A week from now, as many of you read your Saturday Westfield News, my fellow “Penguin Plungers” and I will be getting ready to jump into the frozen waters of Hampton Ponds to raise money for the Amelia Park Children’s Museum.
This is the ninth year of the event and will be my ninth consecutive year plunging. I’m told that I am the only person who has plunged every single year since the event first began when it was held in Southwick behind the old Brass Rail in the Congamond Ponds. Then one year we moved to the Westfield green and jumped into a shallow pool that had been assembled and partially filled for the occasion. Finally we moved to the current location at Hampton Ponds.
If you would like to sponsor me to plunge, drop off or mail your check, made payable to Amelia Park Children’s Museum, to my district office 64 Noble Street, Westfield, 01085 by next Friday, January 25. I would appreciate it, and so would the children who visit the museum.
The Penguin Plunge is Saturday, January 26. Registration begins at 11 A.M. Safety briefing for the bold is at 12:45 p.m. with the plunging scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. I’ve already got this year’s business suit picked out for the icy dip. See you there!
I received notice this week from State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan that the Executive Office of Public Safety had awarded grant funds for the Student Awareness of Fire Education (SAFE) Program for fiscal year 2013 to the Westfield Fire Department in the amount of $6,325.
This is a program passed by the House and Senate in our annual budget each year and supported by Senator Mike Knapik and myself. This combined with other fire education and prevention initiatives has led to a 70 percent decrease in child fire deaths, from an average of 18 per year to 5 per year. Congratulations to Chief Mary Regan and the fire fighters of the Westfield Fire Department.
On Wednesday, Governor Deval Patrick gave his annual State of the Commonwealth address to a full House chamber at the State House. Senator Knapik and I were there, as were many fellow lawmakers, Senator Warren, and Congressmen Markey, Lynch, and Kennedy. Colonel Jim Keefe, Commander of the 104th Fighter Wing, and other important members of our Massachusetts National Guard command were also there.
By now you’ve probably read or heard at least a little of Governor Patrick’s state of the state speech. He surprised many of us by calling for a decrease in the state sales tax and an increase in the state income tax to pay for investments, so-called, in education and transportation.
The Governor admitted that there is no good time to raise taxes and recognized how difficult things have been for the people and businesses of the Commonwealth in recent years. I agree. But he went on to say he believed that investments in education and transportation would help improve the Bay State’s economy in the future.
Governor Patrick seemed to be thinking of his legacy for the state and even stated how he knew he had only one more State of the Commonwealth address to give before his second term of office ends in two years. If I were the Governor I would worry that my legacy after 8 years as Chief Executive of Massachusetts was nearly a decade of high unemployment, tax increases, flat economic growth, an overburdened private sector and tax payers on the ropes like a punch-drunk boxer.
I have long believed that when your state’s economy is hardly even smoldering the last thing you should do is raise taxes and throw a wet blanket over that economic fire. The timing couldn’t be worse. The state’s unemployment rate just rose to 6.7 percent. Taxpayers in Westfield just saw their property taxes increased by the city and noticed their federal tax rates increase, as well.
While I applaud the Governor for prioritizing education and transportation, I believe the way to pay for those things is to reprioritize how the state currently spends its $32 billion annual budget. Discontinue the funding for programs and agencies that are not the priority. Continue to seek efficiencies and reform while routing out waste, abuse, fraud, and corruption. EBT card fraud remains rampant, diverting essential funds away from the truly needy in our state.
When you sit at your kitchen table and pay your bills, you plan carefully how you will spend your paycheck and which things are priorities for you and your family. You don’t spend more than you make. You don’t put all your expenses on your credit cards. And you can’t go back to your boss every time you want more money and ask for a raise. But that’s exactly what the Governor is proposing the state do. He wants the money to come from you so that state government can spend more.
Well, “the Governor proposes and the Legislature disposes” as the old saying goes. All budgets and tax proposals must begin in the House of Representatives. The Speaker and House Ways & Means Committee will begin to analyze the Governor’s proposals. I have no doubt if the Democrat majority of lawmakers wants to raise your taxes they can do it. But hopefully common sense will prevail.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not the staff, editor, or publisher of the Westfield News.
Representative Don Humason and his Chief of Staff Maura Cassin may be reached at their Westfield District Office, 64 Noble Street, Westfield, MA 01085, (413) 568-1366.
Representative Don Humason may be reached at his Boston office, State House Room 542, Boston, MA 02133, (617) 722-2803.
Email address: [email protected]
Website: www.DonHumason.org
