Whose Money Is It Anyway?
That’s a rhetorical when it comes to Massachusetts. The only thing citizens and businesses are good for, at least when it comes to the state legislature, is the hard-earned money they can take from us under penalty of law.
Laws that the legislature can always find a way to get around.
Speaking of Beacon Hill, how do they figure in the way that cities and towns have had to resort to double taxation? Perhaps it can be found in the magic bullet that the policy wonks under the golden dome came up with in 1971 and implemented in 1975. It was an innovation called The Lottery.
Remember that? It was an idea by which all revenue above the operating costs of the agency would be “returned to the cities and towns.”
Unfortunately, the Legislature put a cap on that money in 2003 to deal with their “deficiency budget.” Since then, $450 Million has been diverted in to the Stabilization or “Rainy Day” Fund — doubling its size to $1.5 Billion.
This was called fiscal responsibility by our legislators, who knew —or should have known — that the cities and towns figure that money in when configuring their budgets.
Based on their actions of blowing off lawfully obtained signatures for initiatives they could be bothered with allowing to make a ballot, why would anyone think the Massachusetts state legislature would respect us or our money?