Will Brownsberger — State Senator, Democrat, 2d Suffolk and Middlesex District

There is a growing belief among serious economists that we, as a country, face a large and unsustainable gap between our financial resources and our financial expectations. Current deficit spending by the national government and a failure to control long term debt, pension and health care costs at all levels of government will lead to [...]

We passed the conference committee report this week. It now goes to the Governor’s desk for review.

Hi Will – you may remember that the state has been through bad times before and there were lots of creative ways of saving money. I was reminded of one way today in a discussion with a colleague from Canada — it’s quite simple — you can cut upwards of $2mm from the budget by eliminating [...]

The state’s stabilization (or “rainy day”) fund is designed to buoy the state through tough economic times, and it has certainly been used in the recent recession.  This post will examine the set-up of the fund, the recent history of its use, and its future in getting the state through the Great Recession. The stabilization [...]

The House worked on the budget into the evening every day last week, finally finishing relatively early at about 6:30 on Friday night. The financial outlines of the budget remained unchanged — rising health care costs, modest cuts in local aid, deep cuts to many state agencies, no tax cuts and no tax increases.

The House begins its Fiscal 2011 budget debate next week. While we will seek to amend the budget in many ways, the major outlines of the budget are unlikely to change. Here are some answers to basic questions about the budget.

The House Ways and Means Committee has released its draft of the FY2011 budget.

Last week, I voted with a surprisingly small minority to curtail the state’s film tax credit, which was expanded under the leadership of former speaker Sal DiMasi. Mike Widmer, the President of the Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation, has stated that “All the evidence shows that it is a very costly tax credit with minimal economic impact, [...]

The spreadsheet below compares census data on state payroll as of March 2008 with March 2000, responding to comments on this post. Most areas other than higher education, which is not funded primarily on the state budget, show cuts. The increase in higher education more than accounts for the growth in state employment — without [...]

In my annual budget letter, I reinforced concern re local aid and health insurance reform and expressed a preference for a budget without earmarks.

Groups from diverse perspectives — the Boston Foundation, Stand for Children, the Massachusetts Municipal Association, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation — are pushing for change in municipal health insurance. I think that the legislature is really beginning to focus on making something happen and I am starting to be hopeful that we’ll have a bill this spring.

Legislators received this communication from the Patrick Administration on October 15.

The Governor and the legislature are circling uncomfortably around the issue of how much to cut the present fiscal year’s budget and whether or not the cuts must affect local aid. Next year’s budget is also looking grim

Over the last two days, the legislature has taken final action on the budget for Fiscal 2010.

I voted this afternoon for the FY2010 budget which passed with 110 votes in the House and 31 in the Senate, in both branches more than the 2/3 needed to override a possible veto.

The legislature balanced the Fiscal 2010 budget primarily through program cuts and cost-savings, with important help from the federal government and with limited reliance on new revenues and rainy day fund usage.

The House-Senate conference committee report on the budget is now available online. This post provides local aid numbers. The budget is now final, subject only to veto by the Governor.

Even with the sales tax increase, the budget will sustain deep cuts and Massachusetts will have a roughly average tax burden compared to other states. The increase will fund local aid, Big Dig debt and limited restorations of key programs.

The House Ways and Means Committee released its budget today (4/15/2009).  The Committee made deep cuts in many state services, but only relatively modest additional cuts in local aid.  

Letter to Charlie Murphy, the Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, outlining my state budget priorities.