On Wednesday, the Senate Ways and Means Committee filed its budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2014. Like the proposals that preceded it, it is a statement of priorities, a detailed plan for what the Committee thinks we should do together through state government in the coming year.
The most significant new investment in the Senate Ways & Means proposal involves Transportation, where new revenue would be used to fix and improve our roads, bridges, and transit systems. The budget proposal also increases funding for a variety of smaller initiatives, such as helping low-income seniors get in-home care and increasing the number of rental vouchers available for low-income families, as well as the elderly, and people with disabilities.
Overall, the size and scope of new investments in the Senate Ways & Means budget is somewhat limited—as was true in the House budget (even though the priorities were different.) The basic reason for this similarity is that the two budgets rely on a comparable amount of available revenue. As a consequence, the two bodies face similar constraints in terms of their ability to make the kind of forward-looking investments that would improve the long-term strength of our economy.
The Governor’s budget incorporated some broader investments in our families and our communities, including plans to give more kids access to high-quality early education & care, and to combine transportation fixes with more new transportation projects in coming years. To fund these investments, the Governor proposed a revenue package substantial enough to offset much of the long-term effect of the income tax cuts of 1998-2002—which continue to cost the state $3 billion each year.
ADULT DENTAL COVERAGE
Just cruising through easy to read report and I found this, and remembered growing up in the lovely hilltowns of Western Mass where all the really poor people had bad teeth — especially old people.
Still hard to find a dentist who will take care of kids on Medicaid, and impossible to find a dentist to take care of adults free. Hard to get a job with bad teeth for sure.
is how much lower proposed funding for public higher education is in the Senate budget compared to the House and Governor’s budgets, and how abysmal the state and local aid proposal is (after a 46% real-dollar drop since 2001).
Adult dental does seem counterproductive.
Just a general lack of vision in the legislature and we’re missing an opportunity that won’t come again soon.
The budgets proposed by Campaign for Our Communities and even by our governor are much more in line with what people in my town need, which is adequate local aid and support for public higher education.
I campaigned hard for Deval “Charisma” Patrick — twice! Why hasn’t he figured out how to deal with the legislature? And why haven’t they figured out how to work with him? We deserve better cooperation and a much much better budget.