GLOBE EDITORIAL
Budget largesseThe Legislature's approval of substantial new spending Thursday night signals that lawmakers consider the recession over and are ready to use part of a $725 million budget surplus to revive important programs and start new projects. Governor Rommey, as he examines the bill for possible line-item vetoes, needs to preserve the best of the bill and excise pork-barrel and special-interest items.
These include an attempt to impose rules on the way biology is taught in high school. The Legislature would force teachers to offer students who did not want to dissect frogs the option of a computer simulation. It might be appropriate for some students to use a simulation, but teachers should make that decision without the additional burden of a state mandate. Romney has vetoed an identical item in an earlier bill, and he should do so again. However, he should approve an item he has previously vetoed that would restore Medicaid benefits for 3,000 immigrants. These people, living on little income, deserve to have their health needs covered by Medicaid, and the state has enough money to help them. The Legislature also showed good sense when it agreed to finance long-deferred pay raises affecting employees of the higher education system. It also revived a program to offer matching grants for private donations to public higher education. The governor should endorse both items to help the system recover from devastating budget cuts. Trying to get a handle on health care costs, a chronic budget problem, the Legislature would establish a commission to determine whether Medicaid payments are adequate and what can be done to assure an equitable source of revenue for these reimbursements. As a down payment on future Medicaid increases, the Legislature would establish a $15 million special trust fund. Romney should support both items. The Legislature would appropriate $70.86 million for projects under the control of the Department of Conservation and Recreation. Most of this work is long overdue, such as the reconstruction of Quincy Shore Drive and the cleanup of Wollaston Beach. But the governor will need to determine whether it is really necessary to build a $2 million boat house in Brighton for the private nonprofit Community Rowing and whether Dilboy Field in Somerville deserves an $8 million facelift instead of less expensive repairs. Even as the Legislature offers to improve DCR properties, the governor should resist its attempt to mandate staffing at regional offices. The department needs flexibility to administer its network of parks.
The Legislature also allotted a healthy $336 million of the surplus to the rainy day fund. The governor can provide even more money for this essential reserve by trimming items that show more extravagance than common sense. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
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