Question 1

There's a story in tomorrow's Fitchburg Pride about Question 1. You've probably heard about it, you might have even seen the ads on the old TV in the last few days.

There's bad ideas, and there's really bad ideas. Question 1 is a really bad idea.

You're in one of two camps on this one: State government is way bloated and they need to learn a lesson. Or, this will destroy services and probably lead to higher property taxes.

State government is probably bloated, and has some waste in it, even legislators admit to that on this one. But $12 billion? I don't think so. And as the fine folks at MTF point out, the Yes folks are delirious with their $48B state budget figure. It's closer to $31B.

Mass Taxpayer Foundation figures after the state makes payments it has to make and does what it has to do to get federal funding, everything else in state government would get a 70 percent cut. Holy cow, the sky is falling.

The biggest problem with Question 1 is there's no moderation. It would make perfect sense to get the Legislature to lower the tax rate from 5.3 to 5 percent, like it was supposed to a long time ago. It would even make some sense to devise a long-term plan to lower it to 4 percent or something.

But knocking it all out in two years is a recipe for disaster. Education funding and local aid would take a pretty severe cut. And if Q1 were the pass, why would there be any appetite for an override (over/under for a Fitchburg override the first year, $5 million. Like that would ever pass)?

There are a lot of folks in the city (and who comment here), who are frustrated by the library changes, the lack of raises for police and the lack of cops of street. They're not pleased to hear the Fire Department might be closing a station. That would likely be the tip of the iceberg if Question 1 were to pass.

The same question got 45 percent of the vote in 2002, and a majority of voters in Fitchburg voted in favor. But the question was ignored then because opponents thought it was so crazy that no one would vote for it. But they overestimated the wisdom of the electorate. And this go-around, people are a lot more pissed off about the economy and their state of affairs than six years ago.

So, ironically, the big money is rolling in for the no campaign, which will be well past $2 million when it's all said and done. In the meantime, the yes folks are hanging their hopes on public bloodlust and misleading figures (like the total budget number, and the infamous "41 percent of the state budget is waste" line, which was actually a poll result, not any kind of real budget analysis), and about $20 to their name (not really $20, but you know what I mean).

I told one of my friends who works in the Legislature a few weeks ago that might vote yes on 1 just to watch the chaos and see what they'd do. He wasn't pleased. And in the end, there's nothing funny about Question 1.

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Quickly, on last night's debate: McCain was somewhere between aggressive and over-the-top angry. I thought there were times he was so angry that he couldn't talk right. It was his best debate performance, but I'm not sure it did him a ton of good. Obama was on the defensive, but defended well enough. If anything, McCain should have given both barrels at the last debate, and then either come back with similar last night or -- more likely -- found a middle ground of looking ahead while smacking Obama again. Too little, too late.

Sometime soon, like in the next week or so, one of two things is probably going to happen. The polls will reflect that Obama peaked too soon, and this thing will tighten up quickly, or Obama will hold onto his leads and they will firm up to the point that he'll cruise to the presidency. I'm not sure McCain did enough last night for that performance to change things, but we'll see, I guess.