Local Leaders Gear Up For State Budget Season
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State Sen. Stephen Brewer, D-Barre, hopes the Legislature will address the rising cost of health care this year.
The Massachusetts budget season is a bit like the baseball season. It lasts half the year, and, even in the off-season, dedicated followers of the game pay attention to small signs and signals about what’s to come.
With Gov. Deval Patrick poised to present his first draft of the fiscal 2012 budget on Jan. 26, it looks like another tough season. But local budget aficionados see some positive signs, and they’re already gearing up to push things in the directions they’d most like to see.
Fiscal Constraints
In his role as vice president for government and community affairs at the Seven Hills Foundation, Bill Stock works hard to get the message out to local legislators about the importance of funding service agencies. These days he’s worried about how much of a projected $1.2 to $1.5 billion budget gap in the coming fiscal year could come out of the funding for agencies like Seven Hills.
“Obviously it’s scary to look at,” Stock said. “We’re very apprehensive about what might be coming down the road.”
Senate Ways and Means Committee Vice Chairman Stephen Brewer, D-Barre, said the news from Beacon Hill isn’t all bad. With the economy slowly recovering, he said, the state could collect $800 million more in revenue in the current fiscal year than it did last year. The trouble is, the prospect of rising revenues as fiscal 2012 approaches is more than balanced out by the end of federal stimulus funding and the constantly rising cost of non-negotiable programs like Medicaid.
Brewer said he hopes to see the state tackle the budget busting issue of rising health care costs. But he acknowledged that there is no painless way out of the fiscal 2012 shortfall.
“We will struggle with it,” he said. “We will get a bloody nose and we will skin our knees, but we will get up again and keep trying.”
Brewer said that, with the economy still struggling, he doesn’t see any appetite for tax increases. And he said lawmakers see the local aid payments that support police, firefighters and educators as the last place to direct cuts.
Let The Lobbying Begin
That leaves social services as an obvious target for budget tightening. But Stock said organizations like his have already been hit hard over the past few years, with cuts during regular budget seasons and mid-year cuts by the governor to deal with revenue shortfalls. As a result, he said, Seven Hills has eliminated some of its programs, even in the face of the increased demand for services brought on by the bad economy.
“We’re starting to feel like a fiscal punching bag in human services,” Stock said.
To push back against the possibility of more cuts, social service groups are gearing up to make their case to the Legislature. Cindy Howard, director of ARC Services at Southern Worcester County Arc Inc. in Southbridge, said the organization holds training sessions for its developmentally disabled clients and their families to encourage them to plead their case with local lawmakers.
“As soon as we understand what’s going to be in [Patrick’s] budget, we start talking to our legislators,” she said.
Stock said that kind of personal message is the best hope for social service groups.
“There’s no better story than the individuals who are actually impacted,” he said. “Legislators will listen to them and they’ll hear the story better.”
Of course, social service groups are not the only organizations that will be biting their nails as the budget process moves forward.
David McKeehan, president of the North Central Massachusetts Chamber of Commerce, said regional economic development councils, including the one serving the North Central area, have been hobbled by a lack of funding. He said the North Central Economic Development Council has been forced to limit itself to a few services, like helping companies moving to the area find appropriate sites to set up shop.
“We’re trying to keep body and soul together,” he said.
But McKeehan said it’s hard to advocate for any position right now, not only because the budget season hasn’t formally started, but also because some of the legislators who will be making decisions haven’t even taken office yet.
“They’ve got a lot to catch up on,” McKeehan said. “It’s still a whole new experience for them.”
Paul Matthews, the executive director of another economic development organization, the 495/MetroWest Partnership, said he’s been pleased with the focus many lawmakers have put on economic development. He said he’ll certainly be watching closely as the budget season moves forward.
With all the stages the budget goes through, from the governor’s initial draft to Senate and House proposals, Matthews said the sports metaphor he finds most apt is the NCAA basketball tournament.
And right now, observers are just starting to fill out their brackets.
“It’s as if March Madness hasn’t even started,” Matthews said.
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