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06-25-2004

Page history last edited by PBworks 15 years, 11 months ago

June 25, 2004

ROMNEY SIGNS $22.402B FISCAL YEAR 2005 'NO NEW TAX' BUDGET

Takes Fiscally Conservative Approach by Issuing $108.5M in Vetoes

 

A week before the start of the new budget year, Governor Mitt Romney today signed into law a $22.402 billion spending plan for Fiscal Year 2005 that restores spending in critical accounts, contains no new taxes and is balanced. Romney vetoed $108.5 million in spending.

 

Romney praised the Legislature for increasing spending on education, public health prevention and other health and human service programs, and for adopting many of his initiatives as they relate to housing, pension reform, public safety and assistance to abused and neglected children.

 

“In total, we are very pleased with the effort of the Legislature. This budget is consistent with our objectives and in many respects is in line with what we proposed,” said Romney. “It’s on time, balanced and contains no new taxes.”

 

Spending in the Fiscal Year 2005 budget represents 3.2 percent growth over estimated spending in the last fiscal year, excluding certain off-budget items, including investments in the pension system, the school building assistance program and a small portion of Medicaid spending.

 

“We have taken significant steps forward in this budget, but there is much more to do,” said Romney. “Specifically, we should merge the Massachusetts Turnpike and the Highway Department to eliminate unnecessary duplication of overhead costs, continue to increase access to meaningful public school choice through charter schools, enact far more substantive reforms to our pension laws and reduce the 112 courthouses currently operating in the Commonwealth to a number more appropriate for a geographically small state in the modern age.”

 

Romney vetoed $108.5 million from the budget, including millions of dollars in legislative earmarks for projects that did not go through the normal grant-making process or for which no rationale was presented. Among the vetoes:

 

 

 

$20 million in additional payments to private contractors working for the state to increase the salaries for direct care workers.

While the Governor favors a more equitable salary structure for these workers, there was no guarantee the money would be used for its intended purpose. Health and Human Services Secretary Ron Preston is leading a review of the Commonwealth’s Purchase of Service system that will look at the salary structure and suggest changes.

 

 

$10 million for the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.

 

 

The Governor believes the purpose of creating independent authorities is to insulate the Commonwealth and its finances from their activities. Instead of a taxpayer subsidy, Romney called on the MWRA to find savings within its budget in order to mitigate the impact of water and sewer rate increases.

 

 

 

$7.4 million for the trial court, including $1.6 million for additional court officers and $1 million for duplicative overhead at the Boston Municipal Court.

Saying the opportunity exists to increase savings and efficiencies in the court system, the Governor called on the Legislature to consider the consolidation of the state’s sprawling network of courthouses and to merge the Boston Municipal Court into the rest of the state’s district court system.

 

The budget commits more than $4.2 billion to the Commonwealth’s 351 communities, including $3.18 billion in direct education aid, a $75 million boost over last year’s spending. The spending program adopts some elements of Romney’s Legacy of Learning initiative and increases funding over last year for other priorities that will help make schools first-rate, including:

 

 

Boosting special education spending by $80 million;

 

Increasing transportation assistance to regional school districts by $12 million;

 

Reimbursing school districts who send students to charter schools by an extra $24.7 million;

 

Raising METCO spending by $2.2 million to expand educational opportunity for inner-city children;

 

Supporting students struggling to pass the MCAS test with an additional $4 million in remediation funds;

 

Recruiting and retaining teachers and school leaders through a $1.5 million initiative; and

 

Taking disruptive students out of the classroom by including $1 million for alternative education settings; and

The budget also makes significant investments in homeland security and public safety, including:

 

 

Providing $6.9 million to fund two new State Police classes;

 

Enhancing intelligence capabilities at the State Police with $2.7 million to expand the Anti-Terrorism Unit and its efforts to collect, analyze and disseminate critical intelligence obtained from every level of government; and

 

Enhancing DNA and forensic analysis at the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office and the State Police Crime Lab with a $4 million boost in funding.

Romney also approved millions of dollars in new spending for health and human service programs to support the elderly, protect abused and neglected children and promote public health. These initiatives include:

 

 

Assisting abused and neglected children in the care of the state by increasing funding by $5.5 million to recruit more foster parents and raise the daily rate they are paid;

 

Addressing the needs of girls placed in the custody of the Department of Youth Services with $2 million in new funds;

 

Funding the $2.5 million Child Psychiatric Access Project, which increases access to child psychiatrists so pediatricians can consult with these experts on issues around prescription medications and families can better understand the services available to their children; and

 

Helping homeless families transition to permanent housing through a $2 million pilot program.

In the budget, the Legislature also took the first important step to encourage sustainable and smart housing development in our communities through zoning reform initiatives that will provide more housing for citizens while protecting open space.

 

Romney also vetoed a number of outside sections of the budget, including:

 

 

A provision that would have cost taxpayers money by prohibiting vendors doing business with the public sector from subcontracting jobs out of the country;

 

Language that would have shielded from public view financial information provided to the public pension board by money management firms that do business with the fund;

 

A plan that would have permitted illegal aliens to pay the same in-state tuition rate at our public colleges and universities as Massachusetts citizens;

 

The establishment of a new Massachusetts Fire Safety Commission until the Legislature adopts fire safety legislation recommended in the wake of last year’s tragic Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island; and

 

A moratorium on the opening of five new charter schools in North Adams, Lynn, Salem, Marlborough and Cambridge.

“We have made real progress with many of the administration’s priorities relating to education, housing and public safety,” said Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey. “As far as we have come, we are also reminded of the need to continue down the path of reform so we can do even more for the families of Massachusetts.”

 

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