#4

Congratulations all around…Massachusetts is ranked fourth in stimulus spending.

Massachusetts is ranked fourth in the nation when it comes to spending federal stimulus money.

State officials overseeing the stimulus program in Massachusetts said the state has been awarded $3.3 billion in federal funds and has already spent about $1.5 billion on transportation, clean energy, health and human services and education.

The money has also been used to stave off even deeper budget cuts, although state lawmakers, including Senate President Therese Murray, have warned that next year’s budget deliberations could be even tougher as stimulus funding dries up.

Also Thursday, Gov. Deval Patrick announced 75 communities will receive $40 million in federal community development grants — including $9 million in stimulus funds.

So what did we get for that money? So far, we have seen roads resurfaced that didn’t need it. We’ve seen road signs that were perfectly fine get replaced. And the sales tax went up.

Awesome! Hip hip hurray for being #4!

Latest Budget Includes Taxes, Not Reforms

The budget unveiled by our elected officials on Beacon Hill still lacks in the reform department.

Beacon Hill lawmakers last night unveiled a $27.4 billion budget that hikes taxes nearly $1 billion while slashing aid to cities and towns.

The spending blueprint raises the sales and meals taxes from 5 percent to 6.25 percent, and ends the sales tax exemption on booze bought in package stores, soaking taxpayers for an estimated $860 million.

Cities and towns would also be able to raise hotel and meals taxes, expected to cost taxpayers another $95 million.

Democrats who control the budget-writing committees noted that they cut $700 million in spending.

“This reflects the reality we’re in,” said Rep. Charles Murphy (D-Burlington).

But House Republican Leader Rep. Brad Jones said the budget would whack struggling families.

“The fact of the matter is, I think this budget will have a heavy dose of taxes, obviously some serious cuts and very little reform,” Jones said.

The spending cuts and tax hikes come as the state faces a $3 billion dropoff in tax revenue.

Some of the budgets provisions include:

• Cut Quinn Bill education funding for current police officers to $10 million, while eliminating them entirely for new officers
• Force state workers to pay as much as 25 percent of their health-care premiums – a hike of at least 5 percent
• Steer $275 million to transportation funding to stave off Pike toll hikes and MBTA fare increases.

How about we force state workers to pay as much as 50%, as many of us in the private sector do. Sorry, but an increase of 5% to their share of their health care pales in comparison to the real world and we are going through.

$275 million to stave off hikes in the Pike tolls and MBTA fares? Will they guarantee that the tolls and fares can’t go up? Sorry, but I’d bet good money that even with $275 million to “stave off” those increase, they will come in short order.

Whatever the budget proposes, I am sure more could be done–much more–they just won’t. Until Beacon Hill takes the idea of reform seriously, we will be forced to endure tax increases on top of cuts to services. That is inexcusable.

Money Grab

Nothing Gov. Patrick does can surprise us anymore.

Gov. Deval Patrick – impatiently demanding that lawmakers pass “meaningful reforms” – yesterday took advantage of a loophole that allows him to raise more than 10 times the legal limit in campaign contributions.

A group of heavy-hitting lawyers – including disgraced ex-state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson’s former defense attorney Cheryl Cronin – hosted a fund-raiser for Patrick’s political committee at the Union Club on Beacon Hill last night.

The fund-raiser’s invitation encourages those “who feel inclined to make a donation larger than $500” to give to the Seventy-First Fund. The group – so named because Patrick is the 71st governor – allows contributors to donate $5,500, which is split between the state Democratic Party and Patrick’s political committee.

The party then uses most of the money to pay off Patrick’s campaign bills. Party chairman John Walsh said the fund complies with current state campaign laws.

UPDATE: More from the Globe.

SECOND UPDATE: More from the Barnstable Patriot, the Globe and Herald.

THIRD UPDATE: From the Herald, Holly Robichaud and Scot Lehigh.

Interesting

What is Gov. Patrick up to now?

Governor Deval Patrick, who once headed the Civil Rights Division of the US Justice Department, plans to appeal a federal court ruling that allows minority police officers to pursue a civil rights lawsuit challenging the state’s promotional exam.

The Patrick administration filed notice Monday that it will appeal an April 7 ruling by US District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro to the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Tauro rejected the Patrick administration’s motion to dismiss the suit by 44 black and Hispanic patrol officers from seven departments who contend that the written civil service exam for sergeant is discriminatory.

“We are shocked that Deval Patrick is continuing to defend these exams and opposing our efforts to reform this discriminatory promotional system,” said Shannon Liss-Riordan of Boston, the lawyer for the officers. “With Deval Patrick as the governor, you’d think he’d be trying to fix this problem, rather than throw away the state’s money litigating it.”

Kyle Sullivan, a spokesman for Patrick, said in a statement that the governor “believes that all citizens in the Commonwealth should be afforded the same opportunities for employment.” Nonetheless, the administration, represented by Attorney General Martha Coakley, is seeking dismissal of the claims because the officers are employees of cities and towns, not the state, Sullivan said. Tauro rejected that position.

The lawsuit, which the officers unsuccessfully asked the judge to certify as a class action claim, is scheduled to go to trial next month.

At issue is a multiple-choice promotional exam prepared by the state Human Resources Division and used by about 200 police departments across the state, said Liss-Riordan. The 44 plaintiffs are patrol officers who took the exam since 2005 but have not received promotions. They work in police departments in Boston, Lawrence, Lowell, Methuen, Springfield, Worcester, and the MBTA Transit Police.

The officers say that the exam, which relies heavily on rote memorization of facts about law enforcement, discriminates against members of minority groups and has prevented advancement within the ranks. As a result, they said, supervisors in departments do not reflect the diversity of their communities.

In Lawrence, where minority groups make up three-quarters of the population, only two of the 39 police supervisors were members of minority groups, the officers said when filing the suit in September 2007. Methuen, which is more than 10 percent minority, had no minority members among its 25 supervisors, the suit said.

UPDATE: More from the Herald and Globe.

SECOND UPDATE: From Michael Graham.

THIRD UPDATE: More from Holly Robichaud, Mass. News Platoon, the Seattle Examiner, Somerville News, New Hampshire Business Review, the Herald and the Globe.

FOURTH UPDATE: From the Globe and Herald.

Wave of Taxation

Governor Deval Patrick says he will be cutting $128 million from local aid…which you’d hope would mean no new taxes–but not the case.

With painful decisiveness, Gov. Deval Patrick today announced he will cut $128 million from local aid to cities and towns and he challenged municipal leaders to follow his lead.

“The point is blunt but necessary – we must all get on with the business of savings,” said Patrick.

The governor called the cut to local aid – a lifeline for cities and towns – a “last resort.” But he said the time has come in order to close an additional $1 billion deficit in the state budget.

“We can’t afford to sit around and wait to see who puts out this fire,” he added.

The governor’s budget-balancing moves made today at a meeting of the Massachusetts Municipal Association include:

•File a bill to allow cities and towns to levy their own hotel and meals taxes.

•Seek a 1 percent increase in the state hotel tax and a 1 percent hike in the meals tax, which would generate $150 million.

• No cuts to state educational assistance to cities and towns for the remainder of this fiscal year, a total of $3.9 billion. And, he said he would keep school funding level next year.

• Slapping cites and towns with additional cuts to local aid if they don’t lower their health insurance costs as low as the state’s Group Insurance Commission.

• Lowering the union approval to join the GIC from 70 percent to 50 percent.

And let’s not forget….new tolls!!!

The governor’s administration has asked federal officials about the possibility of erecting toll booths on major border crossings into Massachusetts from New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island, Gov. Deval Patrick said today.

They would join existing toll booths on the Massachusetts Turnpike near the New York and Connecticut borders.

The governor told a statewide public radio audience that federal officials had signaled a willingness to consider the idea. They must approve it because Interstate 93, Route 3 and other roads are part of the federal highway system.

Patrick said, “If we did that right, it would be possible — possible — to remove all of the tolls inside the commonwealth,” except for the tunnels leading to and from Logan International Airport.

Together we can watch as taxes go up.