Governor Deval Patrick unveiled his plan to close a $600 million dollar budget gap yesterday, sparing the main local aid accounts and imposing varied cuts against state spending, including the potential for 2000 state layoffs. The Governor was and is faced with a truly unenviable task, and his action with regard to local aid is deeply appreciated. And as we look at what cuts the Governor now has to impose on state government I know that his decision on local aid could not have been made easily. It will be one difficult decision after another, but the Governor has, from the perspective of the localities, stepped up and made a courageous choice. It is easy to criticize, and there will always be plenty of that for a Governor in difficult financial times. But the Governor deserves praise for wisdom and courage this morning, and I offer that without reservation. Thank you Governor Patrick. The Boston Herald listed some of the cuts offered by Governor Patrick.
$277 million in cuts to executive branches, encompassing $35 million for up to 2,000 layoffs; $3.9 million from the Registry of Motor Vehicles, $2.7 million in homeless individuals assistance and $5 million for higher education bonuses for police officers, known as the Quinn Bill. …Applying $106 million from additional departmental revenues, such as $50 million in anticipated tax settlements, $27 million in saved payments to the school building authority and $9 million from developing surplus state land. Using $62 million is federal stimulus funding to prevent cuts to higher education.
Bill Manzi.com 
Your Honor,
“But the Governor deserves praise for wisdom and courage this morning, and I offer that without reservation.” Jeez, have you no shame.
The Governor deserves a kick in the pants and a rail to ride on while being hounded out of the State. These are problems of his own makings. His budgets are always maximized, leaving no room for the dynamics of the economy. He is a true tax and spend mooonbat. I presume he felt he could always keep the budgets maximized and gain some relief from a growing economy (you know, rising waters lift all boats). Now the string has been pulled out all the way and found now to be too short.
It may be his fault, but it’s the tax payers that have to pick up the tab.
There are states with budget surpluses. Texas, Oklahoma and Alaska (under the guidance of that air head Sara Palin) come to mind. They did it by careful budgeting and building surpluses. (Mostly Republican Governors). The interesting thing is that you yourself have run cautious budgets and consequently have ridden out several bugget cuts without raising taxes, or enacting new taxes as provided by the state.
For a full report on balances you can check out
http://www.ncsl.org/documents/fiscal/StateBudgetUpdateJulyFinal.pdf.
Now I see your ‘friends’ are looking under every rock for additional tax revenue, and have honed in on taxing services.
Tax, tax, tax, tax, tax………………. Does it ever end with you guys?
Jules
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Your Honor,
The new Secretary of Transportation is looking into gasoline tax increases.
DOES IT EVER END?
Jules
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