Patrick vetoes $41m in budget

Governor Deval Patrick yesterday vetoed $41 million in spending approved by the Legislature, slashing $11.5 million from the trial courts, eliminating funding for an abstinence-only education program, and surgically excising pet projects lawmakers had slipped into unrelated accounts — such as a tourism grant for a Seekonk landfill.

In signing his first budget, Patrick approved $26.8 billion in spending, a 4.2 percent increase that includes millions for many of his initiatives in public safety, health, and education, but, notably, does not include his proposal to generate new revenue by closing so-called loopholes in the corporate tax code.

Patrick praised the Legislature for working harmoniously with the administration, underscoring the extent to which the acrimony between the branches has dissipated over the past few months, as the freshman governor and the legislative leaders have grown accustomed to working together.

‘‘For the first time in a very long time we have built a budget on real collaboration between the Legislature and the administration and based on shared goals,’’ Patrick told reporters at a news conference in his office yesterday morning, flanked by his budget chief, Leslie A. Kirwan, and Lieutenant Governor Timothy P. Murray.

The budget funds state operations for the 2008 fiscal year, which began July 1.

In a statement yesterday afternoon, House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi commended the govx ernor for working with the Legislature, and for embracing nearly 100 percent of the spending priorities to provide local aid, sewer rate relief, and money to implement last year’s health reform law, ‘‘all without new taxes, fees, or fines.’’ DiMasi had sharply opposed the corporate tax code changes.

Without the new revenue from Patrick’s loophole closures, the budget relies on $600 million in one-time income and reserves, which is $50 million more than in fiscal year 2007.

Though budget aides said end-of-year revenues should be strong enough to repay the reserve accounts and finish the year with a surplus, Patrick said yesterday that he remained concerned about the use of one-time revenue. He said he would continue working to find ways to save money within state government and to pursue the corporate tax changes through a special commission he and the Legislature set up to study the corporate tax code.

But Brian Dodge, spokesman for the state Republican Party, said Patrick had not worked hard enough to keep his oft-repeated campaign pledge to save $750 million by making government more efficient. Dodge called Patrick’s $41 million vetoed spending ‘‘window dressing.’’

The governor retreated somewhat from the harder line he had taken against legislative earmarks — money set aside by lawmakers for a specific, and often local, purpose. Lawmakers had bristled at Patrick’s first budget proposal in February, which eliminated many local earmarks, saying the new governor was treading on their authority to help decide how money is spent.

But such items can prove useful in the horse trading that goes on during budget negotiations, and the Legislature delivered millions for Patrick’s programs to spend more on all-day kindergarten, extended learning time, children’s vaccinations, new police officers, and other initiatives.

Kirwan said Patrick had vetoed about $20 million in local earmarks, mostly items that appeared to be crammed into departments where they did not belong. That represents just a tiny fraction of the total local-level earmarks in the budget, she acknowledged. But, she said, Patrick wanted his agencies to work more closely with lawmakers on understanding local needs — so the Legislature can trust agencies to handle them without a specific directive in the budget.

Not all the vetoes were earmarks, however.

Robert A. Mulligan, the trial court’s chief justice for administration and management, said in a statement yesterday that if the Legislature does not restore the roughly $20 million increase for the trial courts, the courts would have to lay off hundreds of employees, which would threaten ‘‘to significantly limit access to justice’’ in the Commonwealth.

Administration officials said, however, that the trial courts had sent back $4 million of unused money this year.

Steven C. Panagiotakos, Senate Ways and Means chairman, said the Legislature may contemplate overriding that veto.

‘‘We thought the amount we gave them was probably close to where they needed to be,’’ he said yesterday. ‘‘A significant cut there needs to be addressed.’’

Patrick also excised a provision that would have allowed the state to spend $712,000 in federal money on abstinence education. Massachusetts has received the grant since 1998, but public health officials in the administration decided that they no longer wanted the money because of the strings attached: the federal government does not allow the money to be used for programs that also teach students about birth control.

Rebecca Ray, director of Healthy Futures, which teaches abstinence classes to about 7,000 students, said losing the money would slice her organization’s budget in half and dramatically reduce the number of students served.

‘‘I think it’s tragic that these communities and all these students are going to miss out on this opportunity,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s money that is free to our state, and I know the administration is certainly looking for other funding from the federal government, yet they’re turning down these funds.’’

Local firefighters also took issue with Patrick’s vetoes, castigating him for slicing $2.25 million from Boston fire programs, including $500,000 for the hazardous material response team, and for eliminating a $1.1 million fire education program for students.

‘‘The Legislature put forth a [budget] that would have greatly enhanced the city of Boston’s ability to respond to a terrorist attack, and Governor Patrick felt it was unnecessary funding,’’ said Ed Kelly, president of Boston firefighters Local 718. ‘‘We are appalled by that action.’’

The Legislature can consider veto overrides whenever it wishes, but a legislative source said a vote would probably come before the end of the month. Last year, the Democratic Legislature overrode almost all of Mitt Romney’s $573 million in vetoes. Whether lawmakers would do the same to a Democratic governor remains to be seen.