National Affairs: Wrath in Massachusetts

From Faneuil Hall back across Massachusetts, taxpayers howled their indignation last week; seldom since the Boston Tea Party had there been such a civic outcry. The target of public wrath: new pensions for old pols.

The pensions were slyly slipped into law last July during the chaotic windup of the state legislature. They were spotted," weeks later, by the Massachusetts Federation of Taxpayers Associations, a privately sponsored research group. Among the findings:

¶Pension payments to state legislators were handsomely increased, and the system was broadened to make anyone who had ever served in...