Oh no. It looks like Bacon Hill has finally ended their summer break.
While legislators get paid a hefty salary, it would be better for all of us if they just stayed on vacation forever. The bills up for consideration this week should give you nightmares.
On Wednesday, the state Senate is expected to vote on “election reform.” As you well know, both here and in Washington, they routinely misname bills to give the appearance that they are not as insane as you and I know them to be.
So predictably, the bill in question has nothing to do with reform. It will bypass the state constitution to legalize cheating.
Like you, I consider election reform to be requiring valid identification to vote, as well as cutting the time for early voting and ending the mail-in ballot hoax. But Massachusetts Democrats, like their counterparts elsewhere, are gung-ho to make mail-in cheating permanent.
In addition, they want to expand early voting, implement same-day voter registration and make it easier for prisoners to vote. Don’t the Democrats already have enough control in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts? Could they still be angry we overturned their automatic gas tax hikes in 2014? It did take away $2 billion from their coffers.
Whatever the reasons, this is a blatant power grab. Their so-called “election reform” bill protects their incumbency and will make it more difficult for challengers to oust them.
The nightmare on Bacon Hill continues.
The Tax Expenditure Review Commission is holding a videoconference. That’s not good news. As you may recall, in Massachusetts a tax expenditure is not paving roads. It is something the state doesn’t tax. Bacon Hill thinks that if they are not collecting taxes on an item, it is an expenditure on their behalf. Hence, the money in your wallet doesn’t really belong to you. They believe that what’s theirs is theirs and what’s yours is theirs.
If this committee is meeting, our wallets are up for grabs.
The Judiciary Committee is holding a virtual hearing on legislation to impose a moratorium on jail and prison construction. That’s probably a smart idea when you have district attorneys who turn a blind eye to crime, so why would we need the extra space? I am just surprised there is not a bill to shut down the Bristol County facility, because Sheriff Tom Hodgson knows how to lock people up.
The Senate Global Warming Committee is having a meeting to “assess the vulnerability of Massachusetts’ transportation and electric systems’ resilience.” How can it not be resilient when the state spends $675,000 per mile per year on road maintenance? Let me predict that they will conclude it is “woefully inadequate” so they will have to raise the gas tax.
This is not being cynical. It just feels like Groundhog Day.
I think the legislature should extend their summer break. Don’t you?