After almost five months of waiting, lawmakers took barely four hours last night to approve a $22.6 billion budget, ending years of expansion in government by enacting a plan that increases spending by just 2 percent.
The House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the plan, which trims about $650 million from preliminary spending plans to help meet a $1.4 billion deficit. The cuts drew fire on the House floor from Democratic lawmakers, who said it was unfair to balance the budget on the backs of the most vulnerable members of society.
"These cuts were not necessary," said Representative Ruth B. Balser, a Newton Democrat. "I have been hearing for months that we will have to make cuts. But why do those cuts have to be to the mentally ill, the mentally retarded, and the caregivers who help them?"
The budget will probably force the elimination of thousands of jobs in the 72,000-member state government work force, though lawmakers did not dictate where all the job cuts will occur.
While overall spending will rise over last year's levels, many agencies and programs will be level-funded or see their budgets decline slightly. The budget scales back funding for higher education, human services, aid to cities and towns, and a range of public health programs.
House Republicans complained that the budget process excluded all but a few members from major decisions. Almost all the final decisions on cuts were made by House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, Senate President Thomas F. Birmingham, and their chief budget-writers.
The 22 GOP members voted against the budget, joined by liberal Democrats upset over program cuts. The final tally in the House was 115-41.
The Senate approved the budget 29-8 shortly thereafter, after Senate minority leader Brian P. Lees chastised Democratic leaders for releasing their budget agreement less than a day before it came to a vote.
The spending plan will now be reviewed by Acting Governor Jane Swift. Yesterday, she called it a "mess" and said she would offer numerous vetoes of line items within 10 days.
"Shame on them for not giving their members enough time to read the budget," Swift said. "This is not the way government is supposed to work."
Representative John H. Rogers, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, defended the budget process. In a speech on the House floor, he said he kept members fully briefed on changes.
"I don't think people have been shut out of the process," said Rogers, a Norwood Democrat. "I know personally that I've answered all your calls. My door has been open all the time."
There was little that legislators could do to adjust the proposed cuts yesterday, because lawmakers could not offer amendments to the plan released just before midnight Tuesday. Nevertheless, lobbyists and advocacy groups took to Beacon Hill yesterday to make their case to save programs that were on the chopping block.
A $15 million cut in proposed spending on adult education could kill all the state-sponsored adult programs, including GED preparation, literacy classes, and training in English as a second language, said Stephen Reuys, staff development coordinator for the Adult Literacy Resource Institute in Boston.
The money for most such classes will probably run out by Jan. 1, meaning that about 25,000 adults could be locked out of their classes, he said.
"Massachusetts will have the distinction of being the only state in the country with no adult basic education," Reuys predicted.
The decision to eliminate $22 million that would have placed mentally disabled adults in group homes may prompt legal action. That money was mandated by a legal settlement reached between the state and 2,400 families in January.
"To say the least, it's a little frustrating," said Neil McKittrick, lead lawyer for the plaintiffs. "If the money's not there, there will be no services. If the services aren't provided, we're going to end up back in court."
Advocates said a $27 million spending reduction in the budget of the Department of Mental Health could cause 354 patients to lose their beds, giving them few options beyond homeless shelters. And a $12 million cut in spending on AIDS treatment and prevention will mean that fewer patients get proper care.
"Some patients will not have access to all the drugs they will need," said Dr. Stephen Boswell, executive director of the Fenway Community Health Center, which treats 1,200 HIV and AIDS patients. "It's disappointing to say the least. It's just shocking."
A $32 million cut in the budget of the state courts could force up to 1,600 layoffs, a 20 percent reduction in the judiciary workforce, said Augusto F. Grace, government relations coordinator for the trial courts. Assistant clerks, clerical workers, and probation officers could lose their jobs, he said.
Senator Mark C. Montigny, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said the cuts were fashioned to affect as few people as possible.
Some pain was unavoidable to cope with the plummeting revenues that have widened the budget deficit, Montigny said. He said legislative leaders will try to find money for programs such as adult education and AIDS if more cash becomes available.
"There will be things that we discover that just can't sustain these cuts," said Montigny, a New Bedford Democrat. "We're going to do everything in our power to recognize that, if there are any supplemental funds."
Michael J. Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said lawmakers dipped too deeply into reserve accounts, using more than the $700 million they have stated publicly they would use.
Widmer's group recommended spending just $550 million of reserves this year, so that the $2.3 billion in reserves can last through an extended recession.
By avoiding deeper cuts, the Legislature's budget could force further spending reductions later this fiscal year and the following year, he said.
"This doesn't begin to deal with the extent of the fiscal problems facing the state," Widmer said. "When we have a multiyear problem, we should be resorting less to the reserve fund and doing more in spending reductions."
The budget reached the House and Senate floor on the last day of the scheduled legislative session, when many lawmakers were anxious to leave town for Thanksgiving. Massachusetts is the only state in the nation operating without a budget. The state budget was due July 1.
Stephanie Ebbert of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.
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The Boston Herald
Thursday, November 22, 2001
'Outrageous': Finneran draws fire
for doling out promotions, raises
by Elisabeth J. Beardsley
House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran showered promotions and giant pay raises on his inner circle yesterday, just hours before ramming through a budget that decimates meager wage hikes for human service workers.
In a closed-door caucus with House Democrats, Majority Whip Salvatore DiMasi (D-Boston) was handed a long-sought promotion to majority leader, which adds $22,500 to his base salary of $50,122.
Meanwhile, 18,000 human service workers making less than $20,000 a year will be denied a 30-cent-per-hour raise, after lawmakers slashed a $25 million salary reserve account down to $5 million.
"It's outrageous," said Human Services Coalition Director Stephen Collins. "It's symbolic of just how far the process has broken down."
But mental health advocates rose to DiMasi's defense. Elizabeth Funk, president of the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Corporations of Massachusetts, said DiMasi has worked hard in their interest.
"I'm not offended at all that he gets more money for being majority leader," Funk said. "I see him as somebody that brings the kind of skills I want to the majority leader role."
Finneran also promoted Rep. Lida Harkins (D-Needham) to assistant majority leader, and Rep. Thomas Petrolati (D-Ludlow) to second assistant. Both saw their base pay rise by $15,000.
Acting Gov. Jane M. Swift, in a prelude to probable vetoes, attacked the Legislature's budget and the process by which it was conceived. The budget fails to provide money for snow and ice removal, as well as homeless shelter beds for 315 families, Swift noted.
The acting governor said she finds it "disturbing" that rank-and-file lawmakers had virtually no time to absorb the massive spending plan - which was filed two minutes before midnight Tuesday night - before being required to cast an up-or-down vote. Swift also attacked the Legislature for raiding the Tax Reduction Fund for $34 million to cover operating expenses. That fund is supposed to be strictly for tax cuts.
"It's not only a flawed process and a budget that's a mess, it's a little extra poke in the eye to the taxpayers," Swift said.
Senate President Thomas F. Birmingham fired back that the Legislature didn't want to put money toward unpredictable things like snow removal.
The budget sets aside $350 million from the "rainy day fund," to be used to fund deficiencies as they arise, Birmingham said. Shortfalls are expected in other accounts such as Medicaid.
"(Swift) doesn't know what she's talking about," Birmingham said. "This is really rich, coming from someone who produced a budget based on gimmicks and show games and underfunding the pension accounts."
Legislative perks abound through the newly minted $22.25 billion budget, even as $650 million was whacked from programs for kids, the elderly, HIV patients, local road projects and other programs.
While levying those cuts, lawmakers protected - and even enhanced - their travel budgets, despite Swift's recent move to freeze administration travel in the wake of the fiscal crisis.
House members who want to hit the road will be able to draw on a $1.3 million account, and senators will have a $228,000 travel pool.
Both branches, in their original versions of the budget, shortchanged the other branch's travel stipend, but in the final budget, each agreed to give the other the higher dollar amount.
Lawmakers hung on to $2.2 million worth of state police patrols at beaches and shopping malls, insisting they enhance public safety in crowded areas. But the details are of dubious value in a time of more pressing public safety needs, critics say.
Legislative leaders also engineered a bloodless death for the voter-approved clean elections law, after Finneran and Birmingham were unable to agree on the disposition of the campaign finance law.
Widely despised by incumbents, the law will be left "in conference," which basically means slow fiscal starvation.
Meanwhile, lawmakers kept the doubling of their office expenses, from $300 to $600 per month, which is the carrot legislative leaders used last year in an effort to sell the law to reluctant incumbents.
The move is "completely disingenuous," said Mass. Voters for Clean Elections organizer David Donnelly. "This is ripe for a gubernatorial veto," Donnelly said. "The Legislature should not be allowed to get away with this."
Senators garnered $1.2 million in earmarked perks out of the Metropolitan District Commission budget, largely at the behest of Sen. Michael Morrissey (D-Quincy), who has clashed repeatedly with MDC Commissioner David Balfour.
The MDC earmarks set aside $65,000 for traffic lights in Quincy; $150,000 for the Southwest Corridor park in Sen. Dianne Wilkerson's Boston district; and $250,000 for curb, sidewalk and drainage improvements to Revere Beach, in the district of Sen. Robert Travaglini (D-East Boston.)
But lawmakers saved $3 million by eliminating the Summer Jobs for Youth at Risk program, a move that left Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino shaking his head. "I don't understand the budget process when you cut something that's already been spent," he said.
This is the second year that the State House has left Boston on the hook for the program, which employs about 3,000 teenagers each summer, including 2,000 in Boston.
Steve Marantz and Ellen J. Silberman contributed to this report.
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The MetroWest Daily News
Wednesday, November 21, 2001