Governor Mitt Romney revealed his consolidation plans for the state’s 2004 budget, to be released officially today, in his “State of the State” address yesterday on the campus of Suffolk University.
According to Romney, the $3 billion hole is now eliminated to balance the state budget, due to three major steps the state government will take this fiscal year. The new initiative the governor stressed was his plan to simplify the budget, “Common Sense for the Commonwealth.”
Romney said his plan will “eliminate every speck of waste and inefficiency, focus on delivering the core missions of government and ask our cities and towns to do the same thing.”
This plan, designed to save the Commonwealth $2 billion, will combine government-funded programs, making it easier for poor families to receive care. It would also place state colleges into economic groups, directing all of state spending toward schools to shared, central areas, he said.
“By grouping campuses by region and providing for shared services between them, Massachusetts can save millions of dollars,” he said.
The plan also merges the Boston court system with the state court system, will end “bumping rights,” or the protection of state workers of seniority, and will reform government employee benefit programs, he said.
“Why should a teller at Fleet Bank, who pays 30 percent of her own health insurance, pay more taxes so that a state employee only has to pay 15 percent?”
As part of “Common Sense for the Commonwealth,” Governor Romney voiced his concerns about continuing to care for the poor, disabled and elderly, something he said Massachusetts was recognized for last year.
“Massachusetts is one of the most generous states in the nation,” he said. “And despite facing the worst fiscal crisis in a generation, we will stay one of the most generous.”
Though spending for the poor, disabled and elderly won’t undergo any changes, Romney clarified that healthcare will no longer be free to any Massachusetts citizen.
“My plan calls for everyone to have to pay something, even if it’s just a token amount.”
Romney also said a major piece of his 2004 budget plan calls attention to cities and towns, asking them to share funds and cut budgets. The governor proposed to reduce local aid by $232 million, and in larger cities and towns, local aid to be reduced twice as much.
Summing up his goal of a balanced budget, Romney said “for this budget to win, politics as usual has to lose.”
The governor’s address was surprisingly well received by Massachusetts’s lawmakers, despite their prior criticisms. Democrats said they were shocked that the budget was $3 billion over its limit last year, not $2 billion as they had first thought. Despite this, they said they were impressed with Romney’s plan, and said that they fully supported every point that the governor had stressed.
“It will be hard for [government] to go through with all of their plans in order to save the $2 billion,” said Senator Brian Lees, “but Romney was masterful with his ideas.”
House Speaker Thomas Finneran released a statement expressing support for Romney’s budget, but said the House will now begin to evaluate his proposals.
“Governor Romney has set a high standard of balancing the budget without cutting essential services, raising taxes or utilizing one-time revenues,” he said. “We will give the citizens of Massachusetts a full opportunity to evaluate the governor’s proposed budget cuts and the implications of those cuts on their communities and their lives.”