I thought I was paying attention but I guess I totally missed it. When did our laws change from reflecting most citizens’ moral conscience about right & wrong to laws that favored a few with special interests? When did our laws that established popular rational guidelines to help establish a civilized environment for all, change to laws that most believe are unfair, unwarranted,, unwanted, unneeded, not justifiable, and detrimental to our quality of life? I always believed, perhaps in error, that laws were meant to protect people and the fruits of their labor from thieves, con artists and unruly mobs. Is the State an unruly mob? Perhaps naively, I believed laws were meant to benefit the majority while protecting the minority. They were meant to be ultimately good and fair for the people and they were not meant to punish them or be in opposition to their wishes.
Based on my public & private education, what I have read, and my own moral compass, I believe the MBTA Mandate/3a “Law” is an Unfunded Mandate and is not wanted by most. Housing affordability is not even incorporated into this law. It falls into a law favoring the special interest of a few and not the people as a whole. The State argues that this law is needed to address a housing shortage but they have not substantiated that claim. Although probably most believe we have an affordability crisis, the affordability crisis has been exacerbated by the State’s inept, heavy-handed and bumbling attempts to make rentals and homes more affordable. In reality, Massachusetts is an expensive State to live in primarily due to its burdening taxes, wasteful spending and poor management all of which ultimately drives up the costs for home owners and landlords. In addition, their Section 8 Policies have actually driven up the general costs of rentals. Based on this, Massachusetts affordability problems are government created and not easily corrected by the entity that incompetently generated them in the first place, namely our Government. Although now the State is claiming that all these additional units they are dictatorially demanding will drive down the costs of rentals and homes, history does not support that claim. I am not claiming that I have an immediate cure-all for our affordability crisis but I am positive that our incompetent State Government doesn’t either.
Just a short time ago our State had approximately a $1 billion surplus and now we have a shortfall of approximately $1.5 billion that they admit to and that doesn’t even count the $2.1 billion owed the Federal Government for past unemployment benefits mistakes. If this doesn’t clearly point out the incompetence of our State Government and especially Governor Healy’s reign, I am at a loss. They obviously can’t run the State Government properly! Do you really want to turn over your own town’s future well being to the likes of our current sovereign monarch Healy? Before you even consider that horror-filled decision, why not wait until the SJC decides if this “law” is valid against Home Rule or if this an unfunded mandate being decided by our State Auditor or if the State is even now following the APA as required and as pointed out by the SJC or has the State actually justified any Emergency Actions as required to make any legal time requirement deadlines for our towns? These are questions needing answers before an informed citizen should have to vote on the 3A issue or even comply with demanded paperwork. Should you or your town stand up to the State is an individual’s decision and not an easy one. Nearly 250 years ago, Massachusetts Patriots, the Sons of Liberty, stood up to a different sovereign monarch! Is this time any different? I just have to wonder what would the State do if most towns simply did nothing until those critical questions were answered. Maybe we will find out!
John T. Kolackovsky
Rockport
