With what amounts to a gas tax, ‘stakeholders’ will pay the price
It’s the hackerama’s Christmas gift to itself — the T.C.I., which stands for Transportation Climate Initiative, but it’s really a T.A.X., a tax on gasoline.
The hacks are trying to keep this latest heist as under the radar as possible, and for good reason — it’s unconstitutional, because all new state taxes are supposed to originate in the House of Representatives.
So Tall Deval and the rest of the climate cultists at the State House are promoting this as a “carbon fee” on gasoline, which would be simultaneously imposed on 11 or 12 already overburdened, failing, mostly blue Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states.
Somebody call the bunco squad. TCI is a con, a racket, a grift.
California has already imposed this TCI scam, and gasoline prices have skyrocketed to way over $4 a gallon. How’s that working out for the Golden State?
New Hampshire and Vermont both seem to be figuring out that if Massachusetts pulls off this highway robbery, it’ll be a much bigger shot in the arm for their economies than the menthol-smoke ban.
Despite the best efforts of the hacks — who in this case prefer to call themselves “activists” or “advocates” — word is getting out, and the natives are restless.
But not restless enough. Which is what this column is all about. The proponents of this taxation-without-representation stick-up have set up a website for “TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions.”
Stakeholders? So instead of victim-impact statements, as at court sentencings, we will now have stakeholder-impact statements.
I guess taxpayers are no longer to be considered victims, merely “stakeholders.”
The woke crowd thought they could flood this website with the usual NPR-type nonsense from “nonprofits,” like this one: “Jurisdictions have designed a work plan with the goal of developing a policy that accelerates the transition to a low-carbon transportation future and delivers a better, clever, more resilient transportation system …”
The centerpiece of which would be “resilient multi-modal transportation needs.” Also known as bicycles.
So now we need more victims, I mean stakeholders, contributing contrary viewpoints to this message board, before this latest stealth attack on taxpayers is publicly rolled out by the Friends of Al Gore and Greta Thunberg.
For obvious reasons, the hacks don’t want you to find out about this site for comments, which is why Mass. Fiscal Alliance has posted a link to it at their website, massfiscal.org. Go there and you will be directed to the “stakeholders” site.
Here are a few samples from Massachusetts taxpayers, although stakeholders in the other states under assault are also contributing very pointed commentary:
Gordon Nelson, Attleboro: “It is another ill-defined, pie-in-the-sky political boondoggle. It’s all about handing over more money to a bloated bureaucracy and generating more hack jobs. You are not fooling anybody.”
Robert Johnson, Belchertown: “The waste and fraud in government need to be addressed before any further money is stolen from the taxpayers.”
Beth Bamberg, Wilmington: “You should be ashamed of yourselves. You are nothing more than pigs wallowing in the crap that you have made this state overflow with.”
Martin Joyce, Weymouth: “Don’t sneak in a gas tax … Mass voters already VOTED AGAINST IT!”
Great point, even in all capital letters. In 2014, the electorate repealed an automatic gas tax increase at the ballot box. In that referendum campaign, the hacks outspent the taxpayers 30-1, and we still defeated the greedy grabbers by a comfortable 53-47 margin.
Back to the comments already on the record:
Joseph DeSouza, Natick: “Since the state already spends 4 times as much per mile as NH and twice as much as NY, it is unconscionable to ask for more money until the most basic of fiscal controls are placed on their expenditures.”
John Delaney, Lynnfield: “BS attempt to force us to bow down to climate-change religion. No warming for 15 years!”
Leo St. Pierre, Springfield: “Less Waste, Less Hack Hiring, Rescind Legislative Pay Raises, Lower Bloated State Salaries … My wife and I will be leaving this state as soon as possible.”
Cathy Collins, Douglas: “Carbon footprints come from people who fly and have pleasure boats, not the working POOR. Governors are not kings or dictators and need to stop behaving that way.”
Don’t tell that to Tall Deval, not after all he’s done to improve the RMV, the state police, the MBTA, etc. Plus he’s outlawed menthol cigarettes. Now he wants to jack up the gas tax — the voters (and the Legislature) be damned.
You’re a “stakeholder,” let Tall Deval and the rest of the tax-fattened hacks know how you feel. And if you’re really angry, don’t be afraid to write in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS!
