Town of Braintree

Dear Former,

The powers that be want health care for everybody. A necessity of life. Well, the plan is to raise taxes on smokes. That's ok by me because I don't smoke.Those that do will pay for that. But the problem with democrats is they promise to use the money for one thing and use it somewhere else. Remember Dukakis? He raised the gas tax back a few years ago with the promise that the money would be used to fix roads and bridges. The money went to balance his budgets so he could run for president. Suddenly fixing the roads and bridges wasn't a priority, but a balanced budget was. The more this town keeps building and expanding the infrastructure will be pressured to keep up. We either pass the overrides, or we put a moritorium on all building and construction for five years. And I mean all building and construction. That makes it fair for everyone. If someone decides down the road that Prop 2 1/2 needs to be tinkered with or removed from the books, remember that what ever your property tax is now, without Prop 2 1/2 you'd be paying double what your paying now. That's not happy thought.

By TMM

Dear Fed Up,

The last time I checked, Gov. Romney takes no pay for being governor. I believe he donates it to charity. But here's something you should be mad and concerned about:Former State Representative, Senate president and UMass president William Bulger made many friends and enemies, and fought many fights, in his life in politics. But the friends who fought the good fights with him must wish he'd stop fighting the bad fight - namely, his attempt to add another $29,207 to his ample $179,158 annual pension. This was taken from the Nov.27 Patriot Ledger. Even though he's retired, the corrupt midget is still feeding at the public trough, continues to add more money to his state pension. If Bulger didn't get the raise to his pension, he would still get $14,929.83 per month. If he gets his additional raise, he will get a nice little total of $17,363.75 per month. That figures out to just about $4,340.94 per week. You should be more outraged at that situation rather than at what Romney's doing as governor. Bulger screwed us over while he served in the senate and now in retirement he thumbs his nose at us. To paraphrase a former governor, good jobs at good wages with great pensions.

By TMM

Overrides?

We don't need overrides. With the democratic majorities in both the state senate and the house, they have plenty of votes to overide any and all of Romney's vetoes. Let the dems propose any and all tax increases and the governor will veto them. Then the dems can overide those vetoes, increase taxes, and then spin it when they try to explain their actions. That's why they look the other way when taxes are talked about. They would rather let the cities and towns screw with Prop 2 1/2. That way like Pontious Pilate, they can wash their hands clean of any involvement and blame when it comes to raising taxes. Can you picture Joe Driscoll voting to override the governor's veto and then comming back to Braintree and explaing why his party voted to raise taxes again? I can't. If you think the republicans are the problem, let the democrats put OUR money where THEIR mouths are and raise OUR taxes. Then we'll see what happens.

point of reference only

Governor Romney and Lt. Governor Healy
both agreed not to take their salaries and the monies were then used to pay
salaries for employees within their administration.

By THO