Thirst for spending reflected in senate budget amendments
Antonio Caban/SHNS
The senate will be discussing the amendments.
Facing a current-year budget deficit and sluggish tax collections, Massachusetts senators are nonetheless exhibiting a strong appetite for spending, filing budget amendments with a total cost of more than $4.1 billion, according to an analysis released ahead of the start of annual budget deliberations on Tuesday.
According to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation (MTF), senators have filed 792 amendments to budget line items that add $1.032 billion in spending. Another 375 amendments to outside sections in the Senate budget (S 4) would add $3.1 billion in spending, if adopted.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee last week recommended a $39.497 billion budget that roughly hews to the proposals by Gov. Charlie Baker and the House, which aim to limit spending growth next year to about 3.5 percent.
The Senate budget attempts to limit growth in the budget's biggest expenditure, MassHealth, to $15.4 billion, and orders a $211 million deposit into the state rainy day fund to raise its balance to $1.47 billion.
While senators have expressed interest in raising taxes to support investments in government services and programs, tax-raising proposals must originate in the House, and the House this year joined Gov. Charlie Baker in recommending spending plans that do not feature new or higher taxes.
During last year's budget debate, the Senate adopted amendments that added $86 million to the bottom line of this year's budget.
Some of the spending amendments are duplicates and appear to call for spending over multiple years, said MTF director of policy and research Doug Howgate, who added that senators targeted education, economic development and tourism accounts with many of their spending amendments.
Compared to the 2015 budget debate, the 1,167 amendments filed this year represent a 24 percent increase over last year.
The line item that drew the most amendments -- 79 -- belongs to the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, according to the MTF analysis.
Despite the volume of amendments, Senate budget chief Karen Spilka of Ashland said in her opening remarks that the spending plan already reflected many of the individual and statewide priorities of senators because of the collaborative process used to build the budget.
"This is a balanced and fiscally responsible budget," said Spilka, touting a proposed audit unit that would monitor "tax expenditures," more commonly known as tax breaks, incentives and credits.
Spilka said there are "so many great things" in the nearly $40 billion budget that it would take her until Tuesday to outline them all.
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments