Here in Boston we are without the sun, without a glimpse of summer, and without any promising sign of a budget that exhibits common sense.

On Friday June 19, 2009, the Massachusetts House and Senate passed the budget which is now on the Governor's desk.  He has ten days to review and approve it, or make vetoes or reductions.  He can approve or veto the entire budget, or may veto or reduce certain line items or sections, but may not add anything.  The House and Senate then may vote to override the Governor's veto (overrides require a two-thirds majority in each  chamber). The resulting final budget is also known as the General Appropriations Act or “Chapter XXX of the Acts of 2009" and consists of the Conference Committee version, minus any vetoes, plus any overrides. 

Luckily for us, there are still a few good men and women left on the hill who have political spines!

On that same Friday, June 19, the Massachusetts Senate Minority Leader Richard R. Tisei (R) and House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones, Jr. (R) issued the following statement regarding the enactment of the Fiscal Year 2010 state budget by the Legislature:

"As everyone knows, the state has been on a major spending spree for the past three years.  It’s unfortunate that it took a global economic crisis to finally force us to put the brakes on spending.  However, even with the bare bones budget that emerged from Conference Committee today, we’re still nowhere close to being out of the woods and can expect that our fiscal difficulties will continue for the foreseeable future. This budget is balanced on a hope and a prayer.  In addition to cuts in many vital programs and services, the budget relies on a massive infusion of federal stimulus money, a substantial withdrawal from the Rainy Day Fund, and more than $1 billion in new taxes and fees.  Essentially, we are relying on a series of one-time revenues and an increased burden on the state’s taxpayers to balance the budget in the midst of one of the worst recessions ever.  This virtually guarantees we will be carrying a huge structural deficit forward and that will make it even more difficult to balance the budget next year.

What’s really disappointing is that the few reform measures the House and Senate included in their budgets were either watered down or omitted entirely from the final budget.  Two days ago, we had pension reform. Yesterday, we had transportation reform.  Next week, we’ll be doing ethics reform.  But when it comes to the budget, we seem to have gone from “reform before revenues” to “revenues before, and without, reforms”.

When all is said and done, we have simply not solved our budget problems; we have just pushed off many tough decisions for another day.”

Our own outstanding State Representative to the Norfolk County, Rep. Jay Barrows (R) remarked, post budget debate:

"I voted against this budget with 45 other Representatives.  This budget lacked any real reforms reducing the size of state government.  Instead, we have added over 3000  State Employees.  We can't  tax our way out of a decline.  We raised taxes by 1 billion dollars last year.  This year meals tax, sales tax, satellite tv, the list goes on, enough is enough.  Good pension and transportation reform is all about the future."

The icing on the cake was this post on bluemass group, a liberal bloGASphere here in Massachusetts:  "A graduated income tax is just two years away if the legislature acted and the people approved it. Time for the most well-off Massachusetts residents to stop freeloading on the backs of the least well off and pay their fair share. - promoted by Bob…." 

And get this, while the news of DiMasi flooded the local news, the House Democrats defeated a bill put forward to remove two paid holidays from the state employee payroll, one being "Evacuation Day" which is St. Patrick's day.  If they need an excuse to grab a Guiness, please hit the local pub after work, don't do it on the taxypayer's dime.  According to State Senator Richard Tisei (R) that vote would have saved the MA taxpayers 5 Million dollars. That is the equivalent of 50 more police officers we could hire in this Commonwealth.

 Are you mad yet?  Is this the “together we can”  Deval-Patrick-mantra at work?  Translation: “together we can screw the Massachusetts taxpayer….because they are so well off according to Democrats.

The last time I checked my alarm was going off at 5 a.m. so I could get out of bed and go to work, in order that my husband and I can pay somebody else’s mortgage and bills.

Check out the attached roll call and see how your State Rep. voted on the FY2010 budget, if you don't like it get busy and pen a letter to your local papers.  Get on talk radio, let them know!

Do not totally despair! Calling all candidates, step it up!  The environment is  ripening, here in Massachusetts, for a GOP majority.