The Boston Herald editorialized about it this way on Friday:
the taxpayers do expect their elected leaders to produce a responsible and balanced budget, especially in these tight fiscal times.
As long as Patrick insists on balancing his budget plan with up to $800 million that may never materialize, well, he’ll be even more of a footnote to that discussion.
As the Herald said,a “symbolic budget won’t pay the bills.” I know that I can’t balance my checkbook with the hypothetical revenue I’ll get from the scratch ticket on my desk, let alone pay my rent with it. Why, why do this with our state budget?
Clearly, this is a political move designed to prod the Legislature to act on the Gov’s proposal. But is this move just going to make them angry? I get that the Gov. is trying to get his casino proposal through, but this just isn’t responsible budgeting. The hypothetical one-time casino fees are being proposed as a way to make up for Lottery shortfall to cities and towns. The fact that the Lottery is not stable over time and needs propping up is a good indicator that gambling revenue isn’t dependable. And so we prop it up with more gambling revenue? Seems like we’re chasing a bad idea with a worse one. Is the next move to import Texas’s fifty dollar scratch ticket?
I’m disappointed. This is not the kind of thing that we should be doing in Massachusetts. Where’s the forward-looking leadership?
Governor Patrick did submit a balanced budget with no one time funding mechanisms last year. What did it get him? A shite load of complaints on not following through campaign promises and a budget after the legislature was through with it that was (and still is) out of balance with a $400 million (?) structural deficit.
Good point, Jim. I complimented him on the FY 08 budget.
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p>The casino revenue proposal for FY 09 was described as,
by Michael Widmer, Director of Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation at the MMA meeting. The crowd (mayors, city councillors, selectmen) were very opposed to the proposal to include casino fees in the budget. It makes every town and city budget process harder. Screwing with the lottery/local aid is really cynical given the very tough situation faced by our communities.
showed his trued character even before day one in office.
http://wbztv.com/topstories/De…
It is I guess what the people of this state deserve.
why not? What, is Harvard going to relocate?
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p>And cut university research budgets.
We give tax credits for tuition today, dollar for dollar off the tax bill, if the household income is under certain levels. How about a corresponding tax on the tuition if income is above certain levels? Like, just continue the curve into negative credits? It’s untapped riches: if enough families can afford to send their kids to the most expensive schools, which appears to be true, they can afford to pay a few thousand more to the government. The schools are getting a huge amount of money from taxpayers who will never go to them. We should at least offset that with revenue from people that can afford it, if not make it a positive net.