In The News: Municipal

Michael Widmer, director of the Massachusetts Taxpayer Association and a Question 1 opponent, said ballot questions give too much power to special interest groups. Because voters vote with a simple yes or no, ballot questions often oversimplify issues and leave no room for compromise, Widmer said.

Health insurance costs for city and town employees increased 63 percent between 2001 through 2005, according to a 2005 survey by the Massachusetts Municipal Association and the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. The figure was nearly double the state's annual increase in health costs.

MA Taxpayers Foundation's Michael Widmer says people need to learn how to deal with the upcoming round of cuts, wherever they hit, because it's not the last time we're going to hear it.

"It's going to be a triple whammy," said Michael Widmer, executive director of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. "Homeowners will see their property taxes go up, the value of their homes go down and their services will be cut."

Indeed, it would help - enormously. In Newburyport, Mayor John Moak estimated it could have saved taxpayers about $500,000 a year. Statewide, if every municipality had joined the GIC, they could have collectively saved $100 million this year, according to a report by the Boston Municipal Research Bureau and the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

Massachusetts cities and towns could have saved as much as $100 million this year, $750 million in fiscal 2013 and $2.5 billion in fiscal year 2018 if they all joined the GIC this year, according to a report jointly released in August 2007 by the Boston Municipal Research Bureau and the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.

Michael Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation said the lottery has virtually escaped the tough scrutiny endured by other state agencies because it is considered a source of revenue, rather than an expense like most other state departments. Widmer, like Tuerck, thinks that should change.

"To make a dent in the problem would be hard to do without going to local aid," Widmer said. "I think the numbers are shocking, but the global economic calamity is taking everything in its wake."

Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said that while it is appropriate to give stipends to elected board members while they are in office, benefits should end when they leave.

Michael Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation said the new holiday sends the wrong message in a struggling economy. "Cities and towns will almost certainly see cuts in state aid and they need to reduce expenditures, not add new benefits," he said.