Patrick seeks 5% spending jump in final budget
Gov. Deval Patrick
Gov. Deval Patrick on Wednesday presented his eighth and final budget proposal before he leaves office, filing a $36.4-billion spending plan for the next fiscal year that includes a $205 million increase for public education and investments in the life sciences, dental care for the poor, and caregivers who assist the state’s neediest residents.
After cancelling his annual address to the state Tuesday night due to snow, the governor outlined his spending priorities for fiscal 2015 in a budget document that he often says is more than just numbers, but a statement of his administration’s values.
The proposal has a heavy emphasis on education, including a new $15-million investment in early education that the governor estimates will provide 1,700 additional children with access to programs and a $3.1 million increase in spending designed to expand full-day kindergarten programs.
Patrick’s recommendation for $1.1 billion in higher education funding includes an additional $68.4 million that he said should ensure the University of Massachusetts and other public colleges and universities can freeze tuition and fees for another year. Funding to the commonwealth’s 15 community colleges is also slated to increase from $225.67 million to $249.05 million.
“We do so because education is our calling card around the world and because that’s the single best way to prepare our people for work and for life,” Patrick said.
More money for QCC, MWCC
In Central Massachusetts, Quinsigamond Community College (QCC) in Worcester is targeted for an increase in funding from $14.4 to $18.06 million, while funding at Mount Wachusett Community College(MWCC) in Gardner would be bumped from $11.91 to $13.15 million. That money comes courtesy of a performance funding formula approved by the state legislature.
QCC President Gail Carberry said she’s considering using the additional money for everything from implementing more manufacturing training programs to hiring more full-time faculty to covering capital expenses associated with the school’s new downtown campus, slated to open in the fall.
“Because we have been underfunded for so long, there is a long list of needs we have,” she said.
MWCC Vice President of Finance and Administration Robert LaBonte said his school has already received most of the funding and will likely only come into an additional $650,000 in the coming year, which will be used to cover rising expenses and the cost of inflation.
Funding at Central Massachusetts’ four-year universities – Fitchburg, Framingham, and Worcester State universities - is slated to remain flat.
“This is a balanced, responsible budget that supports economic growth and (investment) in education, innovation and infrastructure. As in the past, this budget emphasizes the growth of jobs and opportunity in both the near term and the long term,” Patrick said.
Early Education and Care Commissioner Tom Weber said the funding would help reduce the waiting list of 25,000 infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers under 5 and help toward the state’s goal of improving third-grade reading proficiency.
“We can really work with these kids to put them in a better position to succeed if we start before kindergarten,” Weber told the News Service.
Patrick’s budget, which the Legislature will likely rewrite significantly, also proposes a $100 million increase in Chapter 70 education aid that would guarantee a $25-per-pupil bump in spending for every school district and raise aid under that program to a record $4.4 billion.
The budget also includes $141 million in increased funding for transportation.
Unlike last year, when Patrick proposed a radical tax reform plan that would have generated $1.2 billion in new revenue for fiscal 2014, his fiscal 2015 proposal includes more modest and familiar revenue proposals.
“This is largely a steady-as-you-go, straight-forward, no-frills budget,” said Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation President Michael Widmer, who said the bulk of revenue increases for fiscal 2015 would go toward Medicaid, debt service and pensions. He said he was “pleased” to see the administration accelerate by four years the state pension funding schedule and reduce its reliance on one-time revenue.
Proposed tax on candy, soda
Patrick budgeted $57 million in new tax revenue derived by lifting the sales tax exemption on candy and soda and $40 million from applying the corporate tax to insurance subsidiaries and a room occupancy taxes on marked-up hotel rooms sold by online travel websites like Expedia, as well as vacation rentals and bed and breakfasts.
Though the governor admitted to considering another go at tax reform to generate the level of new revenue he proposed last year, which was scaled back by the Legislature, he ultimately decided that it was a battle best left to the next inhabitant of his office, if he or she chooses.
The budget counts on $53.5 million in gaming license fees and $20 million in tax revenues expected to be generated during the last half of the fiscal year when a slots parlor is expected to be up and running. The slots license is expected to be issued before licenses for casinos. Leominster is one of three communities being considered for the license.
As he has in past years, Patrick also budgeted $24.2 million from an expanded bottle redemption law - the Legislature has repeatedly resisted an updated bottle bill but activists appear committed to bringing the proposal to the November 2014 ballot.
Patrick aides estimated his spending plan, if approved by the Legislature, would boost state spending by the same amount as tax revenues are projected to rise - 4.9 percent. To afford that level of spending, Patrick wants to drain $175 million from the state’s rainy day fund, which would leave that account with $1.2 billion in reserve cash. The governor’s proposal is backstopped by $334 million in one-time revenues, down from $667 million this year.
The rainy day account’s balance, even after the use of $175 million, would still be among the highest of any state in the country, due in part to spending cuts and tax increases implemented in recent years as state officials used a multi-faceted approach to budget management during the severe recession and sluggish economic recovery.
With additional reporting by Worcester Business Journal staff writer Michael Novinson
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