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Towards a just & healthy democracy in the Commonwealth... and beyond!
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Thu May 05, 2011 at 08:50:10 AM EDT
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From the Green-Rainbow Party
May 5, 2011
BOSTON - This year's state budget has revealed a yawning gap between the priorities of state legislature and the priorities of the people of Massachusetts, according to Nat Fortune, who will testify today as a Green-Rainbow Party representative at a State House hearing on budget measures. Fortune noted that while schools, health care, social services, and environmental protection are being severely cut this year, legislators have seen fit to largely protect tax giveaways to businesses with strong lobbying presence on Beacon Hill.
"How did spending public tax dollars on public services for the public good become a lower priority than subsidizing private industries?" asked Fortune. |
| eli_beckerman :: BIPARTISAN BUDGET AGREEMENT REVEALS BEACON HILL'S MISPLACED PRIORITIES |
| Fortune, who was the Green-Rainbow candidate for State Auditor last year, took issue with the claim of the Governor and the Legislature that there just isn't enough money to avoid painful cuts. "The Legislature is protecting at least $2.5 billion dollars in ineffective tax giveaways and in health insurance waste." he noted. "Their refusal to put these things on the table is responsible for the budget crisis. They are protecting their friends and abandoning the people who elected them. That's simply not acceptable."
Jill Stein, former candidate for Governor, observed that the House recently endorsed the draconian budget by a vote of 157-1. "The Democrats and Republicans have joined forces to push this budget through while suppressing public debate" she noted. "This bipartisanship represents the final capitulation of the Democratic Party to the corporate agenda long advocated by Republicans. It's unconscionable to allow this needlessly cruel budget to go forward. It's time to stand up for the Commonwealth we deserve, and CAN afford."
Green-Rainbow Party co-chair John Andrews announced that the Green-Rainbow Party is already recruiting candidates to run for the legislature in 2012. "We are going to give the people a chance to vote against both Democrats and Republicans who are responsible for unfair taxes, waste, and the dismantling of services" he said. "Legislators can ignore all the groups at this hearing if they wish - but they will have to answer for it on election day." |
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Green Mass Group is an online forum for Green thought and collective action in Massachusetts. It is a community forum for justice, sustainability, democracy and health in the Commonwealth and beyond.
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| Quotes |
"Now, is this the deal I would have preferred? No. I believe that we could have made the tough choices required - on entitlement reform and tax reform - right now, rather than through a special congressional committee process. But this compromise does make a serious down payment on the deficit reduction we need and gives each party a strong incentive to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year. Most importantly, it will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America."
--President Barack Obama on the debt ceiling "deal"
"Despite Democratic control over the White House, despite Democratic control over the Senate, despite overwhelming opposition from the American people, a small minority of the members of the Republican-controlled House have successfully pushed an extreme right-wing agenda onto the American political landscape. It is an ideology which believes that despite the fact that the rich are getting richer, the middle class is shrinking, and poverty is increasing, all - all of the burden for deficit reduction should rest on working people."
--Independent Senator Bernie Sanders on the debt ceiling "deal"
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Then and Now
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Then...
"Last year Evergreen, a Massachusetts company, agreed to establish their first-ever United States based manufacturing facility here in Massachusetts. They did so, or are doing so, at Devens. They have now agreed and chosen to triple their size at Devens. Their next phase of expansion, right here in Massachusetts, a signature company in a signature sector, and we congratulate all of the folks at Evergreen and look forward to continuing to work with you...
We made a personal commitment to Evergreen for the sake of Evergreen, but also because we wanted to show that there are ways in which state government, in working together with private industry and with the utility companies, could begin to create a different kind of environment, a different kind of business climate here, to grow that sector, and it is happening. It's happening. Evergreen is one of the most prominent examples, but there are a whole host of examples."
--Governor Deval Patrick, April 7, 2008, boasting about state investment in Evergreen.
and Now...
"Evergreen Solar Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday, completing a stunning reversal of fortune for a high-flying alternative-energy company that once seemed to herald a new era for the Massachusetts economy... At its peak, Evergreen employed roughly 900 people locally and attracted more than $50 million in state support, as its stock price soared above $100 a share.
Yesterday, Evergreen's stock closed at 18 cents. The company shuttered its manufacturing plant in Devens earlier this year and now has only 85 employees left. Massachusetts is one of its top creditors, owed $1.5 million in rent."
--Erin Ailworth, Boston Globe, August 16, 2011
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