"House tenders a $27.8b budget; Plan cuts local aid and state jobs but avoids tax hikes" by Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | April 15, 2010
Massachusetts House leaders proposed a spending plan yesterday for the next fiscal year that would probably leave fewer teachers in local classrooms and cut social services, but would avoid raising taxes or dipping into the state’s dwindling rainy-day fund.
You know why, taxpayers.
See: Memory Hole: Massachusetts' State Budget
Yeah, other people need to get paid before you.
The $27.8 billion House budget proposal is an attempt to address tough economic times for state government in an election year that has many legislators fearful for their jobs. It also differs on several key points from the spending plan of Governor Deval Patrick, who himself faces a tough reelection fight....
Representative Charles A. Murphy, the top budget writer in the House, took pride in balancing the budget without raising taxes or tapping reserves, but he conceded that the impact on residents, state workers, and local governments would be considerable, and in some cases drastic.
Do you take pride in that log you left in the toilet, readers?
He expects to eliminate 1,500 jobs from the state payroll alone, in addition to an unknown number of municipal workers and teachers who could lose their positions when cuts trickle down.
“You’re going to be talking to a lot of people who aren’t going to be very happy with me,’’ he told reporters during a State House news conference.
Murphy and his counterpart in the Senate, Steven C. Panagiotakos, warned local officials of the cuts last month. While that allowed for better preparation by local officials, it did not reduce the pain. Municipalities are already struggling with a loss of $724 million in local aid in the current budget, according to the Massachusetts Municipal Association, which predicts larger class sizes and layoffs of teachers, police officers, and firefighters....
Also see: The Massachusetts Model: Municipal Health Mess
Towns to Pay Health Tax For Public Servants
Yeah, thanks for pitching in, selfish "public servants."
If you blew the whistle on the corporate welfare and such, and we had a decent single-payer system this would all be moot and I wouldn't be mad.
While many social service advocates worry about proposed cuts to programs such as immigrant health care and mental health facilities, some fiscal watchdogs argued that at least some of the steps are necessary, in part to protect the state’s rainy day fund as the effects of the recession wear on....
It is frikkin' POURING OUT HERE and they are SITTING on MONEY!!!
Lawmakers, who were all aware of the antigovernment tea party movement activists filling Boston Common yesterday, said tax and fee increases are off the table. “We just raised almost $900 million in taxes last year,’’ said Panagiotakos, who is retiring next year.
Why is it the "right" is so much more effective than the "liberal left" in being listened to, readers?
Exhibit A: Arkansas' Black Eye
Patrick’s budget chief, Jay Gonzalez, proposed raising $67 million from taxing soda, candy, and tobacco....
“The governor decided to do those things in order to fund those things like local aid and higher education,’’ Gonzalez said....
He's something else.
And how are they putting this together?
"In the dead of night, a Senate surprise; How the tide turned on illegal immigrants" by Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | May 29, 2010
Wednesday would be the start of a dizzying two days of nearly round-the-clock deal-making, as the Senate made its way through hundreds of amendments. Immigration was a prominent, but ultimately just one part, of the deliberations....
And that is ALL the Globe is focused on.
Still, the measure remains far from a done deal. Both the House, which narrowly defeated a related measure last month, and Governor Deval Patrick, who has been skeptical of further immigration crackdowns, would need to sign on before it becomes law....
Want to waste your time with the rest?
Be my guest.
--more--"
"Budget would cut services, local aid; Lawmakers’ plan eases crackdown on illegal immigrants" by Noah Bierman, Globe Staff | June 24, 2010State lawmakers last night completed a $27.6 billion budget plan for next fiscal year that would cut local aid for cities and towns, require all government offices to remain open on Bunker Hill Day and Evacuation Day, and impose a softer crackdown on illegal immigrants than the measure approved by senators last month.
A group of six House and Senate negotiators had been hammering out the final budget, which includes a broad range of policy and spending plans, behind closed doors since June 7, trying to reconcile differences between plans passed earlier this year by the two legislative bodies.
And you have no right to know what they are doing with your tax dollars in Massachusetts.
See:
The Perils of One-Party Politics: The Ruling Party
The Perils of One-Party Politics: Massachusetts' Democracy
And they called it democracy.
But the lawmakers were thrown off course in recent days as they were forced to plug an additional $687 million gap to account for federal stimulus money that had been expected to keep some state programs afloat, but is now far from certain to arrive....
What a FAILURE that program was.
No jobs created, nothing but covering budget gaps so banks could get paid.
The budget features cuts in social services, the court system, higher education, and nearly every other aspect of state government. That includes complete elimination of a $56 million program that gives health care to low-income immigrants who are considered legal, but not permanent, residents, plus another $68 million from other health programs for low-income residents covered under MassHealth, the state Medicaid program.
I wonder if I am even on the rolls anymore.
Some programs could be restored, or partially restored, if the additional federal stimulus money is approved in Congress. To avoid deeper cuts, lawmakers also called for withdrawing $100 million from the state’s rainy day fund, a move they had earlier pledged not to make because the fund has been tapped with regularity in recent years....
They broke a promise? You're kidding, right?
The budget compromise submitted last night also includes a measure that would give the state’s top administrative judge some power over the Probation Department’s budget, an issue that emerged last month after the Globe Spotlight Team chronicled widespread patronage hiring and lax spending controls at the agency.
Related: The Boston Globe on Probation
Legislature Checkmates Courts in Massachusetts
It is the campaign ca$h that make$ the difference.
The measure would eliminate the lifetime appointment for any future, but not the current, commissioner of the department and initiate a study on who should ultimately oversee it.
The budget compromise left out language passed in the Senate that would have given cities and towns more power to curb the fast-rising costs of employee health plans, by giving them the authority to amend employee health plans without union approval. Municipal leaders have been demanding the changes, saying health costs are busting their budgets, but unions have fought the changes; many lawmakers have also been resistant, saying they do not want to weaken collective bargaining....
What BULL!
Related: The Massachusetts Model: Mayors Make Lawmakers Mad
It is the CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS, not collective bargaining, that is the issue.
The GOVERNMENT bargaining with ITSELF?
If THEY DON'T LIKE the JOB then LET 'EM QUIT!
The City of Boston also stands to lose at least $2.4 million more in library funding if, as planned, it closes four branches during the next budget year. The Legislature’s compromise plan includes language taking that money away to prevent closings, even though the city says it is forced to close the branches largely because state funding has been declining in recent years.
Related: A Hull of a Library
State Legislooters Save Boston Libraries
Boston library trustees to discuss closings
Library closings temporarily averted
WTF are they talking about?
