Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray i WBS Costin's News Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, al, thank you very much. We are in
Speaker 2: the nine o'clock hour tonight. Right now, it's nineh eight.
Speaker 2: My name is Dan Ray, and we're going to talk
Speaker 2: this hour about Massachusetts, our home state, dear Massachusetts. And
Speaker 2: I have a reason for this, and we'll get to
Speaker 2: that in a moment. I'll tell you that coming up
Speaker 2: at ten o'clock tonight, we are going to be talking
Speaker 2: with an expert, doctor Sandra Dalton Smith, the author of
Speaker 2: Sacred Rest Recover your Life, Renew your energy, and Restore
Speaker 2: your sanity. And we're going to talk about getting sleep
Speaker 2: and getting rest, and it's so important and I think
Speaker 2: it's something that none of us really truly understand and appreciate.
Speaker 2: We had doctor Sandra Dalton Smith with us during the
Speaker 2: eight o'clock hour within the last two or three weeks,
Speaker 2: and I just thought that she would be a great
Speaker 2: guest for an hour, and that's happened. That happens a
Speaker 2: lot as a matter of a couple of guests. Tonight,
Speaker 2: I think we will head back to give you an
Speaker 2: opportunity to ask questions. So that's what's going on. And
Speaker 2: then at the eleven o'clock hour tonight we would do
Speaker 2: what we call the twentieth hour. Even though I haven't
Speaker 2: worked all five nights this week, there have been five
Speaker 2: nights of nightside. Morgan White was in for me on
Speaker 2: Monday and Tuesday night, and my shows this week were Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Speaker 2: I'm here all next week, by the way, fear not,
Speaker 2: but we do twenty hours of nightside every week, and
Speaker 2: we like to kind of end the week on a
Speaker 2: lighter note at also the ten o'clock hour. It's going
Speaker 2: to be a note which hopefully is going to give
Speaker 2: us some cause for thought and cause for a pause
Speaker 2: for rest, the idea that all of us probably are
Speaker 2: not getting the amount of sleep that we need. And
Speaker 2: that's what we'll talk about a ten. So let's talk about
Speaker 2: something that is near deer to my heart, and that
Speaker 2: is the comwalth of Massachusetts. And there was a time
Speaker 2: not so long ago when Massachusetts was colloquially referred to
Speaker 2: as Taxachusetts. That was back in the nineteen eighties. And
Speaker 2: then we had a series of Republican governors Weld and Salucci,
Speaker 2: Acting Governor Jane Swift. Dare I say, Mitt Romney and
Speaker 2: Charlie Baker, and to a more or a lesser degree,
Speaker 2: the Republicans tend to be a little bit more skeptical
Speaker 2: about burdening wage earners, workers, people who get up every
Speaker 2: day and do something earn their living. And not only
Speaker 2: the federal government, but the state government wants to take
Speaker 2: more and more and more. So today or tonight, I
Speaker 2: would love to talk to you in Massachusetts about the
Speaker 2: dilemma that we find ourselves in. And that dilemma is
Speaker 2: that our government here in Massachusetts, and particularly our legislature,
Speaker 2: about our government across the board, they have a hunger
Speaker 2: and a need for more money every year. I don't
Speaker 2: know how many of you have gotten raises in the
Speaker 2: last two or three years, but the one thing that
Speaker 2: I can tell you is the government always in Massachusetts
Speaker 2: gets a raise now right now. Earlier this evening, I
Speaker 2: received from the Media Relations Office of the Governor a synopsis,
Speaker 2: a little bit of a summary of the budget that
Speaker 2: the Governor Heatley has proposed. They're characterizing per budget as
Speaker 2: fifty nine point six billion dollars. That's a lot of money, Okay. However, However,
Speaker 2: when I go to a state website which is actually
Speaker 2: the governor's budget FY twenty six recommendations. That website says
Speaker 2: that the governor is recommending a state budget. Her recommendation
Speaker 2: is nearly sixty two billion dollars, So there's a little
Speaker 2: bit of a discrepancy there about two and a half
Speaker 2: billion dollars. One of the Boston newspapers today was suggesting
Speaker 2: that it's even higher than that. But whatever it is,
Speaker 2: the state always seems to need more money. So now
Speaker 2: at the Boston Globe, editorially, I think it's today, was
Speaker 2: it yesterday? It's their editorial yesterday they finished up, and
Speaker 2: of course the Globe is always in favor of tax increases,
Speaker 2: whether it's again needed, MBTA not necessarily needed as much education.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of needs here in the Commonwealth. But
Speaker 2: for example, they finish up by saying lawmakers also need
Speaker 2: to discuss whether they're willing to raise taxes to keep
Speaker 2: the budget balanced. Healey's budget relies on three hundred and
Speaker 2: twelve million dollars from new tax policies. Three hundred and
Speaker 2: twelve million dollars. That's real money. It's about a third
Speaker 2: of a billion dollars when you think about it. In
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, the state authorized a charitable donation tax deduction.
Speaker 2: It had no limit, but now Healey is proposing capping
Speaker 2: that deduction at five thousand dollars per filer. So what
Speaker 2: that means is that in Massachusetts there are some very
Speaker 2: wealthy people who make substantial donations to medical facilities, to universities,
Speaker 2: to some of the big charities that we all are
Speaker 2: very familiar with, United Way and others, boys clubs and
Speaker 2: girls clubs and all of that. And it's a way
Speaker 2: in which services can be provided to individuals whomever. There's
Speaker 2: a lot of charities, great charities here in Massachusetts. We
Speaker 2: do our night Side Charity Combine every year, last two
Speaker 2: hours of my broadcast year in late December. We have
Speaker 2: done that now for this was our twelfth year that
Speaker 2: we have done I believe was our twelfth in December
Speaker 2: last month, December of twenty twenty four. And look, there
Speaker 2: are people who might who make donations to charities of
Speaker 2: five dollars and ten dollars or one hundred dollars, which
Speaker 2: is wonderful, uh, and it makes it's it's a very
Speaker 2: good instinct. But then there are people who make donations
Speaker 2: you'll see them of one hundred million dollars to this,
Speaker 2: you know, to the Harvard School of Public Health, and
Speaker 2: and there was a charitable deduction which the voters passed
Speaker 2: back in the year two thousand and three, and through
Speaker 2: a number of governors and legislatures that was ignored and
Speaker 2: then it was finally put into a play here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: For many, many years there was no charitable deductions allowed,
Speaker 2: meaning whatever charity charitable contribution you were to make it was,
Speaker 2: it was great for the charity, but there was no
Speaker 2: tax break for the donor. Well, now what they have
Speaker 2: decided to do is to cap it. So that means,
Speaker 2: if you're a very wealthy person, you might still give
Speaker 2: your one hundred million dollars to one of the big
Speaker 2: teaching hospitals here in Boston, or you might say, you
Speaker 2: know what, maybe I'll hold on to that money. And
Speaker 2: maybe since I'm being surrounded by taxes more and more
Speaker 2: every year here in Massachusetts, and some of the things
Speaker 2: that will be taxed are going to be nicked nicotine,
Speaker 2: different types of nicotine, a candy.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Again, it's almost as if that in Massachusetts we taxed
Speaker 2: things anything that moves and anything that doesn't move, and
Speaker 2: they just go out of their way. Their appetite is rapacious.
Speaker 2: It is just it can never be satisfied here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2: So you earn your money. And the question that I
Speaker 2: want some of you to answer for me is how
Speaker 2: much do you feel the government, the federal government and
Speaker 2: the state government should take from your paychecks. That's really
Speaker 2: kind of my bottom line question. Now you may say, well,
Speaker 2: it doesn't really matter to me because whatever. Okay, well
Speaker 2: it should, but that's okay. But I'll tell you who
Speaker 2: it's going to matter to. And we've talked about this before,
Speaker 2: and i'd love to hear those of you who are
Speaker 2: sports fans. You were going to see Boston sports teams,
Speaker 2: professional sports teams, the Celtics, the Bruins, the Red Sox,
Speaker 2: and the Patriots and the Revolution to a lesser extent
Speaker 2: because they don't have the big, multimillion dollar year contracts.
Speaker 2: You're gonna see more and more professional athletes say hey,
Speaker 2: and athletes agents say I'm not having my guy sign
Speaker 2: with the Red Sox or the Yankees, that those taxes
Speaker 2: are out of you know, I'm going to have them
Speaker 2: sign up with the Texas Rangers, or they're going to
Speaker 2: sign up with the Tampa Bay Devil, the Tampa Bay Rays,
Speaker 2: or in cities and in states where where the amount
Speaker 2: of taxes that they pay on a big contract, if
Speaker 2: you're signing a one hundred million dollar contract, and if
Speaker 2: you're conscious of how much of that money you're going
Speaker 2: to get as a pro athlete, and if it's a
Speaker 2: close call, you know, the Red Sox we're chasing Juan Soto.
Speaker 2: And again, not to get too derailed here in sports,
Speaker 2: but one of the things we love about Massachusetts we
Speaker 2: have good professional sports teams and we go to the Garden,
Speaker 2: go to Gillect for the most part, or go to
Speaker 2: Fenway Park and know that you're looking at a contending team. Well,
Speaker 2: a lot of that's going to go away. But even
Speaker 2: more importantly, Massachusetts, Massachusetts is going to once again earn
Speaker 2: the reputation of being Taxachusetts. It has already. We see
Speaker 2: there's more people leaving Massachusetts. And the people who are
Speaker 2: leaving Massachusetts are the people who earn more money because
Speaker 2: tax policy does make a difference.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I know some of you are going to say, Dan,
Speaker 2: you're talking about tax policy. I don't even know what
Speaker 2: you're talking about. If you have a question, give me
Speaker 2: a call. I want to know from each of you.
Speaker 2: Whatever you do for a job, however much money you make,
Speaker 2: how much money do you feel at the end of
Speaker 2: the year does the government meaning the Feds and the state,
Speaker 2: And in some cases I guess well, in many cases
Speaker 2: your town's particularly if you own a home, what percentage
Speaker 2: of your money do you feel the government should have
Speaker 2: a right to take from you? That's the question you
Speaker 2: have the answers six, one, seven, two, five, four, ten
Speaker 2: thirty six one seven, nine, three, one, ten thirty. And
Speaker 2: if there's anyone listening out there tonight who have moved
Speaker 2: out of Massachusetts in whole or in part because of
Speaker 2: the tax policies here, love to hear from you. You
Speaker 2: don't have to identify yourself. You could use a different
Speaker 2: name if you want, tell me what state you've moved to,
Speaker 2: tell me what you do for a living, and tell
Speaker 2: me why you moved. It's as simple as that. All
Speaker 2: of these it is just the question of I want
Speaker 2: the government out of people's pockets. Okay, I really do.
Speaker 2: The government has some great responsibilities that I think all
Speaker 2: of us agree are necessary, but it just seems to
Speaker 2: me that they will get in your pocket every way,
Speaker 2: Whether it's the candy bar that you that you're going
Speaker 2: to buy, the small little pleasures of life. They're going
Speaker 2: to allow mount more cameras, more speed cameras, to make
Speaker 2: sure that if you're caught speeding, they want to penalize you,
Speaker 2: and they want to tax you, particularly if you're someone
Speaker 2: who earns a living, if you're a citizen and you're
Speaker 2: a worker, or for that matter, if you're a non
Speaker 2: citizen and you're a worker and you're getting a paycheck
Speaker 2: as opposed to being paid under the table, you're paying
Speaker 2: some taxes. How much do you think the government should
Speaker 2: extract from you? Just you? I will be back on Nightside. Well,
Speaker 2: what are the numbers real? Really? See six one, seven, two, five,
Speaker 2: four ten thirty six one seven, nine, three, one ten
Speaker 2: thirty Those are the two numbers will get you through.
Speaker 2: And this has nothing to do, in my opinion, with
Speaker 2: Democrats and Republicans. This has everything to do with you
Speaker 2: and how much you're how much you need to pay
Speaker 2: to government to in order to have the privilege of
Speaker 2: living in Massachusetts. Back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Taxes. We have. We fought a revolution about this, by
Speaker 2: the way back in the late seventeen hundreds, No taxation
Speaker 2: without representation. Remember that was the cry of the patriots,
Speaker 2: not the current New England patriots. No no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: the original patriots, ladies and gentlemen. So I just want
Speaker 2: to go to the calls and I want to hear
Speaker 2: from you. And here's the other thing. I want someone
Speaker 2: to explain to me the phrase when they say people
Speaker 2: should pay their fair share, but that they should do
Speaker 2: fair share. No one defines what fair share means. You know,
Speaker 2: some people fair share means everything. Some people it might
Speaker 2: mean very little. But love to know, you know, with
Speaker 2: the signs fair share, make people pay the fair share,
Speaker 2: fair share. Let's go. Let me go to John and Deanna. Hey, John, welcome,
Speaker 2: how are you tonight? Welcome? Hey.
Speaker 4: Before you get to the topic on hand, just a
Speaker 4: program may suggest I wish your station would spend at
Speaker 4: least an hour week for more government waste, government fraud
Speaker 4: people calling in. I think we all know somebody who
Speaker 4: works for the government or subsidized the company and they
Speaker 4: do nothing, They get a ridiculous compensation package. Everything costs
Speaker 4: more Massachusetts electricity, auto insurance, and obviously taxes too. So
Speaker 4: but to address your question, my opinion, we should have
Speaker 4: a higher skin of deduction. I'm abitryly just picking like
Speaker 4: one hundred thousand. The first hundred thousand your tax free.
Speaker 4: You have a sales tax, you should be able to
Speaker 4: make pay all our state's expenses based on that sales tax.
Speaker 4: Although wait, we made double tax and we know, like
Speaker 4: how many times you hear we want to raise the
Speaker 4: gas tax when there's no accountability for the current revenue
Speaker 4: from gas tax, the roads get done, nothing's getting repaired,
Speaker 4: and where are our tax dollars going?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and enough. I wish, I wish I had a
Speaker 2: good answer for you. I really don't. I don't think
Speaker 2: I can tell you this. I've spent a lot of
Speaker 2: winter time in New Hampshire, and when I last checked,
Speaker 2: I might be wrong on this one. New Hampshire was
Speaker 2: north of Massachusetts, and New Hampshire receives more snow and
Speaker 2: more cold weather the further north you go. And yet
Speaker 2: their roads are better than the roads in Massachusetts, and
Speaker 2: they keep those roads better at about a third of
Speaker 2: the cost per mile of what we spend on the
Speaker 2: roads in Massachusetts.
Speaker 4: Sorry, within the last week that that Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
Speaker 4: If somebody knows this, please call him. We get electricity
Speaker 4: off the same grid, but for some reason, New Hampshire's
Speaker 4: electricity is a fraction of what Massachusetts cost. And again,
Speaker 4: I'll tell.
Speaker 2: You what, I'll try to look into that. I'll tell
Speaker 2: you that you know they've former governor for eight years
Speaker 2: was Kristanunu And Kristan Unho is a business guy. And
Speaker 2: if he thought that he could get rates lowered for
Speaker 2: his consumers in New Hampshire, I'm sure he probably came
Speaker 2: up with some sort of a deal that benefited his
Speaker 2: you know, his constituents. I don't know, think the governor.
Speaker 4: But when the governor's doing, not the new governor bringing
Speaker 4: up trying to get all the Massachusetts businesses to move
Speaker 4: to New Hampshire and rightfully sew it a day. One
Speaker 4: last thing came when you said that fair ship. I
Speaker 4: think I've been saying the same thing when Biden used
Speaker 4: to say it. Obama used to say it. I don't
Speaker 4: care Republican the Democrat has it, Can you please define it?
Speaker 2: They don't want to define it because you know, it's
Speaker 2: something where where people who don't think and you're a thinker,
Speaker 2: and most of my listeners think it's like everybody should
Speaker 2: pay the fair share. Yo, how much is that? Ooh?
Speaker 2: You know, for me it's like two percent, but for
Speaker 2: you it's on fifty five percent. I mean, you know.
Speaker 4: It's And if you're not if you last this year,
Speaker 4: if you're not illegal, and you make you a million dollars,
Speaker 4: you pay no taxes. Good for you. You know that's
Speaker 4: the law. Right, you'll go up with a tax law change.
Speaker 2: Well, what I'm a big I'm a big believer and
Speaker 2: I think you are too, uh in the concept of
Speaker 2: a flat tax. Meaning you you talk about all the
Speaker 2: corporate loopholes in the federal you know, taxes and all
Speaker 2: of that, and the K Street lobbyist down in Washington,
Speaker 2: And the reason all those people get there and get
Speaker 2: paid a lot of money and they make donations to
Speaker 2: politicians who write the Internal Revenue Code is they want
Speaker 2: to have a tax break for their industry. Want to
Speaker 2: have a tax break for this tax break for that.
Speaker 2: We don't have anyone representing us down there except members
Speaker 2: of Congress, and here in Massachusetts, very few of them
Speaker 2: really interested in looking out for me or you. They
Speaker 2: that's just the way it is. They're down there. But
Speaker 2: but if you have a flat tax, you could say,
Speaker 2: as you said, anybody who makes up to let's say,
Speaker 2: seventy thousand dollars a year, doesn't pay any tax on
Speaker 2: the first seventy thousand dollars. An absolute deduction, a deduction
Speaker 2: on that across the board. Everybody gets that off. And
Speaker 2: then you begin to say, Okay, everybody's gonna pay. And
Speaker 2: I've seen different figures twelve percent, thirteen percent. If you're
Speaker 2: if you're making ten million dollars a year, you're gonna
Speaker 2: pay thirteen percent on that doesn't matter what investments you make.
Speaker 2: No loopholes, no.
Speaker 4: No, no deductions, no credits.
Speaker 2: Yeahs simple as that. And that would be a fair share.
Speaker 2: But that's not what they want. The people who are
Speaker 2: who are mouthing the platitude fair share, they want us.
Speaker 2: What they're really saying is soak the rich.
Speaker 4: And guess what I guarantee I think again, those people
Speaker 4: who are saying pay your fair share, I guarantee you
Speaker 4: they're not paying their fair share of taxes.
Speaker 2: Most of them aren't paying anything exactly because they're the
Speaker 2: ones who are outside demonstrating in the middle of the
Speaker 2: week on a Wednesday morning. Anyway, John, you got to
Speaker 2: call my show more off and I love you spirit man.
Speaker 2: And when's the last time you called this show?
Speaker 4: Uh, probably a week or two ago.
Speaker 2: Well, keep keep the pace up then, I love it,
Speaker 2: I really do. Thank you so much. Okay, thank you, Toby.
Speaker 2: And he's an honest man too. We got news at
Speaker 2: the bottom of the hour coming up. It's nine to
Speaker 2: thirty one. We're a little bit late. We will talk
Speaker 2: about this only until nine o'clock. So if you have
Speaker 2: a different point of view, if you think that rich
Speaker 2: people should pay substantially more than they're paying now, if
Speaker 2: you believe in soak the rich, come on, tell me why,
Speaker 2: tell me why? At what point do you stop soaking
Speaker 2: them or do you just soak them until they say,
Speaker 2: I don't like the tax policies and I don't like
Speaker 2: the weather, and I'm heading south back on nightside. The
Speaker 2: only line that's well, they got one line at six one, seven, two, five, four,
Speaker 2: ten thirty and he can try also six one, seven, nine, three,
Speaker 2: one ten thirty back on nightside right after this, and ladies,
Speaker 2: I want you, I want to hear from you, folks.
Speaker 2: I have my calls at this point, most of them
Speaker 2: seem to be mail. I want to hear females on this. Okay,
Speaker 2: simple as that. What what what is the fee? What's
Speaker 2: your fears? Share? Tell me what you think it is?
Speaker 2: Back on Nightside after this.
Speaker 1: You're on night Side with on Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's get back to the calls. We're going to
Speaker 2: go to this, says doctor Silo in Lowell. Doctor Silo,
Speaker 2: how are you that type of doctor?
Speaker 4: Pretty good? Pretty good?
Speaker 5: Dan?
Speaker 4: How are you good?
Speaker 2: What sort of doctor?
Speaker 4: If I could ask, I do engineering, energy, research, and
Speaker 4: renewable resources.
Speaker 2: Excellent? So tell us what uh what do you think
Speaker 2: of Massachusetts tax policies?
Speaker 4: All right, this is gonna be short and sweet. My
Speaker 4: personal thing is, yeah, I've lived in mass all my life,
Speaker 4: so I can put in forty years if I I've
Speaker 4: been in mass plus. I believe I believe that my
Speaker 4: own this is just my own personal opinion. I believe
Speaker 4: that there's a hidden, a hidden corruption in the tax
Speaker 4: system in the state. And the reason I say there
Speaker 4: is because I mean there's no oversight to determine what
Speaker 4: they really do with the tax money that they already receive.
Speaker 4: And you know, I'm not going I'm not going into
Speaker 4: explaining to you know, residents of mass of what we're
Speaker 4: taxed for. We're taxed for damned near everything.
Speaker 2: But well, as they said, there's the tax doctor silo,
Speaker 2: anything that moves or anything that doesn't.
Speaker 4: Move exactly, and and and there there needs to be
Speaker 4: some kind of oversight, Like I see a position where
Speaker 4: they say, okay, we're going to list all the all
Speaker 4: the monetary requirements that the state needs to run the state,
Speaker 4: and then they need the list where the money comes from.
Speaker 2: You know, I have some good news for you actually,
Speaker 2: and I'm being very serious when I say that we
Speaker 2: have a position for that responsibility who we elect every
Speaker 2: four years. It's a state auditor. And we finally have
Speaker 2: a state auditor and auditor Diana does Ugly, who happens
Speaker 2: to be a Democrat, by the way, who wants to audit,
Speaker 2: amongst other things, the legislature and their stonewallinger.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know that this is what I mean. They
Speaker 4: don't want they don't want any oversight. And I look
Speaker 4: at it. I've heard about that, and I said, well,
Speaker 4: actually we voted on it, and we said yes, she
Speaker 4: should be able to she should be able to audit you.
Speaker 4: Because see, the thing people are, the citizens of mass
Speaker 4: needs to realize is look, if you're up in Beacon
Speaker 4: Hill and you're doing your job and they say we
Speaker 4: got to audit you, you should say, Okay, I ain't got
Speaker 4: no problems with that. But if you if you want,
Speaker 4: I want to put some kind of shield or barrier
Speaker 4: up so you can't be audited, then you must have
Speaker 4: some kind of hidden corruption in there. That's what I
Speaker 4: would think, and I think everybody in the all citizens
Speaker 4: of the state would think the same thing.
Speaker 2: Wouldn't it be great if someday someone you get a
Speaker 2: letter from the I R S that says we're going
Speaker 2: to audit you. Did you could say what the legislature
Speaker 2: says is nope, you kin'd audit me.
Speaker 4: That, Well, we can't, we can't do that. We we
Speaker 4: know we file uh, you know, off off the top
Speaker 4: of my head. If you get a letter from the
Speaker 4: I R S saying you owe a certain amount of money,
Speaker 4: you can file a hardship form. And most of the
Speaker 4: time the I R S will say, okay, we understand,
Speaker 4: you know, we know we had the COVID and a
Speaker 4: bunch of other stuff. Usually the I R. S is
Speaker 4: pretty reasonable. Now, maybe that's kind of strange for me
Speaker 4: to say that, but I think they're kind of reasonable.
Speaker 4: But they have oversight. The State Master doesn't have no
Speaker 4: oversight that I know of. They're supposed to to have it.
Speaker 4: But they say, oh no, you can't audit us.
Speaker 2: Well, that take me saying we've had the state auditor
Speaker 2: on the program on several occasions and we stand shoulder
Speaker 2: to shoulder with her in her effort to audit the
Speaker 2: state legislature, and we'll have her back.
Speaker 4: That's no promise, right, So why do you why do
Speaker 4: why would you even deny her the chance to go
Speaker 4: in there and audit you if you weren't doing something wrong? Yeah,
Speaker 4: doesn't that make sense?
Speaker 2: No, of course it does. But what they're going to
Speaker 2: say is, we have the separation of powers. We're the
Speaker 2: legislative branch, and we should not be audited by.
Speaker 4: Something that doesn't to me. To me as a as
Speaker 4: a citizen that lives here, you know you you can
Speaker 4: be audited. I don't care who you are or what
Speaker 4: kind of powers you have. And Beacon Hill, if if
Speaker 4: the government or the or the people say Hey, yeah,
Speaker 4: we want you to be audited. Now, if you let
Speaker 4: the audit go through and just say yeah, we're going
Speaker 4: to give you whatever you need, most people would say, okay,
Speaker 4: well they must be doing their job. But if, for if,
Speaker 4: if you even think about saying no, people are going
Speaker 4: to think, well, you must have some kind of corruption
Speaker 4: going on in there, because that's what I would think.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No. You know, first of all, I don't think
Speaker 2: you've ever called my show before, so I want to
Speaker 2: welcome that I have that you haven't. Well, your first
Speaker 2: time caller, we give you a round of applause here
Speaker 2: from a digital studio audience. You understanding ovation.
Speaker 4: I'd listen to your show all the time. When I
Speaker 4: come back from work. I usually get out, like at
Speaker 4: eleven thirty at one of my jobs, and then I
Speaker 4: turn you on and I say, man, I got to
Speaker 4: call this guy Dan for something, and this is it.
Speaker 2: So well, you hit a home run tonight, and I
Speaker 2: hope you come back and step into the batter's box again. Okay,
Speaker 2: And I really mean that. Thank you, doctor Silo, Thank
Speaker 2: you very much.
Speaker 4: Great night, Youtobe YouTube, take care, bye bye you too.
Speaker 2: Good night. Let me go to jose In Braintree. Jose,
Speaker 2: how are you, sir?
Speaker 4: I'm doing pretty well. Oh Dan, I got I gotta
Speaker 4: tell you.
Speaker 6: I live in the town a brainch where they test
Speaker 6: the property test or increase.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 6: The voters did that just to keep the jobs for
Speaker 6: like schools and like the.
Speaker 4: Just in general, the public works.
Speaker 6: I don't have a problem, pain.
Speaker 4: Can you hear me?
Speaker 2: I can hear you. Very fine, very well, you go
Speaker 2: right ahead. I'm just go ahead.
Speaker 6: And so just just in the year this this year,
Speaker 6: my property tax went up three hundred dollars a quarter.
Speaker 6: So it okay, that being said, is like your first
Speaker 6: college said, where's these taxes going? Like as soon as
Speaker 6: the dollars exchange your tax on it with the receiver
Speaker 6: and the person paying. So it's it's quite upsetting. Like
Speaker 6: I don't care what what what party you with, Republican
Speaker 6: or Democrat. We're tired of this. We're tired of this
Speaker 6: massive it's it's ridiculous. Like wherever you turn, you.
Speaker 2: Sound like, Jose, you sound like a young guy to me.
Speaker 2: I don't know how old you are, but when when
Speaker 2: you're how much twenty five?
Speaker 4: You said, thirty five, thirty five?
Speaker 2: Okay, well you're you're a young guy. You're half my age.
Speaker 2: When I was your age. Back many years ago, Massachusetts
Speaker 2: was called Taxachusetts because they just had these insane policies
Speaker 2: and they tax more now than they ever did, and
Speaker 2: they can. They want to go up on everything. They're
Speaker 2: going to have pretty soon. Cameras on roads, so if
Speaker 2: you make a turn, you know, you go through a
Speaker 2: red light or through a yellow light, or you don't
Speaker 2: stop or whatever, they'll have your that's a form of taxation.
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously not technically it's taxation, but it's another
Speaker 2: way with the government's going to get their hand in
Speaker 2: your pocket. They think it's worth it to put the
Speaker 2: cameras up, hire more people, to to send out tickets
Speaker 2: to people, bills to people. You know, it's just going
Speaker 2: to force people to leave Massachusetts. You know, I've lived
Speaker 2: here my entire life too, But you get to a
Speaker 2: point where you say, you know what, enough is enough,
Speaker 2: No moss, no moss.
Speaker 6: I lived here all my life, and each day I'm
Speaker 6: closer and close to looking into a warmer state that
Speaker 6: the taxes aren't crazy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, there's a bunch of them. Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida, Texas.
Speaker 2: There yea, and again people, you know, people have had
Speaker 2: that choice. What do you think in all honesty, don't
Speaker 2: tell me how much you make or anything like that.
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter. What do you think would be a
Speaker 2: fair amount of taxes. Let's say for every thousand dollars
Speaker 2: that you earn, and you work, so you get up
Speaker 2: every day, five days a week or whatever whatever, how
Speaker 2: many days a week out of one thousand dollars, how
Speaker 2: much should the government be able to take out of
Speaker 2: your pocket, both in terms of federal, state, and local
Speaker 2: What should it add up two d.
Speaker 4: I'm okay with a quarter of it, and totally I'm
Speaker 4: okay with that.
Speaker 2: Okay, and I think that's a reasonable figure. Because you
Speaker 2: have property taxes. You live in brain Tree, you have
Speaker 2: property taxes, you have state income taxes, you have federal
Speaker 2: income taxes, and of course you also pay a lot
Speaker 2: of taxes. Every time you go to the supermarket, there's
Speaker 2: you know, sales tax on this or sale or you
Speaker 2: know different you know, different sales taxes. They're gasoline taxes.
Speaker 2: When you pay you know, two ninety or two ninety
Speaker 2: five for gallon of gasoline, a good portion of that
Speaker 2: goes to state. In federal taxes. You don't even really
Speaker 2: most people don't even realize that you probably do. But
Speaker 2: there's there's fairly substantial taxes by the way, both federal
Speaker 2: and state, on every gallon of gasoline that you put
Speaker 2: in your car so you can afford to go and
Speaker 2: drive to work.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly what you're saying. This is one thing I
Speaker 4: want people to be careful with as well.
Speaker 7: Like if you ever pay your ex tax by cash? Yeah,
Speaker 7: if you ever do that by cash, I believe the
Speaker 7: person that the people that take care of the state.
Speaker 6: I think it's Kelly Ryan that take care of the payment.
Speaker 4: Uh, There's been numerous the times that.
Speaker 6: That I've paid.
Speaker 4: It's which which is my fault?
Speaker 6: I paid the XO tax in cash at like when
Speaker 6: I lived in Boston at City Hall or in Brainstreet.
Speaker 2: I do that. Never do that. You got to always
Speaker 2: on that use a check. Okay, that's you know, that's
Speaker 2: the safest lesson.
Speaker 6: Let'son learned.
Speaker 2: He Jose, thank you so much, Thank Jose, thank you
Speaker 2: for Have you called before? Is this your first time?
Speaker 4: I called?
Speaker 6: When when I first uh, when I was eighteen, when
Speaker 6: I first voted. We we we had a conversation so
Speaker 6: years ago.
Speaker 2: Well I've only been in the year here. We're in
Speaker 2: my eighteenth year. So I I want you to come
Speaker 2: back more often, because eighteen years from now, Jose, I'm
Speaker 2: probably gonna be retired.
Speaker 4: So I love people.
Speaker 2: I loved your call. Get out and run for public office.
Speaker 2: What sort of work do you do? Don't just tell
Speaker 2: don't tell me where you work, but what type of
Speaker 2: work do you do?
Speaker 4: I'm a commercial driver.
Speaker 2: Good for you, Good for you, well, good for you.
Speaker 2: You are the backbone. I have a friend of mine
Speaker 2: named Steve who's a long haul truck driver, you guys,
Speaker 2: and a fellow named sterling out in South Dakota who
Speaker 2: drives all over the country. You guys are the backboat
Speaker 2: of the country because there's nothing that I buy that
Speaker 2: you guys don't transport to the stores that I go
Speaker 2: to buy. So thank you for what you do. You
Speaker 2: are the backboat of this country, my friend. Thank you, welcome.
Speaker 2: Thanks than Jose. Good night. Six one, seven, two, five, four,
Speaker 2: ten thirty. Those are the line. Those are the only
Speaker 2: lines that are open right now. I got coming up,
Speaker 2: I got JJ, and I got Terry, got a little
Speaker 2: root for you. Give me a call. We're gonna change time.
Speaker 2: Topics of ten. Going to talk about how to get
Speaker 2: better rest, how to get better sleep. We all need it.
Speaker 2: Coming back on nights Side.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Back to the phones. You go, let me go to
Speaker 2: JJ in Winchester. JJ. Welcome. How are I.
Speaker 3: Thank you well? I'm doing well. Thanks stan So. To
Speaker 3: answer your question, I think you know me well enough
Speaker 3: to know what I'm about to say. Zero percent income
Speaker 3: tax zero It's the worst thing they could ever do
Speaker 3: to the Constitution at an amendment like that. Get rid
Speaker 3: of it. And also, you know, the people have to
Speaker 3: really understand what is the proper role of government. Is
Speaker 3: the government's jobbed the vibe for us? Well, then the
Speaker 3: government people away from us. Too big enough to give
Speaker 3: us everything, they're big enough to take it all away
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 2: The government giveth and the government takes.
Speaker 3: That's the way I like the way you said it, though, Dan,
Speaker 3: You've been saying it a long time, and I like it.
Speaker 3: The government that is the smallest governs the best. I think,
Speaker 3: I you know, maybe change it around a little bit,
Speaker 3: but you know what I means.
Speaker 4: And a.
Speaker 3: Vigilant because why should they a group of elite representatives
Speaker 3: both themselves raises decide what should be spent on, what
Speaker 3: the money should be spent on. No, let's all look
Speaker 3: at what is money really being spent on? Is it
Speaker 3: really efficient? Is it really necessary?
Speaker 2: You know. One of the things that you can do,
Speaker 2: UH is you know someone will say, well, okay, JJ,
Speaker 2: how do you raise money for police and fire and
Speaker 2: all of that. You can have what's called the value
Speaker 2: added tax. They do a lot of that in Europe
Speaker 2: where were people who buy Maseraties and Lamborghinis. They get
Speaker 2: hit with a healthy tax on top of that, you know,
Speaker 2: so you know, off of the cost of the car.
Speaker 2: And there could be you can have there's different ways
Speaker 2: to raise money. Look, and I love what I love
Speaker 2: JJ is the people who say people, the rich people
Speaker 2: should pay their fair share. And they just ask them
Speaker 2: what's their fair share?
Speaker 3: And I'm gonna I'm gonna petition you to get a
Speaker 3: guest on he's he's some sound Money defense league And
Speaker 3: basically they make they help legislators in every state, including
Speaker 3: Massachusetts or Taxachusets to start thinking about fiscal and UH
Speaker 3: monetary policy. They go together because if you talk about
Speaker 3: supporting firemen and police and all that necessary stuff, Well
Speaker 3: I I okay, but what's what's happening is we have
Speaker 3: a fiat currency that loses values, so we have to
Speaker 3: spend more money to take care of those departments, and
Speaker 3: we don't know it's it's not efficient. We have to
Speaker 3: we have to overhaul this whole thing.
Speaker 2: No, there's a lot of reform that is needed. But
Speaker 2: I just love it when you say you have people,
Speaker 2: you know, tax the rich, soak the rich. The next
Speaker 2: one's going to be eat the rich.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I have someone on my Facebook friend list
Speaker 3: that it keeps saying that, but you know it's it's
Speaker 3: not it's it's an emotional slogan. It makes them feel good,
Speaker 3: but in reality, it doesn't. It doesn't work. It just
Speaker 3: causes job creators, which the wealthy are right, you're not
Speaker 3: working for someone poorer than you, right, You're working with
Speaker 3: someone created your job and had the capital do it
Speaker 3: or the investment. We're driving them away. This is a
Speaker 3: failed state. I hate to say that about Massachusetts because
Speaker 3: I live here, but it's a failed state when you
Speaker 3: have to continue to soak people working people continue to
Speaker 3: take from them, and spend, spend, spend on stuff. They
Speaker 3: don't even know what you're spending on. We don't even know.
Speaker 2: We saw some of it, We saw some of the
Speaker 2: no big contracts that out of the shelter, and that
Speaker 2: has woken Governor Heally up. I think she's actually her
Speaker 2: eyes have now been open to that. My favorite is
Speaker 2: the guy that got the six million dollars no big contract,
Speaker 2: the cab company on the Cape. It's a lot of
Speaker 2: cab rides. For six million dollars. You could ride a
Speaker 2: cab probably all day long in the Cape and still
Speaker 2: have money left over.
Speaker 3: Remably, shouldn't be tacked in the rights to work, shouldn't
Speaker 3: be attacked seat. I think we need to have all
Speaker 3: mind shift in our culture about what the role of
Speaker 3: government should be, and then we can stop to solve
Speaker 3: these problems. Thank you for coming this topic.
Speaker 2: Then JJ, I should have I should have thought to
Speaker 2: dedicate the show to you. But but send me the
Speaker 2: information in that group. You got my email and I'll
Speaker 2: look into it. Thank you much.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, thank you appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Let me go to Terry down to the Cape. Terry,
Speaker 2: welcome back. How are you. How's everything? I bet it's
Speaker 2: cold in the Cape tonight, Terry. No beach beaches, beach
Speaker 2: activity this weekend's no, there's.
Speaker 5: No swimming down here. Damn. How are you I'm doing?
Speaker 2: I hope you'd have it.
Speaker 3: A good winter.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's not bad, honest. So I got a different
Speaker 5: spin on this a little bit because I am not
Speaker 5: an expert in state budgetary. It's too many storws for
Speaker 5: me to think of. But one of the things that
Speaker 5: bothers me the most is fraud and corruption. I recently
Speaker 5: learned that when Governor Sheerly took her oath of office
Speaker 5: to be governor, she inherited a three billion dollar payback
Speaker 5: to the federal government that's required.
Speaker 2: It was two point one billion dollars that was incurred
Speaker 2: under the Baker administration and.
Speaker 5: Now but it was three billion, but because they used
Speaker 5: COVID money to pay unemployment benefits, correct, and they shouldn't have.
Speaker 5: But Governor Baker, and excuse me, Governor Heally and her
Speaker 5: team successfully negotiated that down to two point five billion
Speaker 5: dollar payback over ten years. And then we have the
Speaker 5: crisis with the Catholic Church and all of those hospitals
Speaker 5: that went under because the Catholic Church direct restored them
Speaker 5: to a for profit institution to run hospitals so that
Speaker 5: they could make more money to pay out their nine
Speaker 5: hundred and eighty four million dollars settlement on the sexual
Speaker 5: abuse issues that are ongoing.
Speaker 2: It's amazing how all of these things have impacted internally.
Speaker 2: You've raised some great points. Unfortunately, I got fifteen seconds left.
Speaker 5: In the hour, and Dan, we got that tea that
Speaker 5: ran out under the premious administration, under that horrible storm
Speaker 5: they weren't prepared for, and that costs billions of dollars,
Speaker 5: and that's coming out of our pockets.
Speaker 4: Dan, you bet.
Speaker 2: You, you bet you. And it all comes down to
Speaker 2: incompetent leadership in one form or another. Terry, I gotta
Speaker 2: let you run. Stay warm this weekend, Okay, he in.
Speaker 5: Errig is it? Okay?
Speaker 2: Bye Dan, good night, bye bye. All right, we get back.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk about how to get better sleep.
Speaker 2: In the importance of sleep. I think there's going to
Speaker 2: be an interesting hour for everyone. No politics, everybody sleeps.
Speaker 2: We're coming back on Night Side