Woo-love and pay raises.

"Let’s give MBTA executives the benefit of the doubt and assume that it may never have occurred to them that anyone would be in a rush to get to Worcester."

Boston Globe Columnist Brian McGrory took a funny but easy shot at Worcester with his column's opening line on March 2nd. I'm happy Brian McGrory accepted Rick Rushton's offer to find out more about Worcester and gave us a little love in the Hub's paper today (03/23/11). I'm not going to write any more glowing words about Worcester or about the trip, despite my secret desire to someday 'earn' a scathing shakedown from Will W.W.

I enjoyed UMass Chancellor Michael Collins' quote about Worcester:

"We arrived at the UMass Medical School, where I found myself with Chancellor Michael Collins, the street-smart academician who surely had kept his wits about him over his years here. “I like every bit of it,’’ he said. Oh, Michael. “What takes three years to get done in Boston takes three months here.’"

Was he referring to his new house and his new pay raise to compensate for losing his housing allowance? During this current age of fiscal restraint and belt tightening, why should the UMass chancellor receive a $60,000 raise to compensate for his 'loss' of a $32,000 housing allowance and taking a hit on his taxes for living rent free in a house valued at over $750,000? Chancellor Collins has done an excellent job in his time at UMass Worcester, but he made $524,300. He wasn't suffering, or living paycheck to paycheck.

None of the employees of the medical school receive a raise when Congress and the Obama Administration passed their tax compromise last December. The continued reduction in taxes for 2011 came out of every worker's Social Security deduction. State workers don't pay Social Security taxes because they pay into the Massachusetts pension plan, so they saw their taxes went up in January. Perhaps outgoing UMass President Jack Wilson should be kind enough to ensure that every employee receives the same courtesy that was accorded to Chancellor Collins.

Today's lesson: The less you make, the less you receive from our government, while the more you make, the more you undeservedly receive from our government.