Governor Deval Patrick signed a $32.5 billion budget into law Sunday afternoon, vetoing $32.1 million in spending and rejecting the Legislature’s efforts to keep open Taunton State Hospital.
“The fiscal environment remains challenging,” Patrick said at the budget signing. “We were able to do this by making some tough but necessary decisions and working hard to do more with less.”
Comments
The Pacheco bill has cost this state a tremendous amount of money. He has no business complaining about cuts.
$32.5 bil...rolls off the tongue like we, who pay taxes, can afford this number...Seriously? Gov Deval Patrick ("It's 9 o'clock,Do you know where your Governor is"?...likely out of state..Elected by 49%..another "mandate" like Obama's healthcare bill,,,scary! I have voted Democrat since 1968, not this Fall. "Senator" Warren, you kidding me???? Tell me why she represents the "Middle Class" from where ???Cambridge???? and I'm a Harvard grad.
"Patrick said that there has been a move away from treating the mentally ill in institutionalized settings" - This excuse has been used since the 70s. What it really means is dump them into the streets and ERs.
From the GLOBE, July 6----With the Medicaid program, subsidized insurance under the 2006 health care access reform law, and investments in state employee health insurance and public health programs, health care spending this fiscal year is on pace to rise to 43 percent of the overall state budget, according to an analysis of the spending bill being reviewed by Governor Deval Patrick. One in five Massachusetts residents will have their health care largely covered through the budget, and taxpayer-supported health care costs next year will gobble up most of new discretionary state revenue, hitting $15.14 billion, up from $14.65 billion". From the Globe July 7 , ***"The cost to the state of implementing cost-control legislation being finalized by House and Senate leaders could be $20 million to $40 million a year, the governor's staff said yesterday. Most of that money would pay for an agency to oversee changes in how doctors and hospitals are paid, monitor whether the state is meeting spending targets, and potentially review performance improvement plans from insurers and providers that are too costly. A portion would pay for information technology and for existing agencies to implement new programs". More people on the MA STATE PAYROLL( more pensions, more health care benefits the state is responsible for) to oversee YOUR HEALTH CARE. Do you want them in YOUR HEALTH CARE?
In my opinion The Globe continues to have its editorial page bias spill over into its news sections. Not mentioning the EBT veto and the strong words the governor had in defending his veto is odd considering the attention other print and TV media has been giving it. The legislature spent a considrable amount of time on this, so it's not a trivial line item in the budget. A note to the news editor: Please remember your job is report the news, not alter it.
Not one word of the EBT card reform veto by this liberal fool of a governor. The Boston Globe is a paper not worthy of a bird cage liner any more. You carry the water for this governor and his party while ignoring the waste. fraud and abuse at the taxpayers' expense. You just don't want us to know the truth. I cannot rely on this paper to report the truth, only the news as they want it to be.
Deeval the Space Occupier screws up again... He lets his greatest supporters in his quest to succeed his Chicagohack bosombuddy, Barry the O, in a rent free house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC, by trying to assure they can buy guns and other goodies, like a bottle of booze, as long as they don't buy in shops dedicated to the particular products' sales. And a mental hospital? Nah, says Deeval the mental health expert, nobody needs them anymore... ever since 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'. Close the Taunton hospital... let the families of the cuckoos find their own way to visit. And of course, Deeval of the poor spirit cuts in half proposed raises for folks who care for the disabled, elderly, etc. - they get enough, says Deeval the Munificent. Here's hoping Bobby the Lion joins Tessie the Terrible in voting to dump Deeval's decisions right there on Beacon Street.