The Patrick Budget
As he enters his fifth year as governor, Deval Patrick has proven to be no slouch in his efforts to bring more business to Massachusetts. He has traveled the world to tout the Bay State and, despite budgetary challenges, his administration has lowered the corporate income tax rate and encouraged regional approaches to economic development to break the all-too-common parochial stranglehold that can choke business growth.
Even in his proposed fiscal year 2013 budget, he plans a net reduction of 300 state jobs, on top of the nearly 6,000 his office said have been cut since October 2008. And, to underscore his commitment to education and making college more affordable, he’s pushing a 6 percent increase in funding for the University of Massachusetts system.
These are largely positive accomplishments delivered with minimal rancor and infighting from the Legislature. But there are two elements of Patrick’s spending plan that smell of government overreach and potential harm to business and to this region.
Removing the sales tax exemption on soda and candy.
We understand the importance of healthier living, especially if it will lower health care costs. But this proposal, which would raise more than $61 million in revenue, according to the governor’s office, merely provides another example of why some call Massachusetts a “nanny” state. It would also take away revenue from small businesses that are surviving on already-thin margins at the retail level.
Slapping a tax levy on sugar-laden beverages and snacks is not the most direct and straightforward way to change people’s eating behaviors and cut the nation’s obesity rate. According to a 2011 report from the nonprofit Tax Foundation of Washington, D.C., such a levy could actually do more harm than good. It cited a study in which adolescents dodged the tax merely by switching to other high-calorie food and drink.
But why single out soda and candy? Just take a walk down a grocery store aisle and you can find other food products that can inflict just as much harm on one’s health. The effort to improve the nutritional value of school meals is a long-term, positive trend that will take a continued effort at educating and advocating. But applying a sin tax to some offenders is an incomplete and unfair swipe, and does little but feed government coffers.
Centralizing control of community colleges.
The state’s 15 community colleges serve several roles in today’s higher education landscape. They provide a springboard for teenagers whose high school grades aren’t strong enough to win admission to four-year schools. They also provide a vehicle for older learners who want to earn degrees. And they can be effective in helping train local workers, which some schools – notably Quinsigamond and Mount Wachusett community colleges – are doing quite successfully. In 2001, 29 percent of QCC students were enrolled in certificate or non-credit programs to improve their job-related skills, according to the school. By last year, that number had grown to 35 percent. At Mount Wachusett, about half of the students at the Gardner-based school fall into the same category.
Like Patrick, the Obama Administration has recognized the value of community colleges for their potential in boosting workers' skills. The federal government even allocated $20 million last year to the 15 Bay State schools to fund more career-related training.
Centralizing budget and leadership control of community colleges with the state’s Board of Higher Education, as the governor proposes, dilutes the meaning of “community” colleges. They are designed to aid their surrounding communities, and the economic needs of, say, Greater Worcester, are different from those in the Berkshires and in Greater Boston. On top of that, putting them under the control of the state makes the community college system more susceptible to the unproductive influence of politics. They’re better off remaining under local or regional control, possibly helped at the state level by financial incentives and expert advice that can aid the training needs of local workforces.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments