Dear Hecate:
I am so mad I could spit. Our little program got vetoed by the Governor and like your previous writer, we were told not to worry by the Governor's office but unlike your previous writer who was told the Administration would find the money to fund the program from a more approriate department, we were told that the Legislature would be certain to over-ride our veto, like they have for the last 3 years.
Well, the Legislature is NOT going to over ride our veto because they are sooooo pissed at the Governor for making a press announcement one day about cutting the Legislature's budget while at the same time reassuring advocates that they would fund their programs anyway or confidently predicting that the Legislature was certain to over ride.
Now I'm getting a lot of geewizzeswethoughtforsure from the Goveror's office and a lot of shrugs from the Legislature.
I did get some advice today that the Speaker may be open to a last minute appeal if a program could prove it would really really fall apart with out a veto override. I also heard the Speaker would be open to a last minute appeal from the Governor himself--- a sort of geewizzireallydidn'tmeantovetothatone.
What should we do?
Hecate says
Get your bookkeeper up to the State House to show the Speaker and the Senate President your books, and ask them for some of their patience pills, if they have any left. You'll need them for any future dealings with the Administration. While you'e up there go into the Governor's office and .... never mind just go back to your office and hand out the patience pills.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Aristotle on the Barbarians: Full of spirit, but lacking in intelligence and skill.
Dear Hecate,
I've been a professional lobbyist for over 30 years and I really get annoyed at all these noisey disruptive tactics by some of these new special interest groups that come up to the state house with hundreds of people to sing and chant about an obscure bill that hasn't even had a hearing yet, and then march into the Governor's office with a petition signed by hundreds of folks who probably aren't even registered to vote. Only to turn around at 2:00 in the afternoon and march to their busses and go home. I've spent a lifetime building personal relationships with individual legislators by consistently offering them accurate information about my clients bills, writing small personal checks to their re-election campaigns and I have a pretty good track record. I am reminded of a comment Aristotle made about the people to the North of Greece in what is now Europe. He pointed out that they were full of spirit by lacking in intelligence and skill. What do you think?
Hecate says:
Aristotle was always a bit of a snob. As for those barbarians they sure showed Greece and then Rome didn't they?
Insider lobbyists who would rather spend their time talking to each other on the endless round of fundraisers should never underestimate the power any special interest group with the capacity for mobilizing hundreds of people to sing and chant and collect hundreds of signatures. You may find yourself facing them on the other side of an issue one day. Not fun.
I've been a professional lobbyist for over 30 years and I really get annoyed at all these noisey disruptive tactics by some of these new special interest groups that come up to the state house with hundreds of people to sing and chant about an obscure bill that hasn't even had a hearing yet, and then march into the Governor's office with a petition signed by hundreds of folks who probably aren't even registered to vote. Only to turn around at 2:00 in the afternoon and march to their busses and go home. I've spent a lifetime building personal relationships with individual legislators by consistently offering them accurate information about my clients bills, writing small personal checks to their re-election campaigns and I have a pretty good track record. I am reminded of a comment Aristotle made about the people to the North of Greece in what is now Europe. He pointed out that they were full of spirit by lacking in intelligence and skill. What do you think?
Hecate says:
Aristotle was always a bit of a snob. As for those barbarians they sure showed Greece and then Rome didn't they?
Insider lobbyists who would rather spend their time talking to each other on the endless round of fundraisers should never underestimate the power any special interest group with the capacity for mobilizing hundreds of people to sing and chant and collect hundreds of signatures. You may find yourself facing them on the other side of an issue one day. Not fun.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Life Sentence on the Installment Plan
Dear Hecate:
So, the Governor vetoed our little earmark, and now we have to put together yet another lobbying campaign to make sure the veto is taken up and over-ridden. We worked so hard!! What's your advice?
Hecate says:
In Massachusettes, much of the power rests in the office of the Speaker, because a veto message is always returned to the branch in which the bill originated, and the budget bill originated in the House.
In the next couple of weeks, the Speaker will be listening carefully to his own Members, to the Members of the Senate, through the office of the President, and of course to various special interest groups who will all be asking him to take up THEIR vetoed earmarks. After sharing the House priority list with the Senate President to make sure she has the support of her Senate members to over ride the House list and reviewing the Senate President's priority list to make sure he has the support of his House Members to over ride the Senate list, the Speaker and the Senate President will set a fews days before the end of July to take up some of the vetoes, and put off others till the fall. (You have till the end of the calendar year to get your earmark overridden.)
So, your job is to get a critical mass of House Members and Senate Members to add your vetoed earmark to their branch's priority list.
Now when you start your calls you may hear from some the House and Senate sponsors of your earmark that they have talked to the the Governor's office and the Governor has promised your sponsors that he will make sure your program will be funded anyway out of the correct line item or out of some "discretionary" funds.
All you can do is ask your sponsors to get something in writing from the Governor, and if you get it, put it in a safe place and stop asking for the over-ride. If your sponsors tell you that they and you must take the Governor's private word,you still have to stop asking for an over-ride. And start working with the Governor's personal staff and the appropriate Administration officals to tell them in writing that you expect the Governor to keep his private word. You'll find out soon enough whether it's worth anything at all.
So, the Governor vetoed our little earmark, and now we have to put together yet another lobbying campaign to make sure the veto is taken up and over-ridden. We worked so hard!! What's your advice?
Hecate says:
In Massachusettes, much of the power rests in the office of the Speaker, because a veto message is always returned to the branch in which the bill originated, and the budget bill originated in the House.
In the next couple of weeks, the Speaker will be listening carefully to his own Members, to the Members of the Senate, through the office of the President, and of course to various special interest groups who will all be asking him to take up THEIR vetoed earmarks. After sharing the House priority list with the Senate President to make sure she has the support of her Senate members to over ride the House list and reviewing the Senate President's priority list to make sure he has the support of his House Members to over ride the Senate list, the Speaker and the Senate President will set a fews days before the end of July to take up some of the vetoes, and put off others till the fall. (You have till the end of the calendar year to get your earmark overridden.)
So, your job is to get a critical mass of House Members and Senate Members to add your vetoed earmark to their branch's priority list.
Now when you start your calls you may hear from some the House and Senate sponsors of your earmark that they have talked to the the Governor's office and the Governor has promised your sponsors that he will make sure your program will be funded anyway out of the correct line item or out of some "discretionary" funds.
All you can do is ask your sponsors to get something in writing from the Governor, and if you get it, put it in a safe place and stop asking for the over-ride. If your sponsors tell you that they and you must take the Governor's private word,you still have to stop asking for an over-ride. And start working with the Governor's personal staff and the appropriate Administration officals to tell them in writing that you expect the Governor to keep his private word. You'll find out soon enough whether it's worth anything at all.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
She Hangs a Good Wash
Dear Hecate,
I read in my local South Shore paper that Senator Murray said that the so- called "earmarks" in the state budget are necessary because the more experienced Legislature knows more than the new Governor about each line item and where the funds in each should be directed. Sounds pretty disrespectful to me.
Hecate says:
First of all remember that it is the Legislative branch's constitutional right and obligation to appropriate funds for the budget submitted to them by the Administrative branch. And I guess there may be no more than 10 or 12 people in the whole state who know where every dollar in every line item goes and why and while Senator Murray is one of them, the new Governor is not.......yet.
Senator Murray is like the good victorian ladies on washday with worn clothes and limited lines who knew how to hang up the socks and the sheets with the same pins, keep the torn underwear hidden in the middle and hang the new shirts on the side facing the street.
BTW I recall her also saying that she assumed that once this new Governor had been around awhile she might think about giving him a little room to make some of his own spending priorities. Meanwhile as the constitution says, the Governor proposes, the Legislature disposes.
I read in my local South Shore paper that Senator Murray said that the so- called "earmarks" in the state budget are necessary because the more experienced Legislature knows more than the new Governor about each line item and where the funds in each should be directed. Sounds pretty disrespectful to me.
Hecate says:
First of all remember that it is the Legislative branch's constitutional right and obligation to appropriate funds for the budget submitted to them by the Administrative branch. And I guess there may be no more than 10 or 12 people in the whole state who know where every dollar in every line item goes and why and while Senator Murray is one of them, the new Governor is not.......yet.
Senator Murray is like the good victorian ladies on washday with worn clothes and limited lines who knew how to hang up the socks and the sheets with the same pins, keep the torn underwear hidden in the middle and hang the new shirts on the side facing the street.
BTW I recall her also saying that she assumed that once this new Governor had been around awhile she might think about giving him a little room to make some of his own spending priorities. Meanwhile as the constitution says, the Governor proposes, the Legislature disposes.
Saturday, July 07, 2007
Forced to Beg Borrow or Steal
Dear Hecate:
Beg Borrow or Steal. That's what we have to do in our city because of 2 1/2. We beg private foundations and donors to fund our innovative education or job training programs for our youth and then can't raise the necessary funds from the property tax to sustain them. We borrow from our own children's future by not being able to raise the taxes to support smaller classes, early education and afterschool programs. We steal from other city programs like garbage pick upand recycling programs, or pothole repair or senior citizen transportation programs when we tell the Mayor that public education is a higher priority. I'm sick of it. Frankly I think my property tax bill of $2,000 a year is a bargain since it includes education for my 5 kids, a police and fire department, garbage pick up, snow plowing, sewerage disposal and clean water, just to name a few city services we use. I would be happy to pay another $250 a year to know that all the kids in the city had modern text books and fully equiped labs and the garbage was picked up twice a week in my neighborhood.
Hecate says
You have a choice. Get used to it, or do something about it. First of all you are not alone. More and more folks in small towns and big cities are beginning to make the connection between what they pay in taxes and what they get for it. And once they do the consumer in them realizes "What a bargain." Too many candidates for public office run with one leg on a no new taxes platform and the other leg on cleaning up government (better garbage pick up, better snow removal, better schools.)If they win they find themselves split in half because guess what!! Cleaning up government and making the schools and the public works department better and more efficient and effective costs more money and that, folks means more taxes.
Imagine what your city could do if everyone in your city was willing to pay another %10 increase in their property tax.
Beg Borrow or Steal. That's what we have to do in our city because of 2 1/2. We beg private foundations and donors to fund our innovative education or job training programs for our youth and then can't raise the necessary funds from the property tax to sustain them. We borrow from our own children's future by not being able to raise the taxes to support smaller classes, early education and afterschool programs. We steal from other city programs like garbage pick upand recycling programs, or pothole repair or senior citizen transportation programs when we tell the Mayor that public education is a higher priority. I'm sick of it. Frankly I think my property tax bill of $2,000 a year is a bargain since it includes education for my 5 kids, a police and fire department, garbage pick up, snow plowing, sewerage disposal and clean water, just to name a few city services we use. I would be happy to pay another $250 a year to know that all the kids in the city had modern text books and fully equiped labs and the garbage was picked up twice a week in my neighborhood.
Hecate says
You have a choice. Get used to it, or do something about it. First of all you are not alone. More and more folks in small towns and big cities are beginning to make the connection between what they pay in taxes and what they get for it. And once they do the consumer in them realizes "What a bargain." Too many candidates for public office run with one leg on a no new taxes platform and the other leg on cleaning up government (better garbage pick up, better snow removal, better schools.)If they win they find themselves split in half because guess what!! Cleaning up government and making the schools and the public works department better and more efficient and effective costs more money and that, folks means more taxes.
Imagine what your city could do if everyone in your city was willing to pay another %10 increase in their property tax.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Indecision is the backbone of flexability
Dear Hecate,
Our little non profit is trying to come up with a strategy to get our board more involved in educating our legislative delegation about our mission, our programs and our need to get additional funding to adequately pay our direct service staff. Currently our board is debating whether or not to ask for an "earmark" for our program or to work with other programs like ours to support increased funding for us all. The problem of course is that asking for an earmark gets us a tiny bit at the expense of other programs who need the money too, but if you add up the total amount needed for all the programs like ours it comes to over 30 million dollars! And that's just for a little cost of living for the lowest paid workers! Our legislators tell us there is not that kind of money for us in the state budget. We hate this position of being in competition with other worthy programs for limited funds!!! Some of our board members are urging us to take care of ourselves first, others are saying we must work together to get additional funds for programs like ours. And that might mean finding addtional revenue streams for our state government and that might mean taxes and everybody knows that taxes is a political dirty word!! What's your advice?
Hecate says
Let's see your letter is the 4,578th version of the same question since January. At this rate, you people will beat last years stupid question record of 7,1002.
Stop whining and get your board some budget and tax literacy training from ONE Massachusetts. You will find you have only two choices. More taxes or cut your programs. Let them decide whether or not they want to preside over a fully funded quality program or not.
Our little non profit is trying to come up with a strategy to get our board more involved in educating our legislative delegation about our mission, our programs and our need to get additional funding to adequately pay our direct service staff. Currently our board is debating whether or not to ask for an "earmark" for our program or to work with other programs like ours to support increased funding for us all. The problem of course is that asking for an earmark gets us a tiny bit at the expense of other programs who need the money too, but if you add up the total amount needed for all the programs like ours it comes to over 30 million dollars! And that's just for a little cost of living for the lowest paid workers! Our legislators tell us there is not that kind of money for us in the state budget. We hate this position of being in competition with other worthy programs for limited funds!!! Some of our board members are urging us to take care of ourselves first, others are saying we must work together to get additional funds for programs like ours. And that might mean finding addtional revenue streams for our state government and that might mean taxes and everybody knows that taxes is a political dirty word!! What's your advice?
Hecate says
Let's see your letter is the 4,578th version of the same question since January. At this rate, you people will beat last years stupid question record of 7,1002.
Stop whining and get your board some budget and tax literacy training from ONE Massachusetts. You will find you have only two choices. More taxes or cut your programs. Let them decide whether or not they want to preside over a fully funded quality program or not.
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