A tax on people who are bad at math

Looks like Councilor Smith actually took his batshit insane local lottery proposal to the council floor today. While the proposal is fanciful and mostly ridiculous for a number of reasons, according to the Worcester Magazine blog Mr Smith said something tonight which he really needs to be called out on.

He also wants the City Manager to work with the delegation to change the funding formula to more accurately reflect what Worcester put into the system. It shouldn’t be our job to subsidize the other cities and towns.

While on the surface I agree with this sentiment in totality, reality says it’s time Mr Smith read the second paragraph of the preamble to the constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The body politic is formed by a voluntary association of individuals: it is a social compact, by which the whole people covenants with each citizen, and each citizen with the whole people, that all shall be governed by certain laws for the common good. It is the duty of the people, therefore, in framing a constitution of government, to provide for an equitable mode of making laws, as well as for an impartial interpretation, and a faithful execution of them; that every man may, at all times, find his security in them.

We’re not living on an island Joff and while there is an excellent, logical argument for keeping Worcester money in Worcester that can only happen when people start leaving the suburbs to move back here. You would need to rewrite over sixty years of federal law and essentially roll back every aspect of our economy to pre WWII levels to make that possible. All very noble goals indeed, but unfortunately, the schools need pencils today.

Post by: Brendan | May 13, 2008 | Filed Under Team Batshitinsane, The Big Woo, massachusetts, politics, redevelopment 

Comments

4 Responses to “A tax on people who are bad at math”

  1. Tracy on May 14th, 2008 12:52 pm

    and hell is freezing over…

    http://who-cester.blogspot.com/2008/05/thought-on-what-goes-in-versus-what.html

    Like the Constitution quote, though! A primer on, say, the meaning of the word “Commonwealth” might be in order here.

  2. J.D. on May 14th, 2008 2:18 pm

    Why won’t you just allow Joff to let people who buy lottery tickets live the American Dream, Buck?

  3. CrazyEx on May 15th, 2008 11:59 pm

    haha… Joff

  4. Jim on May 18th, 2008 4:04 pm

    I remember Massachusetts once had a lottery just to fund the art museums. So lotteries CAN be narrowly focused. Maybe this isn’t such a bad idea?



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