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Why Tom Menino remains so popular
By adamg on Wed, 04/01/2009 - 9:28am
People who don't live in Boston always seem befuddled why we keep re-electing Tom Menino. Yvonne Abraham explains why (now if only Abraham could have stifled that yawn while listening to some woman explain her property-title issues).
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Comments
I can't believe that Menino
I can't believe that Menino is taking care of someone from Hyde Park (say this sarcastically).
you know, it's funny,
for a guy who is not the sharpest knife in the drawer, Tom sure knows a lot about the intricacies of real estate titles and Mass. Nominee Trusts....
See, people keep underestimating him
A speech impairment doesn't mean mental impairment.
Who's paying for "our lawyers"?
Last weekend I read that the city helped some 7000 taxpayers file for the earned income credit and this article seems to indicate that the mayor wants to use city lawyers to look into what appears to be a private real estate issue. No wonder there's a budget crisis in the city! We don't have the money to keep teachers in the classroom, but we do have the money to play H&R Block and Dewey, Cheatem and Howe. Hmmm....curious, very curious.
Yeah, because helping poor
Yeah, because helping poor people or people who lost their jobs with things like taxes and foreclosures is the biggest cause of waste and budget issues in Boston....
EITC
Helping people access the EITC has helped bring in an additional $9 million for Bostonians of limited income to spend on food, housing and other necessities. That money is usually spent in neighborhood stores. Sounds like a good investment of time and money, and in fact, a number of people working on the EITC campaign are VISTAs or volunteers with experience in tax preparation.
Mayor
I wonder when/if he will announce he is running. Drove by the Ironworkers Hall in South Boston Saturday morning a few times while running erands. Looked like a few houndred people going inside for some kind of Menino event. Cars were parked everywhere. Isnt Flaherty from South Boston (might have it wrong as I just moved back to Boston from Westwood)? Gotta hurt to see "his own" rallying for the Mayor.
So popular we have declining enrollment?
"We have a school system I tell ya that's workin' . . . the issue we have right now, too many people want to go to Boston public schools."
How does that square with the school closings and budget cuts due to declining enrollment? The fact that the census estimates that in Boston only 25% household have children in them opposed to an average of 32% for the state, and that 20% of those that do stick it out send their kids to private schools? Totally bewildering.
Simple
Fewer than last year is still too many.
Yuk yuk.
Good Example
When it comes to local politics, nobody is sharper than Menino. Outsiders don't get enough opportunity to interact with him to see it, so all they get is the mumbles joke.
I've met the Mayor perhaps a dozen times, almost always at the most mundane of events, but he makes a point of shaking my hand, talking to me about how the event relates to the city, etc. Every year he takes part in the main fund raising event for my kids' school, acting as an MC and auctioneer. He makes the event, and he asks nothing from us for his participation.
The thousands of dollars he raises for the school buy my vote. He'd have to be corrupt or incompetent to lose it.
Corruption and incompetence huh?
Henry - if you are looking for corruption and incompetence I urge you to read through the entries on Kevin McCrea's blog frequently cited on UH (www.electkevin.blogspot.com). No envelopes of cash that I know of - but lots of other evidence of less than stellar performance on the part of the administration (and as someone who does some research for Kevin I can assure you that he absolutely demands everything be footnoted and properly sourced to the smallest detail-the mayor's office apparently called to complain about an article at one paper and they read off chapter and verse of where the info came from - mostly city documents and state web sites!) Nobody's better than Tom at taking care of what you can see from your front yard - but I can assure you that if you look past it there is trouble in paradise - rising crime, stagnating revenues, bloated budgets to placate the unions, favors for friends in high places. Nobody's noticed because with commercial real estate on a tear through 2007 (the year current taxes are based on), commercial properties were paying the tab. With commercial properties dropping in value like stones the taxes don't go away - they shift to the residential owners. Keep in mind that a 10% drop in commercial taxes translates to a roughly 20% increase in residential taxes. An extreme example - but the Hancock tower just sold for 50% off. The math on that one should be frightening to everyone who owns a home in the city. The bills come out in December - right after the election - I suggest anyone reading this save up and I'm not kidding or being sarcastic - it's likely to be VERY ugly.
National Trends
So what are you saying? An incompetent Menino caused the real estate bubble? That's pretty funny.
As for McCrea, I stopped taking him seriously when he kept harping on the supposed billion dollars he wanted the city to simply spend regardless of pre-existing conditions attached to the fund. I hope you weren't the guy who researched that one.
What I'm saying
No Henry - what I'm saying is that an incompetent Menino ignored the 'correctible' problems inherent in Prop 2 1/2 unique to urban communities in an economic downturn that a state mandated DOR white paper outlined in 2004 after the last problem with residential taxes when the dot-com bubble burst. The mayor has not implemented or to the best of my knowledge even pursued a single recommended reform. Now we find ourselves in almost exactly the same place again, but with a commercial sector that is reeling and probably unable/unwilling to help out as they did 5 years ago. In addition, he has promised away the candy store to placate the unions(7% pension increases, 12% health care cost increases this year alone). Menino was cutting ribbons (and spending uncontrollably) while Boston burned under the assumption that we could build luxury condos to the sky to pay for everything he had committed to. Now we are paying the price.
As for McCrea - if you don't like him then vote for someone else but you are making an incorrect accusation. I believe the point you are referring to is the following from his blog (then cited in UH) in early February - this is the full post - (hyperlink to the audit didn't transfer):
"If you look at the KPMG annual auditing report on page 19 you will see that we have nearly one billion dollars in cash on hand, about two billion in liabilities, and two billion in other assets. This leaves us about 1 billion in the black. No wonder the Mayor feels comfortable in giving away land for free. Not sure why he feels comfortable cutting the school budget." (www.electkevin.blogspot.com - Feb 5, 2009)
You'll notice he never advocated how to spend anything - only that we had a lot of money in the bank (including a fully expendable $11 million from this year which would save all the 134 classroom teachers we are talking about cutting-debatable - but I put cops and teachers at the top of the municipal "need" list - my opinion)
Sorry for the (second) long post - but these issues are extremely complex.