Michael J. Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, echoed the sentiment. "This is another pension excess that is causing increasing outrage to taxpayers," he said. "You have these thousands of employees who earn legitimate pensions and then these kinds of abuses undercut support for the entire system.
MTF President Michael Widmer says retailers weren't hit as bad in the previous recession because home prices were rising quickly, and consumers could tap into that newfound wealth. Of course, that's not the case today, with local home prices suffering percentage declines in the double digits since their peak nearly three years ago.
"There will be winners and losers, and it will be very complicated trying to figure it out for a given community" because of the convoluted formulas used to determine aid, said Michael J. Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a nonprofit budget watchdog.
