If the Herald Reports It, It Must Be True

I know that this is very un-Democrat of Governor Deval Patrick, but it looks like he may pass an anti-union measure aimed at saving the taxpayers of Massachusetts money. Cadillac Deval is throwing his support behind using civilian flagmen at construction sites in lieu of uniformed police officers, many of whom receive overtime pay for the details. 86ing the boys in blue in favor of flagmen is projected to save the Commonwealth $5 million a year. However, the real winners here will be the state's elected officials. Just think of how many relatives and campaign donors they'll be able to find cushy flagmen jobs for.

This probably won't surprise you, but Massachusetts is the only state in the entire country to mandate that uniformed police officers be present on construction sites. I live in Canton, where they've been digging up the old sidewalks in the center of town and laying down new ones for over a year (they're still not close to done). The new sidewalks are wider than the old ones which eliminated a lot of street parking. As a result traffic getting into Washington Street from Cobbs Corner and I-95 is a nightmare because the streets are a lot narrower due to the parking situation. However, since nothing interesting ever happens in a sleepy hamlet like Canton, the town deploys at least 2 police officers to hang out in the center of town to literally do nothing. They don't direct traffic. They don't assist people to a parking spot so they can get out of their cars and support downtown merchants. I don't recall ever seeing an officer apprehend a criminal. They do, however, get paid over $40/hour to drink lots of coffee and back up traffic by making small talk with townies.

If police officers in this state were proactive in directing traffic and making me feel safe, I'd be all in favor of letting them keep their beat. However, watching them sun themselves and listen to their iPods while I sit in maddening traffic in Canton Center of all places makes me wonder what their exact purpose is. As someone who pays almost $8,000 a year in sales, property, gas, and income taxes to the town of Canton and the state of Massachusetts, I am enraged when I watch my money being frittered away by special interests.

When all is said and done in the talentless wasteland we fondly refer to as the Massachsuetts State Legislature, civilian flagmen will probably go from a $5 million cost savings to a $5 million cost overrun. Personally though, I don't really care. Watching local police get paid to do nothing is the equivalent of trying to get good customer service from a salesgirl that is too busy filing her nails and talking on the phone to deal with you. It's all about appearances and Deval Patrick is sure to score a few brownie points with his lame attempt to show the tax payer that he's serious about taxpayer cost savings.