|
 |
Analysis: State Budget Predictions
By Martha Bebinger
 Listen to story (Real Audio)
BOSTON - May 14, 2008 - As the senate prepares to release its budget today, an outside analysis says the state is on track to spend more than half of the rainy day fund next year.
Budgets filed by the Patrick administration and the house aimed to close an expected 1.3 billion dollar gap next year. But a bulletin from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation says even after making cuts and raising taxes these budgets would still be short at least one billion dollars. Foundation President Michael Widmer says lawmakers can't seem to bring themselves to make major cuts.
"The other side of that is that we don't have the revenues to support those programs so that we run the very serious risk of depleting our reserves even before we account for the upcoming recession that we presumably will experience." Widmer says.
The house and senate have already said they'll have to draw on reserves, but Widmer says the draw will be more than double because health coverage costs are up and tax revenue estimates are too optimistic.
Trial for Ex-FBI Agent Opens
BOSTON (September 08, 2008) WBUR's David Boeri speaks with Bob Oakes about the first-degree murder trial of John Connolly, the former FBI handler of James "Whitey" Bulger already serving 10 years in prison for racketeering. | | Kennedy Stays Home
BOSTON (September 08, 2008) The U.S. Senate returns from its summer recess today, but Senator Edward Kennedy will not be in Washington, instead recuperating from his brain cancer on Cape Cod. | | Curbing Campus Drinking
BOSTON (September 08, 2008) As thousands of new college students settle into Boston, one topic on the minds of administrators is curbing college drinking. | | Kennedy Will Not Return for Fall Session
HYANNIS PORT, Mass. (September 07, 2008) Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) will stay at home as Congress reconvenes for the fall this week. Kennedy's doctors have avised him to work from home. | |
|
|
