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Weekly Roundup
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March 25th, 2010
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Greetings!
It's time to take a long, hard look at what we value in our state - and how we want to support it. Last week, we discussed some potential revenue options.  Do you have ideas on how we should build a fiscal foundation for Massachusetts? The ONE Massachusetts Leadership Team is meeting on April 2nd, and we're
interested in using your suggestions to build our agenda for the
upcoming budget season. ONE Massachusetts network members are encouraging their legislative delegations to build new revenue options in next year's budget. Are you ready to encourage your legislators to take a close look at how they will support our communities - and avoid drastic cuts - with revenue options? Here are a couple of sample talking points that could get you started: - Local Aid/School Funding: The schools, libraries, public safety, youth and elder services funded by local aid and Chapter 70 funding are vital to the health of our community. Now is not the time to spend tax credits on Hollywood movies. We need those funds to support the safety net services that keep working families safe and healthy. That's what we expect from our government. We want our Legislature to take a balanced approach to the current fiscal crisis, combining new revenues with federal stimulus funds, rainy day funds and carefully considered cuts.
- Dental Care Access: Everyone in our state should have access to adequate health and dental services. Cuts to our state's budget do not only limit financial support to individuals in need - they threaten the very clinics who provide specialized services. Just this week, the Globe reported the closing of a Tufts University clinic that has "provided comprehensive dental care to severely mentally disabled patients who have long been ignored by private practitioners." These kinds of cuts call in to question the very character of our state - a state that fights to protect everyone within our borders! I urge you to push for a platform of adequate and stable revenues, so that we can support our state and not rely solely on cuts!
For more information on how you can get more involved in one of our revenue campaigns - including free trainings - please feel free to give me a call! Sincerely, Yawu Miller Project Director, ONE Massachusetts
yawu@realclout.org | 617-275-2918
HERE IS A LOOK AT WHAT ELSE HAS BEEN HAPPENING ACROSS THE STATE:
Civic Engagement | Revenue | Government Reform
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 REVENUE |
Goal: By 2013, a fair, adequate, and stable tax system will be implemented. It will raise sufficient revenue so that state and local governments can fund the array of services needed.
UPDATES:
- Economic Development: Upcoming Bill.
The state Senate is planning an April 1 floor debate on legislation that
would streamline the state's 31 economic development agencies and authorities
and make corporate tax law changes that supporters say will boost job creation.
[SHNS]
 State Budget: Gap Increases. State officials say Massachusetts is facing a new budget gap of up to $295 million this year that could mean another round of cuts before the fiscal year ends in June. Patrick administration officials blamed the gap on rising demand for the health care program for low-income residents known as MassHealth, increasing demand for homeless shelters, and a shortfall in revenue from state fees and federal aid.[Boston Globe]
- State Budget: Senate Plans. Senate Ways and Means chairman Steven Panagiotakos is standing by his pledge that state aid to cities and towns will suffer no more than a four percent cut in the upcoming fiscal year 2011 budget. The Senate's budget chief also said that while he does not expect that the Legislature will grant Gov. Deval Patrick the authority to make cuts to the remaining fiscal 2010 local aid payments, further investigation of the budget gap is needed. "We'll see if there's further 9C cuts. I think we have to wait a couple weeks to see, really drill down to see what the cost of this has been." [SHNS]
 Local Aid: Maximum Cut Released. The high end of a local aid cut estimate legislative leaders released late last week will likely materialize in the final budget, House Speaker Robert DeLeo said last week. The 4 percent cut, which budget chiefs Sen. Steven Panagiotakos and Rep. Charles Murphy said represented the maximum reduction possible in next fiscal year's spending plan, would result in about $200 million less flowing from Beacon Hill to cities and towns next year. [SHNS]
- Revenues: Tax Proposals Tabled. Jay Kaufman, co-chair of the Legislature's Revenue Committee, said Speaker Robert DeLeo's repeated pledge that the House fiscal 2011 budget would contain no tax proposals also appears to preclude the elimination of any tax breaks. "Anything that looks like, smells like, tastes like or even resembles an increase in taxes is off the table," Kaufman (D-Lexington) said. He said that he is more focused on long-term structural changes to the tax code. [SHNS]
This includes efforts to pass a pair of proposals scaling back [film] industry tax breaks, an idea that Gov. Deval Patrick supports as part of overall budget-balancing plans, won only 10 and 15 votes in the House after lengthy debate. Patrick had proposed capping the tax credits to $50 million in fiscal 2011. Critics of the film tax credits had proposed limiting them to $7 million, the same level they were capped at in 2006 before lawmakers voted to expand the program. [SHNS]
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CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
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Goal: By 2013, the voice and input of the state's multi-racial, multi-ethnic communities will create a counterweight to the currently dominant voice and will be tangibly reflected in the public decision making process.
UPDATES:
Kick Butts Day at
the State House  | March 24th - Kick Butts Day! Wednesday, youth groups from around the state joined Commissioner John Auerbach and others to rally against Big Tobacco and to release new data on youth tobacco use.
UPCOMING:
- March 31st - Women's Issues Hearing. The Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women is holding a public hearing for the Lowell area. For more info, email mcsw@state.ma.us or call 617-626-6520.
March 31st, 6:00-7:30pm
Pollard Memorial Library - 401 Merrimack St., Lowell, MA 01852 [Map]
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GOVERNMENT REFORM
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| Goal: By 2013, a transparent, accessible and accountable state and local policy-making process will be in place.
UPDATES:
- State Transparency: Open Meetings Law. An overhaul of the state's Open Meeting Law includes some changes to improve transparency and access to government, but it also weakens enforcement of the law in a critical way, according to advocates for open government. [MassLive]
 State Transparency: Budget Oversight. The Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight passed the State Budget Transparency Bill from their Committee last week. The bill directs the Secretary of Administration and Finance to create and maintain a searchable website detailing the costs, recipients, and purposes for all appropriations, including contracts, grants, subcontracts, tax expenditures and other subsidies funded by the state government. The database will include state revenue sources and expenses including the "quasi-public" agencies.[MassPirg] | |
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