Szczepaniak: Bunker Hill Day Holiday Good Place to Begin Budget Cuts
By: Szczepaniak Campaign On: 10:44AM / Thursday June 17, 2010
Tom Szczepaniak is calling for the state House of Representatives to follow the state Senate and eliminate the Bunker Hill Day and Evacuation Day state holidays. “At a time when our communities are about to be hit with deep reductions in state aid, cuts to local libraries and the closing of state parks, lets end these holidays for a select few in one county and save the taxpayers $5 million per year,” Szczepaniak said.
Szczepaniak listed a number of other programs and line items that could be pruned from state spending in advance of the fiscal year 2012 appropriations process. “With the loss of the federal stimulus funds and the already depleted rainy day account, we need to get serious about making common sense cuts now because the budget for next year looks to be even bleaker,” he said.
“The Legislature can set an example by tightening its belt first. Why do we need a House Committee on Personnel & Administration to dole out office space and assign staffing levels when we have a House personnel office which does the very same thing?” Szczepaniak asked. “With the federal stimulus program sun-setting, let’s get rid of the Joint Committee on Federal Stimulus Oversight. We can also get by with fewer court officers at the State House. These reforms would allow us to whittle down the more than $39 million for legislative operations.”
Additional budget cuts suggested by Szcepaniak:
Eliminate the Governor’s Council for an annual savings of $500,000
Cut $506,704 for the Suffolk County Social Law Library, the only free public law library which is closed to the public.
Cut $145 million for outside counsel services at state agencies.
End public subsidies for the Hynes Convention Center ($7.8 million) and Boston Convention & Exhibition Center ($10 million).
“The Governor’s Council is a colonial anachronism and I would task our state Senate with voting to confirm judicial appointments as is done at the federal level,” Szczepaniak said. “Paying for outside lawyers when each agency has their own legal counsel makes no sense either. As for the convention centers, they need to operate without taxpayer bailouts.”
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Why is he complaining about libraries closing and suggesting closing the Suffolk County Social Law Library in the same statement? Which one is it, keep them open or close them? This guy really is clueless.
State workers in the western part of the state receive Evacuation Day and Bunker Hill day as floating holidays. Meaning they work on the holiday and get a day off at a later time.
Those holidays are written into union contracts and have be negotiated in collective bargaining. All employees of state colleges such as MCLA get them.
Employees at MCLA already have a signed contract that the governor and the legislature will not fund. Before we worry about the two holidays, how about funding the contract that was already signed by both sides.
No, Contradiction is totally clueless. There are 18 public law libraries across the state that receive an average of $294,000 each year and are free to the public. But not the one in Suffolk County, which occupies 82,000 square feet or about 40 percent of the John Adams Courthouse in Boston. This libary is closed to the public making it the only county in the state without a free public law library for the citizens who pay the bills. To use the Suffolk law library costs $335 for annual membership. Szczepaniak is saying that we need to stop paying for programs like this at a time when state aid to local public libraries in our cities and towns is being cut. Seems like he has his priorities straight.
No, it seems like neither of you know what you're talking about. The $335 per year must come back to the state and recoup the $294,000. If the library is profitable it is making money for the state, not hurting us. I think it is good they make lawyers pay to use the library, i'm sure they have the money to spare.
What this really sounds like is trying to close things out east that don't help us out here. That's a dumb idea because that constantly happens the other way, the people out east close our libraries and schools down because they don't know how important they are.
This guy is focusing on absolute crap, nothing that would do anything to help us out. What a joke.
Old reliable you are a joke because clearly you don't know much about the cost and structure of state government.
The fact is that Szczepaniak has identified areas of fat and waste in the state budget and has stepped up to the plate to go on record to advocate for their elimination. Here is a candidate with smarts and guts to take on sacred cows.
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