Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Statement on Governor's Proposed 9C Cuts
I released the following statement
today, following Governor Patrick’s announcement of $225 million in proposed 9C
cuts to help close an estimated $540 million budget deficit for Fiscal Year
2013:
“Governor Patrick is confronting the harsh reality of a faltering economic
recovery and budgetary paralysis in Washington to meet the requirements of a
balanced budget. Yet it’s also a harsh reality that this situation could and
should have been addressed by more aggressive action to create a better climate
for economic growth.
Too many action items have been left on the table, and we are now beginning
to see the costs of that inaction on matters that really count.
Today, Governor
Patrick talked about the importance of seizing opportunities. But we might not
have even been in such a precarious position if the Governor had approved,
rather than vetoed, legislative initiatives that would have allowed
Massachusetts businesses to thrive and grow. Allowing business tax payments to
be made on a quarterly basis, extending brownfields tax credits for
rehabilitating presently unusable sites, and providing a three-year tax credit
for start-up corporations would have removed some of the barriers that
businesses have told us are real impediments to growth. These were all sent to
the Governor’s desk with bipartisan support and rejected. With the unemployment
rate rising to 6.6 percent, no government priority should be higher than
getting Massachusetts residents back to work.
We are facing a clear choice now. We can continue down the same path and
find ourselves having to make additional cuts, or we can take decisive actions,
such as appointing a fiscal control board for the MBTA and halting planned
expansions of lines and services when we can’t afford the ones we already have.
It’s time for the Legislature to revisit and take action on initiatives to
control the cost of health care, including moving Medicaid patients to managed
care and addressing costly health care mandates. It’s time to provide relief to
businesses from the crushing
burden of unemployment insurance rates that are among the highest in the
nation. And it’s also time for the Gaming Commission to accelerate
efforts to bring in new revenues, and that revenue should be spent to avoid
cuts and to support existing commitments, rather than funding new spending
programs.
The proposal of these cuts is a call for action to spur economic growth and
avoid future cuts before important programs like local aid are further
imperiled.”
