Good government, bad politics

On the legislature's consensus budget:

“Until I can comment thoughtfully and with some study, I’m going to withhold comment,’’ [Gov. Deval] Patrick told reporters yesterday.

But let's call it what it is: an austerity budget with some but probably not enough good reforms.

Gov. Patrick's message on the gas tax

There's a lot of meat here missing from the Globe's story. I particularly value the breakdown of where Deval proposes to spend the revenue:

• 4 cents to roll back the toll increase on the Turnpike and Tunnels;
• 6 cents to maintain existing MBTA services, and avoid fare increases over the next few years;
• 1.5 cents to Regional Transit Authorities;
• 1.5 cents to targeted regional road projects;
• 3 cents to southern, western and northern rail projects;
• 1 cent for innovative gas and toll solutions;
• And 2 cents to begin to stop the costly practice of paying for transportation personnel from capital funds

There's also a portal to the Patrick administration's transportation plans here.

By the way, if that 1 cent for "innovative gas and toll solutions" is for GPS-surveilled mileage taxes, I'm still against that part of the plan.

Light dawns on Marble-head

Mine, that is. How could I have missed something so blindingly obvious and simple!

What the wingnuts mean by the word socialism is one thing: taxes. It doesn't go any deeper than that into theories of economic organization, though some of them may allude to some fragment of something they once heard about.

My evidence: the tantrums pitched in commentary on this story of Deval Patrick's proposed 19 cent per gallon increase in the gas tax. The frothing rabid conservatives don't want their lifestyles to change, but they want to drive on roads that are smooth, well-marked, and plowed in winter. Paying for it? That would be evil socialism.

Most of them have an emotional age below three years.