The State of Negativity!
The State of Negativity!
A Cape Codder reads the morning headlines from Beacon Hill and finds the same chapter every day — the one where ordinary families do the lifting and someone else does the celebrating.
Every day in Massachusetts feels like waking up to another reading from the Book of Negativity.
We’re told our state is among the worst in the nation to start a small business. Think about that for a moment. If small businesses — the engine of local economies — can barely survive here, what chance do young families have trying to build a life?
The Warning Signs Are Everywhere
Everyday Math Is Broken
Our everyday costs run above the national average. Gas prices remain among the highest. Childcare costs are crushing — even in a state flooded with daycare providers, many of them receiving taxpayer support.
When the basics start punching above their weight, the people getting hit hardest are the ones who can least afford to take the swing.
Taxes Multiply Like Rabbits
Hidden, Stacked, and Mysteriously Permanent
And taxes? They’re multiplying like rabbits at a lettuce convention. Worse, they’re often hidden — tucked into fees, excise hikes, assessments, and “temporary” measures that somehow outlive houseplants.
Young families trying to buy their first home, raise children, and save for the future aren’t asking for miracles. They’re asking for breathing room.
Young families aren’t asking for miracles. They’re asking for breathing room.
Where Is the Relief?
This Isn’t a Wish List. It’s a Short List.
A handful of common-sense moves would put real money back in real households tomorrow:
- A temporary suspension of the gas tax while families are getting squeezed at the pump.
- The same tax relief on tips and overtime that other states are giving their workers, so Massachusetts earners actually keep more of what they earn.
- An end to treating ordinary consumer purchases — candy, juice boxes, daily necessities — as untapped government revenue streams.
- A pause on another round of excise hikes stacked on top of last year’s, when families are still trying to put together a down payment.
Instead, the welcome mat on Beacon Hill looks less like an invitation and more like an obstacle course. Businesses looking to invest here keep getting handed the same answer: maybe, eventually, after another study.
Inversion, Not Balance
Private Jobs Down. Public Payrolls Up.
Private-sector employment in Massachusetts continues to slide while public-sector payrolls swell to historic highs. That raises a fair question: is the growth in government jobs a response to genuine need — or a way to soften the political optics of rising unemployment in the private sector?
That’s not balance. That’s inversion.
Day 541 — Still Dark
Voters Said Yes. Beacon Hill Said “Later.”
If you want one last measure of how upside-down things feel these days, look at the calendar. Down here on Cape Cod, we’re now 541 days into a voter-mandated audit of state spending — still waiting, still staring at the Beacon Hill trust fund like it’s a lighthouse that forgot how to shine.
At some point, even the most patient Cape Codder stops calling it a delay and starts calling it what it feels like — a long, echoing silence from the people who promised transparency.
The people of Massachusetts are no longer asking politely for change. We are demanding it. Because change is no longer optional. It’s overdue.