Massachusetts
A grainy video posted on YouTube shows an octet of lean greyhounds speeding around the track at the Raynham-Taunton Greyhound Park. Suddenly, one dog skids and collides with another before tumbling end over end and hitting a wall.
A hideous finale, but not the end of the line for the fallen greyhound. In a second video, now being promoted as a counterargument by track owners, the dog is back in action, competing again at Wonderland Park in Revere.
Backers of a pro-marijuana ballot initiative charged today that 11 district attorneys from Massachusetts violated campaign finance laws and twisted the truth about the question.
Whitney Taylor of the Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy said the DAs raised and spent money to oppose the question before forming their Coalition to Save Our Streets. Campaign finance laws require groups to form a committee before raising and spending money.
A dozen Gloucester residents representing several community groups have initiated a recall of Mayor Carolyn Kirk, saying her handling of the high school “pregnancy pact” brouhaha was the final straw in her failure to lead the city “fairly and effectively.”
In a petition being circulated, the group also says the mayor has failed to ensure open government by refusing to investigate and prosecute waste and fraud, particularly in the police and public works departments.
Massachusetts is about the last place one would expect a tax revolt, but that’s what’s brewing in Beantown. The state board of elections recently certified that citizen activists have gathered the 125,000 signatures required to qualify an initiative for the November ballot to eliminate the state income tax.
The state’s highest court has rejected a challenge by dog track owners who wanted to eliminate a November ballot question that asks voters whether to ban dog racing in Massachusetts.
The track owners argued the proposed ban could not be put to a statewide ballot vote because it is aimed exclusively at the two places where dog racing currently exists: Wonderland Greyhound Park in Revere and the Raynham-Taunton Dog Track in Raynham.
As the Legislature scurried to put the finishing touches on its $28 billion spending plan for fiscal 2009 last week, a move to cut off state government’s principal source of revenue, the income tax, was getting under way. The possibility of the initiative swelling into a full-blown taxpayer revolt is one lawmakers should not take lightly.
Next November, Massachusetts voters will have the opportunity to cast their ballot to abolish the state income tax.
Secretary of State William Galvin Wednesday certified 12,000 signatures on a petition to put the initiative on the ballot. Though the requirement to appear on the ballot is 11,099 signatures, Carla Howell, the chairwoman of the Committee for Small Government and head of the movement, said her group far surpassed that criteria.
This Nov. 4, you can vote on a ballot initiative that will end the Massachusetts state income tax, roll back state government spending from $28 billion a year to $17 billion a year, and give back $3,600 each to 3,000,000 Massachusetts workers and taxpayers.
Should you vote for or against this ballot initiative? Should you vote to keep the Massachusetts Income Tax or end it? You probably want to make an informed decision. You want to make sure you hear both sides before you decide.
But first, what does your vote decide?
A group of antitax activists launched a campaign over the weekend to abolish the state income tax, setting the stage for a contentious public battle if the measure is added to the ballot this fall. more stories like this
The Standard-Times editorialized last week that instead of repealing the “affordable housing” provision of Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 40B, we should fix it. It is essentially the “don’t throw out the baby with the bath water” argument. Unfortunately, the Legislature has had 40 years to “fix” 40B, but has instead repeatedly chosen to turn a tin ear to its constituents.