Taylor Armerding
The hunt is on once again for the man behind the tree.
It was the late U.S. Sen. Russell Long of Louisiana who reportedly explained why tax reform was so difficult with a pithy line illustrating that everybody is a special interest: "Don't tax me. Don't tax thee. Tax that man behind the tree."
It's that kind of thinking that surfaced in a poll this week on gambling. A majority of residents want casinos in Massachusetts — just not in their city or town.
And you can apply the same thinking to the current cacophony on Beacon Hill as Gov. Deval Patrick confronts a sobering reality — he can't squeeze enough money out of the working stiffs of the commonwealth to satisfy the insatiable demands of those on the public dole.
So, the new theme, with apologies to Long, is: "Don't cut me. Don't cut thee. Cut that man behind the tree."
Patrick has done what he could for the state workforce, of course. While virtually everybody in the private sector is poorer — in some cases much poorer — after a year and a half of major recession, he hit them with a tax increase expected to make them collectively even poorer by $700 million to $900 million — starting with a 25 percent increase in the sales tax. Then, for those who wanted to drown their sorrows with a beer or two after a long day at a lower-paying job? They got hit with a brand-new, 6.25 percent tax on liquor.
Of the 23,500 jobs allegedly "created or saved" by the massive federal stimulus package, the vast majority of them are on the public payroll. You know, because the really important jobs are government jobs.
But it still wasn't enough. Making taxpayers poorer somehow failed to make the state richer. Tax collections for September fell more than $200 million below expectations, and Patrick's financial gurus say the state has to find a way to close a budget gap of $400 million to $600 million.
The governor said last week he might eliminate 2,000 state jobs unless he got needed concessions from unions.
That makes sense. The way to shrink the cost of government without cutting either jobs or services is to do what the private sector has been doing for the past five years or more — cut wages and benefits.
But of course the specter of service or job losses has prompted the predictable firestorm of protest that some services and jobs are too important to cut. And, curiously enough, the ones making those claims are making them about their own jobs or about those services on which they or their family members depend.
Hence, advocates, recipients and workers in the mental health services field have been holding vigils outside the governor's office, demanding that if there are cuts, they must fall elsewhere, lest devastation and lost lives ensue. The governor is being cruel, apparently because he hasn't raised taxes even more, or manufactured money out of thin air.
Hence, we have Margaret Marshall, chief justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, "urging" (in other words, directing) attorneys to contact the governor and their legislators to protest "disproportionate" cuts in the court system.
The rhetoric is all very high-minded, never mentioning the salaries or benefits of court personnel, but only the "moment of peril" for all those clamoring for justice. And justice, Marshall notes, "is not a public policy choice."
It doesn't matter if the money isn't there. The money must be created. Hence we have the Massachusetts Senior Care Association protesting possible cuts for nursing facilities serving Medicaid patients.
Hence we have the State Police union rejecting calls from the governor that they take furlough days or make other contract concessions because they've already submitted a proposal to make cuts in management. (Hey, maybe they've found the man behind the tree! It's management in the State Police!)
I can save the governor and all these special interest groups a lot of trouble. We in the private sector are the man behind the tree. We were found a long time ago. We have been taxed. Our income and our benefits have been cut. We have been furloughed. We have been laid off.
The government has taken us, turned us upside down and shaken out our pockets.
And that is the problem. The man behind the tree doesn't have much more money to give.
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Taylor Armerding, an Ipswich resident, is associate editorial page editor of The Eagle-Tribune in North Andover. He may be reached at 978-946-2213 or at tarmerding@eagletribune.com.
