Sen. Jehlen: People Should Know Where Taxes Go

Over 100 Attend State Budget Forum

The following information was released by State Senator Pat Jehlen regarding a state budget forum hosted by Jehlen and her colleagues:

Over 125 people turned out for the annual budget forum on April 1, hosted by Senator Jehlen with Representatives Sciortino, Garballey and Donato. The event was very informative and covered many aspects of the state budget.

Noah Berger, Executive Director for Mass. Budget and Policy gave an informative overview of the state’s current financial situation and described how we have gotten here – beginning with the budget surpluses in 1998 and moving through the up- and downturns of the economy until today. (Click here for a similar presentation) Since 1998, state and local spending as a share of personal income has dropped. Massachusetts remains in the bottom third nationally in terms of total taxation rate. While there were budget surpluses in the late ’90’s, today there is a deficit of $3.5 billion. This has been largely due to the reduction in the income tax rate from a high of 5.95% to the current 5.3%. Noah went on to describe the basics of our tax structure and the ways in which it is either regressive (sales tax) or progressive (flat income tax with relatively high personal deduction and earned income tax credit).

Matt Gorzkowicz, Assistant Secretary for Budget at Governor’s Office of Administration and Finance, described the current budget recommendations including consensus revenue projections and Chapter 70 distributions. He also gave an inside look into the thinking that went into the very difficult 9C cuts that were made to the current budget. Most of all, he talked about the difficult issues involved in attempting to balance next year’s budget in the face of declining revenue. The link to the state budget process and the governor’s recommendations can be found at http://www.mass.gov/budget.

Judy Meredith, Executive Director,Public Policy Institute, Outreach Director of One Massachusetts spoke energetically about how to think about taxes, revenue and the role of government itself. She solicited suggestions from the audience about what they considered essential to good communities. Suggestions included schools, parks, roadways, public safety and libraries. She then went on to talk about how these are all functions of government and we need to raise revenue to pay for them. Judy’s organization One Massachusetts can be found at http://onemassachusetts.org/.

Afterward, there was time for questions from the audience. The exchange among the presenters, elected officials and audience members was spirited and candid. One local official wanted to know why there were no local aid numbers available yet to help cities and towns do their own budgeting. The issue, she was told, is that revenue projections continue to fall and locking in a local aid number would make the balancing of the budget even more challenging. There was a very lively conversation around the issue of charter schools. Many in attendance, including Medford Superintendent of Schools, Roy E. Belson, noted that charter schools are sitting on millions of dollars in capital while local district schools are struggling to maintain staff. All of the elected officials present agreed that bringing fairness to the chapter 70 school funding formula is important and that reforming charter school funding needs to be part of the solution.

Senator Jehlen acknowledged that not everything that government does is good and that state government has come under increasing criticism and scrutiny, much of it deserved. However, she said, it is important that people understand what their tax dollars really do go to pay for. It is important that government continue to strive to improve itself so that when taxpayers are asked to contribute to the essential functions of government and society, that they can feel confident that their money is being well, fairly and honestly spent.