Barbara Anderson Leaves Lasting Legacy for Taxpayers

Boston Magazine ^ | April 11, 2016 | Garrett Quinn

[OddLane]

If you’re not sure who Barbara Anderson was, you might offer up a little thanks to her while you’re filing your taxes. The longtime taxpayer advocate spent decades fighting to make life easier for the state’s overburdened taxpayers, saving them huge amounts on their tax bills over the years with a series of ballot questions that successfully challenged Beacon Hill’s taxation polices.Her longtime opponent and friend, Jim Braude, described her as a force of nature that will never be seen again in Massachusetts politics. She died on Friday at 73 of leukemia.

Since stumbling into taxpayer advocacy in 1977 as a volunteer for Citizens for Limited Taxation (she eventually became the group’s executive director), Anderson dedicated herself to holding elected officials accountable when it came to taxes.

In 1980, with property taxes out of control and an anti-tax wave sweeping the country, Anderson passed her crowning achievement: Proposition 2 ½. The landmark initiative dramatically changed how Massachusetts municipalities approached property taxes by forcing elected officials to go to the voters if they sought an increase over 2.5 percent. Proposition 2 1/2 overrides are now permanent fixtures in Massachusetts policy making.

[OddLane]

The twice-divorced mother of one was not the prototypical wealthy libertarian Wall Street type. Anderson was a Penn State dropout who lived in a simple home filled with political memorabilia and New Age knickknacks on a quiet side street in Marblehead.

A chapter in WBZ political reporter Jon Keller’s book, The Bluest State, recalls an incident when angry liberal activists marched on her home and were shocked to find her living in modest abode instead of some lavish mansion.

[LongWayHome]

Great friend of the taxpayer & a great lady who I had the pleasure to know & work with on occasion.

[OddLane]

BTTT.

[mowowie]

Barbara Anderson is one of my local hero’s.
Barbara was a true Warrior.
RIP Ms. Anderson

[MSF BU]

A class act and a conservative doer who was instrumental in making the Bay State a better place to live. Along with David Brudnoy, Avi Nelson & Howie Carr she was a voice of sanity on the airwaves in the seventies and eighties.

[OddLane]

Brudnoy and Carr are great, as well as Don Feder-who’s probably my favorite political columnist, aside from Joe Sobran.

[MSF BU]

Agreed, Nelson was the smartest in my opinion; he had quite a few irons in the fire. It was a shame he wasn’t elected Senator, he’d have been far more effective than Tsongas and a great contrast to Kennedy.