The 2010 state budget that has emerged from conference committee has deep cuts and some tax increases. The Boston Globe article about the budget can be found here. As is always the case, the devil in the details of where these cuts ...
... will fall and how that will affect our town budget. It is safe to say that it won't be a positive change to our situation.
The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center has a preliminary analysis at this link.
UPDATE the local option meals tax is .75%, not 75 cents.
One helpful item for Dartmouth is the ability to assess a 75 cent tax on meals. That will help to generate some local revenue for the town if adopted by Town Meeting. The tax would be effective October 1.
Education aid via chapter 70 will be cut by 2% across the board. For Dartmouth, that works out to about $190K (Chapter 70 aid ~$9.6 million last year). Also cut will be funds for the so-called "circuit breaker" that limits the portion of special education cost that the town must pay for some students
The Quinn bill funding which rewards police officers who get college degrees was cut 4/5 from last year's level to $10 million.
Friday, June 19, 2009
State budget moves out of committee
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As it pertains to the Quinn Bill, monetary incentive to police officers who have or obtain a college degree in law enforcement, it appears that the legislatures have not lost their erectile mentality toward police officers.
I chose to be a police officer. I don't need your state money. Dartmouth tax payers agreed to pay for half the cost of the Quinn Bill and the state the other half. The Massachusetts police Association never offered or lobbied for this Bill. It was a monetary incentive, thought up by the legislators, so that a better educated/ caliber of police officer, shall apply for the position.
As the Quinn Bill applies to law enforcement, allow me to explain a little about how law enforcement and a college degree became dysfunctional.
In my 23 years of law enforcement, I’ve seen more than you’ll ever know. I’ve taken knifes, clubs, guns, drugs and violent people out of cars. Teens and otherwise. I’ve seen drunk, drugged, and distracted drivers of all ages who’ve been dangerous to everyone on the road. I’ve been in more fights than I can count with those drivers and passengers. I've picked up dead bodies off the roadways. Drivers, passengers, pedestrians and otherwise. I’ve seen almost every kind of death you can think of. My college education never came in play.
Yes. I may have talked brusquely to your dear child. Or gotten you out of the car. Asked you to take your hands out of your pockets or something similar. But you may want to consider that one of those “kids” I dealt with in our lovely area came the closest to killing me in all the years I worked. He had a loaded 357 magnum hidden under the shirt he asked me to let him put on Thank God, I refused. Gee. Looking back on that…I guess my college education made a difference.
I’ve also seen the faces of toddlers and children who were lost and whom my co-workers and I were privileged to place back in the arms of a crying mother. I’ve seen the bleeding I was able to stop, the heart I was able to get a chance to re-start and the crime victims my comrades and I were able to protect. I’ve got the faces in my mind of people whose lives my partners and I saved. Yes. I have my success stories…and my failures. Thank God for my college education.
And I’ve seen the nights when I can’t go to sleep or get back to because of the faces and the “what if” factor in every case. And if you never see one thousandth this munch, then law enforcement has done it’s job…and after all…if cops had a rabid need to be over paid, we’d have become firemen. Trust me. I’ve taken that long walk to the front door to tell the parent, spouse, child or relative that their loved one isn’t ever coming home. I’ve borne the verbal agony and even threats because these poor people can’t stand the grief. I’ve seen husbands beat wives and vice versa. Parents beat children and vice that versa as well. I’ve seen the results when people kill each other.
I’ve seen crimes you’ve never dreamed of and won’t ever see. Please take my college incentive and donate it to some child in need of a new school book or pair of shoes. Alpha males/females college educated police officers have never begged for the Quinn Bill.
Because we are protectors of life, I ask that any state money saved by cutting back on the Quinn Bill, be directed to pregnant females in hope that they will not have an abortion. How can we put a price on life? I'll bet you a hundred to one that state money for abortions was not cut from the state budget.
Bill,
Well stated. Thank you for service.
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