budget priorities

Here's another budget article! [Itemlive.com]

We've just begun the calendar year 2012 and yet our state government is already gearing up for the fiscal year 2013 budget debate.  This still isn't a growth budget in the sense that programs and services cut over the past 4-5 years will not be restored and that more cuts should be expected.  Austerity wasn't a good economic and fiscal plan for growing the economy in Europe.  Why do our political leaders think the same failed economic and fiscal policies will succeed in MA?  That's a head-scratcher, for sure.

... Secretary of Administration and Finance Jay Gonzalez warns that more spending cuts will be needed to balance the [FY2013] budget.  “At the end of the day there are going to be lots of areas that are going to have to live with level funding or reduced funding or eliminated funding.”

“Most of the people coming in to meet with me are coming in saying, ‘Hey, the economy is coming back, the tax revenues are coming back, so can you put my money back,’” Gonzalez said. “What I tell all those people are that those expectations are out of whack with reality.”

The MBTA plans to cut services and raise fares.  Does that seem backwards to you?  Usually consumers are willing to pay a higher price if we get more, not less.  Unfortunately the current situation is that our public transportation system doesn't have adequate resources to run as usual...the operating budget is strained.  We also have heard about the capital and maintenance budgets with a backlog for repairs and replacements.

This is not a good situation for riders dependant on lower costing fares, and more frequent service.  We don't want more vehicles on the road; we can't afford more vehicles on the road. Our road systems can't keep up with the current flow of traffic and the environment will surely suffer.  Besides, there's no place to park!

So, here's a couple of things you can do:

• Participate in MBTA meetings.  Follow this link to learn about the proposed changes and the meeting schedule.   [MBTA Fare Change and Service Guide]
• Learn more about the other issues in your community that are important to you.  We need revenues to maintain healthy communities, healthy people, good schools...(you insert what's important to your community)  Check out the Campaign for Our Communities. and then join the campaign!

Remember, the government is us!

The economic prognosticators were out in force at a hearing on Beacon Hill, predicting how high/low fiscal year 2013 revenues might be.  Predictions ranged from $21.7 billion, an increase of 3.2 percent (Amy Pitter, commissioner of the state Department of Revenue), to $22.28 billion, an increase of 4.1 percent ( David G. Tuerck, executive director of the Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University in Boston), with other predictions in between.  These predictions still leave the Commonwealth with a budget shortfall. [Full Article: Mass live.com]

Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, a Barre Democrat and chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said that tax revenue growth for fiscal 2013 is unlikely to be enough to compensate for cuts in federal grants and reimbursements or growth in items such as the state's $10.4 billion Medicaid program. Brewer said it will be difficult to avoid some spending cuts in the state budget for the next fiscal year.

"It appears like it's going to be a very sobering year," Brewer said after the hearing. "There may be in excess of $1 billion (gap) between expected revenues and needs. The revenues are growing but not to the needs of the line items. We have a lot of tough choices to make."

Jay Gonzalez, state secretary for administration and finance, said he could not make any commitments to any spending levels in the budget including state aid to communities. He said nothing is sacrosanct at this point...."Everything is on the table again this year," Gonzalez said after the hearing. "It's another challenging year."

Have you wondered what some of the items in the state budget your tax dollars pay for?  Look down at the sidewalks and the roads...look up at the traffic lights and traffic signs...read this article and you'll learn more about the outstanding maintenance bill for our public transportation system that has been neglected but can no longer be ignored for public safety reasons.

The closings [of the Red Line] are needed to allow T crews to make $80 million in repairs designed to keep trains from derailing.  [Full Article: The Boston Globe]

Cities and towns are now beginning their FY 2013 budget planning and estimation processes.  There's no more federal stimulus dollars, and the economy hasn't bounced back as everyone hoped it would.  The state hasn't been able to provide much financial relief...it has reduced local aid and other program funding for the past handful of years.  When will the Administration and leaders in the State House come to fully understand that we need new revenues to invest in our communities for the health, education and safety of all our people?

One concerning trend is the decreasing level of revenue from economic growth, such as permit fees, commercial tax growth and excise taxes. The amount of that revenue has gone down two years in a row.

"Those are reflections of economic activity," Walters Young said. "When economic activity slows, the amount of money the government collects goes down. [Full Article: Wicked Local Natick]

Paul Krugman writes - class warfare, says who?  We benefit from participating in this society in which the government is at its center; the wealthy could not have garnered its wealth without being part of this society.  They clearly have benefited greater than the lower and middle class folks.

... big cuts in top income tax rates,...there has been a major shift of taxation away from wealth and toward work: tax rates on corporate profits, capital gains and dividends have all fallen, while the payroll tax — the main tax paid by most workers — has gone up.   According to new estimates by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, one-fourth of those with incomes of more than $1 million a year pay income and payroll tax of 12.6 percent of their income or less, putting their tax burden below that of many in the middle class.  [Full OpEd: The New York Times]

What happens when our schools don't have the money for basic supplies that are needed in the classrooms to teach our children?  At the start of the school year, students are given a list of things to buy.  This is on top of fees for buses, music, sports and sports equipment, ... the list goes on.  What about the families that can't afford to pay for the supplies and fees?  And, let's not forget that this list of supplies does not cover all that is really needed in the class that the school district budget cut.  Our teachers, who are much maligned and disrespected, pay to supply their classrooms, and they are not reimbursed for these expenditures.

“It’s understood that with budget cuts, teachers have to do more on their own,’’ said Stephanie Powers, 25, a first-grade teacher in Whitman. “If I didn’t, the classroom wouldn’t look good, and it wouldn’t be organized.’’  Even before she began teaching, Powers saved up to furnish her first classroom, buying more than 100 books and the bookcases to put them on. With school approaching, she picked up personalized desk plates for each student, so they would feel at home on the first day.  [Full Article: The Boston Globe]

Judy Meredith and Lew Finfer are pooling their collective organizing, advocacy, and leadership experiences to form the Massachusetts Policy and Organizing Leadership Training Academy.  There's a wealth of knowledge to pass on to the next group of organizers and advocates and the current group of aspiring leaders.

State Representative Linda Dorcena Forry said the pair’s new focus on educating future activists comes at a critical time as non-profits struggle through a sluggish economy and new ethics reforms which she said has left many organizations scrambling to adjust...“I think it’s great what they’re doing,” Forry said. “There are a lot of non-profits that feel they don’t have the skills to address legislators. They find themselves paying out for a lobbyist when they could be doing much of the work themselves.”  [Full Article: Dorchester Reporter]

California recently passed a law that Massachusetts retailers want here ... to collect sales tax on Internet sales.  It wasn't popular with the Internet retailers, as you can imagine, and Amazon spent millions leading a ballot referendum effort to overturn the law.  So California made a one year deal with Amazon.  Now it's up to Congress.

If Congress acts by next summer to settle the contentious issue of how online retailers should be taxed, that decision would override Amazon's deal with California... "If they can't get Congress to act by next July, then they will start to collect the tax in September 2012. If by chance they get Congress to act, then that would trump the state law."  [Full Article:  Los Angeles Times]

This editorial explores the consequences of reducing the funding for free flu vaccines...it's not only about the dollars saved for having less vaccines available; there's an even larger economic cost.  Are we being penny wise and pound foolish?

Investment in free vaccination saves lives and greatly reduces the economic toll of the flu in terms of lost hours of productivity, income, and sales. Tough economic times only make it more important for the state to be sure that its budgetary priorities provide the broadest benefit for the greatest numbers of people .  [Full Editorial: The Boston Globe]