Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Adrian Walker has some luv for Ken Donnelly..

In his current column.
I don't think Adrian gets out enough though, otherwise he'd know that the 4th Middlesex state senate district is mostly presented by Ed Markey not Nikki Tsongas. Oh and Ken Donnelly was a fire lieutenant in Lexington not Arlington, last I heard...
Honestly, does anyone fact check anything anymore at the Boston Globe?

The great irony of Ken Donnelly's political life is that one of the few topics that he can discuss with complete mastery is public pensions. Last fall you couldn't shut him up about pension obligations, bond ratings and all that folderol.
Now suddenly in the current race he is compelled to discuss the possibility of widespread corruption in the BFD's disability retirement program....life is funny that way.
Walker includes this observation in the above column:
Firefighter fraud is not an issue in the Fourth Middlesex District. Donnelly is running on a platform of more support for education and the environment.
Maybe so, but a bodybuilder retiree with a "bad back" makes everyone collecting a disability pension for real look bad...something Donnelly has freely admitted to anyone who has asked.
Seems to me that Ken Donnelly is in a unique position based on his experience and training to offer the state senate a number of practical options with respect to disability pension reform. Simply looking at this as a local problem is begging the point, if big public money is involved then better more rigorous oversight is clearly needed.
Donnelly should talk about this from a legislative perspective...if he doesn't then maybe Jack Hurd will. But as of right now, no matter what either man may think, it is an issue and something that must needs be addressed. It is stories like this that fuel the "abolish the income tax" craziness.

Je's sayin' thass all.

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