Did you know...
That I got an invitation to a conference that included a workshop on "How a wife can assist her husband as he serves in public office?"
Can you guess why I didn't attend?
That, since 1991, Massachusetts has had 21 tax cuts?
That cutting the income tax rate back to five percent would put approximately $1.4 billion back in the pockets of thousands of Massachusetts family and create some 50,000 new jobs?
That Tupperware started in Farnumsville, Massachusetts?
That there are 55,000 people living in the 508 nursing homes in Massachusetts?
And that half of them have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's?
That Hampden County businesses have received $1.84 million in grants from the Workforce Training Fund to train their employees? And that $565,500 came to Westfield companies?
That Massachusetts' Poison Control Center takes more than 200 calls a day? That most--57 percent--involve children under 6.
That our cities and towns are receiving record increases in state aid, including more than a 9 percent increase in Westfield this year?
That state spending for public schools since 1993 has increased 99.1 percent? And that cities and towns are getting 100.7 percent more in lottery aid than they did in 1993?
That the Westfield Retirement Board has assets of $87-million?
That one in five Massachusetts adults--that's 877,000--are functionally illiterate, meaning they cannot read or write above the fifth grade level?
That Massachusetts has the third highest housing prices in the country? And that home priced have risen 233 percent since 1980?
That, if nothing changes, our state's prison system will operate at 181 percent of capacity by 2004? That county prisons are already 4,000 inmates over capacity? That 30 percent of our inmates are back in jail within a year of release?
That the Representative in the next office bounces balls off the wall and that it drives me crazy?
That you can dial *SP, or *77, on your cellphone to report an impaired or reckless driver? Or than more than 30 percent of those killed in alcohol related crashes are persons other than the impaired driver?
That the Secretary of State has free booklets, "Investment Scams: What Con Artists Don't Want You to Know" available if you just call him at 617/727-3548.
That there is only one crime per 1.2-million ATM transactions?
That our new bridge over the Westfield River will cost about $30-million? Or that it would cost $1-million just to paint the old one?
That just about every state agency and department is ready for Y2K? Except the legislature. That if you send me e-mail you'd best ask for confirmation to be sure I got it in the State House?
That 9 percent of Massachusetts families live in poverty? That 48 percent of Massachusetts Latino families live in poverty?
That 71 percent of the Massachusetts minimum wage workers are 20 or older?
That 20 percent of the people admitted to Harvard don't go? How unhappy my husband was (Brown '61) when our daughter turned down her Brown acceptance?
That 22 percent of parents said they've done their kids homework because the kid was too tired or the homework was too hard? How many kids do poorly on the MCAS tests?
That women make up 25 percent of your legislature?
That New England's Journal of Higher Education and Economic Development calls college-community relations "Doing the tango with a jellyfish?"
That former Governor Bill Weld has written another book?
Just some of the things you learn by reading your mail in the State House.