Governor Deval Patrick will use a portion of prospective casino licensing revenue to fund a shortfall in lottery revenue dedicated to local aid in his budget proposal due on Wednesday. The Globe reports:
In a challenge to lawmakers to accept his plans to expand gambling, Governor Deval L. Patrick will propose using $124 million of the $300 million that he said could be generated from casino licensing fees to cover a local aid shortfall.
The Lottery shortfall exists due to actual lottery revenues not meeting projections.
“The governor’s budget will not be balanced with this money,” Kirwan said in an interview yesterday. She said the $124 million would make up the projected shortfall in the State Lottery, the major source of local aid to already financially strapped cities and towns, and would not be part of the budget’s balance sheet. The municipalities had been relying on projections from last year that the Lottery would generate $935 million, but that has been reduced to $811 million.
The Governor’s proposal drew immediate fire from the House, where Ways and Means Chair Bob DeLeo condemned it:
The governor’s proposal prompted a swift rebuke from the House’s chief fiscal leader. “Forget the cart – this is putting the entire wagon train before the horse,” said Robert A. DeLeo, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
“Moreover, even if this money did become available this year, which is a big ‘if,’ it may not be there the next year. Then we would have done nothing to really help . . . cities, towns, and property owners,” said DeLeo, a Winthrop Democrat.
The Senate side expressed some support, with Ways and Means Chair Steven C. Panagiotakos issuing words of support.
The chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, Steven C. Panagiotakos, concedes there is a question about whether the licensing fees could be available for the next fiscal year. But Panagiotakos, a Lowell Democrat who supports legalizing casinos, said the governor is correct in using the budget to push the plan.
“He is being as responsible as many of the other governors who used this sort of tactic in the past,” Panagiotakos said. “A governor’s budget is as much a fiscal document as it is a political document. The politics here is that he is trying to drive this issue further down the field in order to get it to a legislative debate.”
And so Senator Panagiotakos hits the nail on the head. This is not so much a real budget document as it is a political statement, with an increasingly frustrated Governor Patrick attempting to drive the legislature to action on his casino proposal. With an increasingly bleak economic future facing the state localities are concerned about this prospective cut in lottery aid. We will now witness the budgetary chess match between Speaker Dimasi and Governor Patrick. It will be an interesting and vital match for cities and towns.
Bill Manzi.com 
I would rather see people drive to Palmer or Marlborough to gamble than to Foxwoods or Mohegan. We are losing an incredible amount of money to Connecticut that could be going to the cities and towns here in Massachusetts.
LikeLike
Your Honor,
This juicy stuff.
I always felt Deval Patrick to be a Trojan Horse. Now the truth comes out. This spendthrift is now emerging from his hiding place. He complained about a one half million dollar budget short fall left over from the Romney administration. So he begins by releasing 300,000 or more that Romney vetoed and has since administered shortfalls now appearing to be $1.3 million.
Question;
Do you, as town administer, feel the governor has done an effective job of running the fiscal affairs of Massachusetts?
This entry should be good for several threads.
I want you guys to defend Deval.
Jules.
LikeLike
The Constitution requires that the Governor propose to the Legislature a budget which is BALANCED..that is it shows that the proposed expenditures are satisfied by realistic projections of revenues based on past year’s experience.
The budget is not a “political statement” it is a constitutional requirement!
After 16 years of Republican’s managing the executive branch one would have reasonably expected that a new Democratic Governor who believes that government should respond to the grass roots, would have been in the vangaurd of innovation and reform of how that government functions. Unfortunately, a tremendous opportunity to reorientate the mission of government and better manage revenues appears to have been lost with this the first real budget of Gov Patrick.
Same old is not what the people expected when they elected this gentleman. They expected better managment, new and bold ideas. They expected inspired leadership.
The debate will continue as to whether or not government ought to support expanded gambling as a revenue source, or in the alternative substantive economic development which creates jobs and new wealth.
We are heading into the roughest economic times seen in thirty years, government at all levels need to take a good hard look at how it does business and how it can be more efficient.
Bob LeBlanc
LikeLike
Wow, they’ll let ANYBODY post here!!! 😉
LikeLike
Desperate times do call for desperate measures…if this is what it takes to lessen the toll of the inevitable budget crunch, then it is an opportunity that should be taken advantage of.
LikeLike
Gentlemen,
Good management practices is not what the budget process is about in Government.
It’s a political process. Lobbyists, friends and political positioning generally results in a budget designed to attract voters and satisfy the financial interests, usually contrary goals.
It’s so bad this year that we are looking at a 1.3 million dollar deficit while the governor keeps pilling it on. (20 billion for transportation infrastructure repairs, millions for free tuition, million for his own staff expansion, 10 million to end homelessness in our time.(I believe there is mental illness involved here.)
As far as I can see, Bob, no Republican administration has gone that far afield.
Hope you gentlemen have deep pockets because everyone from the Governor to Mayor Manzi is going deeper into them.
Enjoy.
Jules
LikeLike
Mr. Mayor and Blog readers,
I see this shortfall of revenue in the state’s Lottery Commission a real concern to Methuen’s Chapter 70 money that they fund the School system with. Although, the deficit is not as dramatic and reserves exist in rainy day funds (i.e. the $300 Million from Casino licensing fees) this shortfall of $124M or 13% can be a possible reduction in funding once provided from the State directly to the school system in FY 09 or later years.
It has been written that since the cost of gas has increased, citizens have been more frugal with dishing out lottery money to local convenience stores. Now with a futher decline in the economy – Recession, We should be alert that a possible shortfall might exist in Chapter 70 in future periods.
Jim
LikeLike
Your Honor,
Seems Jim sees the same results I do. Your going to get less rervenue from the state.
I keep asking; what are you going to do about it? Feeze or reduce the budget or keep raising the taxes. As a Democrat who agonizes for the poor, how does increasing propert tax help them?
I believe you have already announced a probable tax increase for next year.Remember, this isn’t Wellselley, Brookline or Newton.
Now you must make hard choices.
Jules
LikeLike
Jules,
The revenues will not be reduced this year to Chapter 70 recipients as it looks like Governor Duval Patrick will take from this casino “rainy day” funds. My comment to Mr. Mayor and blog readers was for the following year. We all should be concerned as what kept the lottery down is the high cost of fuel at the pumps. The extra money is just not in people’s pockets anymore.
I am here to help Mr. Mayor as I,Jules or no one wants increased taxes, so we need to assist him Jules to make Methuen a better place for us to live. Wellesley, Brookline and Newton is not for me – Methuen is.
Jim
LikeLike
Jim,
The only thing the mayor can do is to prioritize the budget, establishing basic government responsibilities first, safety, record keeping, education and infrastructure maintenance.
Everything else should be first considered for cost cutting. The various mayors and town managers should get together and demand that state mandated regulation not backed by state compensating revenue stream be eliminated. Also, we citizens should pressure our “free with our money” legislators to do the same.
Otherwise, friends, we will be paying a continuously increasing property tax.
Note: watch out out for the mayors’ tricks that lays off fire and police personnel to induce fear so we will support a tax increase.
Jim, we had better wake up before Methuen is as expensive to live in as Wellesley, Brookline and Newton.
Jules
LikeLike
On the Police and Fire issue please keep in mind that both are major components of municipal budgets, which primarily consist of personnel costs. Any attempt to make real cuts and exempt major portions of the budget is likely to fail. Mayors are generally not gaming for political effect, but making cuts where most of the budget expenses exist.
LikeLike
Your Honor,
Police and fire are basic safety requirements provided by each city and town.
Cut everything from the bottom of the budget before reduction in the basic areas. Raising taxes removes money from peoples (the Democratic party’s “working families”) and are just as bad as high gas costs.
I can hardly wait for your compatriots run the whole show.
I keep on asking what about the people on fixed income. do they have to move to be able to survive?
Jules
LikeLike