There are several items of local concern in the Senate Ways and Means Draft Budget released yesterday.
Budget
budget and local aid updates, community preservation act, financial outlook, local aid policy, priorities/requests, resources, revenue, taxes
Off Topic – How’d the national debt get so huge?
Interesting study – see the original document (quick read, 8 pages, simple-to-understand, good graphics) at: http://www.pewtrusts.org/uploadedFiles/wwwpewtrustsorg/Fact_Sheets/Economic_Policy/drivers_federal_debt_since_2001.pdf How’d the national debt get so huge? In 2001, the Congressional Budget Office forecast that the nation’s publicly-held debt would be eliminated by 2006, and a surplus of $2.3 trillion would have accumulated by now. Instead, the federal government is now …
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Belmont Town Meeting Presentation
I’ll be reporting on budget issues to the Belmont town meeting on May 9.
Additional Observations about the HWM Budget
Many state agencies have taken very deep cuts, but local aid, health and human services programs have largely been protected.
House Budget Spreadsheet
Two versions of a spreadsheet comparing the FY12 House Ways and Means budget to prior years are available: the long form includes summaries of the the data and some analysis breaking out local aid, health care and debt service; the short form includes the history by line item (no summarization) and is formatted for easier …
Bar Advocates in the HWM Budget
The House Ways and Means Budget does not adopt the Governor’s proposal to fold the Committee for Public Counsel Services into the Executive Branch and eliminate bar advocates (contract attorneys), replacing them with 1000 new hires. It does attempt some cost-savings in indigent representation.