Will Brownsberger -- State Representative, Democrat, 24th Middlesex District

These funds are flowing directly from the federal government through state executive branch agencies to schools. They are apparently not subject to legislative action at either the state or local level.

There is a growing belief among serious economists that we, as a country, face a large and unsustainable gap between our financial resources and our financial expectations. Current deficit spending by the national government and a failure to control long term debt, pension and health care costs at all levels of government will lead to [...]

The conference committee negotiating a municipal relief package reported a bill last night and the House accepted the report on what turned out to be straight party line vote.

We passed the conference committee report this week. It now goes to the Governor’s desk for review.

Recent actions by the United States House of Representatives may result in new cuts in all state accounts, including local aid.

The disappointing news last week was the response of some leaders that political influence is OK in probation. Probationary supervision is an important strategy for cost-effectively controlling crime and it is centrally important that we do probation well.

Jeff Perry’s amendment on immigration issues wouldn’t have changed much in practice.

The House worked on the budget into the evening every day last week, finally finishing relatively early at about 6:30 on Friday night. The financial outlines of the budget remained unchanged — rising health care costs, modest cuts in local aid, deep cuts to many state agencies, no tax cuts and no tax increases.

I would support this law change if it were subject to a vote of the people consistent with the spirit of Proposition 2.5. As written right now, there is no such provision for a local electoral vote and I expect to vote against the change. I will make my final decision after listening to debate on the floor.

The House begins its Fiscal 2011 budget debate next week. While we will seek to amend the budget in many ways, the major outlines of the budget are unlikely to change. Here are some answers to basic questions about the budget.

The House Ways and Means Committee has released its draft of the FY2011 budget.

Last week, I voted with a surprisingly small minority to curtail the state’s film tax credit, which was expanded under the leadership of former speaker Sal DiMasi. Mike Widmer, the President of the Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation, has stated that “All the evidence shows that it is a very costly tax credit with minimal economic impact, [...]

The spreadsheet below compares census data on state payroll as of March 2008 with March 2000, responding to comments on this post. Most areas other than higher education, which is not funded primarily on the state budget, show cuts. The increase in higher education more than accounts for the growth in state employment — without [...]

In my annual budget letter, I reinforced concern re local aid and health insurance reform and expressed a preference for a budget without earmarks.

Groups from diverse perspectives — the Boston Foundation, Stand for Children, the Massachusetts Municipal Association, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation — are pushing for change in municipal health insurance. I think that the legislature is really beginning to focus on making something happen and I am starting to be hopeful that we’ll have a bill this spring.

Tomorrow, I will be asked to vote on a proposal to assist the City of Lawrence. As of now, I am planning to vote for the bill, but I am still listening — it is a close call. Your thoughts are appreciated.

The flash news in the Governor’s state of the state address was that he intends to file a budget (due next week) that preserves local aid at last year’s level.

This post relates to a fairly technical question that has been the subject of some confusion on the House floor: Exactly what information is available to the public about spending on legislative operations?

I found myself voting in the minority — with the Republicans and a small group of Democrats — on three financial integrity issues this week.

Members of the house grew uneasy last week as they voted a routine final “deficiency” budget — a set of appropriations to cover a short list of cost overruns from the last fiscal year.