| I
remember my grandmother telling me history repeats itself, but I
thought to myself, this is the (19)50's and things are going to be
different from now on. Now that I am a grandmother myself I find
that
some of the stuff in my attic which was never “groovy” is “cool” again. On Monday September 27, 2010 history before my grandmother’s time was repeated. I felt like an unrepresented colonist from the 1770's when I found out that H5028 passed during an “informal session” where neither my state Senator Gale Candaras nor my state Representative Sean Curran were present. So, then I asked myself, if those who I chose to watch my interests on Beacon Hill were not present, then who passed H5028? Knowing that there are 40 state senators and 160 state representatives, I started looking for a big list. I figured $443,000,000 spending bill would require a good portion of our 200 state legislatures to pass this bill. I felt like I was back in elementary school again with my group of many friends watching the class bully and his one friend on the slide when I found out that this was the work of only three (3) people. After doing some Googling, I found that the three bullies were Rep. Paul Donato (D-Medford) Reps. Bradford Hill (R-Ipswich) and Vincent Pedone (D-Worcester). While I know where Worcester is located, I Googled some more to find that Medford is inside the 128 belt and Ipswich is a North Shore city kind of inside the 495 belt. Upset that Springfield and all of Western Massachusetts had no say on how $448,000,000 was going to be spent in the state, I found some information about Shay’s Rebellion. While I do not plan to drive down State Street and close the court, I do wish to propose a solution to this problem of inadequate representation. Mindful of the number of bills that pass through the State House every year, I would ask that Sean Curran and Gale Candaras bring legislation that would require a formal session of the legislature with regard to any tax or spending bill which involves $10,000,000 or more. While I know that not every representative or senator will be present for every vote, by maintaining thresholds (quorums), more of us, the people, would be guaranteed that our interests would be considered and respected. |