Patrick Unveils $28B Budget
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| Gov. Deval Patrick [file] |
"Our team is proud of the budget we are filing today," said Gov. Deval Patrick. "It is responsibly balanced, identifies savings and efficiencies and makes targeted investments that will secure our future as a commonwealth and allow us to compete and win on the global economic stage."
The administration calls it a "fiscally and socially responsible plan" that sees a 3.5 percent spending increase over fiscal 2008 and attempts to close a looming billion-dollar deficit.
"We can afford to do what we are proposing. We can't afford not to. We have seen what the cost of inaction looks like–failing schools, broken roads, violence on street corners—and we must not settle for it any longer," said Patrick, announcing the budget at a press conference at the State House.
Patrick said his spending plan makes long-overdue investment in key programs such as education, public safety and local aid critical to the long-term future of the state.
While the governor said the 3.5 percent overall increase is in line with projected revenues, House and Senate leaders have been cool to his use of so-far nonexistent casino funds for new initiatives and the closing of corporate tax loopholes to narrow the budget gap.
Patrick's plan includes his already announced education plan, which includes $223 million in Chapter 70 education aid to towns and cities and $51 million more in funding for initiatives like full-day kindergarten and extended learning time. It also includes a $67 million off-budget increase for school construction through the School Building Authority.
It also provides $935 million in lottery aid to cities and towns protecting them from an expected $124 million shortfall in lottery aid by using revenues from casino licensing fees, expected to be $800 million in fiscal 2009.
If the governor's casino legislation passes this year, an additional $88 million from those fees would go back to cities and towns for transportation infrastructure improvements. Another $88 million in fees would be used to provide property tax relief worth $200 on average to over 420,000 households. Together these items provide an additional $176 million in much-needed aid to cities and towns. The casino proposal has been filed by the governor and is awaiting action by the Legislature.
More than $100 million is in the budget for public safety and youth programs, including $15 million for the Shannon Grant program to combat gun and gang violence ($4 million increase). This is the first time Shannon Grants have been included in a governor's budget.
It doubles funding to hire and train 100 new community police officers ($8 million total) and offers an additional $5 million for Youth Violence Prevention Grants to support services for as many as 7,660 additional young people.
In addition, the budget builds on earlier efforts of the Legislature by making the Bay State Competitiveness Trust fund permanent and endowing it with resources to help grow the clean energy and life science sectors that bring manufacturing and research jobs to Massachusetts. The fund is capitalized with the first $100 million in year-end budget surpluses, with the first $25 million reserved for life sciences.
"This is a difficult budget year but not unlike last year. Our budget closes a $1.3 billion gap - a gap that was not created overnight and that will not be permanently resolved in one budget cycle," said Patrick at the press conference. [The budget is] balanced in fact and approach."
The gap, he said, was the result of choices made in the past - good choices like health care reform and local aid.
To close the gap and limit spending increases, the budget holds level or eliminates funding in nearly 200 line items, closes "a handful" of unjustified tax corporate loopholes and includes "modest" revenues from licensing the three destination casinos.
Patrick said $300 million in gross savings could be found through more efficient management of the state Medicaid program. Health-care costs consume 45 percent of the budget and are growing at unsustainable rates, he said. Another $51 million in savings could be achieved by reforming the state employee health insurance program and $40 million by eliminating nearly 300 earmarks from last year's budget.
"The only practical way to structural balance is sustained economic growth through investing, said Patrick, adding that his administration and the Legislature have to work together to make that happen.
The Senate and House have not filed their versions of the budget.
The governor's entire budget can be viewed at www.mass.gov/budget/governor.
