To the Editor,
Last March the Watertown Republican Town Committee endorsed Geoff Diehl for United States Senate. So I was thrilled to read that our Republican State Committeeman Steve Aylward, is personally endorsing Geoff Diehl. Steve is a longtime respected Watertown resident, who has served community for decades in many capacities. His opinion on these matters should weigh heavy on us as we select our nominee to run against Elizabeth Warren.
Geoff has done more for Massachusetts than Senator Warren has done in her time in the Senate. He saved us from automatic gas tax hikes and we have avoided three such gas tax hikes since, due to his efforts.
I can only imagine how much Geoff Diehl can accomplish as our next Senator.
Goeff has already put out several comprehensive plans outlining how he will fight the opioid epidemic and help our veterans. Warren has no plans. Her agenda is simply to feather her nest on the way to running for President.
I am going with Steve Aylward’s recommendation. I am voting for Geoff Diehl for U.S. Senator.
Scott Hand
Watertown Resident
It’s funny how the supporters of Geoff Diehl selectively present their facts. Perhaps Geoff Diehl did help Steve Aylward roll back gas tax indexing, but at the same time they deprived those who use the MBTA of much needed funds to fix the T. So if you live in Watertown and use the MBTA, the next time your bus is forty minutes late, you can thank Mssrs. Aylward and Diehl for your misery.
I submit that if you use and care about public transportation, particularly as a remedy for urban area traffic and congestion, then Geoff Diehl is NOT your candidate. And if his signal “achievement” is trashing a funding source for public transport, then his resume is thin and uninspiring indeed.
The tax repeal was not about depravation of funding to any budget allocation. It was about the citizens’ rights to fair burden and representation. The gas tax indexing bill was an insidious law that should have never been allowed to stand. Any law that can change or morph itself without due legislative process is dangerous and is a direct threat to the liberty and freedoms of the people. That law was clearly “taxation without representation”. That is a first step toward tyranny. It was a major grievance of the colonists who started the American Revolution that gave birth to a free nation. Taxing all drivers in the state to subsidize a wasteful mismanaged transportation system that most will never use is unfair. What would be next, an automatic increasing state income tax? Gas tax revenue is another state slush fund that gets siphoned for many expenditures that are unrelated to road and transportation infrastructures. The taxes in MA are high and burdensome. The increasingly wasteful spending is angering. Many simply want to keep more of what they work hard to earn. We don’t need or want taxes increasing on their own without due process. Remember, the people of MA cannot vote themselves pay raises as our state legislators can do and have done. Geoff Diehl did not repeal the graduated gasoline tax, more than one half of Massachusetts voters did. Geoff Diehl supports limited government and taxation. He will have my vote.
Sorry DM, but your rationale is a lot of unsubstantiated drivel. The legislature after many years found consensus on how to properly fund the MBTA and to keep the gas tax up to date, which it had not been kept current. Indexing the gas tax would not be taxation without representation. I think that this was misrepresented to the voters. And it is just an excuse not to fund transit.
If you live in Watertown, you benefit from the MBTA. Can you imagine all those who use the service in our town having to use cars instead? Think that we have a traffic problem now? It sounds to me like you want the benefit for our town, but you don’t care to pay for it.
You don’t like waste and mismanagement? Neither do I. But campaign against that instead of being hostile to public transit and a reasonable gas tax.