Massachusetts budget makes deep cuts to cities and towns

[Hannah Bell]

Governor Deval Patrick has signed a $27.6 billion budget that includes deep cuts in aid to Massachusetts cities and towns...because of the failure of the US Congress to make available matching Medicaid funds. Making clear whom he serves, the Democratic governor boasted that the big bond rating agencies are happy about his budget initiatives, adding that “business confidence is soaring.”

(Deval's budget) includes layoffs, drastic cuts to funding for schools, libraries and other public services, and a shifting of the tax burden onto the working class through increased sales and meals taxes.

The US Senate, by refusing to extend unemployment benefits for the long-term unemployed, has not only left 30,000 such people in Massachusetts in the lurch, but also killed the FMAP (Federal Medical Assistance Percentages) funding included in the bill. The program would have provided more than $600 million in matching Medicaid funds to Massachusetts, enabling the state to free up funds for other purposes.

Patrick responded quickly to the federal cuts by vetoing more than $450 million in state appropriations, including $264.5 million for the Department of Health and Human Services and $65.7 million for the Department of Education. The state legislature did not fight Patrick’s veto, and also agreed to cuts of 4 percent in local aid and 3.1 percent in public education funding.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jul2010/mass-j13.shtml

[SammyWinstonJack]

1. We proclaim too be the "richest country in the world" LOL!

How is that working out? :silly:

Great for the richest of the rich among us! :puke:


The rest of us can FOAD!

[geek tragedy]

2. "making clear whom he serves"

The WSWS rivals The Weekly Standard and Commentary for Best Achievement in Dumbfuckery.

[Hannah Bell]

3. wsws doesn't pretend to be an unbiased observer. its commentary is completely upfront,

unlike the sneaky biased commentary in, say, an ny times piece.

for example, how the nyt, in a piece about the deficit commission, totally takes for granted that social security is a problem.

[geek tragedy]

4. It's also dishonest. Massachusetts has a balanced budget amendment.

So, it doesn't have the option of just borrowing money to make up the difference.

[Hannah Bell]

5. it has the option of taxing. it has the option of allocating cuts differently.

it has a "rainy day fund" -- which at the end of fy 2009 contained 1.86 billion.

http://www.mass.gov/bb/h1/fy2009h1/bal2_09/hfundbal6.htm



I don't know what happened, but there was pressure in 2009 to prioritize "refilling" the rainy day fund (i guess because it had dropped from 2.3 billion to 1.8 billion -- but if the biggest economic crisis since the depression isn't a "rainy day," i'm not sure what would qualify.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/02/27/restoring_the_rainy_day_fund_after_downpour/

FY 2011 deficit was forecast at about $3 billion. Rainy day funds = 62% of that.

A lousy $100 million - 5% of total - was allocated.

http://www.bluemassgroup.com/diary/20184/governor-patrick-signs-ontime-balanced-budget

Other choices could have been made.

there's nothing dishonest about the wsws article, it's straightforward reportage about the cuts & where they're hitting.

the article nowhere implies or states that ma could have funded its budget with deficits.

oh, & btw, most states are barred from deficit financing. with exceptions like bonds for power plants, etc.

there's nothing particularly special about ma.

[geek tragedy]

6. Massachusetts was beyond a point where there could be

painless cuts.

[Hannah Bell]

7. you say that, but you present no evidence. i've presented some evidence.

(i think you might not have seen it, i added it in an edit).

can you rebut it? (on edit: there seem to be discrepancies in the numbers between the various sources i used, & i can't find detailed up to the minute ones, so my examples will have to stand as "in principle")

on edit: i also see the police got additional funding of $6 million while the poor were taking cuts. i read nothing about tax increases in the article about the budget, even though MA is one of the richer states in the union.

see, other choices could have been made.