Related: Patrick's Phart Chip
State in Your Shopping Cart
The State Budget Swindle
Governor Guts State Services
Pigs at the State Trough
Yup, we VOTED to KEEP the INCOME TAX so SERVICES WOULDN'T BE CUT and TAXES WOULDN'T BE RAISED, and yet HERE WE ARE AGAIN!!
As the web is saying, TIME FOR A RECALL, guverner!!! California did it, so can we!!!!!!! Heck, we are the TEA PARTY STATE!!!!
"Hummers might face extra fee; Governor's plan: Target gas-guzzlers, encourage eco-friendly vehicles" by Noah Bierman and John C. Drake, Globe Staff | February 19, 2009
Now just REMEMBER THOSE THINGS FOR LATER, 'kay?
Massachusetts could become the first state with its own Hummer tax under a plan floated by Governor Deval L. Patrick yesterday that would charge higher registration fees for gas-guzzling cars and offer discounts for those that do less harm to the environment.
Yeah, so that crap global-warming sh** has to COST US, too!! The RICH ELITERS will get TAX WRITE-OFFS while you and I suck fart mist with a rectal meter recording our global-warming gas, right?
The suggestion comes as Patrick prepares to unveil a fuller version of his much-awaited plan tomorrow to fix the state's destitute road and public transit systems. While he would not release details yesterday, Patrick said at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce appearance that any gas tax increase would be coupled with a freeze on toll rates.
We will get to that presently.
Environmentalists applauded the registration proposal, saying it would encourage people to buy smaller and more fuel-efficient cars, which are increasingly seen as key to curbing global warming. Similar proposals have been proposed in Massachusetts since at least 2001, but without the backing of a sitting governor.
Yeah, too bad that phenomena isn't happening. Almost the end of February and it's still below freezing here!
"This month's temperatures are running 3 to 4 degrees colder than normal.... Temperatures this frigid month are also well below the January average of 29.3 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. On many days the temperature plummeted more than 15 degrees below the historical average for that day"
And about LAST SUMMER?
"The EPA attributed the decrease to fewer days with temperatures exceeding 90 degrees"
So FARMER'S was RIGHT and the LYING GOVERNMENT and MSM were WRONG?
"The almanac's winter forecast is at odds with that of the National Weather Service, whose trends-based outlook calls for warmer-than-normal temperatures over much of the country.... the almanac was on target in the 2008 edition when it called for the Northeast and the Great Lakes to be hit with a long, cold winter with lots of snow..... The Old Farmer's Almanac, based in Dublin, N.H., predicted "global cooling" for the next two decades. The forecast was based on an expected change in sunspots and ocean temperatures, still better-understood factors than climate change, said the almanac's editor, Janice Stillman."We're looking forward to cooler-than-normal conditions for quite some time," Stillman said in a telephone interview."
"Some maritime glaciers.... have grown in recent years, including 2007.... They include glaciers at Nigardsbreen, Norway, and Alaska that were helped by temperatures that remain below freezing and ample snow"
For more see: The MSM's Silent Farts on Global Warming
"The social costs of larger vehicles include not only the additional pollution, but also higher crash risks to other vehicles," said state Representative William Brownsberger, a Belmont Democrat who is cosponsoring two bills that would penalize expensive and heavy cars with higher taxes or fees. Advocates also justify the fee by noting that heavier cars do more damage to roads.
You know, I AGREE on the POLLUTION part and that is what we ought to FOCUS on, NOT TAXES!
But opponents say such fees could penalize families and small businesses that need big cars or trucks and already pay higher fuel prices....
Which proves they DO NOT CARE ABOUT US!!!!
Patrick said his administration is looking at the Registry of Motor Vehicles fee structure to create "differential fees based on the efficiency of the vehicle or the emissions of the vehicle."
"Big gas-guzzlers will pay more for their registration," he added. "Plug-in hybrids would pay less, and you'd have a range, that kind of thing."
And a CHIP in the INSPECTION STICKER, right? Back to the bicycle.
Patrick said yesterday that he was continuing to look at raising the state gas tax, but did not commit to it.
Yeah, that took another 24 hours, the lying sack of shit!
When asked about it during the Chamber event, he threw the question back to the audience, asking by a show of hands whether the crowd favored a gas tax increase or higher tolls. The crowd chose the gas tax, which has generally been a more popular proposal in the business community.
Yeah, he took a POLL in a RIGGED ROOM!! Shove it, you piece of s*** guverner!
But Patrick cautioned that even if lawmakers raise the gas tax, the state would probably collect less money in the future as drivers buy more fuel-efficient cars and need less gas.
And THEREFORE PUNISH US for doing the "RIGHT THING" vis-avis the ENVIRONMENT, huh, you shit-kicker!??
Because of that, he is also considering a replacement that would charge drivers a fee for every mile they drive.
How about we drive his ass right into the harbor?
That's another reason environmentalists support the Hummer fee. If the gas tax is eventually phased out, a new fee would keep the pressure on consumers to buy more fuel-efficient cars.
Yup, the ENVIRO-LIARS think CONSUMERS -- that's me and you average local-yokel folk -- have to CONTINUE to be PRESSURED to BUY INTO THEIR HARMFUL and HATEFUL AGENDA and LIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The MASK is OFF, scumbags!!!
GO PROTEST NASCAR and the WAR MACHINE!!!!!!!!!
"It allows for technology to evolve every year because it's always taxing the most polluting and it's always incentivizing the most efficient," said Matt Elliott, a clean-energy advocate in New Jersey, where the idea is also being debated.
The federal government already has a gas-guzzler tax on new cars, passed in 1978. But sport utility vehicles and trucks are exempt, so it affects mostly high-performance luxury vehicles, such as Aston Martins and Lamborghinis, that have high costs and very poor mileage. Any car that gets more than 22.5 miles per gallon - the vast majority of sedans and coupes - is exempt.
At least one influential player in the state transportation debate worries that adding an environmental component to the debate could complicate it, and ultimately delay important plans to fix roads and transit systems.
Yeah, don't ever take OUR CONCERNS SERIOUSLY, you pro-tax mouthpiece full of s***!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"There's painful steps that need to be taken to fix our transportation system," said Stephen J. Silveira, a lobbyist who chaired the Massachusetts Transportation Finance Commission.
Yeah, tell the BLOOD-SUCKING BANKS to F*** OFF!!!!!!!
"Once you bring the environmental aspect into them, you add a whole other layer of debate which makes this harder to get to at the end of the day. And this is hard enough."
--more--"And the guverner must have had an overnight conversion (what a slimy sack of shit):
"Patrick seeks hike of 19 cents in gas tax; Proposal could avert turnpike toll increase; Would also reorganize state transit agencies" by Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | February 20, 2009
After months of private rumination and public mixed signals, Governor Deval Patrick will propose a 19 cent increase in the state's gasoline tax today, in an attempt to solve the increasingly complex maze of problems confronting the state's aging and debt-ridden transportation system.
Patrick's plan would give Massachusetts one of the highest gas taxes in the nation, but it may avert an unpopular increase that would have raised the cash toll at the airport tunnels to $7, according to two administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The increase would nearly double the state's gas tax, which is now below the national average, from 23.5 cents to 42.5 cents per gallon. Adding in the 18.4 cent federal levy, drivers would have to pay just under 61 cents in taxes on every gallon of fuel they purchase.
The proposal, which would raise about $500 million a year, would help the MBTA stave off a threatened combination of drastic fare increases and service cuts, strengthen regional bus and rail systems, and wean the state from a constant stream of borrowing to pay for basic road and bridge operations, the officials said.
Promises, promises.
The proposal would also reorganize the state's transportation system, putting all the bureaucracies that run roads, buses, trains, and airports under the governor's control in an attempt to reduce overlap and inefficiency.
Oh, the DICTATORSHIP of DEVAL and the DemocraPs, huh?
Patrick would also adopt numerous structural changes proposed by an influential state panel, including cuts in future MBTA fringe benefits that have been especially costly. The Turnpike Authority, a continual target of public anger, would disappear. The secretary of transportation, who reports to the governor, would oversee four divisions: highway, rail and transit, aviation and port, and the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
The current Massachusetts Port Authority would retain some independence within the rail and port division, including the Massport board of directors, in order to meet obligations under federal aviation rules, according to administration officials. The plan, which Patrick is scheduled to formally unveil in a speech this afternoon, will be filed with the Legislature in a more detailed bill in the next few days, the officials said....
But even as Patrick supports freezing tolls on the turnpike, the authority's board may be forced to vote on an increase Tuesday. The board has been putting off a vote, but members have said they need to approve some type of increase this month to avoid what could be a costly downgrade by credit rating agencies. A two-step toll-increase plan, discussed at last month's board meeting, is on the agenda that was delivered to board members yesterday.
The plan would impose a 25 cent increase at the Allston-Brighton and Weston booths, bringing the cash toll to $1.50, and a $2 increase at the Ted Williams and Sumner tunnels, bringing it to $5.50. Those rates, effective at the end of March, would be repealed if the Legislature passes a gas tax increase before that deadline. But if the gas tax does not go up by then, the board would raise cash rates even further, to $2 at the booths and to $7 at the tunnels in July.
I never even get near there.
Why should WE have to pay for STATE LOOTERS and BIG DIG DEBT PAYMENTS to BANKS, huh?
"The Turnpike Authority has run out of time," said Mary Z. Connaughton, a board member who supports eliminating tolls entirely and replacing them with a higher gas tax.
Representative Joseph F. Wagner, a Chicopee Democrat who cochairs the Joint Committee on Transportation, said late yesterday that he had yet to read a specific plan and was skeptical of anything pulled together so soon before an unpopular toll vote.
"This has been talked about since the fall of 2007," Wagner said. "I think it should have been put together well ahead of now."
Patrick has struggled with the state's transportation crisis since he took office in 2007, with billions of dollars in inherited debt, much of it from the $15 billion Big Dig, hanging over the transportation agencies.
Yeah, keep making excuses for him, Globe.
The Turnpike Authority and MBTA are burdened by high operating costs that continue to grow with generous pension benefits and salaries won by unions over the years.
Yeah, it is ALWAYS the UNIONS with the PRO-CORPORAT, anti-labor Globe!
Forget the HOLLYWOOD and BIOTECH LOOTINGS!
A state report said the state would need an extra $15 billion to $19 billion over the next 20 years for its transportation system.
I'm sorry, but I just don't have it. None of us taxpayers do. You know where to go to get the $$$$, guv!
Neither a gas tax nor toll hikes are popular among commuters, according to a Boston Globe poll conducted in December.
Makes you wonder how this state "voted" to keep the income tax, huh?
But the gas tax was the most palatable among the unpopular options.
BULLSHIT! We want NO NEW TAXES! 
When asked to choose between raising tolls or the gas tax, respondents chose the gas tax by 48 percent to 42 percent.
Another lying MSM poll, huh?
Support has been building in the Legislature for a gas tax increase, but many lawmakers worry that higher taxes would be hard for residents to absorb during a recession.
They WORRY -- and will PUMP US ANYWAY!
You know the drill....
1. Pull up to pump
2. Get out of car
3. Drop pants
4. Insert gas pump into ass
5. Pump gas
"Most likely, we will [need a gas tax increase] at the end of the day, but we're not willing to go there yet," Senate President Therese Murray said in January as she announced a similar reorganization plan.
So you gonna turn around on it in 24 hours like that lying little shit, lady?
Tax opponent Barbara Anderson called the whole debate a "silly game" meant to scare people with the threat of high tolls to build support for a gas tax increase.
Go get 'em, Barb!!!!
But many transportation advocates and government specialists say the tax increase is inevitable, given the scope of the problem.
"Our transportation system's in desperate shape," said Michael J. Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation and a member of the state Transportation Finance Commission. "Two authorities are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. The roads and bridges across the state are in desperate need of repair."
Yeah, the PRO-TAX, PRO-BUSINESS, in-hous Globe adviser said he's for it!
Patrick first promised in 2007 to deliver a transportation overhaul that would consolidate the various transportation bureaucracies in an attempt to save money and run them more efficiently. That plan never materialized.
Hey, what is ONE MORE BROKEN PROMISE in a NEVER-ENDING and EVER-INCREASING LIST, 'eh?!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last fall, with the threat looming of $7 tunnel tolls, he promised to eliminate the Turnpike Authority and shift many of its functions to the agency that runs the seaport and Logan International Airport. That plan has been abandoned because fixing the system "requires a more aggressive step," an administration official said. "We're not fooling around on the edges."
As the transportation debate has continued, the problems have grown worse. The MBTA is now projecting a deficit next year of more than $150 million.
The outrage grows!
The agency has canceled contracts to buy new commuter train equipment and was told recently that the federal government would not fund a key expansion project until finances improve.
WTF? Friend Barak and the federalis not coming to the rescue?
Of course, it is ALWAYS the WORKER'S FAULT in the PRO-CORPORATE GLOBE!!!!!
"Turnpike ordered to give workers raise" by Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | February 20, 2009
Even as it struggles to avoid financial ruin, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority has been ordered by an arbitrator to pay 825 union workers a three-year, 10 percent raise.
I guess contracts only apply when the STATE wants something, huh?
The Turnpike Authority has kept quiet about the arbitration order, issued last month, and is fighting it in court.
How much is that going to cost taxpayers? I don't see them taking Madoff to court!
The order would cost $3 million in back pay dating to July 2007 and about $3.5 million through the end of the contract, according to Jennifer Flagg, who is serving as interim executive director while Alan LeBovidge is on vacation.
Hollywood sucks that out of us in a day.
"The raise was much more than we expected, because we offered to take less during negotiations," said Robert Cullinane, secretary treasurer of Teamsters Local 127. "We offered to take considerably less, but the turnpike just doesn't know how to negotiate."
Flagg disputed that, but did not say exactly what the Teamsters' final offer was. The raise of 3 percent in each of the first two years and 4 percent in the third year will go to toll takers, maintenance and emergency service workers, plumbers, carpenters, and electricians, Cullinane said. About half the employees are toll collectors.
Oh, you mean REGULAR PEOPLE!!!!!!
"Surprise is probably an understatement," Flagg said. "Neither the union nor the arbitrator disputed that fact that the turnpike is in a very serious financial situation, one that is currently unsustainable. It does not appear that the arbitrator took that undisputed fact under consideration."
Then EXPLAIN THIS, prick: Turnpike Toll Hikes Going for Manager Bonuses
Cullinane pointed out that despite all the talk about the authority's dire financial situation, LeBovidge has awarded management raises and hired outside lawyers to fight the union.
Exactly.
"We have an arbitration award, [but] Mr. LeBovidge decided binding arbitration doesn't mean binding arbitration for him," Cullinane said. Flagg said the toll hike proposed last year, which could raise an additional $100 million more a year, did not take into account the arbitration ruling.
LeBovidge was so angry with the contract decision that he wrote the American Arbitration Association, asking that the arbitrator not be assigned to future Turnpike Authority cases. Flagg said the authority is fighting the arbitration on constitutional grounds and because it hampers lawmakers' right to reorganize state government.
Yeah, why should GOVERNMENT have to ABIDE by CONTRACTS the way YOU WOULD, citizen! Don't forget the SIG HEIL salute!
Under Patrick's plan, the Turnpike Authority would become part of the state Department of Transportation.
--more--"Oh, yeah, about that CARBON FOOTPRINT and the ENVIRONMENT, etc:
"In the past two weeks.... the governor met with dozens of high-tech executives at the State House and toured the Cambridge Innovation Center, a start-up incubator, before departing.... for a tour of West Coast technology centers.
While it didn't result in immediate commitments by outside technology companies to expand here, their weeklong trip to Seattle, Portland, Ore., and the San Francisco Bay Area was "about building relationships," Patrick said in an interview."
Oh, I SEE!! When HE FARTS AWAY TAXPAYER MONEY buy JETTING and LIMOING ACROSS the COUNTRY, well, HOW MUCH YOU GONNA PAY in TAX, guverener?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Related: The Gallivanting Governor
