Brewer details Senate version of budget

Included: earmarks for Chapter 70 aid, lottery aid, money for transit

By Owen Boss

The Senate Committee on Ways and Means released its proposed budget for fiscal 2009 Wednesday, which represents the first step towards finalizing the bill, said vice chairman of the committee, state Sen. Stephen M. Brewer, D-Barre. Mr. Brewer said that the budget was put together with the struggling state and national economy in mind, and because of certain shortages within state departments, some hard decisions have to be made in order to keep the lasting strength of the state economy a top priority. The proposed budget includes several highlighted items that Mr. Brewer said were top priorities. The earmarks he mentioned include a $223 million increase in Chapter 70 public education aid from the 2008 budget, $935 million in lottery aid for direct payments to cities and towns, $56.6 million for regional transit authorities — which is an increase of $4.38 million from fiscal 2008’s budget — and $50,000 for the Molly Bish Institute for Child Safety at Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner. “This is a prudent budget that is made for difficult times in our economy,” said Mr. Brewer. “I believe that we are in a recession, and in this particular economic climate, difficult decisions have to be made.” Although the state is facing economic hardships, Mr. Brewer said that he was encouraged by the state’s ability to avoid withdrawing large sums of money from the reserve account to make up for budget shortfalls. “This is a very responsible budget, and we are happy to say that we don’t expect to draw from the reserves to the extent that we could have under different scenarios.” said Mr. Brewer. “I think we have come up with a good budget which addresses the basic needs for our state’s citizens and will stimulate economic and educational development.” The state Senate will meet next week to debate the budget recommendations. The state House of Representatives has already submitted a state budget, and Mr. Brewer said that the Senate will have to consider both budgets when finalizing their decisions for the final submission to the Office of the Governor. “The Senate will debate the budget starting a week from today, we have to take the Senate budget and the House budget and we have to reconcile the differences between them,” said Mr. Brewer. “ We will have a budget signed into law sometime in the middle of June, and I think that if we adopt the Senate budget as it is right now, it will be an excellent spending plan for the coming year.” oboss@thegardnernews.com

Appeared on Page 1 on 5/15/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 116)