"Forecast deepens fiscal gloom; State's shortfall put at over $2b this year" by Matt Viser, Globe Staff | December 16, 2008
State forecasters said yesterday that tax revenues will plunge by up to $750 million more, making it extremely likely that Governor Deval Patrick will be forced to cut state services again to balance the budget.
And look whose backs they are balancing the budget with: the blind, mentally ill, kids, and cripples!!
Of course, "one of the governor's pet projects, the $3 million Commonwealth Corporation, is only taking a 5 percent trim."
I mean, it's okay to be "flushing . . . millions of dollars away supporting a highly profitable industry" when it comes to $300 million in taxpayer dollars for Hollywood is o.k., even as the price of a school lunch rises; paying $13 million for a computer software system that could have cost less than $3 million is all right because the winner was a close friend of the House speaker, even as my poorer-than-dirt district "has been struggling to close a $2 million budget gap."; the lottery shelling out "millions of dollars" for sports tickets for "lottery officials, their family members, and friends" is fine, even as schools are closing; making interest payments to banks to the tune of "a staggering $22 billion" for the Big Pit, as we call it around here, is required, even as bridges are neglected across the state; and again, paying off banks like UBS, who can "demand repayment of an additional $2 million a month beginning in January" while also receiving a "$179 million payment," while the state pension fund loses $1 billion dollars -- which still didn't stop the executive director from carving himself a nice "$64,000 bonus on top of his $322,000 annual salary."
And that is not counting the troubles at the Turnpike!
"The authority was attempting to renegotiate terms of a complex financial deal with the banking giant UBS. Known as a swaption, the arrangement could force the authority to pay out a $450 million lump sum"
Oh, and did I not mention the $1 BILLION dollar giveaway to the pharmaceutical corporations, even though "it's never been easy to turn a profit in biotech?" Flush that money away, too, taxpayer. Of course, the war looters were next in line for a handout. And should the state be appropriating money for a "multimillion-dollar reconstruction" of golf courses?
Nor is it RECKLESS to BORROW the STATE INTO OBLIVION so they can PAY INTEREST to BANKS while SITTING ON $2 BILLION DOLLARS!
Need one final insult, Mass. taxpayers?
"Town officials... are trying to decide how much of a property tax break to offer and how they can secure state funding for infrastructure improvements.... although it could take several years for the studio to realize its potential"
Also see: Hollywood, Massachusetts
Hollywood (East) Disses Veterans
More Mass. $$$ to Movie Makers
Sorry, that wasn't it:
"$5m in tax breaks going to IBM for Littleton project
The Massachusetts Economic Assistance Coordinating Council approved $5 million in state and local tax breaks for IBM Corp., which recently began a $63 million expansion in Littleton. IBM vice president Bob McDonald said the company plans to create 42 jobs at the site over the next decade. McDonald said the computer giant, based in Armonk, N.Y., has already begun renovating a building and hopes to move into it next month. McDonald said the tax incentives were important, but the company would have gone forward with the expansion without them. IBM has 4,000 employees in Massachusetts, including about 2,000 in Littleton (Boston Globe October 30 2008)."
Yup, butSERVICES NEED to be CUT!!
That's COMPASSIONATE LIBERALISM?
The new estimate, which comes just two months after the last revision, puts the total midyear shortfall as high as $2.1 billion, which is nearly 8 percent of the total state budget....
***************
Among options discussed yesterday during a four-hour revenue hearing were raising the state's gasoline tax, tapping the $1.7 billion in the reserve account, and making deep cuts in spending. State officials, who said Massachusetts probably entered a recession this summer, are also hoping a stimulus package from the incoming Obama administration could help alleviate some of the revenue problems.
I'm not counting on the (borrowed into oblivion) feds.
Patrick closed a $1.4 billion budget gap in October without cutting local aid, but whether municipal leaders could escape a second round of cuts is unclear. House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi last week projected a local aid cut of up to 10 percent for next year's budget, but in light of the latest revenue forecast, a cut this year could also be in the cards. Administration officials would not rule anything out.
Maybe you could GET $$$$ BACK from HOLLYWOOD or BIOTECH or WAR LOOTERS instead?
"The problem is so large, there's going to be a lot of damage," Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said during testimony yesterday. "Damage to the economy. Damage to human beings. Damage to institutions."
I'm SO GLAD I live in a "liberal" state!!
They take care of their people, unlike those mean, nasty, conservative Repuglicans!
