Left In Lowell

I haven’t had as much breathing space to post on this, but kudos on Governor Patrick for getting what he wanted - transit, pension, and ethics reform, before the allotted deadline (signing the budget bill with the sales tax increase).

When he started playing hardball with the lege this year, I heard a lot of, frankly, whining from some corners of the legislature (also genuine concern from other corners). The hack wing fled to the newspapers and cried on reporters’ shoulders about how Patrick wasn’t working with them, that they do all the real hard work.

Well, previous to the hardball moves by the Governor this spring, ethics reform appeared stalled and actually weakened the State Ethics Commission, transit reform looked like it wasn’t going to have all the elements of pulling together the “quasi-independent” failure agencies back under the executive branch so they could be held accountable, and pension reform was slated to not apply to current employees.

Subsequent to the backbone Patrick showed after all that occurred, despite the screaming from the hack wing of the legislative branch, we got bills that were a lot stronger and more meaningful. Now, Patrick has signed the budget, having accomplished three important things in his agenda, which many people pronounced dead.

Sure, the bills are only a start. We need more transit funding, so we can get rid of the Big Dig debt and increase public transit services. We need further reform of the pension system and how it is funded. And ethics will always be on the agenda - we also need to enforce those laws that are already on the books. However, anyone who says Patrick is a do-nothing governor or that state government isn’t balanced because it’s all Democrats needs to reexamine the evidence.

On another note, I still also endorse a future gas tax hike. For all the reasons I’ve argued since this debate began. The first argument is that this is NOT a tax that goes up with inflation, unlike a percent tax, and therefore has lost a lot of value. The gas tax, had it been indexed to inflation since its last increase, would be about $.30 higher, from what I’m given to understand. So I am sick of people whining it’s a tax increase. It’s not. It’s catching up to what we should have been paying for a couple of decades.

Not to mention, like cigarettes, we need to get the hell off this oil addiction before it’s too late. Do you like our wet, cold spring and early summers? You might have to get used to them. This has been our weather pattern, building for years. I noticed it back the year or two before the big flood. It’s happened pretty much every year since. It’s certainly not normal, and it’s looking less and less “cyclical” as time wears on.

Tax the hell out of oil. Use the money to build transit and green, renewable energy infrastructure. Our children and grandchildren will thank us for our sacrifice.