IF 40 PAGES of statistics, tables, graphs, and economic analysis could generate any buzz at all, the state’s release of its report on long-term fiscal policy would have garnered front-page headlines. Indeed, it should have, for this may be the first time ever a governor has asked for a five-year budget plan anticipating future revenues and expenditures. We can be proud of the fact that the leaders of the state have been excellent fiscal stewards through the most difficult economic period since the Great Depression, implementing difficult budget cuts and improving our bond ratings to their highest levels in history. But we are hardly out of the fiscal woods.
The good news, according to the report, is that the Great Recession will be over and the economy will be growing at a healthy clip. This will mean that the “cyclical” deficits the state has faced due to a weak national economy will be behind us. The report also makes a persuasive case that the Commonwealth has successfully eliminated “structural” budget deficits for the first time since before the boom years leading up to the recession. A structural deficit occurs when a government “spends beyond sustainable levels of revenue.”
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mr. bluestone, we're as a state so far in the woods or in the hole ya can see beijing. babies having babies,welfare and other entitlement programs running totally amok , drug and alcohol abuse rampant, 10s of millions of people umemployed, underemployed and based on whats coming out of the public schools in the major urban areas, totally unemployable. utilities skyrocketing along with insurance, medical care ,tuition i'm sure theres a lot more that i've left out, but let me end the good news by saying if all this wasn't bad enuff, we got elected and appointed people at city hall and the state house who have NEVER EVER worked a real job in his or her lives, have no clue or worse could care less on how hard it is to make a dollar, keep that dollar or even what in hades that dollar is worth in todays brutal and worsening economy and these are the hacks making the decisions on how the taxpayers hard earned gelt is gonna be spent and you have the audacity to say things ain't that bad. if you can make a spresd sheet out of the above mess and can balance the debits and credits of what i listed above, than you're a far smarter person than i.ma
Massachusetts state and local tax burden is 4th highest, per capita, in the nation. Now, go read back issues of the Globe for investigative reports on wasted taxpayer dollars.
Dr. Bluestone, the Bay State has to compete not just with 49 other states but also with low-tax nations like Ireland, Canada and Singapore.