Budget Update. Last Thursday, the House approved the consensus Conference Committee budget—the Senate did likewise—and the FY11 budget now sits before the Governor. As final remarks were being made in the House Chamber, word came in that the U.S. Senate had not made the FMAP money available. Any of it.
Although one of our Senators (Kerry) thought the $687 million in FMAP funds were certain, the other (Brown) disagreed. Right now, Brown’s right—the money isn’t coming.
What does this mean? For local communities, there will be no additional effect on local aid and Chapter 70 funds (which already took a 4% hit), though Groveland Finance Director Greg Labrecque did mention to me that reimbursements to municipalities for state owned land got nicked again. Haverhill, however, will lose about $1.9 million that was ear-marked for the Hale debt.
I voted against the first House budget and against the Conference Committee report. Why? Both of them spent money that we didn’t have and both passed up cost-savings proposals that could have saved $100+ million annually.
You can’t spend what you don’t have. And we didn’t have that federal money.
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