After nearly 50 hours of deliberation and consultation, the Massachusetts House of Representatives unanimously approved its fiscal year 2006 budget on April 29. Over the past several years, the Commonwealth has weathered a severe fiscal crisis that has resulted in cuts to education, health care, and other vital services. Thankfully, this year the tide began to turn. Although revenues are still well below pre-recession levels, the House was able to restore funding in many areas that are important to me, to our community, and to others across the state. Among them: the House allocated over $100 million in new funding for public schools, an additional $200 million to fully fund special education programs, $30 million in local aid, $86 million for the state’s ailing hospitals, and $9 million in new economic development.
For Arlington, Lexington and Woburn, the budget included some particularly welcome news. For the first time in several years, each town will be receiving an increase in state aid for public schools. While the formula for distributing school aid across the Commonwealth (the so-called Chapter 70 formula) continues to tilt toward "poorer" communities, an amendment to this year’s budget, sponsored by suburban legislators, earmarks an additional $50 per pupil in state aid for all schools. For Arlington and Woburn, this amendment represents over $200,000 in new assistance; for Lexington, the figure tops $300,000.
As important, in my mind, as the new Chapter 70 funding is the enormous victory we won on METCO. For the second time in as many years, the budget includes a $2 million increase in funding for METCO, the state’s racial desegregation program. This brings the METCO line item up over $17.6 million, up approximately 50% in recent years. It has been a special honor to lead the charge for full funding for the METCO program. It means a lot to the district and it means a lot to us all as a society. While I’m very grateful for the $2 million added last year and the additional $2 million we just voted, it is even more gratifying to know that we’ve been able to secure a commitment to a strategy for full program funding in the years ahead. I’ve been willing to fight this battle every year for eleven years now, but by next year I’m hoping we can simply declare victory!
This year’s budget was marked not only by these important funding victories, but also by a welcome and long-awaited change in how the House conducted the budget proceedings. With the dawn of new House leadership, the process was markedly different than it has been in the past. Under the new leadership, there were more opportunities for members to give input, consult with one another, and voice their opinions to the Committee on Ways and Means, both before and after the committee drafted the budget. Perhaps most important, the House stuck by Speaker DiMasi’s commitment to avoid including policy changes in the budget. Under former Speaker Tom Finneran, scores of policy changes were attached as "outside sections" to the budget each year. This practice allowed many pieces of legislation to pass into law without the hearings or floor debate they merited. I remain hopeful that the Senate will follow the House’s lead and refrain from including policy legislation in their budget.
The Senate begins its budget deliberations in two weeks, after which a House-Senate Conference Committee will iron out any differences before the budget is sent to the Governor for his review. Final action is expected on the budget in June, with the state’s fiscal year beginning on July 1.
