By: Elizabeth Dionne – 9-26
Twelve-year incumbent Deb Goldberg must go! She has announced plans to beat former Treasurer Bob Crane’s 27-year tenure, but she can’t articulate why voters should give her 16 more years—which would make her 88 when she finally retires.
State Treasurer is the fourth most powerful state office, after the House Speaker, Senate President, and Governor. The Treasurer manages nearly 20% of the state budget and oversees $151 billion in state debt and $129 billion in pension investment funds.
Massachusetts needs a Treasurer who remembers that every dollar comes from a taxpayer’s pocket!
Goldberg claims that she “loves” being Treasurer, but actions speak louder than words. She loves the power and the perks—but not the job itself.
She spends months out of each year in her third home in Florida, treats the office like her personal slush fund, and is now being sued by fellow Democrat Shannon O’Brien for whistleblower and civil rights violations.
Goldberg is out-of-the-office, out-of-state, and out-of-touch. Despite 12 years in office, only 23% of voters know who she is. Heir to the Stop & Shop fortune, she has never struggled to pay a bill. She owns multi-million-dollar homes in Brookline, Mashpee, and Palm Beach.
According to Ballotpedia, Goldberg receives an annual state salary of $260,637, more than three times the average Massachusetts salary of $83,050. My parents taught me to do an honest day’s work, but Goldberg rarely shows up to the office in person. She attends meetings by Zoom or telephone from her gated golf community in Mashpee or luxury apartment complex in Palm Beach.
As the fifth of 10 children, I have a very different background! My parents gave me love, faith, and education, but I worked from a young age to support myself. My husband grew up on a farm, which he ran as a teen-ager with his single mother. Massachusetts has been good to us, but we haven’t forgotten our roots. I still clip grocery coupons, and my husband insists on driving a 20-year-old minivan.
I don’t begrudge anyone their wealth. I hope everyone achieves their American dream! But that dream is dying in Massachusetts. We are now the most expensive state in the nation, with the worst-performing economy (50th in job growth and economic development). We have an affordability crisis, the result of one-party rule on Beacon Hill.
My husband and I have four adult children who cannot afford to live and raise their children here in Massachusetts—and neither can their friends or classmates. Young adults are fleeing the state, because they cannot see a future in which they thrive. Losing our tax base is driving us toward a fiscal cliff, where we no longer have sufficient tax revenue to support state programs and local services.
Waste in the 13 departments of the Treasurer’s Office contributes to our cost-of-living crisis, because heavy state spending comes out of your family’s budget, making Massachusetts less affordable. Careless Lottery spending in the Treasurer’s Office decreases the unrestricted local aid that can come back to cities and towns. Less local aid means higher property taxes to fund education, police, fire, streets, sidewalks, and water infrastructure.
Our campaign has identified tens of millions of dollars in wasteful spending in Goldberg’s office. This includes hundreds of thousands of dollars for luxury meals and extravagant out-of-state travel for Lottery employees. It also includes expensive rental space for the Lottery, which the Treasurer moved from Braintree to Dorchester to score a political vendetta against State Representative Mark Cusack.
Goldberg has also failed to defend the state-run pension investment fund. The fund currently stands at $129 billion, but there is a gap of $29-$57 billion (depending on how you count it). Taxpayers must fund that gap. This past summer, Governor Healey tried to raid $100 million from the pension fund, money that would never come back. I fought this raid, writing letters and testifying in person on Beacon Hill.
Goldberg was nowhere to be seen.
Three years ago, Goldberg falsely accused fellow Democrat Shannon O’Brien of racism, in a politically motivated attempt to oust O’Brien from the Cannabis Control Commission. Two years of litigation followed, in which Goldberg wasted another $1 million taxpayer dollars to persecute O’Brien. A judge ultimately ruled that Goldberg’s racism charge was “built on a house of cards”.
Now O’Brien is suing Goldberg for violating the whistleblower statute and her civil rights. Taxpayers could be on the hook for another $3 million, all due to Goldberg’s arrogance and dishonesty.
Twelve years is enough! It is time to fire the incumbent and hire someone new. I ask for your vote on November 3rd to elect a Taxpayers’ Treasurer who will fight for affordability and transparency. I support the audit and will fight to return more local aid to cities and towns—and you, the taxpayers. ◊