Patrick would better serve his Commonwealth by knocking off  the "awfulizing" & "catastrofication" of what will happen if we don't pass his bloated "Transportation Bill". One would NEED a freight car to carry away all THAT pork . Once again, Massachusetts Gov't is using taxes paid mostly by the Working Class to fund improving and expanding the rail yards at South Station. Benefitting....... guess who?? We're STILL gonna get hammered by the T this Summer. (Higher Fares, Less Service, and wildly inflated salaries for it's personel). Also, it will help buisiness owners, (NOT Mom & Pop!), bringing more Touristas to Boston for a $9.00 Drafts at Quincy Mahkit, and Cheers. The 1.8 BILLION) bucks would be better used for the building of affordable housing units for the tens of thousands Service Workers that can't afford to live near the places they work their dirty, unpleasant jobs. Earning minimum wage or less.. Oh, and.... Schools! Schools could sure use some dough. A  bigger marshalling yard, and pretty interior work on South Station's interior is not as urgently needed as AFFORDABLE Housing and Schools that don't Suck.

Who is complaining about tax increases!  With the reduction in sales tax, for most lower-income and middle-income families, they will either see their taxes stay the same or go down.  It's about time we make the rich pay their fair share.  And Lord knows the MBTA and our bridges need repair.  There are some bridges I am terrified to go across.

If people are worried about corruption and padding, then hire an outside auditor to come in and clean house.  This doesn't have to do with taxes, it has to do with accountability.

This column gives a fair assessment of what is happening. Patrick's strategy mirrors Obama's strategy on the federal level. Creating "catastrophe props" in every sector possible to scare the public into pressuring the pols to vote for increasing taxes. It does not seem to be working this time at either level...the public seems to be onto it and is not buying in this time.  ACCOUNTABILITY is the new keyword to get the public's attention and trust back. Without accountability for the tax dollars already being spent, there is no appetite for giving government more.

Ms. Vennochi is again trying to play devil's advocate, and seems to ignore what has happened with reduced revenues.  Less teachers and other public servants, taxpayers all, decaying bridges and roads, and more unemployed fellow residents.  Tax policy has not impoverished any or perhaps any of our population unless it is inadequate.  There has been misappropriation or corruption, but this is a failure of attentiveness by the voting public of not knowing who they are pulling a lever for.  The governor has laid out his case for raising more revenue, assuring educational, transportation, and infrastructural needs.  Those opposed can display an alternative, but using a framing of "political prop" is to dismiss thoughtful debate.  Those people in the $50,000 to $100,000 range will see either a reduction or very small increase in their taxes in return for a more prosperous state with better resources. 

Joan, it's not a prop when the T has to machine its own replacement parts because we have not bought new cars in 40 years.  How many families drive 40-year-old cars to work, school, and the grocery every day?  We would be better off now and for the next 20 years if we invested in getting new cars for the T. 

By the way, Joan, the way the New Deal & Great Society Democrats of the 20th Century won the trust of the majority of voters for a generation was having the government do things like Social Security, Rural Electrification, Medicare, Pell Grants, Medicaid.  Democrats in Massachusetts could build a T that runs on time even in tough winters, could provide Early Education that would make working moms and dads rest easier at night knowing childcare for their 3 & 4 year olds was available & always there.  Government investment promotes growth.

Contractionary policy will shrink the economy, and just tighten the vise on working people.

Polls show Massachusetts voters favor this restructuring of our state tax system. They swept Elizabeth Warren into office on the message of the rich paying their fair share. It's not liberals. It's Massachusetts voters. The poor pay a higher share of income in taxes than the rich. It's time to fix that, and fix our state's transportation and education infrastructure in the process.

I agree with Gov. Patrick that Masachusetts citizens can and should do more, even in the current recession, to address our many problems, following decades of ignoring them. I am reminded of how long it took, including a private lawsuit by William Golden, et. al., to make improvements at the MWRA, dating from the early 1950's. Masachusetts citizens and legislators have a long history of burying heads in sand to avoid costs, increasing future costs exponentially. I suggest any interested readers review the many thoroughly researched, reasonable, rational policy suggestions at the Mass. Budget and Policy Center, www.massbudget.org. The detailed explanations and alternatives posed there will aid everyone. While they can explain the proposals and many options, they can't provide the rationality and the courage to do the right thing. As Rex Stout said publically in the 1950's, rephrasing the sentiments of a US Supreme Court justice in the 1930's, "Taxes are the price we have to pay for civilization". They are the price we pay to obtain hopefully the best possible future for our grandchildren. END goldne

Thank God the rest of the State does not feel the same way that these "please more taxes, sir" commenters do. Truly amazing.

Let's cut some superfluous jobs and get all those sitting home collecting to start volunteering for the state.  The able bodied should not be sitting around waiting to be tsken care of.  Live in housing? Great, there are a list of jobs you can sign up for to offset the roughly $1000 a month in subsidy you are getting a month.  Food stamps? We have a garden or food pantry or farmer's market you can help out at.  Free summer camp? Free healthcare? Free heat? Free money?  Give them an idea of the value of what they enjoy free and tax free,  it won't hurt them and those who are motivated may even pick jobs that will give them some new skills.

The Massachusetts State budget has grown about 1.6% above inflation since 1987 (This massinc article "Point of Reckoning: Two Decades of State Budget Trends" available on-line, puts the growth from 1987 to 2007 at 1.6% above inflation - if you do the math it is about the same 1987 to 2012.) I wouldn't call that wildly excessive growth, nor would I say that state revenues have been greatly reduced. All-in-all, it is about the same, though some programs and needs are getting shafted. (My interaction with Mass. gov. is mainly with the Department of Environmental Protection, and I can tell you they their budgets (and personell) have been cut signficantly since 1987.) So clearly the outlays have been shifted among programs, and where did the money go? Health care. In 1987 Mass. spent 16% of it's budget on healthcare support, in 2007 it spent 30%. WAKE UP EVERYONE. Until we fix healthcare in this country, everything else is just stuff to fill the time. And Obama Care ain't the solution. Neither is the free market because healthcare is not a free market.

I think Joan hits the nail on the head here.  The problem isn't taxes, per se.  The problem is that we as taxpayers do not trust the government to spend the money wisely.  Nor do we trust that they have really done everything necessary to cut waste and tighten their belts.

I would bet that even if some of this tax increase is approved, and the MBTA is bailed out, the VERY next thing that will happen, before buying any new cars, fixing rails and stations, restoring service levels, will be that the Unions will ask for their "well deserved" pay raises.  So half of that money will be swallowed up giving pay raises, etc.

Second, why does the T still have a defined benefit pension system at all?  Sure, they stopped the rapacious 22 and done rules...for NEW employees...but why not switch everyone to a 403b like the rest of the world?  What privately-held company has huge pension obligations for legions of retirees any more?  None that haven't gone bankrupt trying to keep that going.  And yet, when you ask the Governor about any of this, he just smirks and says that we are "average" or that we are "doing what we can".

So, even though I take the Red Line every day to work, I really despair of seeing any improvements to the system, unless they raise twice the money that they need so that everyone is so fat and happy they will let some of the scraps fall to the poor users who depend on the system every day.

The answer is to get out there and VOTE.  And not just for the Republicans...vote out the incumbent Democrats for new ones.  It isn't the Party affiliation that matters, it's the fear of losing their jobs that keeps them in line.

I went on Gov. Patrick's website which breaks out all of the purported benefits of his tax package by state House districts.  In my district (Fourth Plymouth - Jim Cantwell), there were no education benefits at all, and the only transportation benefit was the resurfacing of Route 3A, which would imply that absent the tax grab, the state would not resurface this state highway.  Except that that's not the truth, the state resurfaces 3A and all other state highways from time to time and has done so for decades.  So, basically, we get nothing.  Bleep him.  Cantwell votes for this steaming heap of excrement, he's going to have to look for a real job.

Naturally, the Globe still does not tell you the REAL reason for Deval's proposed tax hikes. It's NOT for transportation and it's NOT for education. It's to pay for the MA health care law which is way, way over budget. The WSJ exposed this Patrick lie in an editorial "The RomneyCare Bill Comes Due" last month....The WSJ wrote'''

Last August  "Beacon Hill was forced to impose new price controls and a cap on overall state health spending because "health-care spending has crowded out key public investments", as Mr. Patrick puts it in his budget".