Opportunities to Raise Your Voice in Support of Our Communities

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1. judy-meredith says

   May 18, 2009 at 2:00 pm

   Senators are around the building counting the contacts!!
   Calls are running 2-1 against any new revenues.

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   STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, MAY 18, 2009……Senate Democrats entered a morning caucus Monday expecting long and occasionally emotional debate on whether to raise taxes – and if so, where, how much, and what to do with the money.

   Senate budget chief Steven Panagiotakos last week said he expected the Senate to ratify new revenues to hoist the fiscal 2010 budget out of a deep hole, but that he was unsure of the details. Monday’s caucus was aimed at consensus, but senators said they could emerge with no clear plan.

   Senate leaders have been stern in warning that restoring funding to House levels, which the budget committee reduced almost across the board, would be close to impossible. Even if the Senate went along with the 25-percent sales tax hike, fiscal analysts said earlier this month, the $900 million attached to the boost would likely fall well short, in part because implementation time would make a full year’s receipts unlikely.

   Operating with a fiscal 2010 revenue estimate more than $1.5 billion below the original estimate, the Ways and Means Committee budget published last week appropriates $26.7 billion, far below the roughly $28 billion both Gov. Deval Patrick and the House prescribe.

   • amberpaw says

     May 18, 2009 at 9:51 pm

     But am in court again, tomorrow – not free to trot on down.