Headed into Senate Budget Week

In the coming week, the Senate will take up the budget for Fiscal 2015. We will vote on amendments proposed to the Senate Ways and Means draft budget and then send the budget to a conference committee to resolve differences with the House budget. This is a year where the major parameters of the budget …

Concerns about the budget for Boston Public Schools

Senator Brownsberger has heard from many concerned parents about budget cuts to certain public schools in Boston.  Budget allocations are, of course, up to the BPS, but he has worked to get more state aid for education. This coming year, some schools are up and some are down, as this statement from the Mayor’s Government Relations Director explains: “BPS …

Budget cuts?

Yesterday I got an email from another parent, saying that most if not all Boston public schools are facing substantial budget cuts next year. For example, Winship Elementary (where my son goes) shows a WSF allocation of $2,867,109 for FY14 (http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/cms/lib07/MA01906464/Centricity/Domain/108/Budget%20Resources/7._fy14_wsf_budgets_by_school_20130202.pdf page 115) and a projected WSF allocation of $2,349,227 for FY15 (http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/cms/lib07/MA01906464/Centricity/Domain/184/FY15%20budget%20resources/FY15%20Allocations_2015.02.05.pdf page 3) …

Overview of the Governor’s Budget

Quite appropriately, Governor Patrick’s Fiscal 2015 budget continues and extends the priorities he has defined together with the legislature over the past 8 years.  It does not propose major new initiatives. Total proposed Fiscal 2015 budgetary spending is $36.4 billion — up $1.7 billion or 4.9% over projected Fiscal 2014 budgetary spending.  This growth is …