Tuesday, April 21, 2009

The Quinn Bill, will it ever be stopped?

From the Globe:

Massachusetts police unions have won enough early support in the House to restore $50 million to the budget and protect generous pay bonuses for police officers who hold college degrees, securing a potential victory even as groups representing the homeless and disadvantaged struggle for funding.

Police already have at least 81 representatives signed up to back their cause, a majority of the 160-member House, assuring a win during next week's budget debate unless House leaders try to reverse the tide.

The so-called Quinn Bill, passed in 1970, awards thousands of dollars in extra money to police officers who have earned college degrees, and it has long been a source of complaints about unfair and expensive union benefits.

The rapid success by the powerful police unions, scored just a few days after the House Ways and Means Committee unveiled the $50 million cut Wednesday, stands in contrast to the uphill battle facing social-service advocates who are lobbying lawmakers to restore funding to fight homelessness, provide home care to the elderly, and feed the needy.

If the House gives back this funding it will clearly show how beholding legislators are to law enforcement. This is just another example of government gone wrong.

4 Comments:

At April 22, 2009 at 12:41 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

We have a problem with the politicians in this state, and by now, everyone should know that. But I take exception to how many are responding to that. There were a bunch of lunatics protesting on tax day, yelling and screaming about how they don’t want to get taxed anymore. But I did not see one of them offering any solution to how we pay the bills without increasing the revenue, hence, increasing taxes. You have two choices, cut the expenses, or raise the charges. Pretty simple equation if you ask me. These same people standing with signs at the statehouse are screaming if you tell them we are going to cut the number of fire, or police, or teachers, and screaming even louder if someone says we have to increase the meal tax of the sales tax. What is their solution to an underfunded budget? They are asking for support, when they can not tell me what the hell they are offering that I should support. We need a plan here people, and I will support anyone who can show me a reasonable, doable plan, to get the MA budget balanced and replace the sitting politicians. I won’t support some nutcase whose claim to fame is he can hold a sign and put down the politician currently in office. Don’t take much intelligence to do either of those things. So if these guys want to fund the Quinn Bill, then tell us where the money is going to come from? The fact that you can pull the strings of 81 reps does not make this a good thing, or even fund it. If you are telling me you are going to cut funding for my kids school to pay for some cop to take a class, sorry, that should not fly and should not even be an option. And if this is what the cops union is saying, they should be ashamed of themselves.

 
At April 22, 2009 at 3:50 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am sick and tired of reading about all this corruption. We make Chicago politicians look honest, and that is saying something. What are the MA voters thinking when they elect these people over and over and over again? I know we all think we can do something in 2010, but in all honesty, MA voters are an apathetic lot and I think they are still going to vote for the devil they know becaue they are too lazy or too scared to elect someone who could end up being worse, although I find it hard to imagine being much worse than what we have going on now. Politicians are a big problem, but if you ask me, the bigger problem is the voters who keep electing them and then letting them be manipulated by groups like these unions. How do you fight that? Of course, given that I am speaking against the Police Union, I will choose to not put my name on this posting.

 
At April 22, 2009 at 4:26 PM , Blogger Jim Pillsbury said...

Keep in mind... that the Quinn Bill is one of the reasons they (the Legislature) will have to agree to some form of tax increase... big dig dept/MBTA is another tax increase.. keeping everyone happy, or at least the supporters of the elected elite, is what this round of tax increases is for. And if Deval has his way, the sales tax will go up to 6%, just to cover his expenses.

In another example of what second annon points out... it's the voters. And I will absolutely agree... and in my support of this I give you, the amount, by percentage, of voters who balked out ballots in this last pathetic election. 27 % of the voters blanked out for Moderator, Ed Noonan, the same for Jason Smith, Selectman, while 22% blanked out for school committee. So... as a political junkie, I read that as a political statement by those who voted to say, they liked none of the above candidates. Now...that theory may not be in play here, as 52% blanked on Planning Board, 68% on Library Trustee and a whopping 74% of the 1171 voters who voted this past election blanked out.

Does this tell me the voters just don't know who is running for what and blanked out or does it say, they have never heard of any of these candidates and blanked out because of ignorance? Were they unhappy with the selections? I am shocked at these numbers and question wether voting has lost it's meaning at the local level. When 1171 people vote out of the 33688 eligible voters, blank out at least some of their votes, something is terribly wrong. Why vote at all? These very same people are the backbone of the one party rule and look what that has gotten us.

 
At April 23, 2009 at 10:08 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Another case of those that have, get and those that are without, lose. So we pay for the cops to get an education at the expense of our own kids education? Correct me if I am wrong, but they get a pay check, right? So why can't they pay for thier own education? Corrupt government in action on this one. Cahil, another case of the connected people getting away with things we would be hung for. Jim, what's your take on that whole mess?

 

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