From the State House News Service(subscription req'd) (hat tip to Mr. Ferreira of FinCom who is a subscriber)
Treasurer Timothy Cahill told lawmakers Tuesday that he anticipates state expenses to outpace receipts by $335 million in May and $717 million in June, numbers that he said are not reflected in Monday's news that the fiscal 2009 deficit, based on April tax collections, was approaching $1 billion.
Cahill said the state could drain the entire $1.3 billion left in the state’s stabilization fund to cover that deficit, which includes a $1.1 billion local aid payment due in late June to pay for municipal services.
Agreeing with forecasts that state revenues would not climb back to prior highs for at least four years, Murray said ...
...the Senate would not match the House’s funding level for assistance to cities and towns. “I don’t see any way to hold that number, not with these numbers,” she said “The biggest problem is we waited this long,”
Cahill said. “So all of my comments up until now were predicated on the idea that we would not be in the situation we are in now. My number-one priority is to pay our bills.” Cahill pointed to health care, education and local aid as three areas ripe for cuts. “To say that we can get out of this without making cuts in those three areas is not being serious,” Cahill said.
Oh boy! That doesn't sound good for Chapter 70 aid and the partial restoration of local aid made by the House in their budget.
The Massachusetts Taxpayers Association characterizes the shortfall in this post at Blue Mass Group. Their word for it, CATASTROPHE!
Posts
13 comments:
I've got it! Lets raid the Stab Fund to pay the salary and benefits for the youth advocate. That way we won't have to waste that money paying for everything else when we fall short. We can just tell the taxpayers they have to come up with more money. They won't mind.
Is everything to you about an override??? No one wants an override now- NO ONE!!! But for you to keep mentioning it makes the rest of us beleive you will vote against every override no matter what... forever...
An underride is the answer. That would help us get operating expenses under control once and for all. Then we could focus more on the capital improvements that have been ignored and are falling by the wayside.
I've got it, let's increase PAYT costs so instead of $400 a year, I'm paying $600.
By the way the roads are really bad, watch those holes on Dartmouth street. Do we even have a road crew?
How can people talk about an override? PAYT plus last override=$700.
An UNDERRIDE of $2million would be just about right. I heard that some people have already got over 2,500 signatures to put one on the ballot. At least there are 2500 people with some common sense in this town.
Is the PAYT going up June 2009?
I hope not, I already donmt use the oranage bags due to the cost but I do pay the fee so I can use the transfer station. If the PAYT goes way up..then forget it ! I wont bother receycling and will toss everything into the trash.
and I'll save money..go figure !
If PAYT increases that'll be the straw that broke our backs.
Where can I sign up for the underride? We need to send a message to the tax and spenders.
At what point will your taxes be low enough??? How about an underride to $6.00 per thousand of house valuation?? Then when you call for police, someone comes on a tricylce, with a cigarette hanging from their mouth, saying "Yeah???" Or how about a fire engine that needs to put the fire out with buckets, Do you realize that even $10.00 per thousand of house valuation is lower than average? I mean, really, some people here are absolutely against any government spending.
When the fire taxes and PAYT are added we are right about in the middle for property taxes. The problem is that the tax and spenders continue with their propoganda and outright lies saying that our taxes in Dartmouth are low. They are not. They are in the middle as far as comparing to other towns in the state. The only question left is "are taxes in general too high?" My answer would be yes. The growing movement for an underride leads me to believe that many others feel the same way.
A growing movement of 8 posts?? Talk to the voters (5800 voted in the last election) and while many do not support overrides, many do not want more cuts in services either. An underride would never pass. MOve on!!
Let's not look to use money from the STAB Fund, either, as the Youth Commission wants to do to fund Mr. Lee's salary for another year.
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