I'm not sure what the reputation of the state of Massachusetts it in the rest of the country. Maybe people out there think that the stories that you hear from here are exagerated. This state has often been called "Tax"-achusetts.

Just like on the federal scene, the state government is claiming that they don't have enough money do keep the state running. The state government is scrambeling to come up with new ways to generate revenue. I don't think that I've ever heard them make a mention of getting spending in order, just that they don't have enough money to keep the schools running ad the roads fixed.

Some of you might have heard of the "Big Dig"? Well, it's a project that has been so poorly managed for many years that the taxpayers in Massachusetts and taxpayers have been bilked out of billions of dollars. Not to mention the tunnel system that they completed last year is falling apart so rapidly that it's hard to imagine that it'll be more than a fish habitat in a few years. Something tells me that the event that makes that happen will generate some attention.

There is so much compassion in this state though. You know, with the democrat govenor and almost all democrat legislature, there are a lot of "caring, compasionate" people running things around here. But then there is this story in the papers recently:

Boston.com- Former Big Dig chief's firing boosted pension

I can't say I'm all that surprized. I've lived here all my life. This isn't something new here. It's a little disapointing though, seeing the country trend twards a mindset like that of a lot of the people in Massachusetts. People scream at the top of their lungs about oil prices and the war in Iraq, but then don't let out a peep as long as it's their pockets that are being lined.

How does your state government spend your tax dollars?

 

They don't do any better here in Michigan
For starters we have a Canadian woman for a Governor, no offense to reasonable minded Canadians.
We have the highest unemployment rate (7.8%) in the nation.
We have averaged third in the nation for high gas prices for the past year.
They just raised my property taxes even though my home value declined.
They just raised the state income tax from 3.8% to 4.35%.
We pay 6% sales tax on all purchases except food items. They passed a law to tax most services by 1.5%, but after a major outcry that was appealed. If it wasn't appealed we would have been taxed on basically anything we bought or did.
We pay 2.00 tax on smokes and .19 cents on every gallon of gas.
Our roads suck and last fall our State Government came to a stand still because of the state budget.

By land mass most of the state is Republican, but the southeastern part of the state containing Detroit seems to effect most of our election outcomes to Democrat winners. This is the same city that the mayor has 8 charges pending ranging from perjury the obstruction of justice and cries it is all a racial thing.

We don't have the big dig, but we have the Zilwaukee bridge that is part of I75, the main ex-way stretching the length of the state, that will be partly closed for most of the year due to bad engineering. Unsure what that is going to cost us so far.

Our Gov wants to increase social spending for job training and welfare yet doesn't increase funding for public schools and colleges. She also boast she created something like 100k jobs yet we are still down by like 500k jobs.
She and all the other liberals running this wreck blame the past governor for the states woes even though that was almost 2 whole terms ago with no improvement. Which when he left we had a surplus and ranked 3rd in new business starts.
Now she wants to mandate the state get 20% of its future energy use from green sources such as wind and solar even though no really feasible technology exists to do that. Sun doesn't shine that much in MI and most of the wind is created from the giant vacuum created by all the people leaving the state.

This doctor from China claimed he replaced a mans hand and he was back to work in a month. A French doctor said he could replace a mans kidney and have him back to work in 2 weeks. Then a Swiss doctor claimed he could replace a mans heart and have him running a mile in a week. All that is nothing though compared to the doctor that removed half of a Canadian woman's brain and had her elected to 2 terms of Governor to the State of Michigan.

Sled...

 

Guess where that dude ended up! He is head of the DOT in RI!.....Go figure that one!....

 

How does Maryland spend my tax money. Only one word, poorly.

 

Hookers and booze.....

 

Michigan has got it rough! How did it come to this? I'll bet that Bush has something to do with it.

We here in Massachusetts want to be trend setters. Well, the people who decide how to spend our money want to be trend setters.

How about this one:

CNN-Prison sex-change case gets new look

Here in Massachusetts we aren't going to stop with gay marrige. We are going to take our tax dollars to pay for convicted murderers sex change operations. We wouldn't want to put a prisoner through undo anxiety and depression.

This is the kind of thing our country wants?

 

billion dollar roads and overpasses....... sweet.

 

I know that 99.9% of you don't give a rats *** about this stuff but I'm not into blogging and all that BS. I just believe that this stuff is relevent to the big picture here in the good o'le US of A.

When a large percentage of people are quabbeling about wether Obama or Clinton would be the better leader and those who aren't liberal minded are left with McCain as the only option, these state level actions, I think, should be sending up red flags. This is likely a precursor of things to come.

I understand that many people take issue with the amount of money being spent in Iraq, but is the proper response to take action that will stifle growth on the local level?

In Massachusetts, an ultra liberal state that many people seem to believe is a good one to model the entire country on, increased taxes are a stark reality.

Boston.com-Mass. House OK's big tax hikes

It's not unusual to hear about increasing costs, but it is unusual to hear about getting spending in order. We all have to get our personal spending in order. Why aren't states compelled to do the same?

At face value it might seem like a good thing to increase the tax burden on smokers. Who are smokers though? I'm a smoker. I'm not the kind who will help meet the goals the state is reaching for though. I've cut my smoking from a pack a day to two packs a month. I should just quit but I like to have a ciggarette with my beers on a Friday night. Who are the people that are really effected by the now $2.50 a pack tax on ciggaretts in MA? Is it the rich smokers? Is it perhaps the people that are most greatly effected by such a drastic increase?

Who are the states largest corporations? The company that I work for, and my father owns, is incorporated. It's not a large corporation. It employs my father, me, an apprentice plumber, a full time secretary and a part time secratary, but this corporation will be effected by this tax increase on the "largest" corporations. As I'm being primed for a position that I will be responsible for making major decisions in this company, I take this news very seriously.

Massachusetts is a small, insignifigant state. However, there seems to be a lot of people in this country that believe that the things that our state is doing might be beneficial at a federal level. From where I'm at, that couldn't be further from the truth.

I understand the discontent with Bush, but do we really need to cut off our nose to spite our face?

 

Beer! They want to increase the tax on beer in CA.

Mercury News-Higher state tax on beer?

If people here like beer like I like beer, this should get your attention. I drink microbrews which are already cost almost twice what the mass produced beers do. Don't think that it's impossible for there to be a federal tax on beer.

It doesn't look like this one is going to pass in CA. That's good. It's an example of how some in the governments are willing to shift the tax burden on certain groups, and aren't willing to discuss more responsible spending habits.