Budget cuts draw bleak predictions, calls for veto

The vote - 110 to 46 in the House and 31 to 8 in the Senate - came as mayors, town managers, social service agencies, and local activists across Massachusetts began to digest the massive cuts the budget proposal calls for, including up to a 15 percent cut in noneducation local aid for municipalities.

For many across the state, the proposed cuts were little surprise because lawmakers have warned for months that the next fiscal year looked dire. But the cold, hard reality of the reductions hit home yesterday from Cape Cod to the Berkshires.

“It’s depressing; it really is depressing,’’ said Mayor John Barrett of North Adams, which closed a middle school yesterday because of budget woes. “There is no light at the end of the tunnel, not even a flicker of hope. It looks like it’s going to be worse next year. There’s no real revenue stream that’s going to be improving.’’

Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette of Chicopee said, “It is a patchwork quilt of knitting together new revenue, spending cuts, and job elimination, and that is how we’re all going to try to survive this.’’

As Governor Deval Patrick began reviewing the budget package yesterday, healthcare advocates, and immigrant rights activists urged him to veto a provision that would eliminate coverage under Commonwealth Care, the state-sponsored healthcare program, for 28,000 legal immigrants.

“We understand there are horrific cuts, particularly in public health, but this is unacceptable,’’ said Lindsey Tucker, health reform policy manager at Health Care for All, a nonprofit advocacy group. “We have worked so hard for three years to cover all of our eligible residents. We can’t turn our backs on these folks now.’’

Budget analysts also warned yesterday that the accounts used to maintain the state’s landmark healthcare reform laws are dangerously underfunded.

Antigang, youth violence prevention, and elderly affairs programs would also see deep cuts in a budget that is to take effect July 1 and as many as 12 Registry of Motor Vehicles locations could close.

State programs aside, the budget would deeply affect cities and towns, which operate in large part on huge annual infusions of state aid. Many municipalities next year will see smaller checks, and will be forced to trim local services, staff, and education budgets.

A host of new taxes, including a 1.25 percentage point increase in the state sales tax, were included to prevent even deeper reductions.

The budget includes enough money, $100 million, to avoid a toll increase on the Massachusetts Turnpike that had been scheduled to take effect July 1. The budget would require the Turnpike Authority to forgo increases for one year, but does not prohibit increases after that.

MBTA riders, thanks to an additional $160 million in the budget for the T, would also get some relief, though not enough to prevent an expected fare increase in the next few months. Transportation Secretary James A. Aloisi Jr. has said the T will need to raise fares 15 to 20 percent and possibly cut some service because of increasing debt payments.

All eyes are now on Patrick, who has 10 days to sign, veto, or offer modifications to the proposal. He has vowed to veto the sales tax provision of the budget unless the Legislature first approves overhauls of state ethics, pension, and transportation laws.

Yesterday, Patrick offered measured praise for the transportation bill, which was approved overwhelmingly by the Legislature on Thursday, saying in a statement: “At first review, [it] seems to be a good-faith effort at reforming our transportation system.’’

But he also chided lawmakers for passing a sales tax increase before finalizing an ethics package. House and Senate lawmakers have been wrangling over the ethics legislation, with one of the major holdups a provision that would ban all gifts to public officials.

“Legislative leaders should quickly agree to final ethics legislation that includes the strongest provisions from the House, Senate, and my original bill, including a gift ban and campaign finance reform,’’ Patrick said. “Without that, I will veto the sales tax.’’

State revenues have plummeted in recent months, and revenue estimates that the governor and House lawmakers had initially relied on had fallen by $1.5 billion by the time the Senate began crafting its proposal last month.

The $27.4 billion budget approved yesterday is about $700 million less than the budget lawmakers initially agreed to for the current fiscal year, the first time in recent memory that there has been a year-over-year drop in such a figure. The state budget almost always increases to account for things such as rising healthcare costs and inflation.

The lawmakers’ budget counts on $1.5 billion in federal stimulus money.

It would draw $199 million from the state’s reserve account, leaving the balance at less than $600 million. The budget would also increase state employee insurance contributions by 5 percentage points.

“I don’t have to tell anybody that we are living in difficult economic times,’’ said state Representative Charles A. Murphy, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. “The reality that we are faced with forces us to take a vote on a document that is not perfect.’’

Republicans hammered the Democratic leadership for filing a 263-page budget proposal late Thursday night and asking lawmakers to vote on complicated issues with only several hours to review it.

“The way we do business is deplorable, and it needs to change,’’ said state Representative Daniel K. Webster, a Hanson Republican.

Thirty Democrats joined all 16 Republicans in voting against the budget in the House. In the Senate, three Democrats joined five Republicans in voting against the plan.

Complicating the politics, labor unions, which came out strongly against the transportation legislation a day earlier, were furious yesterday over a budget that includes deep cuts to - and the eventual elimination of - the Quinn Bill, a controversial program that awards bonuses for police officers who hold college degrees.

“This budget squeezes as much as you possibly can out of workers, on our backs, and out of our pockets,’’ said Tim Sullivan, legislative and communications director for the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. “It’s legislative water-boarding of unions and working people. That’s how it feels.’’

Noah Bierman and Kay Lazar of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.