Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

House budget went online at noon – see link

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Here is the link:  http://www.mass.gov/legis/10bu…

I suggest reading the Executive Summary.  Frankly, I am impressed.  Despite having a shorter than usual time frame, Rep. Charles Murphy, the new Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee has done a remarkable job, working Herculean hours to craft a budget which is austere, but truly protects the vulnerable.

I especially appreciate the restoration of autism services funding, funding for legal orphans and the “turning 22” programming, and daycare for children involved in a number of ways with state agencies.

Anyway, check it out.  I consider the Executive Summary a masterful document.

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  1. Guess it all depends on whose program is being gored … heard from a lot of people scrambling for amendments relating to public health cuts and a number of other items.  Let’s wait until the full accounting is in.

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    p>Also interested as a Boston resident by the budget folding in “additional assistance”, which favors older cities, with lottery aid, which doesn’t.

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    p>Interesting that another Regionalization Commission is being set up, worked with the last one established by Senate President Birmingham.  Many good recommendations that wouldn’t fly in the Legislature.

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    p>The Committee did not have an easy task, now we’ll see where the full body wants to go with it.

  2. Hi all,

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    p>I want to preface this email by saying that I actually voted for Deval, thinking he would represent a great departure from the right wing tendencies of the previous republican administrations.

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    p>However, this administration has proven to be every bit as cold hearted as Romney was.

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    p>Say what you will about Romney but he did manage to balance the budget without raising taxses(yes, I know he raised fees) and without laying off state workers.

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    p>This guy on the other hand is laying off state workers and adding to a growing unemployment problem and raising fees like commuter rail parking and he wants to jack up the gas tax. Do I even need to mention tolls.

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    p>Now before anyone hops on the ” it’s the national economy” sob story band wagon, remember one thing: This guy worked for Ameriquest and hence the industry that is primarily responsible for making this recession far worse than it other wise would have been if it even would have occured at all.

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    p>Quite Frankly, I place a lot of the blame on all you clowns who supported this guy over other candidates like Tom Reilly who had a much better understading of what working men and women go through.

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    p>I’ll take it a step further and say that if Shannon O’Brien who I campaigned for had been elected in 2002, we wouldn’t have had this clown in office today becouse She would have seen this job as more of an opportunity to serve the state, rather than pad a resume like Deval and Mitt did.

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    p>I’d love to hear from anyone who is willing to defend this clown.  

    • So it’s Deval’s fault that the economy is much worse now than in 2002 because he once worked in the financial sector… um, okay.  And anyone how supported him in the primary is a “clown”.

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      p>Come back when you’re ready to have a serious discussion.

    • Romney took a much smaller recession as an excuse to slash services and local aid in a big way, then failed to restore them during several years of economic growth.  Throughout that time, he showed little sign of actually paying attention to the details of the budget.

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      p>We’ve got a much bigger recession now, plus the structural problem of tax rates that were already too low, and the state’s revenue estimate has literally been dropping by billions.  Deval Patrick’s administration took significantly more care and worked harder than Romney ever tried to, but they’re faced with a much worse situation.

  3. No point commenting so quickly as to be full of malaprops.  What is a malaprop – go to:

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    p>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M…

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    p>Seriously, though, just making sour noises and name calling is not helpful.  Whether the Gov. was Reilly, OBrien, or Mihos – the economy is the problem, not the Gov.

  4. It shows balls, something sorely lacking by the Gov right now.  Hitting the Quinn Bill, the GIC contributions, and other sacred cows.  Keep it up!  

    • but what leaps out at me is the 30% + local aid cuts without the meals tax or any other kind of revenue stream for towns of offset the hit.  Very poor and shortsighted.

  5. This budget harms urban communities like Springfield. The cuts mentioned in the Globe article have a disproportionate impact.

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    p>Cutting local aid by 32% will harm poorer urban communities that depend on local aid more than wealthier communities that rely on property taxes. Springfield will lose $14.3 million from this category — the equivalent of about 300 employee salaries.

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    p>Cutting funding for the Quinn Bill doesn’t seem to be the same as eliminating the Quinn Bill — it sounds like the communities will still be obliged to pay the money, they will just have to take from other areas to pay it. In Springfield’s case, that is a $1.9 million cut, amounting to about 32 cops.

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    p>Cutting Shannon Grants means that there will be less gang prevention — more gang activity.

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    p>Springfield has had a state-sponsored Finance Control Board in place for the past 5 years — 3 under Romney, 2 under Patrick. These people have squeezed every last cent of efficiency out of the city’s budget — even the first bulldog-like Executive Director finally admitted that our problems were a lack of revenue, not overspending. So how do we cut $16 million from the non-school part of the budget?

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    p>Say what you want about Deval Patrick, but if I had to choose between him and the House, I’d pick him every time. The legislature doesn’t seem to be that concerned about all residents of this state.

    • I’d like to see confirmation that a 32% cut in local aid will, in fact, result in a 32% cut to aid for every community.

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      p>Is it possible that the local aid cuts will be mostly aimed at Weston, Wellesley and their ilk, while largely sparing Springfield, Lawrence, et al?

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      p>Or is this a strict across-the-board percentage cut?

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      p>Anybody know for sure?

      • From a Stand for Children alert

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        p>

        Yesterday the House Ways & Means Committee released its proposed FY2010 Massachusetts state budget and the news is grim.  Read below to learn how this will impact our schools and communities and what you can do to help.

        Next year’s local aid for general government services is slashed by 32% from original FY2009 levels (25% after the Governor’s mid-year cuts). Chapter 70 aid for public schools is frozen at FY09 levels, which means no growth for inflation or increases in enrollment or to fix foundation funding inequities. And cuts to state reimbursements for special education and regional school transportation will further squeeze local budgets.

        This means that all of our cities and towns will struggle next year to provide essential school and municipal services with dwindling resources. We are facing widespread layoffs of teachers, firefighters, police, librarians; cuts to services, cuts to school curriculum, and school closings. The gap is too big to be filled by Federal stimulus funds alone – and those funds are only a temporary bandaid, anyway.

  6. the Governor is willing to give some local taxing authority…a campaign promise he has followed through on. But it looks like the legislature says no. So no new local revenue plus further cuts to local aid and you will see tons of layoffs around July 1.

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    p>Interesting that the House will not use any further rainy day funds and then cuts local aid. So cities and towns that have a little reserve will need to use that and still face layoffs and other cuts. While I appreciate the support for some human services pointed out by Amber…there are going to be library and senior center and social work cutbacks galore in local communities.

    • It is for the Committee on Revenue, chaired by Rep. Kaufman of Lexington to work out new sources of revednue.  

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      p>Chairman Murphy’s authority was only to allocate whic h he spent enormous time and care on doing, to protect those who cannot protect themselves.  That IS how it looks to me.

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      p>Each committee has its own role and legislating by earmarks is OUT.  Mostly!

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      p>Given that Chairman Murphy had only two months or so in the role, following the authority he was given without over stepping boundaries was absolutely correct.

        • “The budget allocates – legislation is separate” with a fair degree of success.  It really is too much to try and do everything at once – and I don’t want to go back to major legislation sliding by in outside sections without hearings.

      • that is insert  tax reform into the budget debate. And, accornding to the rules that debate and vote will be taken on the first day of the budget debate April 27 as they consider many amendments to the revenue section.

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        p>Without additional revenues amendments will be limited to earmarks within line items and add no money, but rather take it from some body else paid out of that line item. Traditionally administration staff. (I remember amendments that took the lawyers from Department of social serices and paid more social workers. Really cute)

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        p>Amendments that add money will have to include a provision to take money frm some other line item. (Sometimes the administration, sometimes corrections maybe yours.)

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        p>Lots of opportunity to get your voice heard via virtual and real rallies during the next week. We’ll post here.  

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        p>from the state house news

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        p>

        ForAdvocates of state programs have been lobbying policymakers for months to opt for new taxes over retreating from services. Some House members said on background they expected DeLeo to count votes for a sales tax increase.

        DeLeo told reporters the House would wait until mid-May, after passing its budget, to address Patrick’s proposals to permit local governments to impose their own taxes on meals and lodging.

        “Been there, done that,” said Judy Meredith, a veteran human services lobbyist organizing a statewide push for higher taxes. “It has been four fiscal crises where we’ve had to raise taxes before. This state knows how to deal with a fiscal crisis. We’ve found ways to cushion families where the wage-earner lost their jobs, to help them keep access to health care, to develop new skills, social services to address the … increase in domestic violence.”

        Meredith said, “We need those public structures now more than ever because they are essential to our recovery, and we’ve got to find some money.”

  7. as well as lots and lots of state programs and public structures we built over the years to help Massachusetts deal with a fiscal downturn— the programs that help folks who have lost jobs, or their homes, or their health care, that offer quality education to our children, keep our air & water clean, protect our public health, our streets safe, our roads repaired and our communities healthy.

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    p>These programs are essential for our recovery, and we gotta find the money to stabilize them.

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    p>Charlie Murphy said this was a realistic budget that allocates the revenues we got. And it is.

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    p>Welcome to the real world and if you don’t like it call up your own state rep and ask him to champion a tax package that is balanced and adequate to address the structural deficit and stabilize our communities.  

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    p>check out http://www.massbudget.org for the facts.  

    • …by the MassPike (and it was coordinated to an unknown degree), and the crap we are reading daily about pension abuses and sweet-heart deals, do you really expect the general public to approve of more tax revenues?  I’m a fairly progressive person (relative to the population as a whole, maybe not by BMG standards) and I’m willing to pay more taxes.  What I’m not willing to be is a sap.  And I want better government before more taxes.  Period.  

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      p>Let me tell you about my real world…my health insurance is going up another $150 or so a month and I ain’t getting a raise.  Now my wife is hearing rumors of layoffs where she works…and to top it off, the teachers in my community refused to join the state health care system, that would have saved the school system $500,000.  And all you can do is advocate for more taxes!?

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      p>Judy, I’ve admired your career devoting yourself to the human service community in this state and I realize first hand that human service funding has barely recovered from the 2002 cuts.  But the stragety for additional has got to change.  If we want to take care of the disadvantage and improve our way of life, we’ve got to demand better government and not tolerate the 10% of honest graf that seems to run our system.  We want safe streets, but I can’t support more money out of my pocket to fund more cops who are pulling down $150,000 a year in salary and overtime when I’m no where close than that.

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      p>It’s time to show a different kind of leadership to solve the problems of these times.

      • An it’s very clear that you share with me some high expectations that our most important public structures, including education and public safty are key to creating livable communities. And sometimes they fail us in major and minor ways. Our job is to fix them, and I think that reform and revenue must happen together.

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        p>Thanks for the compliment. I feel like I’m serving a life sentence with no hope of parole. We seem to be playing out the same drama using the same script every ten years or so.    

  8. …and constituencies like autistic kids, aging out orphans, turning 22 congitively limited have no margin or options, at all.  Those  lives are lives at risk.

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    p>I personally do favor new revenues and progressive taxation; you all have heard that from me before.  But this budget could only use what was in the kitty.  Adding to the Kitty first must come from the Committee on Revenue and have a constituency – including you and I – before adding revenues via any form of taxation will have legs.

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    p>Further, “local aid” has always been a misnomer.  It is return of capitol.  The revenue in the general fund comes largely from taxpayers who reside in cities and towns – not agencies and fees…but unless a goodly number of us put more in the pot, there is not the money for the kind of “pay as you go” budget required for everything but bonded expenses by our constitution.

    • your argument is that this is a tax increase but the house weaseled out of proposing it.  Instead they left the dirty work to the towns.  In addition, they taking about 30% of our money they refuse to allow us additional sources of revenue.  This we applaud?

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      p>This is not a solution, this is covering your hide and passing the buck.  There is no leadership in this proposal.  

      • The Committee on Ways and Means is not the entire House.  It has certain authority – but not the authority to propose or initiate a “tax increase” – that comes from the Committee on Revenue.  The Ways and Means Committee allocates – it does not create new taxes; those are proposed by Revenue and must be voted on by the entire House.

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        p>You are conflating and don’t appear to understand the actual process or structure, JohnK.  I view that this budget, done under enormous time and fiscal pressures, was courageous and careful to protect the most vulnerable as much as possible with the revenue allowed.

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        p>You want “additional sources of revenue” you had best contact Chairman Kaufman of the Revenue Committee and YOUR own legislators.

        • I believe HWM budgets in the past have proposed changes to tax laws.  I don’t think the committee structure is as rigid as you’re suggesting.

          • in H 1, in various supplemental and deficiencies. And always by including language in an outside section that has sometimes been through the joint revenue committee and sometimes not.  

            • Given your decades of exerience, and that my data-set began in 2003 [about September] I haven’t seen this done, really.

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              p>Could you provide some examples, from before the “no new taxes” crowd took over?

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              p>Also, JohnK puts the word “worthless” in, which has no relationship at all to what I said.  Nor do I dismiss the pain over local aid, however, I know that the process is still only in the second inning.

        • Via Mass Budget that David posted a link down thread.

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          p>

          The House Ways and Means budget includes substantial cuts to major sources of local aid to municipalities. It also does not include revenue raising proposals made by the Governor designed to offset cuts to local aid.

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          p>The folks at MBPC must be just as ignorant.

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          p>Based on what you provided, it does seem as the budget proposal does include a lot of good work.  Many times it’s the most vulnerable who are greatly impacted.  But you cannot just ignore the rest of the proposal. I think I know a thing or two about what towns face, and I can tell you right now a 30% cut would be devastating.  Services will need to be cut, special needs programs will be the first victim in school cuts and taxes will be raised.  

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          p>This is well crafted alright, but not in the way you mean.  

    • That’s perhaps my biggest beef with the House budget.  We’ve got a couple billion sitting in the “rainy day” fund, and we’re saving it for what?  A freaking monsoon?  It’s raining, folks.  Time to bust open the piggy bank.  That’s what the damn thing is for.

    • The House traditionally is more conservative with money then the Senate as the full tax revenue hasn’t rolled in for April, always “the” big month.

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      p>Yeah.  Its raining.  What if we got Katrina on our hands and leave nothing in the piggy bank?  You never blow your reserves all at once.  Never.

      • The Governor’s proposal — about $500M, IIRC, was a responsible one.  HWM proposes no draw at all.  That makes no sense to me.

    • The rainy day is to deal with a rainy year, not a rainy decade.  If the rain is structural, using the rainy day fund is the wrong strategy.

  10. Both of these were a bone to the W&M Vice-Chair Barbara L’Italien – who Deleo owed for being an early backer of his candidacy. I wonder how other members whose pet items were not treated so well are reacting?

  11. I read that the special commission on municipal finance will be filing a report in the next two weeks – it may include local option taxes and regionalization measures, etc.

    • …otherwise this budget looks like a real lack of political courage. I get that the politicians on Beacon Hill have made a hash of things lately so I am not talking about giving them more authority, but rather the levels of government closer to the people.

  13. The quality of this budget is a matter of perspective: if it were the final budget, I would argue that we should storm Beacon Hill and hang the House Ways and Means Committee by its collective thumbs.

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    p>If the HWC budget is nothing more than the next salvo in the debate over the eventual FY 2010 budget, it may be that Amber Paw is right and it’s a job well done, though preserving services for the “truly vulnerable” at the expense of 30% cuts in local aid is like saving a limb and losing the patient. Draconian doesn’t begin to describe the effect these cuts will have on the body politic.

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    p>The Senate still has to cook up its budget and the Conference Committee still has to hammer out the differences. So this budget, the antithesis of the Governor’s budget, may eventually form a synthesis that we can live with.

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    p>Personally, I think Murray, DeLeo, and Patrick are counting on casino gambling to save their budget bacon.

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