes a one-size-fits-all plan will save huge amounts of money for cities and towns that have to deal with dozens of plans that are controlled by union negotiations. The costs are rising faster than towns can take in new revenues, putting governments on a path toward health-care insolvency.
The trouble is: Would the Legislature buck the special-interest groups and unions that now monopolize the health-insurance industry?
Before Gov. Patrick sets his sight on expanding government, maybe he should take a step back to find out what is going on under the Golden Dome. The Romney administration has done its best to restrain costs, but evidently Massachusetts voters wanted a new sheriff with a gold-plated badge. Well, Patrick's message of hope isn't going to pay the bills. Taxpayers are. Hold onto your wallets, folks, the free-spending liberals are at the gate!
Posted by at 3:13 PM | Comments (2)
November 8, 2006
Democrats Are Back!
It's amazing how America's government can change overnight without a single gunshot being fired. The ballot is more powerful than the bullet in our civilized, democratic nation and it is the greatest gift our Founding Fathers ever gave us.
Election Day 2006 proved to be a repudiation of President George Bush's policies, particularly his adminstration's handling of the war in Iraq, and the national Republican Party.
The Democrats, without a plan for anything, made it clear a change was in order. They have regained controlled of the U.S. House and are on the verge of winning control of the U.S. Senate, if tight races in Montana and Virginia continue to lean their way when absentee votes are counted.
The cleansing purge of government is good. The Republicans over the past two years have squandered opportunities to do anything right, from energy policy to immigration reform. And Bush's "stay the course" philosophy in Iraq just didn't cut it with a weary-of-war America.
It was a good wake-up call, delivered coast to coast.
Democrats now have a chance to change the leadership direction.To be successful, they will have to offer solutions. For too long, they've been the "attack" party to the GOP agenda. If they don't develop sound policies, they will most likely fall victim two years from now when Americans head to the polls to elect a new president.
The voters won on Tuesday. And freedom and liberty triumphed for all the world to see.
Posted by at 10:15 AM | Comments (5)
November 7, 2006
Deval's Election Impact: No Gay Marriage Vote
It's been widely speculated that the Legislature won't report for duty on Thursday, Nov. 9, to reconvene the Constitutional Convention that was delayed and deferred from July. The hot topic, of course, was a citizen's petition concerning a state ballot referendum on gay marriage. If you remember correctly, a majority of the cowardly Legislature decided to put off a vote on the citizen's petition until after the election, as if anything would seriously change. Well, the only serious change is a possible change in the gubernatorial administration. A Democrat and not a Republican would occupy the corner office.
The question now is whether democracy will be served and whether the hundreds of thousands of citizens who want to vote on gay marriage will finally get the chance. Deval Patrick, the potential new governor, supposrt gay marriage and is opposed to the petition. It's likely that he will use the bully pulpit to see that Massachusetts' version of citizen democracy is derailed once again in this state, by the Legislature, and the petition is denied.
It will be interesting to see how the Democratic leadership achieves the derailment. Under state law, the constitutional convention has to be reconvened. If a quorum fails to show up, the governor, in this case Mitt Romney, can order the state police to round up legislators to meet their obligation. This would be a hoot. It would make the national news. Romney sends out the police to get paid legislators to show up on behalf of the state's citizens.
Once they do show up, Senate President Robert Travaglini can pull a "birmingham" and sink the entire convention by gaveling it to an end. In this way, no vote will be taken on the petition. You remember Birmingham, as in Tom Birmingham. He pulled the same trick four years ago, to deny a vote on gay marriage, which forced the state Supreme Judicial Court to rule on a civil case that produced Massachusetts' gay marriage law - the only one in the nation. The Legislature acted like cowards then, forcing an activist court to make the law.
I can see Trav doing the evil deed again. He is rumored to be on the way out, possibly by December, so what does he care? He'll get a big state job somewhere, probably in the education sector where so many loafers are hidden now, and all will be forgiven and forgotten.
Or will it?
I think it is only right that the Legislature votes on the gay-marriage petition. They have to make a tough vote sometime, and this will get them prepared for the Patrick years ahead.
The petition process should not be denied, whether you are for or against gay marriage. The people in favor of the petition played by the rules and won the right to present the petition to a statewide vote. It would be politically and morally wrong to reject it. Of course, that is nothing new in Massachusetts. It is what sets us apart from the remaining 49 states. Massachusetts' liberals routinely trample citizen's votes, as they did with Clean Elections, the death penalty and the state income tax rollback, So that is why the Legislature should allow the gay-marriage petition to go before the people: there is a precedent to reject a ballot-initiative outcome. So even if voters reject gay marriage at the polls, there is no reason for the Legislature to endorse the outcome. It has proven time and again that it will do what it wants, regardless of what the people in this state decide at the polls. Gay marriage is safe in Massachusetts, so why do so many gays and their supporters fear a democratic vote? Can someone explain this to me?
Posted by at 6:04 PM | Comments (11)
Day of Decision: Patrick and GOP win
As I write this first thing Tuesday morning, I am convinced that Democrat Deval Patrick will become the next governor of Massachusetts, and the first black man in the state to hold that honored office. Good for him and the state's voters.
Kerry Healey, meanwhile, will go down as the second female candidate in as many elections to lose. It's good to see political parties taking female candidates seriously but it's not so good that they can't get elected for the big enchilada. There are a lot of factors why Healey didn't resonate with voters, and I don't believe for one second it was her so-called negative ads. I found nothing negative about them. They spoke the truth. The same goes for Patrick's ad that attacked Healey over housing for the elderly. She made the comment about some of the state's elderly being "overhoused." Patrick's people made up a misleading ad and ran with it. Why didn't anyone complain? It's a good question. Most of the state's media were against Healey just because she was a Republican and part of Mitt Romney's administration. They didn't think like the editors at The Boston Globe, who are losing circulation just like the state is losing population. Any coincidence?
But Patrick is a good campaigner, even if he remains a mystery. One politician described him as a "Medicine Man" promising to cure all the state's problems. That's unlikely. Deval Patrick, however, could make a difference if he governs with courage and conviction - a pair of tough rules to follow for any Democrat who must take orders from so many other Democrats in this state. There will be a euphoria on Beacon Hill unseen since the Dukakis era. Hands will be reaching into Deval's pockets from all angles. Hopefully, Patrick can say "no" with the same conviction in which he said "yes" to change. We'll see.
Now, turning my attention to the national scene, I predict that the Republicans will retain control of the U.S. Senate by 2 seats and the U.S. House by 2 seats, leaving Democrat Nancy Pelosi to check into a political rehab facility in California because of an election breakdown.
The Democrats have been so giddy over the prospects of regaining control they have basically turned off the public and rejuvenated Republicans who weren't going to vote. Indeed, the GOP is a disgrace in Washington, and if Republicans do maintain control, I would like to see a major purge of the leadership. Don Hastert has to go.
If Democrats do gain control, however, it won't be a bad thing. I see their margin of victory as one or two seats in the House and one in the Senate - if it happens - and that slight edge would force the parties to work for common ground on issues. The idea that our government can cleanse itself in non-violent elections is the greatest seed ever planted in our democracy. To think that as many as 40 to 50 incumbents could lose elections in the House, Senate and gubernatorial elections is entirely gratifying for the people whose duty it is to vote for their leadership. Two years ago, 98 percent of all incumbents won re-election in the congressional election. Not today, and that's a great tribute to America's people who still care about the government process.
Posted by at 8:44 AM | Comments (5)
November 2, 2006
Kerry's Gaffe a Boon to Republicans?
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So here is my column. I know it's a bit long, but the message is important. I hope you write back and tell me what your reaction is:
Whatever precipitated the genesis of U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry’s stupid comments about Iraq and President George W. Bush reveal the depths this country’s leaders and activists have sunk to regarding the art of political hatred and partisanship.
America’s value system is out of whack, and people of politics, coupled with a media just too happy to join the fray, are making it worse.
We see it in negative campaign advertising, TV shows, movies, and newspaper articles, and hear it on radio.
Currently, there is a movie playing in U.S. theaters depicting the assassination of a sitting U.S. president, George W. Bush, and the impact such an event would have on America.
The thought is revolting, yet the movie is defended as art. The film implies that America should be prepared for Bush’s death as if an assassination were a normal everyday government activity.
Since the nation’s birth, a president’s assassination has been treated as a national tragedy. One has to wonder, though, whether some Americans would celebrate in the streets if such a horrendous act would happen today.
Republicans have condemned the film for its subject matter. In turn they’ve been attacked for supposedly diminishing the Canadian moviemaker’s “free speech� rights. Free speech was never the issue, however. Human debasement and a copycat assassination were.
Several Democrats also criticized the film. They’ve been drowned out, however, by the majority who remained silent, fearful that a public condemnation could be used against them by a special interest group or by political activists like MoveOn.org. What would be the Internet campaign?: These Democrats are “soft� on George Bush’s potential assassination.
How absurd.
I grew up respecting presidents and politicians at every level and of every party. My parents and teachers helped me understand the value of public service and the sacrifices of public servants. As I grew older, I learned that some people abused the public trust. They are the exceptions, because the vast majority of politicians are good people. But you’d never know it from negative public perceptions that are being created by misleading political campaigns and hate-filled speeches.
I still vote for candidates whom I consider the best for the job, regardless of party affiliation. I’m a proud cross-over Independent. Yet I’m feeling more glum each day that Americans increasingly define candidates by partisan political labels and support them based on specific hot-button issues — without recognizing whether an individual candidate is up to the task of making fair and just decisions for the American people.
Every American should be outraged over the state of politics in America today and the venom it has spilled into every day life, even at the local level.
Which brings me back to John Kerry, Massachusetts’ junior U.S. senator.
Kerry’s resentment toward President Bush has only grown since his close 2004 election defeat. It’s now come to the point where Kerry is wearing it on his sleeve everywhere he goes.
Giving a speech in front of a California college crowd, Kerry tried to tell a joke whose intention was to cast doubt on the president’s intelligence while emphasizing the Republican administration’s failed policy in Iraq. Kerry butchered the joke. What came out of his mouth was a knock on the U.S. military fighting in Iraq. How bad was the joke? Bad enough that a friendly Kerry crowd gasped in shock.
Now I don’t think for one second that Kerry meant to demean the U.S. military, but certainly some Republicans will use the mangled joke for that purpose.
What Kerry proved, however, is that at least one leading, Yale-educated Democrat can’t read a prepared speech from a piece of paper positioned three feet from his nose.
Worse, Kerry proved that he would go to any length to make a punch line out of the president, even if it meant ridiculing, by mistake, the U.S. military.
It takes nothing special to do what John Kerry does these days. He just has to be his supremely arrogant, vindictive self.
Is this what Democrats really want in a statesman? In a president?
Sadly, I think it is.
Posted by at 10:19 AM | Comments (3)
