I've reached the point where I believe these elite stinks only report on it when they have to. They drove DiMasi out (not that he didn't deserve it; they all do) because they want casinos here. The selectivity of corruption that the Globe engages in calls into question its complete and total credibility. It's lost it, and you can not get it back.
So here is your SLOW SATURDAY SPECIAL, folks! Enjoy!
"AS LEGISLATURE GUARDS ITS OWN FUNDS, COMMUNITIES REEL; Rather than cut, lawmakers tap obscure reserve fund" by Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff | February 28, 2009
When Governor Deval Patrick declared emergency cuts of $1 million to his office budget last fall, legislative leaders went one better and said they would slash the Legislature's budget by $9.1 million. Early this month, they announced another $1.6 million in cuts.
But the Legislature has not reduced actual spending by anywhere near that amount, because when it comes to managing their budget, lawmakers have their own set of rules. The reductions will largely come out of a little-publicized reserve fund of almost $32 million that the Legislature maintains exclusively for its own use, the product of surpluses in legislative accounts accumulated in recent years.
Oh, so they have $32 million to cover any cuts. So they don't have to suffer like the rest of us, huh? Do YOU KNOW what $32 MILLION dollars would do in my poorest-in-the-state county? But we do have cops with tasers.
So while the Legislature's cuts were played up in press releases as a sacrifice, the lawmakers' $60 million appropriation for operating expenses has merely been nicked.
Of course, that is ALL TAXPAYER MONEY!!!!
In the arcana of budget writing, the Legislature's reserves are known as "prior appropriations continued," the equivalent of a rainy day fund.
Umm, guys, it is POURING THROUGH the SCHOOLHOUSE ROOF!!!!!
How about PUTTING UP $32 MILLION for THAT!!!
During a fiscal downturn in the 1980s, critics called them slush funds, but they remain a perquisite guarded by a succession of House speakers and Senate presidents. They are never explained in public budget documents or deliberations.
Thank God we have a LIBERAL, ACCOUNTABLE LEGISLATURE!!!
And THIS is what they are being PAID for: The Easiest Job in the World
Richard Musiol Jr., chief of staff to Senate President Therese Murray, defended the reserve funds, saying they have been built up over time primarily for emergency repairs and improvements to the venerable State House, which the Legislature is responsible for maintaining.
So EAT SHIT, Mass. taxpayers! The ARROGANCE and CONDESCENSION of these cretins is BEYOND BELIEF!!!!
In an e-mail, David Falcone, Murray's spokesman, wrote: "These reserve funds are also necessary during tough economic times to help pay for daily legislative operations, as was the case during the last economic downturn in 2003."
Yeah, FUCK YOU PEOPLE that NEED SERVICES!!! And think of what they are doing there: PADDING THEIR POCKETS and STEALING TAXPAYER MONEY and GIVING IT AWAY!!!!
But Michael Widmer, president of the business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said that because of the economy's collapse and the resulting budget crisis, the rules of engagement have changed.
"The key issue is transparency and a full explanation as to the purpose of these funds," he said. "It's common practice to carry funds over from year to year, but with this kind of fiscal crisis, everything needs to be looked at. . . . It's important that all bodies share the pain."
I agree with this guy, but that's how they are selling a gas tax -- we all must share the pain! Can I say it any clearer: FUCK YOU, scumbag shits!!!!!! Some FUCKING HEADS need to be TAKEN OFF and DUMPED in the HARBOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For most departments, said Widmer, unspent funds, usually totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, revert to the state treasury at the end of the fiscal year.
Yeah, not BACK INTO YOUR POCKET from whence they came, taxpayer!! Yeah, I see you there in the corner with your pants down.
In today's environment, they could be used to reduce the deficit and spare state agencies or cities and towns, which have had their state aid cut, from service and staff reductions.
Yeah, coulda been, BUT!!!!!!
The annual appropriation to conduct legislative business amounts to two-tenths of 1 percent of a $27 billion state budget.
Look at the Globe try to defend them and say it is chump change. That's why I'm not buying a Globe anymore (second day in a row now).
But the Legislature's reserves account for 20 percent of the $155.9 million in continuing appropriations carried forward for all state agencies from last fiscal year, according to a report by the state comptroller's office in response to a Globe request under the state public records law.
In other agencies, most of the reserve funds are for multiyear grant programs or collective bargaining agreements. In the past decade, total appropriations carried forward ranged from a low of $50 million for all departments in 2003 to a high of $936 million in 2006, according to annual reports of the comptroller. Patrick's office carried over reserves of $1.4 million on top of its $9.6 million appropriation....
(Blog author just shaking his head)
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Salaries account for 85 percent of legislative spending, and there has been little change in the Legislature's payroll. By last week, the equivalent of 848 full-time employees work in legislative offices, in addition to the 200 lawmakers, state comptroller records show....
The size and duties of the Legislature have not expanded in the past 30 years, but the staffing has....
That's what is known as BUREAUCRACY -- one thing I do remember from the anthropology classes -- and it DESTROYS SOCIETIES and INSTITUTIONS!
Leaders of both chambers have wide latitude over how their budgets are expended. In announcing his leadership team, for instance, Speaker Robert A. DeLeo created an additional House committee chairmanship that carries a $7,500 stipend on top of legislators' base salary of $61,440.
Hey, it's ONLY TAXPAYER MONEY! Why not CREATE a NEW POSITION and THROW IT AROUND!! I mean, it's not like the state is in deficit and cutting services or anything.
Meet the NEW SPEAKER, same as the OLD SPEAKER -- except now he's pro-gambling (and thus pro-Zionists, since that's who owns the casinos around here. Type in "Sol Lerzner" to my blog search and see what you get).
It continues the trend of expanding the number of members who receive premium pay for leadership, chairmanship, or vice chairmanship positions....
Are you offended yet, reader?
The Senate incurred some unbudgeted expenses this year, more than $51,000 in legal fees, arising out of the legal problems of two of its former members, Dianne Wilkerson and James Marzilli.
Oh, so the thief and pervert COST US MORE MONEY, huh?
Where's that chopping block?
Through the end of January, the Senate had paid the Boston-based firm of Ropes & Gray $38,445 and paid the local firm of Donoghue Barrett & Singal $12,615, according to legislative spending records obtained by the Globe under a public records request. Senate counsel Alice Moore said Ropes & Gray served as outside counsel to the Senate Ethics Committee, which was reviewing bribery allegations against Wilkerson and sexual assault charges against Marzilli. Both ultimately resigned from the Senate. None of the money was used to pay the senators' own legal bills.
Fees paid to Donoghue Barrett & Singal were for "document production assistance with respect to ongoing investigations that required Senate and Senate members' response," Moore said, referring to subpoenas related to the Wilkerson investigation....
So LAWYERS MADE OUT AGAIN, huh?
In recent years, the state refurbished the exterior of the State House.
FUCK THAT! That's the LAST THING I WANT my tax dolars going to. Let those LYING LOOTERS WORK and LIVE in a SHITHOLE like the REST of US!!!!!!
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And as those LYING LOOTERS hold on to $32 MILLION dollars of TAXPAYER LOOT, the TITLE says it all, doesn't it?
SOUTHBOROUGH - .... Asking locals to attend a $100-a-person dinner-dance to help the town buy a firetruck....
Saugus has stopped plowing some streets to save money.
Related: Governor Guts State Services
On Wednesday, Worcester held its first police-academy graduation in two years, then immediately laid off the 32 cadets, with as many as 400 other layoffs to follow citywide this spring....
Related: Graduating to Unemployment
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Until now, municipal fund-raising has been the domain of schools and libraries, whose supporters have tried to supplement education programs, preserve varsity sports, and leverage construction grants.
Yup, SCHOOLS GOTTA BEG from the TAXPAYER while CORPORATIONS, well, see for yourelf:
"$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)."
Excuse me?
A $5 MILLION TAXPAYER GIVEAWAY that IBM DIDN'T EVEN WANT?
What the hell you even payingn taxes FOR, Masser?!!
In Winchester, where the football team plays all its games on the road and youth sports programs stage a lottery for field access, residents are holding a gala March 8 as part of a campaign to raise nearly $2 million for ballfields.
How about getting it from IBM?
That's YOUR STATE LOOKING OUT for YOU, isn't it?
That's one day after Southborough's Fire Ball, when attendees in cocktail attire will dine, drink, and dance in a hotel ballroom in the name of public safety.
As if what, those people are overflowing with money?
WTF?
Remember these:
The State Budget Swindle
Firefighters sometimes hold steak dinners to buy equipment such as thermal-imaging cameras or add "bells and whistles" to trucks purchased by taxpayers, said Rehoboth Fire Chief Robert F. Pray, a director of the Fire Chiefs Association of Massachusetts. But Pray said this was the first he had heard of large-scale fund-raising to buy a vehicle that will serve as a fleet's workhorse.
I'm really offended by the continuosly insulting tone of the elite stink Globe towards our local heros. What a rank piece of shit they have become when they ignore and enable all the loot stolen by corporate and Jewish interests in this sate. But then again, that's there job not giving us the truth. It's covering up for the Jewish crime syndictate, whether it be Madoff (also see Who’s behind Madoff?) or Mun.
It's a sign of the times, said Geoffrey C. Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. This economic crisis has the potential to inflict the worst damage on municipal budgets in a half-century, he said. Many communities have reduced services and eliminated positions, and thousands more could be laid off in the next fiscal year. Even with money coming from a federal stimulus package, many purchases, repairs, and projects are being postponed....
Until this crisis, snow removal had been sacrosanct. The state allows communities to carry snow deficits into the following year's snow-removal budget even as they must balance the rest of their budgets, enabling plow-first, pay-later practices in years of heavy snowfall....
And somewhere else on this page today I ee we are having MORE SNOW than EVER!!!
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See how HARMFUL the FART-MISTERS LIES are NOW?!!!!!
