It’s no surprise that a few columnists such as Howie Carr like to stir up their audience with wildly exaggerated claims of wasted state spending, but that is no reason to gut the state budget and health care, education, social services, and public safety by removing 40 percent of state revenue.

In the interest of full disclosure I need to say that I teach history at Fitchburg State College, but I can also tell you that none of the people I personally work with is related to another state employee. I have also served on numerous hiring committees, and at no time has anyone been offered a position because of any personal or political connection. The faculty and staff at Fitchburg State College also serve the state and its residents. We help to educate students who serve as nurses, teachers, and police officers, and our graduates work in businesses across the state. We also have an outstanding communications program.

I’m sure we will hear a lot during the summer and fall from backers of the initiative about all the alleged mountains of wasteful spending, but the real money in the state budget goes for the basics: health care, education, social services (including the DMR), and public safety. There is no way to cut 40 percent or anything close to that out of the state budget without threatening the health care for hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts residents and putting communities across the state in the position of carrying out mass layoffs of teachers and other personnel or calling for the largest property tax overrides in history. ...