House lawmakers have fattened their
$21.7 billion budget with more than $4 million in pet spending projects
-- including another bailout for the Sail Boston extravaganza -- and a
$3,600 back door raise for each legislator.
The new details emerging from the
budget plan yesterday infuriated Cellucci administration officials as
well as campaign finance reform advocates and tax cut proponents.
House budget leaders inserted $4.3
million into the state tourism budget for questionable projects,
including $750,000 for the controversial Sail Boston event, $30,000 for
a clock in Haverhill, $30,000 for a reproduction Civil War cannon and
$200,000 for a new air conditioning system at the John F. Kennedy museum
in Hyannis.
Several of the budget items -- which
weren't requested by the tourism office -- appear to have little to do
with tourism.
"I'm shell-shocked," said
Mary Jane McKenna, state tourism director. "I know this is an
election year but this is outrageous."
The $750,000 contribution to Sail
Boston, the tall ships parade scheduled for this July, is the second
time in the last six months state officials have funneled public money
into the corporate-sponsored event.
Gov. Paul Cellucci gave the organizers
$1.5 million in tourism money last fall. Since 1998, $2.5 million in
state taxpayer money has been poured into the event.
McKenna said she opposes the latest
public bailout because the money would pay for berthing spots for the
ships.
"Setting up thingamajigs in the
water ... is not exactly what we're all about," she said. Sail
Boston representatives could not be reached for comment.
As the Herald reported yesterday, the
House budget would double members' "per diem" travel
allowances and office expense accounts.
The move to double office expenses,
which will cost taxpayers $720,000 a year, is particularly controversial
because lawmakers collect the allowances in monthly checks and aren't
required t account for how they spend the cash. "It might as
well be handed over to them in a brown bag, Barbara Anderson of
Citizens for Limited Taxation and Government said.
In fact, the state reports the office
expenses to the Internal Revenue Service on 1099 forms and lawmakers are
free to pocket whatever they don't spend on paper clips and phone calls.
And sources say many lawmakers don't like to part with a dime -- even
when the stationery runs out.
"Some of them treat it like their
salary," one State House source said.
Lawmakers -- particularly those who
live more than 50 miles from the State House - also add thousands to
their salaries with "per diem" allowances meant to offset
those travel costs.
House Ways and Means Chairman Paul
Haley (D-Weymouth) defended the increases, saying the office expense
money would allow lawmakers to abide by the "Clean Elections"
campaign finance reform law by absorbing some of the "constituent
service" expenses they currently pay out of their campaign funds.
The voter-approved law offers candidates public funds if they agree to
limit their campaign spending.
But the lack of accounting is raising
concerns among campaign finance advocates who pushed to get office
expenses covered.
"There's no reporting
whatsoever," said David Donnelly, director of Mass Voters for Clean
Elections.
The stipend increases come less than
two years after voters approved a Constitutional amendment that
automatically increases lawmakers' salaries every two years. If the
economy continues to grow at the current rate, rank and file members
will see their pay jump in Januar mor than $3,000 to $49,000
a year. House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran (D-Mattapan) and Senate
President Thomas F. Birmingham (D-Chelsea) could see their salaries soar
to $85,000 a year.
The House budget also allows for
spending of just 30 percent of the state's tobacco trust fund, as
opposed to the 50 percent Cellucci wants to spend on hospital bailouts.
And while House leaders in their
budget rejected Cellucci's plan to privatize the Massachusetts Water
Resources Authority, they embraced the governor's controversial prison
work program tha would allow inmates to qualify for fringe
benefits like unemployment insurance and workers compensation.
House lawmakers don't include any new
tax cut in their budget, and, as expected, tie future tax cuts starting
in 2003 to economic indicators. Cellucci is pushing a November ballot
initiative that would cut the tax rate from its current 5.85 to 5
percent.
Other spending proposals in the House
budget include:
Cosmo Macero Jr. contributed to
this report.