Murphy defends his vote on Prop 2-1/2 change

I spoke to Lowell’s State Representative Kevin Murphy tonite at the School Committee meeting regarding his vote a couple weeks ago on house bill 2840/4534 that would exclude some seniors from having to pay proposition 2-1/2 overrides voted for in their community.

Citizen’s for Limited Taxation put out another alert today.

Rep Murphy noted that this bill is clearly a “local option,” meaning each town and city would get to choose for themselves whether to accept it or not:

“The people in the towns often are concerned and come to me about state mandates. I saw this as an opportunity to let them decide for themselves on a local option.”

I get it. I can see his point. It sort of eases things up a little for the representatives if someone comes to complain about state mandates yet they had not accepted this bill that would have made it easier to pass overrides.

I did emphasize to him, however, that I don’t think the legislature should touch proposition 2-1/2. Even a small thing like a local option that only exempts a few low-income elderly is still one step towards losing it all.

Update: Lowell Sun reports