Bosley: State Budget 'Tough But Honest'
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In a normal budget year, we would have experienced a $1.4 billion increase in our budget due to the natural expansion of obligations in areas such as health care, pensions, debt service on prior-year capital spending and other prior approved spending.
This year, we not only cut out any increase in spending, but we also cut over $1 billion in the House budget and then closed a $1.5 billion gap by utilizing $199 million from the stabilization account. We also maximized federal funds and continued to make further cuts to our bottom line. In short, between our current budget and next year's, we had to close a $5 billion gap.
We are not alone; this is a worldwide recession and every state is going through the same process. We are fortunate that in years past the Legislature had placed money into a Stabilization Fund that we have been able to draw down over the last few months.
In an effort to balance the budget, we have reformed our transportation system, cut dozens of line items in their entirety, reformed the way we do business in state government and increased our own health insurance premiums. Through the whole process we made tough decisions and were forced to raise the state sales tax to 6.25 percent.
We did not come to these decisions lightly. In my opinion, the increase to the sales tax was preferable to the governor's more burdensome gas tax proposal, which would have cost my constituents approximately three times as much as the sales tax.
These budget times are unprecedented in recent history. No part of the budget was spared, including local aid. We are bound by the state constitution to create a balanced budget and we tried to find the proper balance between cuts, taxes and reforms.
Can we do more to reform our budget? Yes, but real reform is difficult and takes time. The Legislature will continue to work on these reforms as we go forward.
That said, there are some bright spots for the 1st Berkshire District. We were able to keep 75 percent of the funding for veterans services like the Turner House. The Emergency Food Assistance Program was level funded at $12 million and the Temporary Emergency Food Assistance Program was brought up to $1.2 million.
■ Payment in lieu of taxes was zeroed out in some versions but in the end we were able to ultimately achieve funding of $27.3 million.
■ Language was kept in for funding our community coalition.
■ The Mass Cultural Council, so important to our economy, was funded at $9.7 million.
■ Regional Transportation Authorities received $44.6 million, but there are new funding formulas that will among other things annually allocate $15 million of the Massachusetts Transportation Trust Fund to RTAs as we continue to work to modernize our system as a whole.
■ Local Tourism Councils were kept funded in a time where it would have been easy to be short-sighted and eliminate this expenditure entirely.
■ We funded the essential School Pothole Account at $3.5 million and that is an important avenue for our distressed schools.
■ Our colleges and our Councils on Aging both received modest increases.
Again, this is the worst revenue outlook that I have experienced in my 23 years. I worked very hard and did my best to secure funding in these tough times for my constituents. All of this was done in an incredibly tough year. I have, in the past, worked to bring reform to the way we do business in Massachusetts. I will continue to work hard to do this in the future as it is a pleasure to work for the great people of North Berkshire and Franklin County.
State Rep. Daniel E. Bosley, D-North Adams, represents, in addition to the city of North Adams, the towns of Adams, Clarksburg, Florida, Savoy and Williamstown and the Franklin County towns of Charlemont, Hawley, Heath, Monroe and Rowe.
