Howie column ping
Regular joes not swallowing Starbucks spin
By Howie Carr | Sunday, May 4, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com
We’re now in prime season for Proposition 2 1/2 override votes, and this year the cities and towns have a new mantra:
“It’s only a cup of coffee!”
The java argument was even made on Friday in the run-up to the override vote Tuesday in the People’s Republic of Brookline.
A snooty editorial writer for a local newspaper instructed the great unwashed as to how little money the Brookline hacks want to extract from workingmen:
“That difference of $110 a year is less than the cost of a Starbucks coffee per week.” Note where they think everyone buys their coffee: Not at Dunkin’, but Starbucks.
In some towns, even the coffee argument has begun to wear thin. One Hamilton resident wrote a letter to his local paper, citing how that extra cup of coffee every year begins to add up over the decades.
“The citizens,” wrote Warren Gray, “can no longer afford 20 cups of coffee a day!”
Oddly, the public servants never say: OK, we don’t need a raise this year. After all, it’s only a cup of coffee. No, they must have more money - it’s all about “respect.” Westboro teachers want respect. Ditto, Boston firefighters.
The hacks used to say they needed to pick your pockets “for the children.” That’s become a cliche, although in Beverly they’ve tried to work around it. The override is no longer for the children, it’s for “our youngest citizens.”
Barbara Anderson of Citizens for Limited Taxation, the best source for information about these votes, notes a new trend this year: raising the ominous specter of teen crime waves if, say, the high school chess club is eliminated.
“The kids may get lost and turn to destructive behavior,” wrote a woman from Ashland. “The crime threat to all citizens will increase.”
Likewise, Lincoln-Sudbury this year faces an end to civilization as we know it: potential loss of “high school sailing and ski teams.”
What can you say except, “No justice, no peace.”
Out in Tolland the argument is, “Sports and clubs build self-esteem and help kids feel they have a place among their peers.”
Unless, of course, their parents can’t afford the higher taxes and have to sell their “place” and move to a more affordable town.
The pending override votes in Hamilton and Wenham have produced a torrent of scare stories. One Wenham soccer mom whined that she now has to pay $145 for her daughter to be in the jazz band.
“The unseen damage here is that kids . . . won’t try something new.”
Sometimes damage is unseen because there isn’t any. So just in time for the meetings (Wenham’s was yesterday; Hamilton’s tomorrow), this dire headline appeared Friday in the Salem News: “Hamilton-Wenham High School placed on warning: Teacher, class cuts threaten school’s accreditation.”
You don’t say? There haven’t been any cuts at the high school, but some educrats are riding to the rescue of another bunch of layabouts, and just before the town meetings. What a coincidence.
Finally, there’s Newton, Ground Zero of municipal waste, home of the new, palatial $200 million Newton North High School. Voters in the Garden City are in an ugly mood as the Prop 2 1/2 override vote approaches on May 20. But in their literature, Newton’s public-sector taxaholics have their bases covered: “Construction has begun on the new (high school), so voting against the override will not affect whether or not that school is built.”
So there, Newton taxpayers, you’re screwed. Your $200 million is gone - the joke’s on you. And now the greedy hacks at City Hall have taken hostages. Give us more money, or we whack 15 cops and “all four library branches will be closed.”
Hey, they have to do something. It’s the skyrocketing cost of “health insurance.” When that happens in the Dreaded Private Sector, the employees are expected to chip in, too: higher co-pays, less coverage, etc. But we can’t expect municipal workers to tighten their belts. They want . . . respect.
Just remember, it’s only a cup of coffee. At Starbucks.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1091575