Dems have aversion to taxes, especially their own

Boston Herald ^ | 02/03/06 | Howie Carr

[raccoonradio]

Unfortunately, Tom Reilly was explaining yesterday, there were “some issues.”

Marie St. Fleur? Well, “this particular person” is “a wonderful person, an absolutely wonderful person.” As for Chris Gabrieli? “A wonderful, wonderful person.”

But when it comes to politics, well, unfortunately, that’s not my strong suit. Then he said it again, that politics wasn’t his strong suit, and seconds later he circled back around it yet again.

“Clearly,” he said, “it’s not my strong suit.” Strong suit? He’s got no suit at all. The AG has no clothes.

Unfortunately, unfortunately, unfortunately . . .

Most unfortunately of all, at least for the taxpayers, is that Marie St. Fleur, absolutely wonderful person that she is, is not an aberration. The dirty little secret is that a lot of liberal Democrats in Massachusetts have a Leona Helmsley-like attitude about taxes. They think taxes are for the little people.

It’s not just the deadbeat Dorchester Democrat who is allergic to paying up. Whenever you ask any of them to pony up — whether it’s Antonio or Dianne or Colleen or Deval or even Ted K and Yodelin’ John Kerry — they all puff out their chest and ask the same question:

“Do you know who I am?”

Cut the state income tax? They always say, “We can’t afford it.” But when they have an opportunity to throw a little something extra into the pot, they go MIA.

We have a wonderful provision on our state income tax forms. A few years back, when the rates were cut, slightly, from 5.85 percent down to 5.3 percent, the howling in the deadbeat community was deafening. What about . . . the children?

So the solons wrote in a provision allowing any liberal who so desired to pay his income taxes at the old 5.85 percent rate, rather than at the new, mean-spirited, bigoted, not to mention probably homophobic and racist reduced rate of 5.3 percent.

You ask, do any of the liberals ever opt to pay their “fair share?”

Of course not.

Here are the most recent figures from the state Department of Revenue for this tax season.

As of Jan. 27, 147,729 Massachusetts residents had filed their income tax returns. Thirty-one — 31! — opted to pay at the higher rate.

People yesterday were saying how shocked they were that a bust-out like St. Fleur could be the vice chairman of Ways and Means. Why is this surprising? The current chairman, Robert DeLeo, lists his home address as a post office box. A former chairman is under indictment for perjury.

Here’s something that no one has mentioned about St. Fleur. On Jan. 15, 2003, she charged her campaign committee $70 for a fine she paid for blowing through a toll booth without paying a toll. It’s one thing to blow off your income, property and excise taxes, not to mention your gas bills, water bills, and student loans, and bounce checks to the Registry.

“She’s smart, she’s savvy, OK? She’s absolutely fearless.”

I guess Tom was right. Fearless. That’s what you have to be to risk getting bagged for not paying a $1 toll. Either that, or totally crazy.

“She’s worked so hard,” Reilly said, “to get where she’s at.”

Which is where, exactly?

Poor Tom Reilly. He keeps running back to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, the way he did yesterday. Paul Guzzi ought to start worrying about his job security, because it won’t be long before Tom Reilly is looking for another job, and I don’t mean governor. He’s a wonderful person, though.

Howie Carr’s radio show can be heard weekday afternoons on WRKO AM 680, WHYN AM 560, WGAN AM 560, WEIM AM 1280, WXTK 95.1 FM and WTPL 107.7 FM.

[raccoonradio]

The Pundit Review guys (WRKO, Sunday nights) with their own take on it.

http://www.punditreview.com/2006/02/01/tom-reilly-is-toast/