Massachusetts Dems vote to strip public unions of bargaining rights"

[still_one]

"The Democratic-controlled Statehouse in Massachusetts voted earlier this week to strip public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights, as part of the state's budget measure. It passed by a vote of 157 to 1."

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/04/29/massachusetts-dems-vote-to-strip-public-unions-of-bargaining-rights/

I would love to hear the excuses which group the Democrats feel they align with?

[okieinpain]

1. why did they do this.n/t.

[still_one]

5. That's what I want to know. Maybe it is time to either bring progressives to take back the party,

or form a REAL Democratic party

[ReggieVeggie]

2. holy FRAK!

are you kidding me?

[RandomThoughts]

3. Could be a few things.

Could be all the legislators are following the same orders and to help the far right they passed that.

Could be that it is made up and not a real story.

Either way it shows a terrible flaw in the system.



As Rachel said it stops the painting of the right as against workers, and puts the entire government, by that example in that role.

So the few progressives are the only ones defending workers.

If true it does make purge more likely. And primaries in theory become more important.

[Booster]

4. I keep telling you guys almost everybody in Wash DC is against

the common people. Corporations have the teats they all suck on.

[MichiganVote]

7. Kick

[Hannah Bell]

13. +100

[aquart]

6. What on earth has gone so wrong in Massachusetts?

[nonperson]

8. Well, for one thing, there's the tax cap

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=301

Hidden Consequences: Lessons From Massachusetts for States Considering a Property Tax Cap

By Phil Oliff and Iris J. Lav

Revised May 25, 2010

"Advocates of reducing property taxes often cite Proposition 2 ½, the strict property tax cap Massachusetts adopted in 1980, as a model for reform. Most recently, New Jersey Governor Christie has proposed a cap similar to Proposition 2 ½, which limits property tax revenues in Massachusetts to 2.5 percent of a community’s assessed value and caps annual growth in a community’s property tax revenue at 2.5 percent. Unfortunately, proponents typically overlook Proposition 2 ½’s harmful impact on Massachusetts, as well as the reasons why similar measures could prove even more damaging in other states.

Over the two and a half decades Proposition 2 ½ has been in effect, Massachusetts’ level of property taxation has declined. Between 1980 and 1985, property taxes as a percentage of income fell from 76 percent above the national average to 13 percent above the national average, where it stands today. (Massachusetts localities rely more on the property tax than localities in much of the rest of the country because they are not permitted to levy sales or income taxes or various other forms of taxes. (See Figure 1.)

State aid has helped fill in some of the gaps in local funding the law created, but not all of them and not reliably over time. Furthermore, the local “overspending” that proponents claimed Proposition 2 ½ could curb did not exist in the imagined quantities, and necessary public services have been jeopardized.

By limiting Massachusetts localities’ only major source of revenue, Proposition 2 ½ has exacted a considerable cost — one that highlights the shortcomings of property tax revenue caps as a policy approach. The law has:"


Read the rest at the link.

[aquart]

9. So a wealthy state has become a poor state?

[nonperson]

10. No, as in the rest of the country, the wealthy are doing fine

The wealthy towns in Massachusetts are doing just fine. The towns that can't afford to vote increases above the cap are suffering. That's my understanding from the articles I've read. I began reading about Massachusetts' tax cap when New Jersey proposed a tax cap.

In MA he cap lowered property taxes but at what price? At the price of middle and lower income citizens.

In NJ the tax cap is a JOKE. Property taxes here have skyrocketed and continue to skyrocket while Chris Christie gives millionaires tax breaks, spends hundreds of millions bailing out casinos, that ridiculous boondoggle in the Meadowlands, Xanadu, and while the incompetent, corrupt fool literally throws away BILLIONS of dollars in federal funds.

[TransitJohn]

11. You just want a President Palin.

:sarcasm:

[PuraVidaDreamin]

12. See my Mass State Reps reply to me here

and then my reply to that

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=158&topic_id=16591&mesg_id=16601

Sarah,

Thanks for your quick reply and to the personal portion of it.

Short and sweet is the answer I need. Something like, I will never vote to hurt the working class. The vote wasn't even close. 100 something to 40 something..... There is a lot to be said for remaining
true to your principles. Cleon Turner voted NO. I called Dan Wolf's office and his staff member states imphatically that he can go on reccord stating Dan will do everything in his power to maintain all collective bargaining rights. The press is finally doing its job, in my opinion. Also it is awfully presumptive of Deval to even call our response "Rhetoric". Wisconsin will seem microscopic to a Mass Union uprising. This house vote is a proverbial shot across the bow. And all your political futures depend on how you go forward from here. Perhaps you could now better organize some of your peers to press forward with more strength and determination now on single payer.

[xchrom]

14. They fucked themselves because of property taxes and now somebody has to beaten.

Public service unions are the victims.

[Obamanaut]

15. Additional responses at this earlier thread ->

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x989603