Cutting spending has been a necessary component of a balanced set of solutions to the state’s extraordinary fiscal challenges. The Patrick-Murray Administration has acted to reduce state spending across state government. Over 2,000 state jobs have been eliminated, and state employees who remain have been asked to do more while getting paid less. We have cut billions of dollars from programs and services in the fiscal year 2009-2011 budgets. This has resulted in real, and, in some cases, painful impacts on Massachusetts residents.
Budget cuts and sound fiscal management are necessary in these challenging times. But the people of the Commonwealth should expect even more from their leaders. They deserve not just sound fiscal management but also true fiscal leadership. True fiscal leadership is about more than just cutting spending in the midst of a fiscal crisis. True fiscal leadership requires not only an appreciation for the need to live within our means, but also an appreciation for the consequences of the actions required to achieve a balanced budget. It requires not only tough decisions, but also creative solutions. It requires not only telling people what we can no longer do, but also persuading people to share responsibility for helping find ways to preserve the many important things we are doing. It requires decision-making based on careful consideration of not just the impact on our fiscal health and stability, but also based on careful consideration of the impact on the residents who depend on state programs and services for their own health and stability.
True fiscal leadership in these difficult times requires finding ways to deliver a fiscally responsible budget that mitigates the impact on those most in need and that continues to invest in a brighter future for all residents. It requires creative solutions and tough decisions – not just to cut spending – but to reform and improve the way government delivers services.
Governor Patrick has demonstrated true fiscal leadership in the face of extraordinary fiscal challenges. He has had to make many difficult decisions that have required great sacrifice. Funding for state programs and services has been cut while demand for those programs and services has increased.
The Governor has worked tirelessly, however, to mitigate cuts required to preserve fiscal stability and to deliver and maintain responsibly balanced budgets. Thanks to the Governor’s fiscal leadership, Beacon Hill is no longer just talking about reforming state government, it is reforming state government. Transportation reform, pension reform, ethics reform, education reform, consolidations of state agencies and functions, and many other government improvement efforts are resulting in a more efficient, effective and responsive state government. Thanks to the Governor’s fiscal leadership, stakeholders are working together in a spirit of shared sacrifice to offer solutions. And thanks to his leadership, the federal government has provided significant support to states to preserve critical programs and services throughout the fiscal crisis, including funding for education.
Governor Patrick has also demonstrated true fiscal leadership by focusing not just on weathering the current fiscal storm, but also on the brighter future we must build for the Commonwealth. The Governor has worked hard to find ways to continue to invest in providing a world class education for our children, training our workforce for jobs of the 21st century, providing access to affordable health care for all residents, supporting the life sciences, clean energy and other job-creating industries of the future and fixing and improving infrastructure that supports economic development and the quality of life of all of our residents. Thanks to the Governor’s continuous leadership in pursuing this long-term agenda, Massachusetts has weathered the fiscal storm better than most other states and is well-positioned for growth as we begin our economic recovery.
The Governor’s budget recommendation for fiscal year 2011 is a product of the same fiscal leadership the Governor has exercised throughout his Administration. It is a responsible budget. While it contains cuts to programs and services, it is balanced and compassionate and minimizes those cuts to the greatest extent possible through government reforms and efficiencies, creative solutions and thoughtful decision-making. It is a budget that continues to invest in a brighter future, including the highest level of funding in history for education.
The Governor approaches the budget process with a keen understanding of not only his fiscal responsibility, but also a keen understanding that the budget is a statement of our values. The Governor understands that the budget is not just a compilation of numbers on a page. He knows there are people behind those numbers, people who depend on the budget for their health and well-being and for a brighter future. The Governor takes the budget process seriously; he invests a great deal of personal time, energy and emotion into the process; and he demands the best of all of us to develop a budget that is not only responsibly balanced, but that serves the best interests of the people of the Commonwealth.
I thought that we had a 3 billion dollar deficit going in to the next fiscal year, but the budget increased by 3%? Where are the cuts coming from if not local aid, education, EOHHS except dental services which were cut. Please explain:
<
p>1> How can the budget be increased by 3%
2. Where are the cuts coming from
3. How likely are there to be 9C cuts in the next fiscal year given this budget?Thanks for clarifying for me.
<
p>I am the person who talked a lot when you did your presentation on the budget at Waltham Library.
<
p>I still would like to make a charitable donation rather than do furlough days. I could use the tax write off.
<
p>Rhonda Bourne