CLT UPDATE
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Patrick's "No Gimmicks" budget
loaded with gimmicks:
Calls on his "pod people" for support
Gov. Deval Patrick is blending deep budget cuts, new
tax revenues and raids on state reserve funds -- what he termed "tough
choices and creative solutions" -- to balance his first budget and close
a gap between projected revenues and expenses of $1.2 billion.
The new governor's spending plan, which he called "balanced and
responsible," would boost spending by 4.2 percent, or a $1.1 billion
increase over projected budget spending this fiscal year, which ends on
June 30....
While making attempts to deliver on campaign promises to improve
education, ease property tax growth and hire more police officers, the
budget proposed by the freshman governor retreats from many of programs
and services that Patrick says are important to the state's quality of
life....
In addition to the operating budget, the state has set aside $2.789
billion for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, school
building assistance, and pension funding....
One audience member asked about a key pillar of his strategy for pushing
his agenda: mobilizing the broad grassroots he cultivated during his
come-from-behind election to apply pressure on Beacon Hill. She asked,
"How do we on the outside develop the support and pressure to help you
on the inside?"
Patrick replied, "Just the way you did in the campaign. You talk to
somebody. You tell somebody this matters … Let me tell you, the other
side is paying people to talk to somebody. You need to talk to your
legislators. Some of them are here. I can cordon them off right here, if
you'd like."
Patrick said, "Talk to legislators, because they need our encouragement.
And it's not because they're hostile it's because they need -- I need --
your encouragement, for goodness sake."
State House News Service
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Patrick files budget of "tough choices and
creative solutions"
“This budget is balanced without gimmicks,” Patrick said of
his efforts to erase a $1.3 billion deficit. “We didn’t defer difficult
decisions. We didn’t use Band-Aids to treat symptoms and ignore causes.”
Some budget watchdogs disagree, noting Patrick is withholding a $100 million
payment to the state’s rainy day fund. “It just pushes off the shortfall to next
year’s budget,” said Michael Widmer of the Massachusetts Taxpayers
Foundation....
Patrick’s budget scales back or eliminates many of his key campaign promises,
including broad-based property-tax relief ...
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Deval pushes limited tax relief:
Campaign promises get short shrift in budget proposal
Patrick's speech touched on many of the themes and even the
phrases of his campaign as he pitched his fiscal plan, which must close a $1.2
billion deficit while funding some of the initiatives he promised as a
candidate....
Short on details, Patrick said the budget does not take the short cuts he
contends have been relied on in the past." ...
Michael J. Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, called
the budget a "good faith effort to deal with a very difficult problem," but said
it has two significant flaws: an increased corporate tax burden -- which would
hurt the state's economy and, therefore, employment -- and the fact that about
$400 million of the funds used to close the gap are one-time revenues and
savings, which would leave a built-in deficit in next year's budget....
And though Patrick promised he would not use gimmicks to balance his budget, his
spending plan depends on using $100 million that would otherwise be put into the
state's rainy-day fund, plus $75 million in interest that fund is expected to
earn next year. The governor's office said the $75 million accounts for 84
percent of the interest the fund is projected to earn in fiscal 2008....
Patrick's budget also requires about $515 million in cuts and "efficiencies"
from across state government. Of that, $179 million would be derived from
Medicaid cost controls and savings. But aides to
the governor refused to provide
further details about how the saving would be realized....
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Patrick says budget 'without gimmicks'
Plan would raise corporate taxes
Despite last night’s soaring rhetoric, it’ll be tough to
glean Gov. Deval Patrick’s true fiscal priorities from the $26.7 billion budget
plan he files today. And it’s not just because he glossed over some of the
biggest challenges in balancing a budget when revenues are sluggish.
It’s because so much of the new revenue that comes in next year will be gobbled
up by “uncontrolled” costs -- those age-old budget busters that include health
care for state workers and the poor, retirement costs and debt obligations.
The frightening truth is that fully half the budget is growing at three times
the rate of inflation. And that means no room for extra boxes of paper clips --
never mind new programs....
Out of necessity, it seems Patrick has grasped the concept of spending cuts --
not that there’s anything creative in that. The budget will contain $515 million
worth.
But it will also rely on $295 million in tax increases on corporations. And it
dips into the state’s rainy day fund. That’s not creative, it’s simply stupid.
A Boston Herald editorial
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Budgeting 101: Not ‘creative’
So Gov. Deval Patrick insisted last night this is a
budget without gimmicks and until he rolls out the details today we’ll
have to take him at his word.
Still . . . he also swore he found $950 million in “savings and
efficiencies” and on that score count us among the skeptical. It sounds
suspiciously like the kind of candidate-speak that works in a debate,
but fades under the bright lights of a budget conference room.
A Boston Herald editorial
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
. . . But no gimmicks?
Contending with a $1.3 billion deficit, Gov. Deval Patrick
has followed through on a few of the plans he campaigned on, while scaling back
many others. Here is a rundown on how his campaign promises fared in his 2008
budget presented yesterday ...
Campaign promise: Lower property taxes in communities across the state.
Proposed budget: Limited property tax relief through $870 credit available
to low-income homeowners (defined as married couples earning less than $70,000,
and single heads of household making less than $58,000). Starting in 2008, the
proposal would affect about 100,000 households, roughly 7 percent of the state’s
homeowners.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Promise vs. performance
It's unfair to expect any first-year governor to unveil
sweeping new initiatives in his first budget, which must be filed less than two
months after he takes the oath of office. But Governor Deval Patrick made the
best of his predicament last night in a speech previewing the budget to be
released today....
Patrick said he refuses to accept the contention that Massachusetts is "the
capital of the status quo." It's not, as shown by the innovative health care law
passed last year, which he fully supports. But the question is really: Who
drives the change? Patrick made a strong case last night that he ought to be
given a turn at the wheel.
A Boston Globe editorial
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
A reminder from the governor
Excuse me, the “budget address.” Nice, I guess, to see the
governor back in the setting that made him a star, a “town meeting” packed with
admirers. Good to see him making sensible investment choices, cautioning against
impatience, doing all he can to mitigate his tax hikes with fervent pro-business
rhetoric.
So why can’t I shake the feeling that this event amounted to little more than a
warm bath and a pat on the head for a political culture that needs a cold shower
and a kick in the butt? ...
Deval Patrick lapped the field last year in part because he correctly perceived
that soaring property taxes were far more worrisome to more voters than the
state’s failure to enact the full income-tax rollback....
Just as he is apparently unwilling to take on the legislature directly (whatever
happened to “let them hear you on Beacon Hill”??), so too is he afraid to demand
real reform on the part of the public employee unions who have bled so many
communities dry with their paltry health-care contributions and inept,
patronage-stuffed local pension and retirement boards? Inviting them politely to
join the state’s group insurance and pension plans is like asking that gaping,
leaky hole in your roof to please seal itself up.
WBZ-AM 1030
Wednesday, February 28, 2007; 7:55 AM
The Patrick Pep Rally
By Jon Keller
In this week’s podcast -- Deval’s direct communication to the
moonbats -- he starts out saying amiably that he wants to address “a subject of
great concern to the people throughout the Commonwealth and, no, I don’t mean
the official car or the new desk at the governor’s office.”
The Boston Herald
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Draped in controversy, is it curtains for Deval?
By Howie Carr
Chip Ford's CLT Commentary
"Governor Deval Patrick yesterday unveiled the broad
themes of a $26.7 billion spending plan for next year" (Boston Globe) .
. . "In addition to the operating budget, the state has set aside $2.789
billion for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, school
building assistance, and pension funding" (State House News Service).
According to my math, that totals about $29 billion taxpayers' dollars
proposed to be spent in the state's next fiscal year, even before we
reach the "supplemental budgets" as the fiscal year progresses.
(We don't yet know what the state's final spending bill for this
fiscal year [2007] is yet! We won't until the
state comptroller's report comes out later this year.)
“This budget is balanced without gimmicks,” Patrick
said last night. “We didn’t defer difficult decisions. We didn’t use
Band-Aids to treat symptoms and ignore causes.” But he termed his
proposed income tax credit for a few instead a "property tax cut" that
fulfills his campaign promise! Our and the voters' income tax
rollback would have provided precisely the same income tax relief -- but
for every property owner, not his select few.
His expansion of the income tax "circuit breaker"
does absolutely nothing to reduce property taxes by even a single
cent. It simply frees up money for income tax payers -- provides
them with a bigger rebate to spend on anything they wish:
groceries, rent and mortgages, health care insurance premiums, higher
fuel costs, property taxes -- plasma televisions even! It is
simply a credit against a taxpayer's state income tax liability -- but
only if you're in a low enough income category to qualify.
The Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Editorial Cartoon by David Hitch
We've had the most difficult time getting this across
to the media, thus CLT's latest news release last night immediately following the governor's "town
meeting" announcement of his proposed budget and "property tax cuts."
We may have gotten through this time -- maybe -- because none of the new
reports or editorials I've come across thus far has praised his
"property tax relief." Perhaps the media is spending some time today
investigating Deval's long promised "property tax relief" and will find
there is and never has been any such thing. Very few in the in the
media have understood it all along.
Having a little fun with our current political
travails, after reading Howie Carr's Boston Herald column on Sunday
morning -- with his inclusion in one sentence of both "moonbats" and
Gov. Patrick's weekly "podcast" -- an image flashed through my mind, a
memory, a distant connection. I had to find out what it was, what
triggered it. Googling "pod," there it was: "Invasion
of the Body Snatchers"!
". . . But as night falls again they find pods
in Miles’s glasshouse. When they try to run they find everywhere
that the whole town has turned into hostile, emotionless pod
people trying to stop them. . . ."
". . . The psychiatrist’s explanation the morning after that the
pods are all part of a mass hallucination becomes so convincing
the film’s entire perspective changes about in a single moment – one
believes it because it sounds so rational. . . ."
". . . Kevin McCarthy and Dane Wynter hide, with the pod people
crossing above calmly assuring them there is nothing to fear
. . ."
". . . and people start organizing the pods to be
distributed about the country. . . ."
"There were two remakes, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
and Body Snatchers (1993),
both of which are excellent films. The versatility of the central
idea of the Jack Finney story is such that the basic premise can be
adapted to the social times that each film was made in. Siegel’s
Invasion of the Body Snatchers could never have been made at a later
time, it is too much rooted in the sense of a small cosy American
town being alienated. Instead Philip Kaufman in the 1978 version
used the pods as a metaphor for urban alienation, while Abel
Ferrara in the 1993 version used them to stand in for a shadowy
nebulous force that was corrupting society."
Yesterday I saved the 1978 version starring Donald
Sutherland on my DVR for Barbara and me to watch later. Have fun,
but beware of Deval's pod people!
 |
|
Chip Ford |
State House News Service
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Patrick files budget of "tough choices and creative solutions"
By Jim O'Sullivan, Michael Norton,
Priscilla Yeon, and Gintautas Dumcius
Gov. Deval Patrick is blending deep budget cuts, new tax revenues and
raids on state reserve funds -- what he termed "tough choices and
creative solutions" -- to balance his first budget and close a gap
between projected revenues and expenses of $1.2 billion.
The new governor's spending plan, which he called "balanced and
responsible," would boost spending by 4.2 percent, or a $1.1 billion
increase over projected budget spending this fiscal year, which ends on
June 30. This fiscal year featured a change in control of state
government with Patrick's election and the departure of Gov. Mitt
Romney, who claimed during his final months that the state was
overspending.
In a nearly full Melrose auditorium, addressing a live evening
television audience from a stage back-dropped by American and
Massachusetts flags, Patrick said, "What we did is look our situation
candidly right in the eye and set about to set it right, right now."
The budget bill Patrick will release at noon Wednesday features $515
million in cuts to accounts throughout the state budget, $295 million in
new corporate tax revenues and the use of $225 million that would
ordinarily remain in state reserve funds. The administration says its
plan distributes responsibility for closing the gap between many
parties.
The Democratic governor also plans to secure $123 million in fiscal 2008
through "cash management and debt initiatives" that he will deploy with
the help of State Treasurer Timothy Cahill and $43 million due to
"enhanced revenue collection and enforcement." Overall, Patrick
identified $976 million in "savings and efficiencies."
"This budget is balanced without gimmicks. We did not defer difficult
decisions. We did not use band-aids to treat symptoms and ignore their
root causes. We did not square our ledger with under-the-radar fee
increases. And we did not shift the financial burden onto cities and
towns or public schools or poor people to meet our obligations," Patrick
said, winning applause.
The Patrick budget encounters an uncertain voyage through the
Legislature. Both House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi and Senate President
Robert Travaglini have at different times denounced new taxes, and even
pro-Patrick lawmakers have labeled a non-starter his proposal to levy
$295 million in new taxes on businesses this year. On Tuesday night,
Administration and Finance Secretary Leslie Kirwan said a meeting with
the two legislative leaders earlier in the day included "a lot of
give-and-take."
Patrick's plan increases Chapter 70 funding for public education by $200
million, above the statutory obligation but short of the $255 million
that would have emerged through the formula the Legislature established
in this fiscal year's budget.
Patrick said, "What we need today, I believe, is a spirit of active
collaboration between government, business, labor, universities, the
medical and research community, non-profits, neighborhood groups. We
need a new spirit of active and civic responsibility, less about party
politics and more about problem-solving, less about the status quo and
yesterday, and more about innovation and tomorrow. And we'd better start
by being clear-eyed and candid about our challenges."
While making attempts to deliver on campaign promises to improve
education, ease property tax growth and hire more police officers, the
budget proposed by the freshman governor retreats from many of programs
and services that Patrick says are important to the state's quality of
life.
"The administration faced a very difficult budget gap," said Michael
Widmer, president of the business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers
Foundation. "They have been forthcoming in how they're closing it. The
$500 million in spending cuts will be felt across most areas of state
spending. Unfortunately the 35 percent increase in corporate taxes will
undercut the state's economy and worsen the state's long-term structural
problems."
Widmer warned that the use of reserves, while steering clear of a direct
withdrawal from the Stabilization Fund, would pose future problems: "The
draw on reserves will complicate next year's budget."
Business groups have protested Patrick's plan to shut "loopholes," which
they say will frustrate job growth and stifle the economy. Eileen
McAnneny, vice president of government affairs at the Associated
Industries of Massachusetts, said her organization agrees with Patrick
that the state's budget challenge is "a shared responsibility."
But, she said the new corporate taxes, when annualized, amount to a
half-billion. McAnneny said, "Our concern is that the business community
is looking at $500 million in new taxes on the heels of $800 million in
new taxes over the last four years, and that we're bearing a
disproportionate share of the burden."
When the current fiscal year's midyear spending plans, capital and
"economic stimulus" supplementary budgets, are taken into account,
Patrick's budget would curb spending nine-tenths of a percent.
In addition to the operating budget, the state has set aside $2.789
billion for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, school
building assistance, and pension funding.
During a budget briefing Tuesday afternoon, Patrick aides refused to
detail many of the areas targeted for cuts under a budget that is now
subject to revisions by the House and Senate, before making its way back
to Patrick's desk.
A chart showed $179 million netted through Medicaid cost control and
savings, another $86 million through eliminated earmarks, a curtailed
school aid formula, and $136 million in "other reductions in over 200
areas."
While it briefly summed up its cuts, the Patrick team released a full
page of bullet points outlining new investments and other items that the
administration wants publicized, including $4 million for an expedited
permitting program, $33.7 million to hire 250 police officers, a 5.5
percent increase in local aid, a 46 percent increase in kindergarten
expansion grants, and the consolidation of anti-homelessness efforts.
Tabbed "House 1," the budget consolidates 11 homelessness prevention
line items into two, which aides said would permit more flexibility for
agencies.
The plan also moves 158 Executive Office of Transportation employees
from the capital budget, where an additional 60-cent cost is added to
every dollar, to the operating budget. More than 1,600 employees would
remain on the capital budget, according to Patrick's office. The current
system, Patrick said, is "like the government paying its employees on a
credit card."
Patrick acknowledged his proposal's limited investment in higher
education, but said he would file a "more significant" package for
public colleges and universities, including efforts to curb student
fees, "in a few months' time." He said plans for transportation reform
are also "coming soon."
Patrick's budget roll-out allowed him to deliver the administration's
talking points directly to citizens, a departure from past governors'
approaches, which typically revolved around State House press
conferences on budget-filing day. He also spoke with legislators in
closed sessions, including a State House meeting to which all 200 were
invited.
On Wednesday, Patrick planned a media blitz, touring television and
radio shows to make his case, as well as a morning address to the
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, which has criticized his move to hit
up businesses for gap-closing revenues.
Asked after the speech about his strategy, which gives him room to
maneuver around traditional media channels, Patrick told the News
Service, "That's what I do."
The Legislature and administration agreed last month to a projection of
3 percent growth in revenues in fiscal 2008. The state in January upped
its estimate of current year fiscal revenues by $174 million,
effectively winnowing the $1.3 billion budget gap it had been
forecasting, though aides acknowledged they continued publicly to
predict the $1.3 billion shortfall.
Leaving the governor's office Tuesday afternoon after a briefing, DiMasi
told the News Service he agreed with the governor's approach of building
a budget without taking money directly from the stabilization fund. He
said the use of the fund is appropriate "in times that are very
difficult."
After Patrick explained his budget to the Legislature, DiMasi told
reporters the governor's priorities, such as education, are "in the
right direction."
"He has a serious situation where he's made some serious decisions on
these savings and on these cuts," said DiMasi. Whether or not the House
agrees with the cuts will be up to the House Ways and Means Committee to
decide after holding public hearings on the matter. "It's a priority for
us to balance the budget," the North End Democrat said.
The speaker, who seemed hesitant to agree with the governor's proposal
of giving municipalities the option to raise local taxes on meals and
lodging as a source of revenue, said he is not "ruling out" the idea.
Asked if he was "warming up" to the local tax options, DiMasi said "I
didn't say that, no. I just said that you have to take all of these in
consideration with the financial situation we find ourselves in, it
doesn't necessarily mean we'll approve any of those local option taxes,"
said DiMasi.
DiMasi said he wants to examine the corporate tax reforms to determine
whether they would be "detrimental" to the economy and talk to the
business community about it. He said he doesn't want the proposed tax
changes to go against what the Legislature tried to accomplish last year
through the economic stimulus bill, which promotes job creation. Patrick
says he's closing off tax avoidance avenues.
Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei (R-Wakefield) said, on a day when
the stock market plunged due to concerns over recession, to put forth
new business taxes was unwise. He said, "It's going to show up in
somebody's ledger. We're already in a state that isn't very
competitive."
Patrick opted not to introduce new gambling revenues into the budget,
but has not ruled it out from future plans. Estimates fluctuate widely
over the new revenues that would ensue from slot machines or
resort-style casinos, but most projections sit in the hundreds of
millions.
After announcing in January he would appoint a task force to study
gambling, Patrick's administration sat on most of the members' names
until Tuesday, announcing Cabinet secretaries and senior advisers, but
not including lower-ranking aides who also sit on the panel. Patrick has
said he will consider expanded gaming, but declared his decision
wouldn't be ready in time for this budget.
After his 25-minute speech, Patrick opened the floor to questions, a
roughly 40-minute town hall-style discussion where audience members
posed questions about specific spending initiatives. Patrick at times
turned the number-citing over to aides, budget analysts rarely given
public notice.
After the second straight question about fiscal aid for localities,
Patrick, referring to the Massachusetts Municipal Association lobbying
group, joked, "This would be the second MMA plant at this gathering, am
I right?"
Asked by an audience member about statewide funding for full-day
kindergarten, Patrick said he hoped it would be soon, and said his top
priority was revving the economy. He said, "We do that, and that makes
so much else possible."
Questioned about "shared parenting," which would spread the
responsibility for child-rearing between the parents in a divorce,
Patrick turned to the legislators in the crowd, and said, "Pass the
bill, I'll sign it."
One audience member asked about a key pillar of his strategy for pushing
his agenda: mobilizing the broad grassroots he cultivated during his
come-from-behind election to apply pressure on Beacon Hill. She asked,
"How do we on the outside develop the support and pressure to help you
on the inside?"
Patrick replied, "Just the way you did in the campaign. You talk to
somebody. You tell somebody this matters … Let me tell you, the other
side is paying people to talk to somebody. You need to talk to your
legislators. Some of them are here. I can cordon them off right here, if
you'd like."
Patrick said, "Talk to legislators, because they need our encouragement.
And it's not because they're hostile it's because they need -- I need --
your encouragement, for goodness sake."
The speech reproduced campaign lines about the state's need to alter its
strategy, calling for new fuel rather than trying to drive the
Commonwealth "on the fumes of the past." He also exited the auditorium
to his campaign anthem, Heather Pride's "Small."
An aide said Patrick read off a paper copy of his speech rather than the
teleprompters that were set up due to a computer glitch that prevented
the creation of a digital copy and the distribution of hard copies to
reporters before the speech.
The budget will be available online Wednesday, with links and
spreadsheets that aides said would allow for easy public access and
comparisons.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Deval pushes limited tax relief:
Campaign promises get short shrift in budget proposal
By Casey Ross and Jessica Van Sack
Calling his budget a blueprint for “lasting change,” Gov. Deval Patrick
last night pushed proposals for limited tax relief and education
upgrades, but was forced to defer many of key campaign promises.
In a televised speech, Patrick outlined a budget proposal that would cut
more than $500 million in state spending while squeezing businesses for
about $300 million in new tax revenue. The plan also boosts public
education spending by $200 million, a modest increase to help stave off
deep cuts in local school spending.
“This budget is balanced without gimmicks,” Patrick said of his efforts
to erase a $1.3 billion deficit. “We didn’t defer difficult decisions.
We didn’t use Band-Aids to treat symptoms and ignore causes.”
Some budget watchdogs disagree, noting Patrick is withholding a $100
million payment to the state’s rainy day fund. “It just pushes off the
shortfall to next year’s budget,” said Michael Widmer of the
Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation.
Patrick used rosy terms to describe some budget maneuvers, referring to
more than $950 million in savings and efficiencies. However, a budget
breakdown provided by the administration shows the $950 million figure
comes from reduced education spending, revenues from his corporate tax
changes and stepped-up tax enforcement, among other measures.
Line-by-line details will be released today, when Patrick files his
spending plan with the Legislature. Lawmakers largely withheld fire last
night, though some have expressed reservations about proposals for
corporate tax changes and local option meals taxes.
“Initially, every budget is viewed by some as a winner and by others as
disappointing,” Senate President Robert Travaglini said. "This will be
no different.”
Some of Patrick’s GOP opponents were more aggressive. State Sen. Richard
Tisei (R-Wakefield) derisively referred to the meals tax as the “Boston
Bailout,” saying it would fail to help many smaller communities.
Patrick’s budget scales back or eliminates many of his key campaign
promises, including broad-based property-tax relief, full-day
kindergarten and 1,000 new local police officers.
Patrick proposes $13 million for 250 officers. On kindergarten, he wants
to move just 800 of the state’s 1,500 half-day programs to full days.
During his remarks last night, Patrick defended the scaled-back
spending, saying the $1.3 billion deficit was hidden from him during the
campaign.
“Progress will not be instant and change will not come without
struggle,” he said, calling for residents to rely on a “a faith in
things unseen” and to recommit to a new spirit of innovation and civic
engagement.
After his speech in a town meeting forum in Melrose, Patrick took
friendly questions from the audience. One woman asked, “How do we on the
outside help you on the inside?” Patrick replied by emphasizing the
importance of spreading his message one person at a time.
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Patrick says budget 'without gimmicks'
Plan would raise corporate taxes
By Frank Phillips and Andrea Estes
Governor Deval Patrick yesterday unveiled the broad themes of a $26.7
billion spending plan for next year that would close a gaping deficit
with $515 million in unspecified spending reductions and $295 million in
new corporate taxes, while fully funding the state's health insurance
law, boosting aid to cities and towns, and launching several education
initiatives.
During a televised speech in Melrose, Patrick called on citizens and
political leaders to rally around the plan, saying it would stimulate a
sluggish economy, fund education initiatives, and meet social service
obligations.
"We need a new spirit of active and civic responsibility, less about
party politics and more about problem solving, less about the status quo
and yesterday and more about innovation and tomorrow," Patrick said.
The nuts and bolts will be released today at noon, when Patrick files
his budget for fiscal 2008, which begins July 1, launching a monthslong
budget debate in the Legislature. The governor, whose early tenure will
in many ways be judged by the success of the plan, will begin selling it
to the public, legislators, and the business community in a series of
interviews and speeches today.
Patrick's speech touched on many of the themes and even the phrases of
his campaign as he pitched his fiscal plan, which must close a $1.2
billion deficit while funding some of the initiatives he promised as a
candidate.
Earlier in the day, he took the unusual step of presenting his budget
plan to a joint House and Senate caucus and asking them not to reject it
out of hand.
"We are building a foundation of lasting change and meaningful progress,
and we had better get on with it, because Massachusetts is at a
crossroads," Patrick told the audience, which filled Soldiers & Sailors
Memorial Hall.
During the half-hour speech, he vowed to end homelessness in
Massachusetts through a streamlining of state programs. An aide said the
initiative would increase spending by nearly 5 percent.
Short on details, Patrick said the budget does not take the short cuts
he contends have been relied on in the past.
"This budget is balanced without gimmicks," Patrick said. "We did not
defer difficult decisions. We did not use Band-Aids to treat symptoms
and ignore their root causes. We did not square our ledger with
under-the-radar fee increases. And we did not shift the financial burden
onto cities and towns or public schools or poor people."
The most controversial part of Patrick's budget blueprint is his plan to
raise $295 million in fiscal 2008 by closing what he calls corporate tax
loopholes, a proposal the Legislature is leery of and the business
community has protested.
Patrick, who is to address the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce this
morning, argued that the changes would force businesses to pay their
fair share of the tax burden. He contends that the changes will place
Massachusetts on equal footing with other states that have similar tax
laws.
"Closing these loopholes is a matter of basic fairness, Patrick said.
"... In fact, our total tax burden for businesses is among the lowest in
the nation." He cited an Ernst & Young report estimating that
Massachusetts businesses have the 47th-lowest tax burden.
Still, the governor will have to make a strong argument to legislators.
"The stock market plummeted ... today because a lot of people are
worried about an economic slowdown and possible recession," said Richard
R. Tisei of Wakefield, Senate Republican leader. "Now isn't the time to
make the state less competitive for businesses."
Michael J. Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation,
called the budget a "good faith effort to deal with a very difficult
problem," but said it has two significant flaws: an increased corporate
tax burden -- which would hurt the state's economy and, therefore,
employment -- and the fact that about $400 million of the funds used to
close the gap are one-time revenues and savings, which would leave a
built-in deficit in next year's budget.
Still, in sharp contrast to the cool reaction to the spending plans
submitted by Republican governors, Democratic legislative leaders
offered a warm reception for the first budget submitted by a Democratic
governor in 16 years.
"There is a lot of area of common agreement," Senate President Robert E.
Travaglini said after he leaving the governor's office, where Patrick
briefed legislative leaders on his plan before the speech in Melrose.
"We all understand this is the framework that begins our deliberations
on the budget appropriation for this year, and we're ready to be as
helpful to the administration as we can be."
Representative Robert A. DeLeo, chairman of the House Ways and Means
Committee, said, "It's the first time I've experienced the willingness
of the governor to speak with the Legislature, to speak with the
leadership, and to give us a heads up, in terms of what his particular
priorities were before it being released."
The one-time revenue sources include $50 million of the state's tobacco
money.
And though Patrick promised he would not use gimmicks to balance his
budget, his spending plan depends on using $100 million that would
otherwise be put into the state's rainy-day fund, plus $75 million in
interest that fund is expected to earn next year. The governor's office
said the $75 million accounts for 84 percent of the interest the fund is
projected to earn in fiscal 2008.
The budget would also have the treasurer's office pursue a variety of
strategies for recovering more money through different techniques in
bonding and cash management, as well as by hiring lawyers and staff at
the appellate tax board so cases could be expedited and the state could
recover the money it is owed faster.
Patrick's budget also requires about $515 million in cuts and
"efficiencies" from across state government. Of that, $179 million would
be derived from Medicaid cost controls and savings. But aides to the
governor
refused to provide further details about how the saving would
be realized.
During his campaign, Patrick promised to put an additional 1,000 police
officers on the streets. His budget provides about $13 million in
additional funds for community policing, money the administration says
would help to hire 250 police officers. That $13 million includes $3
million to expand training.
Local aid would increase by $312 million next year, or about 5 percent,
including $200 million dedicated to education. The budget would also
spend an additional $13 million on expanding about 800 half-day
kindergarten classrooms into full-day programs and double funding for
extended school day programs to $13 million. And, as the governor
announced last weekend, it would spend about $72 million more next year
on public health.
Lisa Wangsness of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
A Boston Herald editorial
Budgeting 101: Not ‘creative’
Despite last night’s soaring rhetoric, it’ll be tough to glean Gov.
Deval Patrick’s true fiscal priorities from the $26.7 billion budget
plan he files today. And it’s not just because he glossed over some of
the biggest challenges in balancing a budget when revenues are sluggish.
It’s because so much of the new revenue that comes in next year will be
gobbled up by “uncontrolled” costs -- those age-old budget busters that
include health care for state workers and the poor, retirement costs and
debt obligations.
The frightening truth is that fully half the budget is growing at three
times the rate of inflation. And that means no room for extra boxes of
paper clips -- never mind new programs.
Make no mistake -- Patrick has managed to float a series of spending
hikes that reveal some of his favored programs (just try to picture a
Romney budget that earmarks funds to immunize young girls against a
sexually transmitted virus). But to do so, he said, his team had to “get
creative.”
(It’s worth remembering that some of those tough choices could have been
avoided had Patrick not restored that $300 million in cuts Gov. Mitt
Romney made on his way out the door.)
“My team and I have pored over every line item in this budget,” he said.
“We understand that behind every dollar is a human being.”
But let’s face it: In a budget blueprint like this one, the most telling
part is in identifying just where the money will come from to bridge the
yawning gap between revenues and anticipated spending.
Out of necessity, it seems Patrick has grasped the concept of spending
cuts -- not that there’s anything creative in that. The budget will
contain $515 million worth.
But it will also rely on $295 million in tax increases on corporations.
And it dips into the state’s rainy day fund. That’s not creative, it’s
simply stupid.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
A Boston Herald editorial
. . . But no gimmicks?
So Gov. Deval Patrick insisted last night this is a budget without
gimmicks and until he rolls out the details today we’ll have to take him
at his word.
Still . . . he also swore he found $950 million in “savings and
efficiencies” and on that score count us among the skeptical. It sounds
suspiciously like the kind of candidate-speak that works in a debate,
but fades under the bright lights of a budget conference room.
Did he tackle such sacred cows as the split on health insurance coverage
for state employees? Will he contract out state services that could be
more efficiently done without incurring the long-term liability of
putting more workers on the state payroll? If so, we’ll join the Deval
Patrick Marching Band. But if so, why didn’t he include that in his
largely happy-talk budget?
His proposal to stop bonding the salaries of 158 state employees and get
them back on the regular operating budget is admirable, and, as he said,
“a start.” This bit of long-standing fiscal insanity, he noted, costs 60
additional cents for every $1 of salary.
And while there will be squawking from the anti-smoking zealots about
using some of the proceeds from the 1990 tobacco settlement to help pay
for state retirees’ health insurance, frankly that’s a perfectly
legitimate use of the money. (Besides anti-smoking efforts will also get
a boost.)
Limiting earmarks, limiting outside sections, consolidating programs --
all fine. But a budget without gimmicks? Well, let’s put it this way:
One man’s innovative idea is another man’s gimmick.
The Boston Herald
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Promise vs. performance
By Herald staff
Contending with a $1.3 billion deficit, Gov. Deval Patrick has followed
through on a few of the plans he campaigned on, while scaling back many
others. Here is a rundown on how his campaign promises fared in his 2008
budget presented yesterday:
Campaign promise: Spend $80 million to hire 1,000 new local cops.
Proposed budget: $13 million in community policing grants to help
communities hire 250 cops.
Campaign promise: Restore financial assistance to cities and towns
to pre-2000 levels.
Proposed budget: Modest increase of $200 million in education aid
(mandatory minimum increase under state law is $175 million); near flat
funding in non-education aid ($15 million increase in lottery funding).
Municipal advocates say state aid is still down $700 million from 2002
levels when adjusting for inflation.
Campaign promise: Lower property taxes in communities across the
state.
Proposed budget: Limited property tax relief through $870 credit
available to low-income homeowners (defined as married couples earning
less than $70,000, and single heads of household making less than
$58,000). Starting in 2008, the proposal would affect about 100,000
households, roughly 7 percent of the state’s homeowners.
Campaign promise: Full-day kindergarten for all 5-year-old
students.
Proposed budget: $13 million to help 800 of the state’s 1,500
half-day kindergarten classes expand to full-day.
Campaign promise: More after-school programs to extend learning
time for children.
Proposed budget: Doubles to $13 million the amount spent on
extended-day school programs.
Campaign promise: Slash $735 million in waste from the state
budget, without deep cuts in services.
Proposed budget: Patrick aides said some waste was identified, but
across-the-board cuts in services were necessary. They say Patrick never
promised to find $735 million in a single year.
Campaign promise: $34 million in additional assistance to
communities to eliminate fees for school transportation and
extracurricular activities.
Proposed budget: Unclear whether education aid increase will allow
for elimination of local fees. Decisions will be made on
community-to-community basis.
Campaign promise: Push for local option taxes on meals to help
communities reduce reliance on the property tax.
Proposed budget: As separate legislation, Patrick has filed a
municipal partnership package to allow communities to tax restaurant
meals, join the state’s less-expensive health care program and squeeze
more revenue from telecom companies by eliminating their tax exemptions.
The Boston Globe
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
A Boston Globe editorial
A reminder from the governor
It's unfair to expect any first-year governor to unveil sweeping new
initiatives in his first budget, which must be filed less than two
months after he takes the oath of office. But Governor Deval Patrick
made the best of his predicament last night in a speech previewing the
budget to be released today. His toughest audience won't be the people
at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Melrose or the viewers at home,
but the 200 members of the House and Senate, habituated by 16 years of
Republican administrations to revising gubernatorial budgets at will.
Patrick mixed the poetry of the campaign with the grittier details of
governance. "We are building a foundation for lasting change and
meaningful progress," he said. And yet the programs he announced were
small, compared with the $26.7 billion budget. He singled out the high
cost of housing as a disincentive for job growth, but the housing
programs he mentioned would help those at the lowest income levels, who
need assistance but are not the young middle-class homebuyers who are
leaving the state in distressing numbers.
His speech last night was intended to speak gently over the heads of the
Legislature to remind voters why they gave him a landslide victory in
November. He mentioned several small but thoughtful proposals to expand
full-day kindergarten and afterschool programs, but these are merely a
prelude to a major education restructuring plan to be offered later.
Mustering public support for his budget now should encourage the
Legislature to give his more expansive proposals a more respectful
hearing when they are unveiled.
The House showed itself in a conciliatory mood earlier in the day when,
by a 153-0 vote, it approved Patrick's plans to rearrange energy,
environmental, and economic development agencies. Speaker Salvatore
DiMasi had his own plans for an energy reorganization, but, in deference
to the governor, the speaker accepted his. Patrick can only hope the
Legislature shows similar forbearance for his plan to curtail such
budget devices as individual line items and outside sections, which
legislators cherish, but which often yield bloated programs and
ill-considered policies.
Governor Romney, a Republican, made a similar speech early in his term
in 2003, but the state was facing a graver fiscal crisis then and Romney
thought he had a mandate for major changes in the structures of
government. The Legislature made the necessary budget cuts and otherwise
brushed him off.
Patrick said he refuses to accept the contention that Massachusetts is
"the capital of the status quo." It's not, as shown by the innovative
health care law passed last year, which he fully supports. But the
question is really: Who drives the change? Patrick made a strong case
last night that he ought to be given a turn at the wheel.
WBZ-AM 1030
Wednesday, February 28, 2007; 7:55 AM
The Patrick Pep Rally
By Jon Keller
Excuse me, the “budget address.” Nice, I guess, to see the governor back
in the setting that made him a star, a “town meeting” packed with
admirers. Good to see him making sensible investment choices, cautioning
against impatience, doing all he can to mitigate his tax hikes with
fervent pro-business rhetoric.
So why can’t I shake the feeling that this event amounted to little more
than a warm bath and a pat on the head for a political culture that
needs a cold shower and a kick in the butt?
Deval Patrick lapped the field last year in part because he correctly
perceived that soaring property taxes were far more worrisome to more
voters than the state’s failure to enact the full income-tax rollback.
And he has followed through on that clever insight by siding with
municipalities in their decades-old struggle to escape the clutches of
Beacon Hill’s control freaks. Unsurprisingly, Beacon Hill doesn’t like
it. The leadership has already slapped down his proposed local-option
taxes, and may do so as well with his corporate tax hikes. You might say
this sets up the early make-or-break moment for the Patrick
administration. He can marshal his electoral mandate, turn up the heat,
and show Beacon Hill who’s boss. If he blinks, why would legislative
leaders ever take him seriously again?
Last night, he blinked. It wasn’t until a friendly questioner from the
crowd prompted him to do so that he asked people to lobby their
legislators in support of his proposals. Unfortunately, this was well
after NECN’s live broadcast and WBZ Radio’s webcast had cut away. Just
as he is apparently unwilling to take on the legislature directly
(whatever happened to “let them hear you on Beacon Hill”??), so too is
he afraid to demand real reform on the part of the public employee
unions who have bled so many communities dry with their paltry
health-care contributions and inept, patronage-stuffed local pension and
retirement boards? Inviting them politely to join the state’s group
insurance and pension plans is like asking that gaping, leaky hole in
your roof to please seal itself up.
When it was all over, and the Patrick fans filed blissfully out into the
night, the PA system cranked out the familiar campaign song, Heather
Small crooning “what have you done today to make you feel proud?” I have
a different question for our personable, but surprisingly timid new
governor: what have you risked today to clean up this horrible mess?
The Boston Herald
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Draped in controversy, is it curtains for Deval?
By Howie Carr
It’s the $72,000-a-year secretary for your wife, stupid.
That’s what’s people are really going to remember about Gov. Deval
Patrick’s very bad week. What a first and lasting impression to leave --
Mrs. Patrick, who has a full-time mid-six-figure job, now gets a chief
of staff, a woman from Wellesley named Amy Gorin who was one of Deval’s
earliest rich moonbat supporters.
Amy Gorin needs another $72,000 like Deval needs, well, a Cadillac DTS.
The way he ignores the issue, Deval must grasp what a public-relations
nightmare Mrs. Gorin has become. In this week’s podcast -- Deval’s
direct communication to the moonbats -- he starts out saying amiably
that he wants to address “a subject of great concern to the people
throughout the Commonwealth and, no, I don’t mean the official car or
the new desk at the governor’s office.”
Note the two words he didn’t use: Cadillac and drapes.
Even more significantly, he ignored the festering Amy Gorin problem,
which only got worse this weekend with the news that she accompanied
Deval and his wife, Diane, to Washington, D.C., for a National Governors
Association junket.
Because it really bugs people, especially working people (as opposed to
moonbats), who have real jobs that don’t pay 72 large a year. I got
calls all week about it, including one from a guy who works at Stop &
Shop, which is embroiled in contract negotiations with its union. “We’re
fighting over nickels and dimes,” this guy said. “And he wants to pay
$72,000 for his wife’s secretary?”
Diane Patrick is a partner at Ropes & Gray. This is a law firm that puts
the white back in white-shoe (figuratively, of course). They represented
the Somerset Club when the Boston Licensing Board tried to pull its
liquor license. And now they’re getting pelted with spitballs from the
cheap seats, just because a partner’s husband has morphed into Chuck
Berry in the old song “No Money Down.”
“I saw a Cadillac sign saying ‘No Money Down.’ Dealer came to me, said
trade in yo’ broken-down ragged Ford, I put you in a car that’ll eat up
the road.”
Coupe Deval should be tooling around in his Caddy in Hollywood today,
not D.C. He should be picking up an Oscar for Best Short Subject: his
administration. You know you’ve got a problem when you want to change
the subject, and the only thing you can think of to talk about is your
plan to jack up taxes by $400 million a year.
I’m sure that Deval wants to make sure that Diane has the very best,
just as his hero Mike Dukakis provided for Kitty, at the taxpayers’
expense, naturally. Recall Dukakis’ words at a 1984 press conference in
Room 157 at the State House:
“I don’t know about the pillow talk at your house, but I go to sleep at
night with Kitty’s advice, counsels and urgings ringing in my ears.”
Does Deval need his own dose of pillow talk? I think not. Amy Gorin
stays.
But now the Legislature has figured out the play. There’s yet another
patsy in the Corner Office. How quickly things change. Seven weeks ago,
when Deval was sworn in on the steps of the State House, the solons were
terrified.
They looked out toward Beacon Street and the Common and saw a veritable
Hempfest of moonbats. Deval’s shock troops -- trust-funded middle-aged
zonked-out-on-prescription-meds bloggers.
But Deval squandered his moment. The moonbats are depressed; they’re
gobbling Xanax like M&Ms. Meanwhile, Deval unveils his new budget
Tuesday night. The two Ways and Means committees begin their joint
hearings Thursday morning.
From Tuesday night to Thursday morning. Saddam Hussein got more time to
prepare a defense than they’re giving Deval. His budget is DOA, just
like Mitt Romney’s, or Jane Swift’s.
Did someone say curtains?
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