Mass. may face another $1 billion in budget cuts

Mr. Governor, Here are some areas to look at instead of cities and towns:
-Truly automate Mass Turnpike and vastly reduce collectors, counters and management
-Massport-gut the no show hack jobs
-Lottery Commission-do we really need to partner w/the Red Sox besides to get game tickets? Advertising? Really?
-Eliminate Pensions that pay out before age 65
-Prevailing wage law-pay more for same non union labor? Why?
-How many state cops have to take cruisers home?
-Every legislator and Senator gives up one aide
Thats the tip of the iceberg....

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I guess we can scratch that property tax decrease

Here's two ways to save money from the state budget:

1. stop hiring neighbors who donate to your campaign to six figure salaries.

2. don't spend $5 million to pay "volunteers."

How about a casino?

Let's hear it for the state;
Let the legislature take a cut in pay
Lets get rid of all the State cars that the state employees take home and get rid of the gas cards.
Since the Gov. may decrease aid to cities and town, lets reduce the state income tax and pay our cities direct.

Here are some ideas.

Quinn Bill
Detail abuse by police
Per Diem for travel, including state reps and judges
Overtime abuse by some state and local employees
Take tax funded benefits away from illegal aliens
Welfare abuse
Have even poor people that use tax funded Masshealth pay a minimum co-pay

I've spread it around and just saved us over a billion dollars. It's easy to do but you have to have the courage to make the right choices.

Hello Mr. Patrick,

I have an easy fix for our budget shortfall.

It is time to consolidate the Mass Pike Authority with the Dept of Transportation.

It is time to run the state like a corporation. You are the CEO, then you have a CFO, CIO, CSO (security), CMO (marketing the state's services), then VPs for each dept. Get rid of pensions. They are the single reason why so many states have budget issues. Tell me a company today that offers a pension plan. They only offer 401k plans. Go through every single job descripton in state government and rate how critical their function is. We really need to reduce state government and stop the handouts. I have more ideas but I';ll save them for later.

Why does Mass still let people who shop at online retailers not pay the sales tax? Online companies should collect a sales tax, its unfair that online companies that dont invest in our cities by building a store get to offer their products cheaper (5% b/c of the tax) than those that offer a local presence. Apple builds stores in MA so they are punished online with having to charge, while amazon doesnt invest locally so they can sell stuff cheaper than local bookstores. And it not impossible, NY is starting to do this.

Everyone living in the Commonwealth is cutting back, Deval. Join the club.

And thanks for that decrease in my property taxes you promised . . .

Times are tough and cutting non-essential employees is crucial. Why doesn't the governor start with the position of Director of Real Estate Services, a newly created $120,000 position that he appointed his neighbor to!

But I'm glad to hear Duval hired is buddy for 6 figures! What a bumb! But don't blame me...I didn't vote for him.

Guess he got his neighbor a job just in time!

Under the leadership of Deval Patrick, The state is awash with corruption.
Did he just hire one of his neighbor for more the 100 grand annual salary? The title is "director of real state relief", and the state government has been under a hiring freeze.

Cut unnecessary jobs for friends in his office before he talks about raising tax.
Give us a break!

This the day after his neighbor and friend gets a $120K per year job? Nice......

Let me guess... Teachers, Police and Firefighters.

So much for Together We Can!

1.3B in gallons of gas purchased in MA (not clear if that includes commercial usage) $0.05 tax would raise $65M ($10/person). this seems reasonable and fair.

Ok with making up a small % of the gap with the state's reserve acct - $200M due to exceptional circumstances.

that leaves a lot left to cut and/or raise taxes. i think focus s/be on state expenditures

local aid has been reduced in the past, but I don't recall seeing active (or innovative) measures of reducing costs at the state level in a while ? Furlough the legislature, they don't enact any useful legislation, merge highway dept and Turnpike (why in the world does the state need two highway depts ?!).

When do we cut the 2,000 new employees added ? How about renegotiating state contracts to prevent bankruptcy?

Who is leading in this state?

See.. First tolls are going up and the gas tax is going to be added...

Doesn't matter how tight your finances are... the government will always take a little more of it.

Tell me... why are these "Cuts" isn't the 2009 budget bigger than the 2008? until the budget is lower than the previous year, there are no "Cuts"!

We don't have enough money for local aid to towns but Deval can employ his neighbor for 120K per year for another one of his hack positions!

Hey Deval, I am STILL waiting for my propert tax relief. My property taxes went up again even though my property value went down

This guy is a joke. He has been a HUGE failure. It will be a pleasure to do my part to help vote this clown out of office in two years!

If there is a gas tax increase it better be to get rid on the turnpike tolls.

First off the Gas tax should not go into the general account. Maybe if the money collected from the gas tax went to fix the roads and bridges you wouldnt hear complaining about how this is no money to make repairs. If the money collected through taxes is directed where it was originally intended we wouldnt have to worry about funding the necessities.

Ooof. That's gotta hurt. Off of the DOR tax rolls. When the state employees' MSPs run dry, by law they have to be on Commonwealth Care luxury health insurance.

No worries about executive-level state employees making over 200,000/year. They're unlikely to be cut from the payroll.

Why doesn't he wait until he has all the facts instead of this water torture.

Stop with the sky is falling already, We know what is going on. Just the facts please. By the way, where is all the money from the Big Dig settlements being kept?

That is seperate from the "rainy day fund" right?

Let's increase everyones taxes and fees. That will solve the problem! And oh, vote No on question #1 (oops, too late to change that vote, isn't it?)

Make sure Sen Marzilli's pension can be increased. If that happens, I can rest assured that my money is being well used.

Oh, yes, Billy Bulger. Don't forget about him. How can that man live on $300K a year (partially tax free)?

Why doesn't he start by getting rid of the Cadillac and getting the Ford back?

-Stop issuing unnecessary front license plates like 20 other states.
-Send the police horses to the glue factory
-Sell the land in Concord the state owns for police horses
-Sell the Harleys the police use for parades
-Put all new state employees on 401Ks like private industry did years ago
-Eliminate all school buses for students with 2 mile walk or less to school
-Cut the MBTA by 25%
-Cut 10% across the board for all state spending.
-It's only going to get worse so suck it up.

Cut back on Welfare!! This includes welfare and Section 8 housing, especially. The budget for welfare is ridiculous. I've had enough of the people who are living off the state. I would say about half truly need it, and the other half are abusing the system. This country rewards laziness. Call me cruel all you want, "free aid" is brining this country down and its time to cut back on so called "Health and Human Services".

He should be like Romney and give up his salary like Mitt did, it’s ridiculous, don't cut emergency service people, if he does, something bad will happen, it's always the way, yeah nice he hired his neighbor for that salary, ....... it's just not right……. OPEN A CASINO!

WHERE IS MY PROPERTY TAX RELIEF?

Deval:
That's it... give me the job of straightening this state.. I love Massachusetts and don't want it to be another California which is going to announce it is going bankrupt in a couple of days.

Cap all State employee compensation at 100k with zero exceptions. Get rid of all Pensions and switch to 401k's. Build 2 casino's, one on the North Shore and one on the South Shore. Cut 5% of all employees. Ask Bob Kraft and John Henry to advise you for free.

And my #1 idea: ASK FOR A BAILOUT....lol

How about no welfare or any other type of handout for illegals????

INCOME TAX AMNESTY!

In the current economy almost all state governments are having terrible financial problems not to mention the deficit the of the federal government is running up. While business are also hurting, there are many very strong companies that are thriving and others that have prepared for the poor economy and are in a position to ride it out.
When are voters going to realize that governments never manage themselves as effectively as a good private business? Its time to elect people that truly believe in small and efficient governments instead of these bloated bureacracies which spend at unsustainable rates and just transfer the burden to the taxpayer when they can’t come up with the money to feed the system.

Let's see if Deval demonstrates any "transformational leadership" or follows the same old pattern of most Mass pols in dealing with this downturn - working stiffs had better watch their wallets.

It always falls on the tax payers to bear the brunt of mismanagment. It doesn't matter if it is the government, or private sector, the tax payer at the bottom bails everybody out. While this drives me insane that I have to keep paying more to support everyone who doesn't have a clue it could always be worse. We could be living in China and have no freedoms.

Things were better with Mitt Romney.

Deval has been screwing this up all along.

Didn't he promise to give $1 billion to the biotech industry during his campaign?

Why not just take that money back and reallocate it? Problem solved! It doesn't take much to be governor.

Justice Stevens, you have had ample term as a Supreme Court Justice, Please consider retirement so that President Obama will nominate this Governor to replace you...it's only a matter of time so let it happen now!

Wow, lots of good ideas, too bad Deval has no interest in real change on Beacon Hill...hey, what ever happened to "Yes we can"? I never missed Romney more than I do now!!

Guess I missed the scathing expose by the Globe on the Brazilian workers in that Milton neighborhood. We all know Milton is TOTALLY different from Belmont, right? Boy, am I enjoying the Globe circling the bowl...

How about every Democrat (all 323 or you) and Republican (all 3 of you) go without pay until the state budget is balanced and the risk of bankruptcy eliminated?

Be a leader Deval...

How about you learn how to create a balanced budget to begin with?

If you start with a bloated budget, of course it's going to be overbudget. It was overbudget from the start, so why is it any surprise that we're having trouble now?

Romney was a genius when it came to this stuff.

Remember when Deval promised his friends a cool billion in the biotech industry back in 2007? That was unnecessary and was a token to his buds.

This comment board is making me question the wisdom of democracy... 90% of you sound like ignorant morons.

See I told you that if question one passed there would be dire consequences and funding would be cut. Oh it failed and funding is cut, but friends of Patrick are still getting 100K per year jobs.
SUCKERS
The Mass Democratic Party

Hold on now. Rest easy, citizens, there's been some kind of mistake. Deval forgets that Massachusetts has two things no other state has: we have universities, and hospitals. Those are recession-proof, and no other state has a university or a hospital.

There's nothing to see here. Move along.

I ditched MA a while ago. One way to save money would be to get rid of all forms of affirmitave action in contracting. These programs drive up cost, employ legions of bureaucrats, and benefit a small cadre of politically connected contractors.

I think Diane Patrick needs a larger staff... and new drapes.

We all had our chance on November 4th. Through out all incumbents.

I DONT KNOW WHAT WE'RE YELLING ABOUT!!!??!!

bring back the fiscally responsible REPUBLICANS !!!

"Together we Can...
Raise your Taxes..
Increase the Tolls..
Add more useless hack patronage jobs to the state payroll.
Say Nothing about the poor people in central MA who went without power for nearly 2 weeks. Think he would do the same if it happened in Mattapan ?
Get me a book deal on the day of the casino vote. ...

HOPE CHANGE HOPE..!!!

Anyone who voted against repealing the income tax deserves what's coming. How could you fall for the crap about it would raise your property taxes? Guess what lemings, your property taxes are going up now anyway but you don't get any tax break from the state. We deserve the government we vote for. Let's stop getting out the vote, I can't afford any more elections like the last one.

As a past ardent supporter of Gov. Patrick I have to say I am terribly disappointed in his performance thus far. You can judge the courage of a man based on how he performs in difficult times and so far Gov. Patrick is performing poorly. Specifically, last week he chose to cut a 3% retroactive pay increase to state (subcontracted) human service workers making on average $25,000 (and not entitled to any pension) a year for taking care of the state's mentally ill and mentally retarded populations. It takes no courage to cut expected pay increases to lower middle class single moms and working families the week before christmas. It takes courage to demand 10% salary decreases for any state worker making over $60,000, it takes courage to take on the teachers and police unions and demand further concessions, it takes courage to give up your salary and second home since you have a million dollars in the bank. Deval show true leadership. Be creative and don't let this financial burden fall on the backs of the states poorest workers.

familes the week before christmas

I'll start with this, MASS VOTERS GET WHAT THEY DESERVE!, first of all the 1B King Patrick "saved" off of the budget recently was just for show, that included one half of the 2,000 jobs that he created for his friends, family, and campaign contributers when he got elected, (just business), secondly, most of them are probably very happy to be going on "funemployment" for the next year or so.
Secondly, the NEXT round of cuts will only be of the people who hang up the coats of the people who open the doors of the kings and queens that we call the ligislature.
Thirdly, the 3rd round of cuts, yes there WILL be a third round of cuts in the very near future, will REALLY be the ones that truly impact this bloated buearocracy that we call government, that's when DiMasi (the REAL governor) and Patrick, (the straw boss), have to decide whose relatives have to go.
Good luck in 010 all of you.

Wow, I'm glad you guys are not running the government. You are just mean and think you can do better, but clealy have never done anything but blog. (It is amazing how many comments were during the work day) So in your job, you have time to sit and write stupid stuff all day? If you think the jobs in the state are so great, get one, instead of using electricity writing useless stuff. Mitt Rommey was not better, he was exceedingly ineffective, and just put his salary to fatten his friends salaries. Patrick is cutting back, what more do you want. You are complaining that he is cutting the budget. I don't get it. Let's stop the ranting, and start working together.

Deval Patrick well, let's say, he gots "Caddy tastes" on a Kia Budget.

Deval just needs to read the first post and few others, and bam it's solved.

Why not try helping out people who ACTUALLY WORK FOR A LIVING..

Example. State-Subsidsized mortage for first-time home buyers.
Wonder why our housing market has gone down 18%?

As I posted previously, the Governor knew full well in October that the revised revenue projections for capital gains were not credible, as the market had tanked by 40%.

Instead of bringing these Legislators back in session to cut when he had 2/3 of the fiscal year left, he decided to wait until after Christmas when he'll have less than half a year to squeeze out the savings. Look for a bunch of cities and towns to run out cash in April and May.

Too bad he drained a few hundred mil out of the rainy day fund last fiscal year to pay for his army of 2000 coatholders, bumkissers and factotums.

Can you be impeached for stupidity?

Bring Romney back.

bostonian wrote "bring back the fiscally responsible REPUBLICANS !!!"

The brilliant citizens of Massachusetts replaced the fiscially Republicans with Deval Patrick, James Marzilli, Diane Wilkerson, and Chuck Turner.

Now we are near bankrupt but we have a new cadillac and new drapes.

JoeyGeneva wrote "Can you be impeached for stupidity?"

No because we wouldn't have anyone left from either party. But I like the concept.

A few things come to mind that would save money:

1) The John McCormick Building @ One Ashburton Place, Boston, 95 % of the 21 floors in the building the lights are on 24/7--nights, weekends, early morning. I know that employees are not working then.

2) The fact is that every (about 46) State Agency now has a Chief and a Deputy Chief, which is costing us twice the money. In the last administration there were no Deputies and the work got done.

3) It is also a fact that this administration is paying upper management staff much more money than any other administration. When you work for a public or nonprofit agency, it is a known fact that you do not get paid the same as the private sector. Many of the Secretary/Chief of an agency are making over $100,000...that is ridiculous.

Bring Romney back? Now that is a good idea.

Oh, yeah Romney!!! Give me a break

I'm embarrassed I voted for Deval - what a HUGE diappointment.

Let's tax "stupid politicians", that would balance the budget!

Governor---once you can count it----its over.

you suck dival patrick, you don't even know how manage the budget, how come your buddies who get paid 120G they keep their job but other state employees who makes less that 50,000 they get layed off, so much for "together we can" yep together we can help our buddies and S.... others, is this how you do it. shame on you

I should have become a State Trooper or local cop. Can't mess with their gravy. Crime pays.

How about all the corrections officers. They alone in salary make up almost a billion. Don't tell me that on officer for every two inmates is reasonable. Look at these guys salaries and they don't do nothing but stand around. They don't teach, create, or do anything productive.They just hired over a hundred new officers and we are not even talking about county jails. Half the population of mass has a CORI. It is impossible for this many people to be criminally inclined. There is too many prosecutions and too many junky lawyers. Stop building these new police stations (Public Safety stations now) and court houses for christ sake. It is almost as if they want everyone with a record.

Congress has before it a bill that will allow states to collect sales taxes on Internet purchases. Right now they are not allowed to do it because long ago the federal govenment protected the fledgling internet from taxation. A coalition of states worked for almost a decade on simplifying their tax codes to allow this, but the bill sits dead. May states could cover their entire defitcits with this "fairness tax." Instead, local retailers that hire our people and pay income and other taxes are losing sales, going broke, and many states are raising sales taxes to cover their losses and it's spiraling. Do something about that.

This story is repeating itself across the country... It's time to dramatically re-structure the tax code - at all levels - local, state and federal

YOU SAY LETS CUT BACK WELL START RIGHT AT THE STATE HOUSE DIVAL PATRICK SHOULD TAKE A PAY CUT ALONG WITH ALL OF HIS AIDS ELIMINATE CARS FOR STATE EMPLOYEES MAKE THEM BUY THERE OWN DAM CARS PAY FOR THERE OWN GAS ALSO STATE POLICE DO NOT HAVE TO TAKE HOME A CRUISER EVERY NIGHT. BUT REMEMBER YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID

I think, the welfare system needs an over haul.
If people on welfare, can afford to have better cars,pay for cell
phones have credit cards, buy cigarettes,etc.
The people that really need it, can't get it.,
because people have made it a way of life,instean of working.

CA $40 Billion deficit, NY $15.4 Billion deficit, OH $7.3 Billion deficit, WI $5.4 Billion deficit, NJ $2.1 Billion deficit, MN $5.2 Billion deficit, AZ, RI, FL are among the worst.
Meanwhile MA faces $1Billion in cuts. This is a national problem, and by the looks of things Deval is doing a pretty good job,all things considered. If you want to blame someone blame the financial institutions that inflated real estate to the point people couldn't afford to live in their homes, and blame these corporations that ship jobs overseas.
Even states doing really well have seen cuts of some sort. You people that act like its the Governors fault don't know what you're talking about.