A number of our dedicated readers were up in arms yesterday because they worried that because the FY 2008 budget had been “sent to the printers,” it might not also be available online. Their fears seemed conceivable in the context of the Legislature’s disgraceful vote for “secret government” last week.
The lopsided fraction of the Massachusetts population that voted for Patrick can rest easy: the sun still shines on the Executive branch in Massachusetts, no matter how dark the night in the legislature: our budget will be available both online (at www.mass.gov/budget), and in printed form from Wednesday. A plugged-in blog-savvy administration official wanted you to know.
The web-based budget is promised to have a lot of new features compared to previous versions online, all designed to make the budget more transparent and useful. (His Expediency, for reference, ended distribution of printed copies of the budget entirely — and shut out members of the public who, for whatever reason, found a printed copy easier to use).
A limited number of printed budgets will be available at the State House, probably in the House Clerk’s office; if you have questions, call the Governor’s office at 617-725-4005 and ask where they can be collected.
Finally, His Excellency the Governor will announce his budget at a televised town hall meeting in Melrose Tuesday night. Details (and an attendance sign-up form) can be found on the Governor’s website. The event will be broadcast on NECN.
Now THAT is responsive government.
I saw the announcement of the Melrose Town Meeting for the Budget Announcement and I think this is an excellent idea – and true sunshine in goverment.
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Will this be on a specific cable channel, do you know, or network?
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I figure someone on this blog will know and post for everyone who is interested in that level of detail.
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I was also 100% certain the budget would “go up online” on 2/28/07 – just not exactly what time. In the last four years, the various budgets (the Governor’s House One, the House’s proposed Budget from Chairman DeLeo and the House Ways and Means Committee, and the Senate’s Proposed Budget from Chairman Murray and the Senate Ways and Means Committee) – Oh – and as a “FYI” after the House and Senate Ways and Means Committees post their budgets, there is always a window of opportunity for legislators to propose amendments. In recent years, these proposed amendments have been bunched together into consoligated amendments, and forged into adjustments behind closed doors to these two budgets.
Hello? đŸ˜›
for Mr. Patrick and his PR buds, although I would not be quite so quick as to label him “open and sunny.” It is a good idea to announce his budget at a town meeting. However, after having seen his persnickety and peevish response to questions last week…”open and sunny” seems to smack of shillery. The man doesn’t not like criticism of any kind…and don’t we know it.
Before people start smacking me, no, I am not a fan of Barbara Anderson’s positions on a lot of issues. She and her organization, Citizens for Limited Taxation, however, are in the middle of fight with the Administration over a public records request. She requested “copies of all reports submitted to the Governor relating to budget savings within their departments.” The Governor’s Deputy Chief Counsel, Michael J. Pineault denied the request and Anderson has filed an appeal of the denial with the Public Records Division of the Secretary of State’s Office. The Metrowest Daily News had a story about it over a week ago as did one of its sister newspapers, The Daily News Tribune.
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come up with an excuse for this one. I suppose this less-than-transparent response is something that Citizens for Limited Taxation “so richly deserves?”
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Honestly, kids – if you’re gonna smack around the Legislature for their “closed” government vote- then what about Deval? Public records….are public records.
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While I have never been a fan of CLT (Chip and I have had “words” over CLT’s simplistic view of municipal finance and service delivery) this seems fairly basic.
When the request was denied, the budget was not done. Therefore, the exception for interim policy development documents clearly applied. QED. Its possible that the exception no longer applies once the budget is released.
In any event, the exemption does not mean you must not release the record requested; it means you can decide not to release. The Patrick Administration decided not to release, without further explanation than citing the exemption. I expect more from them. The Deputy Counsel could have said something about the budget not being released yet, etc. I am doubtful that they will release the requested records once the budget is released, but I will hope for the best.
…for which fiscal cycle will this budget be? I’m surprised that Patrick could put together a budget only a few weeks after having been inaugurated.
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I recognize that departments are continually doing budgeting, but this seems a bit quick.
fiscal year 2008 (so from July 1, 2007 to June 30, 2008).
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I’m sure Gov. Patrick’s budget team was burning the midnight oil over the last few weeks, because it’s true that it isn’t a whole lot of time to put it together. A lot of it (at least the non-controversial parts) will simply be level-funded or (if applicable) receive an inflationary bump. However, the tough part is 1) deciding what new line-items to include and fund and 2) picking through the (seemingly) millions of organizations looking for an increase and deciding which ones should get it. If there’s any major changes to how the budget is done, then I’d be particularly impressed with them getting it done in only a few weeks.
Link.
…I can only conclude that Patrick’s proposed budget will be a provisional one, but, since the state is really run from the legislature (as it should be, and as it is in many parliamentary democracies) he had a lot of input from the legislature.
…I recieved a voice mail yesterday from Governor Patrick’s office. A gentleman called to thank me for submitting a concern via the Send Us Your Ideas page on Governor Patrick’s website.
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I was thanked for sharing my concern regarding the HPV vaccine and was told my idea was to be passed on to Governor Patrick’s health advisors.
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It’s amazing how “engaged” I actually felt simply by someone picking up the phone, using my name and thanking me, acknowledging my specific idea, and stating that it would be passed along.
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Even if my idea was immeadiately trhown in the recycle bin, it felt good to be acknowledged; this practice will serve the administration well.