It is not likely that President John F. Kennedy’s birthday will become a Massachusetts holiday next year, unless a proposal from State Rep. J. Michael Ruane (D-Salem) can generate more support.

Ruane filed a petition on Jan. 1, 2003, calling for the creation of a state holiday to honor Kennedy, who served Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate before being elected president in 1960. Ruane has unsuccessfully filed this several other times since 1981, and many members of the Legislature and their aides had said they doubted it would be any different this time.

The petition was discussed in the Joint Committee on the Judiciary last week, and according to a spokeswoman for the committee, committee members objected to the holiday because Massachusetts already has 13 holidays and the date is too close to Memorial Day.

‘This is a Massachusetts person who is an inspiration,’ said Kathy Gauthie, an aide in Ruane’s office. ‘He is greatly admired and loved across the state and the country and deserves to be properly recognized.’

But according to a Boston Globe report Monday, House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran said there will not be another holiday next year because it has not received much support and the Legislature is busy working on the budget and other important legislation. Finneran called for celebrating Kennedy’s life in ways that would not cost the state money, as another paid state holiday would.

State Sen. Susan Fargo (D-Waltham) said last week she did not see the need for another holiday and that the state has too many already. She said the Senate was busy wrapping up their final session and she was trying to focus her energy on more important legislation, such as her proposal for a statewide ban on smoking in the workplace.

‘No one has called or approached me about this,’ Fargo said. ‘In fact the first I heard about it was in an op-ed piece in the Globe or the Herald.’

However, Fargo said Kennedy and deserves to be honored, but not necessarily with a holiday, especially because he is already memorialized in a number of ways, including the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.

‘Those things matter more to me than getting another day off,’ Fargo said.

Even a spokeswoman for the JFK Library and Museum seems to have changed her mind about the proposal.

When reached for comment Monday, Ann Scanlon, the library foundation’s communications director, declined to discuss the proposed holiday.

‘The library is not involved in promoting this at all,’ Scanlon said.

But in a Nov. 9 Boston Globe report, Scanlon said, ‘It’s just appropriate that the world recognizes what a great man he was and continues to be. It doesn’t surprise us that everyone is rallying around this day.’