Treasurer candidates trade barbs over Mattapan murders, spending bill

Steve Grossman, the Democratic candidate for treasurer, slammed his Republican opponent on Thursday for stopping a spending bill from moving on Beacon Hill.

Grossman called state Rep. Karyn Polito’s move “obstructionist” and said it was stopping the flow of funds to the State Police, who are involved in the Mattapan murder investigation. Polito shot back that Grossman was politicizing the murders.

According to the State House News Service, Polito, a Shrewsbury Republican running for treasurer, again blocked the $400 million bill, decrying the "Beacon Hill culture" and saying the bill should be "debated, discussed, and amendable.”

"We’ve got four people laying on the streets of Mattapan the other day dead because of crime in our society,” Grossman told the News Service. “We need to make sure we take care of public safety and first responders. Yes, have a public debate. But don’t just stand up there and stand in the way of it as an election year, grandstanding move.”

Polito responded in a statement, accusing Grossman of politicizing the murders.

"For Steve Grossman to politicize the murders of four people for his own selfish political ends is despicable," she said. "It's well known that Steve Grossman supports higher spending and more taxes, but that does not mean those opposed to his tax-and-spend views are somehow complicit in the murders that took place in Mattapan this week."

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