Matt Patrick's Blog

First of many endorsements for Rep. Matt Patrick

Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters Endorses Rep Matt Patrick
MLEV Cites Patrick's Strong Commitment to Renewable Energy

The Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters (MLEV), the non-partisan political voice for the environment, announced its endorsement of Representative Matthew Patrick for re-election in the third Barnstable House race today, citing his strong commitment to environmental issues that affect both the commonwealth and the Cape. Matt id shoen below with former Governor and Presidential candidate Mike Dukaklis.

"MLEV is proud to endorse Matthew Patrick for reelection, a representative who understands the need to leave our children a healthy world," said MLEV Executive Director Lora Wondolowski.  "We need to keep environmental champions like Matt on Beacon Hill."

In his MLEV questionnaire, Patrick cited increasing energy efficiency and providing tax incentives to citizens for using renewable energy as his top environmental priorities.  Rep. Matthew Patrick is also committed to promoting alternative energy that will spur economic growth in the Commonwealth and conserve resources. In the 2006 MLEV Environmental Scorecard, Rep. Patrick received a 99, a near perfect score.

"This endorsement from the Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters carries a great deal of weight in the world of environmental advocacy and I'm grateful to receive it," replied Rep. Patrick.  "Energy and the environment are key issues for me, and they closely examine each candidates' credentials so I appreciate their seal of approval very much."

For information on all MLEV's 2008 endorsed candidates, go here.

Join us for a fun Labor Day Fundraiser!

The Committee to Elect Matt Patrick invites you to a fundraiser to celebrate Labor Day and the working men and women of our local unions.

Come join Representative Matt Patrick and his labor friends for good talk, good humor and good food!  Admission includes a picnic lunch of chowder, salad, hamburgers and hot dogs, corn on the cob, cake and watermelon with a cash bar.

Date:  Labor Day, Monday, September 1st, 2008, RSVP by August 28th.

Time:  12pm, noon

Place:  Navigator, 55 Ashumet Rd., East Falmouth (Portuguese American Club, corner of Sandwich and Ashumet Rd., nearer to Rte. 151)

Admission:  $50 per person, children free. 

If you can't make it, and still would like to contribute, send a check to:

C.T.E. Matt Patrick
POB 3252
Waquoit, MA 02536-3252

State law requires us to use our best efforts to collect and report the name, mailing address, occupation and name of employer of individuals whose contributions are $200 or more in an election cycle.  Political contributions are not tax deductible.  Questions, call 508-540-6308.

Paid for by the Committee to Elect Matt Patrick, Ken Braga, Treasurer, POB 3252, Waquoit, 02536

Thoughts on flag day and a yes for the Peace Rock

 Dear Mr. Chairman,

"The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country." Robert F. Kennedy

I had a thought provoking experience at Flag Day ceremony in Mashpee.  I was reminded about how my father, a combat veteran of WWII, felt about war.  A colleague read a poem about the flag that talked.  It talked almost exclusively about the blood and glory of war.  It spoke of being in every battle in the last 200 years and using its torn pieces to staunch the bleeding of the wounded on the battle field.  It is a moving piece appealing to our nationalistic instincts.  It never asks us to examine what the flag represents.

"No normal man who has smelled and associated with death ever wants to see any more of it..." - Bill MauldinI spoke next and reminded people it's not the flag itself but what it represents that is important.  It's the Constitution.  Without our Constitution, the flag just represents a place.  It could be a flag from any nation.  What makes our flag special is that it represents our Nation that is backed up by our Constitution.  The Constitution protects our democratic way of life.  It protects us from the tyranny of the government and the tyranny of the majority. All of our officers in the armed services swear to up hold the Constitution as do all of our state and federal legislators.  My dad warned me never to forget that it is the Constitution that makes this Nation great.

As a youngster, I was always curious about the war.  He discouraged me but I couldn't help admiring soldiers and loved to watch all the old WWII movies that, for the most part, glorified war.  Those movies never showed the awful and unavoidable brutality of war that deeply affected my dad and every other combat veteran.  In his later years, at my urging, my father was able to relate more of his war experiences.  They were truly gut wrenching.  The one movie my father said came close to a realistic picture of the brutality of war was in the opening scenes of D-Day in "Saving Private Ryan."  He said they were very accurate and he couldn't watch much of it.  My dad has passed on now but I can tell you that the war deeply and negatively impacted his life.

I wanted to know more about war so I read many books about it. To me the most important of the books were written by combat veterans.  "With the Old Breed, From Peleliu to Okinawa" by E.B. Sledge gave the most realistic accounts of what it is like to be in battle.  I also read the official history of my father's outfit the 27^th New York National Guard Division by Edmund Love which gives a heart rending account of how horribly wrong war can go and how mistakes by our own side destroyed many American lives on the Island of Saipan.  It's a story that should get more publicity someday.

Private Sledge wrote about the same battles my father was in using his diary written a few weeks after the battles.  The Marine divisions in the Pacific experienced 80% casualties.  The 27^th Division had more than 60% casualties.   Those numbers are not widely acknowledged in our memories of WWII.  From these extensive readings and talking to other combat veterans I began to realize what my father experienced.

I think Bill Mauldin gave the best account of how combat veterans felt about the war in his book "Up Front." Bill was the cartoonist that gave us the sometimes sad lives of two G.I.'s, Willy and Joe. Mauldin said, "No normal man who has smelled and associated with death ever wants to see any more of it.  In fact, the only men who are even going to want to bloody noses in a fist fight after this war will be those who want people to think they were tough combat men, when they weren't.  The surest way to become a pacifist is to join the infantry."

War cuts short the youth of our children, because that is what they are at 18 when they are recruited for war - children.  My father said that when he got back after two years at war, he couldn't even smile.  "It was like I had a mouth full of marbles," he said.   And he was a survivor, physically in good shape but mentally, scarred.  Combat affects some veterans worse than others, but it does some psychological damage to all of them.

In my opinion, the worse crime an elected official can commit is fabricating reasons for war.  War calls on our children to kill and be killed in our name.  In order to maintain their sanity they must believe what they are doing is right.  To find out otherwise is to know that they have been manipulated and exploited by their leaders of their Nation.  Imagine how you would feel.  You give the very essence of your being for the highest ideals of our Nation and then you find out you were misled.  

For these reasons and many more, I respectfully request that the Falmouth Board of Selectmen give permission for the Peace Rock to be installed at Peg Noonan Park.  It can remind us of how our children - their lives, their youth and their mental and physical health are the sacrifices made to war.  Hopefully, it will help us remember that we should only enter into war in defense or our Nation, our Constitution or to defend those who are defenseless.

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Matt responds to right wing blogger's B.S., Draws ire

Red States, Blue States, these are Our States

It seems like I raised the hackles of a real live right wing blogger. That's probably not too hard for any of you to believe.  For the record, I disagreed with what the blogger wrote about our Democratic candidate for President. The blogger used the ususal right wing tactic to divert the focus from my original comment and implied that I dislike southerners but I have no dislike for southerners.  I wonder how they can vote for the people who have ruled their state houses for quite a long time and I think the facts speak for themselves. The product of right wing anti tax, anti government philosophy can be seen in the southern states.  The blogger didn't like that I called him on it.  But ask yourself, where would you rather live?

This is what the right winger said,"Last week Barack Obama once again stepped out of the shadow of his own selfless rhetoric and into the spotlight of his own personal sunshine revealing himself to be exactly what many of us believed him to be long ago; an arrogant, naïve, snob, with Marxist leanings who attempts to hide his sense of personal entitlement and suppresses his militant views behind his flowery speeches." We are going to see more and more of this right wing propaganda and if you are a Democrat you should respond to let them and everyone else on the list know that it is foolishness.

I've listed some of the statistics where the Red States lead in human misery catagoriesI've listed some of the statistics where the Red States lead in human misery catagories and yes I did check on the statistics to make sure they are real and all can be found in U.S. Census Data or are derived from U.S. Census Data.

James Wolcott had an excellent article in the November 2006 issue of Vanity Fair entitled, "Red State Babylon" in which he discusses the findings of several books and studies that compare the red states to the blue states in quality of life statistics and morality issues. Of the top ten states with the highest divorce rates and the highest rates of illegitimacy all but one are red states. None are northeastern states. You remember when the former Senator from Pennsylvania made derogatory comments about the liberals in Massachusetts leading to the moral decay of the nation and pedophile priests in the Catholic Church. Well guess what, Massachusetts leads in the other direction having one of the lowest divorce rates in the nation and lowest rates of unwed mothers including teenage mothers.

Other categories of interest are incarceration rates for men and women. Again all but one of the leadings states in incarceration are red states. The states with the highest number of executions are all red states. The top fifteen states with the most deaths by firearms are all red states. Fourteen of the top fifteen states with the highest rates of suicide are red states.

Of the ten states with the highest rates of education, eight are blue statesOf the ten states with the highest rates of education, eight are blue states and New England States claim four of the top five rankings with Massachusetts coming in third. In terms of health all but one of the top fifteen states with the highest rates of obesity are red states. The level of obesity in a population is an indicator of overall health.

What is the difference between the blue states and the red states? Well, for one we pay more taxes to have better schools, public services and human services.

The claim of the conservative anti-government anti-tax politicians that have now ruled the red states for several decades is that their strategy is better than the liberal strategy of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Their basic philosophy goes something like this, keep taxes low and provide minimal human services. Make welfare benefits hard to get. This will encourage responsible and productive citizens and let the private sector do as much as possible. There is little concern for individuals or families falling on times of bad luck due to birth, health or education.

It seems to me that their philosophy is in reality a stark failure when compared to the blue states who take a more humanistic and practical view of their fellow citizens. We are more likely to give our fellow citizens a hand up out of difficulties that we all know can occur to anyone of us at any time. On top of all this when you compare our total taxes as a percentage of our income to the total taxes of the fifty other states, we are ranked 36th in tax burden, lower than some of the red states.

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Comments to MMS at Cape Wind Hearing 3/10/08

Ratepayers are paying $9 million a month to keep the Canal plant running at about 17% of its capacity
And we don't even need its electricity

I am State Representative Matthew Patrick of the Third Barnstable District.  I am a long time member of the Legislature's Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy Committee and I have volunteered many years to environmental causes on Cape Cod.  

Before joining the legislature I was the Executive Director of Self-Reliance, the non-profit energy advocacy and research organization for 15 years.  I led the successful effort to save the Quashnet River Valley from imminent development and was co-chair of the campaign to pass the Cape Cod Commission Act. 

Tonight, I'm offering some new information that you should consider.

1. Based on information I have received as a member of the Energy Committee, it is my opinion that it is likely that the Canal Power plant will be shut off most of the year if the Cape Wind Project is built and a peak load shedding program is implemented.

2. For a little more than a year the Canal Power Plant has been kept running only because of a transmission restriction in southeastern Massachusetts. If not for this transmission restriction the Canal Power Plant would be shut off most of the year because it could not compete due to the high price of oil.

3. Southeastern Massachusetts ratepayers are now paying $9 million a month to keep the Canal plant running at about 17% of its capacity and we don't even need its electricity.

4. The National Electric Reliability Council (NERC) requirements call for operating the system to protect for loss of two major transmission lines within a 30 minute period. Keeping the Canal Power Plant running satisfies the requirement. NStar is starting a Department of Public Utilities proceeding to install system upgrades that will improve but not fully relieve the problem.

5. I, along with any colleague that cares to join me, will ask that Independent Service Operator of New England (ISO) and the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (MDPU) to waive the requirement to run the Canal Power Plant in off peak hours and instead implement a load shedding program after the short term upgrade is completed. NERC standards do allow for load shedding in the event there is a two line loss.

6. The added generation of Cape Wind coupled with a peak load shedding program would greatly assist in relieving the need to keep the Canal Power Plant running except for extreme peak load requirements.

7. Wind monitoring in Nantucket Sound during summer peak hour usage shows that there have been strong winds that would compliment the high demand load profile of the Cape and Islands.

Thank you for considering my testimony.

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Response to Senator Kennedy, Unabridged

Proud Liberal & ardent Kennedy supporter 

First, let me say that as a proud liberal, I am and have been an ardent supporter of Senator Kennedy and his initiatives of social and economic justice and one of his more vocal supporters. 

However, on the issue of siting Cape Wind, I believe he has, understandably, made a decision based on emotional attachments to the place and not to the facts.  It is obvious that Senator Kennedy relied on others for his information on the wind farm and he has not read the state approved Environmental Impact Report.  The one thing I have learned from the past five years as an early, qualified supporter of Cape Wind is that it is difficult if not impossible to debate an emotionally justified argument.

I'll tell you a story... 

As an illustration to this emotionalism, I'll tell you a story about the State Senate hearing on Global Warming at the Cape Cod Community College last Thursday which I attended.  Senators O'Leary and the Chairman Senator Pacheco opened the hearing and asked me to join them on the panel.  We listened to roughly three hours of testimony from various experts on how global warming was affecting us today and how it will only get much worse in the next fifty years;

• Coastal habitat will be destroyed,
  
• towns flooded during hurricanes at high tide,
  
• entire species of shore birds and commercial shell fish will become extinct,
  
• Massachusetts' climate will be more like South Carolina than New England,
  
• the ocean will become too acidic to support the base of the food chain,
  
• and diseases will spread.

And yet, an older gentleman from Craigville got up and made almost the exact same argument that Kennedy made in his column.  He said, while global warming is a moral issue, he wouldn't put wind turbines up at the Grand Canyon; it's not just the rich coastal property owners that don't want Cape Wind; commercial fishermen oppose it; navigation will be hindered;  use of public land for commercial use and capped it all off by saying deepwater wind is just on the horizon so let's not act hastily.

We have traced carbon dioxide levels in ice cores going back 650,000 years in the Arctic and 600 years in Greenland and the levels of CO2 have never been so high and have doubled from just before the industrial age when we began burning coal.Was the man listening? Global warming  is real.

His speech shocked me.  Did the man hear what I had just heard?  Did he believe the scientists and environmentalists were wrong?  Does he not see that Cape Wind is one of the most important things this nation can do to say to the rest of the world we are serious about global warming and we are willing to make some sacrifices to combat it? 

The European Union has targeted an 80 percent reduction in green house gasses.  They have banned the use of neck ties during their summer meetings so they can reduce their air conditioning loads and we are still quibbling about the visual effect of a project six miles out to sea that will be barely visible most of the year. 

Make no mistake, global warming is real.  We have traced carbon dioxide levels in ice cores going back 650,000 years in the Arctic and 600 years in Greenland and the levels of CO2 have never been so high and have doubled from just before the industrial age when we began burning coal.

The Alliance with several of its staff earning over $100,000 each, its millionaire board of directors and unlimited legal budget would not exist here on Cape Cod without willingness of its well-to-do membership to donate over $20 million dollars to date. The People, YES. The Alliance, NO. 

Let's examine the, "not just the rich shore front property owners" argument.  The Alliance to Save Nantucket Sound, with several of its staff earning over $100,000 each, its millionaire board of directors and unlimited legal budget would not exist here on Cape Cod without willingness of its well-to-do membership to donate over $20 million dollars to date.  I know of no other non-profit environmental organization with the ability to raise such astronomical amounts of money so quickly to support such an expensive organization.  They are able to go to file a brief in an instant, maintain a constant barrage of newsletters, ads and public relations campaign with their money.  In spite of all the propaganda money can buy they are losing because their argument is intellectually and morally bankrupt.  It relies on emotionally charged language that is devoid of scientifically based fact.

Nantucket Sound is not pristine.  3 million ferry passengers empty their waste in it every year.Alliance founder and Grand Canyon pollution 

The Grand Canyon has some of the worst air pollution in the West and one of the major contributors of that pollution comes courtesy of one of the Alliance founders and current board member, Osterville resident Doug Yearly, the former CEO of Phelps Dodge the copper smelter and biggest polluter in the southwest.  The canyon could use some turbines to help offset the air pollution.

Nantucket Sound is not pristine.  The three million passengers on the ferry boats empty their septic waste in it all year long.  The thousands of boats and planes that travel in our above the sound leave their fossil fuel footprint like every car, truck, power plant and factory does via air pollution.  The sound has been "industrialized" for a long time.  We have leased public land for polluting and profit making for our entire history.  We let private companies mine for coal, minerals, oil and natural gas.  We have let our land be grazed and lumbered for centuries. 

At least Cape Wind will provide us with a substantial amount of clean, nonpolluting renewable electricity along with excellent high-tech jobs and clean air.  As a long time member of the Telecommunications, Utility and Energy Committee I have recently heard testimony that has led me to believe that if Cape Wind had been built, the Canal power plant, one of the five most polluting power plants in the Commonwealth, would have been shut down.  It's currently only operating at 17 percent capacity because while it couldn't compete otherwise, the Independent Service Operator for New England, has allowed it to operate because we don't have adequate transmission lines from the north.  Consumers in southeastern Massachusetts are stuck with an $8 million dollar month bill.  My guess is that if Cape wind had not been delayed all these years the Canal Power plant would not be costing us $96 million dollars each year to keep it running.

Ferries find their way into Hyannis and Woods Hole in zero visibility conditions all the time in much narrower channels than the distance between the turbines.I've read the study commissioned by the Fisherman's Partnership and it is not specific about where boats fish, on Horseshoe Shoal or in Nantucket Sound.  What's obvious is that they can't drag over shallow areas like Horseshoe Shoal unless they want to risk losing their gear and that's probably why the shoal is a haven for fish.  The wind farm installation will only pose a temporary disruption to the fish in the area.  The turbines will be spaced ½ to 3/4 of a mile apart so sports fishing boats and sailing boats will have ample room to maneuver between them.  Sadly, the cod stocks native to Nantucket Sound were depleted beyond restoration years ago.  Over fishing and global warming will make it impossible for many commercially important fish to rebound.

Navigational concerns are overblown.  Ferry boats have to find their way into Hyannis and Woods Hole harbors in zero visibility conditions all the time and in much narrower channels than the distance between the turbines.  They do this with the aid of modern navigational equipment.  The turbines would be just one more navigational aid.  Airplane pilots usually avoid flying at minimum height restrictions for good reason.  In a fog there is no reason to fly low they must rely on radar and navigational instruments to get to their destinations just like the ferry boats.

The US Congress provides production tax credits to encourage the private sector to invest their money in energy sources that provide a public benefit without pollution.  Wind turbines are the most cost effective way to do that and there is no public risk involved.  If the developer can't get someone to contract for the power he's going to produce and he can't demonstrate a positive cash flow to his investors, they won't invest in the project and it won't get built.  Our own local record as towns at installing wind turbines does not inspire confidence in meeting the need for new renewable electricity to fight global warming.  Without state assistance it would be non-existent.  Government could invest in wind farms but we can barely figure out how to adequately finance basic human needs like housing, health care and education.

Senator Kennedy may not have participated but a serious and very public discussion has been occurring over the past six years and Cape Wind is stronger than ever in spite of one of the most expensive privately financed misinformation campaigns in history.  No fossil fuel power plant has taken six years to permit in the Commonwealth's history.  How many times can you respond to the misinformation before the Alliance stops and admits they were wrong.  The answer is forever because they are not interested in getting to the truth but in perpetuating the mistruths until they kill the Cape Wind project.

Are deepwater wind turbines a near term viable alternative to Cape Wind?  If it were you would think there would be a developer submitting an application to build a wind farm.  They aren't there now and they won't be there because deepwater technology is not economically viable and won't be for decades if ever.

The benefits of Cape wind are good paying jobs, stable, lower electrical rates for the long term, cleaner, healthier air for all to breathe and a significant reduction in green house gasThe fight against global warming requires real leadership and real sacrifices if we are ever going to do our part to reverse global warming.  So far, U.S. leadership has been missing where it matters most, at ground zero.  Senator Kennedy provided leadership in his early opposition to the Iraq war, now he should provide leadership to make it unnecessary for our service men and women to be anywhere in the Mideast ever again.  He has missed an opportunity in his own back yard.

The benefits of Cape wind are good paying jobs, stable, lower electrical rates for the long term, cleaner, healthier air for all to breathe and a significant reduction in green house gas.  What's the sacrifice?  A less pleasurable view from the veranda of a fortunate few may be the biggest obstacle to this project.  But from my view, wind turbines are one of the most beautiful of man's creations representing a solid commitment to combating what is the world's most pressing problem now and for future generations.

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Corporate Tax Scandal in Massachusetts

Bay State still rife with tax loopholes for business
Corporate executives don't want you to know the facts

Many corporate executives and their lobbyists tell us there are no corporate tax loopholes in Massachusetts.  They want you to think that the Governor is proposing new taxes that will burden businesses and stunt our economic recovery.  Like Grover Norquist, the head of the conservative Americans for Tax Reform, who says, "The so-called "loopholes" the governor seeks to close look more like a noose around the neck of the Bay State's economy." Grover is the same guy who said, "I don't want to abolish government.  I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."  Corporate executives don't want you to know the facts.

A thousand which earned over $100M paid minimum $456 in 2001 

For example, according to Massachusetts Department of Revenue, in 2001 there were eleven hundred (1,100) corporations in the Commonwealth that grossed more than one hundred million dollars annually and paid the minimum corporate tax of $456.00.  That's less tax than a family earning $50,000 a year will pay in state taxes.  How do they do it?  The corporations create subsidiaries in Delaware or countries that charge no corporate taxes and assign all their profits to those places.  Another fact is we would be joining New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and fifteen other states.  It's been proposed this year in New York, Pennsylvania and Iowa.  This one loop hole costs state taxpayers about $200 million each year.

You probably pay more in state taxes than many giant corporations 

Why do the hard working people of the Commonwealth pay more in taxes than 1,100 corporations that gross over one hundred million each year?  Is it fair to the people who live paycheck to paycheck: the retail store clerk, the mason, plumber, electrician, laborer, the farmer, the fisherman or carpenter?  Is it fair to the nursing home assistant that keeps the elderly and infirm clean and fed every day?  Is it fair to the janitors and chamber maids who are just barely scraping by on minimum wage?  Is it fair to the small business man or women? 

Nobody likes paying taxes but taxes are the dues we pay to live in a civil society.  We all recognize that if we don't pay our fair share the fire, police, schools, roads, courts and everything else that makes Massachusetts a great place to live and raise children (more on that later) will simply cease to exist. 

Yet we all lose confidence in our government when we find out that the richest corporations don't pay their fair share.  While most of the working people in the Commonwealth struggle to make ends meet these corporations are shirking their responsibilities but not all corporations are tax cheats.

Some like Merck set a proud example 

A few responsible corporations pay a larger burden than their competitors. The Merck Pharmaceutical Company pays 32% of its profit in state income tax.  Phizer, a drug company of similar size, only pays 4%. If nothing else we should level the playing field for all corporations by making the laws less ambiguous and more consistent with the IRS and other states.  Many of these companies are also evading their Federal corporate income taxes.  Why shouldn't Merck do the same thing?

Remember, every time a person or corporation cheats on their taxes they put more of a burden on all of us who pay taxes through our wages.  During this time of war could you call these corporations patriotic?  Would they be as profitable in another country without the safety and infrastructure that we provide?  Do they still expect us to protect them and their commerce throughout the world with the lives of our service men and women and the trillion dollars it's going to cost before the war in Iraq is over?  You better believe they do.  American soldiers since the beginning of our nation have laid down their lives to protect us, including our corporations. 

Corporations expect to use our infrastructure that has been built with hard earned tax dollars throughout the decades and must be rebuilt over time.  They use our roads, airports, seaports, courts and our laws to protect their property.  All this costs money. Who do they think will pay for those expenses?  Apparently they don't care as long as it isn't them.

It is our children who suffer 

There is a new study book out by Michael Petit entitled, "Homeland Insecurity, American Children at Risk" in which he confronts the anti government anti tax rhetoric of some politicians.  Petit uses government statistics to show that in the states where the anti government and anti tax politics prevail, children have suffered.  Those happen to be the red states.  The ten worst states for kids are Wyoming, Georgia, Arkansas, Alabama, South Carolina, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana and Mississippi.  All of them are red based on the 2004 election.  Of the ten best states for children, nine of them are blue states, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota, Washington, New Jersey and Wisconsin.  Iowa was the only red state to make it into the top ten.  What do all the better states have in common?  They pay more in taxes.  Petit says, "...compassionate conservatism is a contradiction in terms."

First of all, I'm proud that Massachusetts ranks fourth best in the nation for kids.  Secondly, I know it can be better and we would have much more money to spend on our children if corporations paid their taxes.  Two hundred million added together with the other corporate loop hole closings totals over $500 million a year in avoided corporate tax responsibilities.

If you aren't angry after reading this you should read, "Perfectly Legal," by David Cay Johnston.  It's about how the Federal tax system has been turned upside down by the political donor class.  It's now much more likely for a person living in poverty to get an IRS audit than it is for a corporation or a multi millionaire. 

But don't just get angry, do something about it.  Call, write or email your state and Federal legislators as soon as possible.  Let them know that you want them to shut down corporate loop holes.

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New Legislation for 2007-2008 term

A list of the legislation I have filed for the 2007-08 legislation session today. 

Several of my bills focus on the immediate need for the state to reduce its consumption of energy.  I also filed legislation to restrict the use of ATV's by children, to educate and test Massachusetts National Guard troops on the dangers of depleted uranium and to create a funding source for education and the prevention of domestic violence.

I am one of the chief sponsors  of the Energy, Climate and Economic Security Act  along with Rep. James Marzilli of Arlington; an  omnibus bill that addresses more than twenty major energy policies covering utilities, transportation and buildings. It emphasizes the use of energy efficiency and renewables to meet new growth in the demand for electricity, gas and oil. It includes language that will remove the state statutory barriers that reduce the ability of our cities and towns to implement new energy projects and it provides them with new funding.

This office has also written new legislation to increase safety measures for young riders of ATV's.   The legislation promotes supervision of riders by their guardians and/or parents and requires training for children under 18.  Registration of ATV's and dirt bikes will be required to increase the ability of law enforcement to track stolen ATV/dirt bikes and to prosecute offenders.

In addition we are filing legislation that establishes a Trust Fund for the Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence to be funded by restoring $ 20.00 to the cost of a marriage license.  The marriage license fee was recently reduced to $4.00.

I am also the chief sponsor of legislation that requires the testing and education of our National Guard Troops regarding the danger of depleted uranium (DU).  DU is a very affective armor piercing shell used by our troops.  The problem is that after a DU shell is fired it burns through armor and creates highly radioactive ash.  The radioactive ash can is inhaled by anyone down wind or adjacent to the destroyed target.  Once in the lungs, it remains in the body for years causing illnesses related to radiation poisoning.  Infant children of those who have breathed in the dust are often born with deformities typical of radioactive poisoning.  The ash is dangerous not only to our troops but also to the children and people who play upon or live around the destroyed vehicles.   

Finally, we have filed a legislative initiative to change the Constitution to increase the income tax by one percent.  The revenues generated can only be used for educational purposes.  To qualify to receive the funding a municipality will have to vote to reduce their property taxes dedicated to education.  If the amendment passes the legislative process it will go onto the ballot as a referendum question in a state wide election.

A complete summary of Rep. Patrick's legislation is available on his web site.

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Protecting the Constitution

 You knew it was coming.  Somehow the religious right was going to turn it around and make the legislators who stood up to protect the Constitution the destroyers of it.  They used politics of fear to further confuse and divide us.  There was Romney telling us how he was going to file a case before the Supreme Judicial Court demanding that we obey our Constitution and vote to put a question on the ballot that will eliminate the civil rights for a minority as determined by the same court.  The giant flag hung on the historic State House as his backdrop with the throngs of ordinary citizens beaming their admiration his way.  The opponents of gay marriage are quick to remind us that it isn't about gay marriage, it's about protecting the Constitution.  Well that goes double for me.

Had anyone thought to tell his excellency that the world has not come to an end since gay marriage was allowed?  I'm sure he knows this but it doesn't matter - he's running for president as a Republican from a very liberal state.  If Romney was not running for president do you think he would be doing this?  I know one thing - the scene in front of the State House will make a great backdrop for a television ad that will definitely play in the conservative states.  He is so shamelessly transparent it's embarrassing.

The primary purpose of the Constitution is to protect civil rights of all individuals and minorities against the potential for the majority to eliminate those rights in a democratic vote.  This was a major concern for John Adams and the rest of the drafters of the Constitution.  They realized the majority is not always right and they could be just as cruel as any monarch or dictator.  The Constitution states in Article CVI. "Article 1 of Part the First of the Constitution is hereby annulled and the following is adopted:  All people are born free and equal and have certain natural, essential and unalienable rights; among which may be reckoned the right of enjoying and defending their lives and liberties; that of acquiring, possessing and protecting property; in fine, that of seeking and obtaining their safety and happiness.  Equality under the law shall not be denied or abridged because f sex, race, color, creed or national origin."  This is what the Supreme Judicial Court used as a basis for its decision on gay marriage and that is their role in the system of checks and balances between the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government.

It is true that our Constitution gives people the right to change the Constitution through an initiative petition but we have never used it to take established civil rights away from a minority and we never should.  I don't think the drafters of the initiative language ever intended it would be used to strip away civil rights so they gave the legislature ample opportunity to amend or stop the initiatives. 

There is precedent for the action recently taken by the joint session to keep the question off the ballot.  Since 1919 when the initiative process went into effect, there have been nine initiative petitions.  Only three made it to the ballot.  Five of the citizen initiatives were stopped by adjournment.

Furthermore, the opponents of gay marriage are purposely misleading the public on the meaning of "shall vote" in the Constitution.  The full language under:  IV. Legislative Action of Proposed Constitutional Amendments, Section 4. Legislative Action, states, "Final legislative action in the joint session upon any amendment shall be taken only by a call of the yeas and nays, which shall be entered upon the journals of the two houses;..."  What this means is that all votes must be recorded roll call votes.  Voice votes are not permitted.  It doesn't mean that the legislature must vote on every initiative.  This has been tested in courts. 

The Supreme Judicial Court has ruled that that the Legislature cannot be forced to vote on initiative petitions.  Opinion of the Justices, 334 Mass 745, 757 (1956) ("...there is no obligation of any kind to act favorably at all.  In any event there is no means of compelling a joint session to take any action...").

So we, the 109 legislators that voted to recess, had to ask ourselves what is more important, the procedure or established civil rights under the Constitution?  I believe I acted to protect the Constitution and its ability to preserve and protect our civil rights and I would do it again if given the opportunity.  So Governor Romney, please take your demagoguery elsewhere.  Maybe they will appreciate it more than Massachusetts, the most highly educated state in the union.  Long live Massachusetts the birthplace of the revolution and the current protector of the Constitution.  I'm proud to have played a small role in it.

 

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Big Dig needs an Independent Commission

The Big Debacle 

Last week I joined several colleagues in sending a letter to the rest of the membership of the House urging them to support legislation proposed by Senator Marian Walsh that would create an independent, seven-member Emergency Investigative Review Board to examine possible unsafe practices and mismanagement by contractors and government officials on the Central Artery project.  Our letter encouraged colleagues to join us as co-sponsors of Senator Walsh’s legislation.

In our letter we say, “Unlike the ongoing investigations into the Central Artery Project, the commission proposed by Senator Walsh is the most effective way of ensuring a thorough, independent investigation of this process that is beyond the influence of gubernatorial and presidential politics,” read an excerpt from the letter.  The letter goes on to say, “Studies have shown that accidents such as the collapse of ceiling panels, that led to the loss of Melina Del Valle’s life, frequently have their roots in a web of political considerations, fiscal irresponsibility, and general mismanagement."

We remind House members of the work the Ward Commission did in the late seventies and early eighties, which was convened in order to investigate flaws in the public construction contract bidding process.  Many of the commission’s recommendations were ultimately enacted into law.  The letter suggests that establishing a similar commission to investigate the Big Dig would result in reforms to the process that allowed $14.6 billion to be spent on a project that is rife with leaks and other construction failures and that has resulted in the death of one person.

We close by saying, “We should remember the success of the Ward Commission, and apply its lesson: an independent investigatory body free to operate outside the realm of politics can address and begin to remedy severe lapses of good governance. We must restore the public’s trust in our ability to construct a safe, state-of-the-art highway system.”

Editor's Note; The Boston Globe did a spoof of the Big Dig here. 

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