Hoof in Mouth Award

You really have to give the "Hoof in Mouth" award to Lt. Governor Kerry Healy. Ms. Healy, who hails from toney, "horsey", oh-so- propah Beverly Farms - really stepped in it last week with this comment about property tax breaks for seniors:

Boston Globe, 3/22

"My opinion is that to extend tax breaks to seniors in order to keep them overhoused and isolated in the suburbs is not necessarily the right answer," Healey told a State House News Service reporter two weeks ago, in an interview that was made public yesterday. "It's an answer, but the best answer would be to bring them into our city and town centers, into more appropriate housing, and free up those properties to get back on the tax rolls of the community."

Raked over the coals by newspapers and news radio alike, Kerry Healey reveals with this comment that she is every bit the disconnected, silver spoon Republican that her detractors say she is. It is hard to imagine a local official in Everett, given the level of commitment this city has demonstrated to elderly housing, would ever come up with such a callous statement as this. Is this really how it is for the affluent? I wonder if she thought her own grandmother was "overhoused," or are you never really "overhoused" as long as you have a trust fund?

The fact of the matter is that property taxes have risen across the Commonwealth, and many elderly are struggling to pay these bills. If this pathetically out-of-touch with reality response is the best that our Lt. Governor can do - then we're in a lot of trouble. Declining state aid and increasing fixed costs all contribute to higher property tax bills. Of course, this is the same woman who came to Everett at the Governor's request to lower the boom on local aid in the middle of FY 2003. Everett lost $750,000 dollars in state aid that year.

Are you really surprised by Kerry Healy's lack of feeling toward the elderly? We're not.