Posted on 06/26/2004 5:54:47 PM PDT by Aetius
Romney cuts state budget Saturday, June 26, 2004 By DAN RING dring@repub.com
BOSTON - Gov. W. Mitt Romney yesterday vetoed $108.5 million from the Legislature-approved state budget, slashing raises for human-service workers, a new fee for boat owners and money for travel and tourism.
Romney also vetoed the Legislature's plan to charge in-state tuition rates at state colleges and universities for illegal immigrants who have been in the state at least three years. Currently, they are charged out-of-state rates.
The governor also axed $1 million from the budget of the Boston Municipal Court, which he has criticized as a patronage haven for legislators.
At a Statehouse press conference yesterday, Romney said he was "very pleased" overall with the budget approved by legislators. He said the budget lacked some of his proposed changes, such as combining the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and the Massachusetts Highway Department and consolidating Boston Municipal Court, but he praised the annual spending plan for arriving on time, balanced and with no new taxes.
Romney said he vetoed $108 million because he wanted to be careful with spending in the wake of a fiscal crisis in state government that started in 2001. Romney said state government will finish the fiscal year June 30 with a $500 million surplus, but spending still needs to be reined in.
"We're not out of the fiscal woods," Romney said.
The governor signed a $22.4 billion budget, up 3.2 percent over this year.
Todd C. Lever, a spokesman for Western Massachusetts Service Providers in Springfield, a trade group for 45 human-service organizations, said he was "very disappointed" Romney vetoed $20 million for raises for care workers receiving $40,000 a year or less.
The money would give 3 percent raises for one year for workers, he said.
"These are the folks who in many cases work two jobs to make ends meet," Lever said.
Romney said there was no guarantee private contractors would use the $20 million for raises.
Ali Noorani, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition in Boston, said Romney was wrong to veto $10 million in health care for elderly and disabled legal immigrants and a plan to allow illegal immigrants to pay resident tuition at state colleges and universities.
"The governor is going further and further away from the immigrant community," Noorani said.
The Republican governor said he didn't want to support the tuition program because it is inappropriate to provide in-state tuition benefits to students who are not legally in this country. He said the cut in the health program for legal immigrants brings the state into compliance with federal law.
Legislators can override vetoes with a two thirds' vote in each branch. Because the Democrats dominate the Legislature, they have the votes to override virtually any veto.
Last year, legislators overrode almost all of Romney's $201 million in vetoes.
The governor said he vetoed $1 million from the $3.18 million budget of the Boston Municipal Court because he is seeking to save costs. Romney has said Boston Municipal is top-heavy with administrators and clerks.
Rep. John H. Rogers, D-Norwood, top budget writer in the House, said yesterday the Legislature would override most of Romney's vetoes, including the cut at Boston Municipal Court. Rogers said Romney is "still smarting" from last year, when legislators overrode his veto of a plan to expand the jurisdiction of Boston Municipal to include other district courts in Boston.
"It just seems to be sour grapes politics," Rogers said.
Romney also vetoed a new $5 fee for motorboat owners to raise about $400,000 a year for cleaning up weeds in lakes and ponds. Romney said the fee was "superfluous" and for "nameless services."
Rogers said Romney was protecting boat owners at the expense of weed-choked waterways.
Romney did not veto $70 million in pay raises for professors and other employees of the University of Massachusetts and state colleges and universities.
The raises were approved three years ago when union contracts were signed for 13,000 higher education workers, but they didn't take effect until January, when they were meant to be retroactive. Shawn K. Feddeman, press secretary for Romney, said the governor approved the raises because they were promised and state revenues are improving.
Romney also vetoed $6.9 million in travel and tourism projects, including $94,531 for CityStage in Springfield, $40,000 for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission to study tourism promotion in Southampton and Montgomery, $100,000 for a walking tour in Springfield and $100,000 for the U.S. Women's Open golf tournament in South Hadley.
Romney said the budget items were attempts by legislators to get around the regular approval process for such projects.
Rogers said legislators would override the tourism vetoes. "The more the state invests in tourism, the better it is for our economic recovery," he said.
Rogers also said legislators would vote to reverse Romney's cut of $20 million in raises for human service workers.
With this and his stand against judicially-imposed gay marriage this guy doesn't seem to be as bad a RINO as I expected.
It sounds to me like he has higher ambitions...
By Mass standards, I'm sure that he'd make a great Senator. I mean, Kennedy can't stay there forever, can he? Winning an open seat would probably be more likely than beating Kerry should he lose to Bush in Nov considering how Kerry was able to come back and beat Gov Weld back in 1996.
I have never understood why there isnt an INS bus waiting out back for illegals who apply for college, Much less giving them discount rates.
He surprised me too and he I didn't care for him too much initially.
I can tell you he drives the democrats here crazy. Especially his staunch opposition to gay marriage.
It is refreshing to have someone like him here in Massachusetts. He is a breath of fresh air IMO.
I like it. Republicans are outnumbered in the Legislature 4 to 1 but he's putting a marker down now and has enticed more republicans than ever to run in previously uncontested 'rat seats. And 4 months ago a safe 'rat Seante seat was lost over the gay marriage issue.
I haven't seen anything to indicate that he's going to veto MA's new homegrown "assualt weapons" ban.
Good for him. The Democrats will override, but they will lose their fig leaves in the process and the voters will seem them for what they are. It may be helpful down the line.
Don't get me wrong; I'm not under the impression that Romney is conservative. Its just that for a guy whose political career depends on the far left electorate of Mass I give him credit for at least taking a stand against rewarding illegal immigration and for opposing the judicial tyranny of his states' supreme court.
Of course I've read that he supports 'civil unions', which are of course gay marriage w/o the word 'marriage.' But hey, that distinction w/o a difference is something many Americans cling to. Just look at the polls on gay marriage. A solid or overwhelming majority always opposes them, but if you use 'civil union' instead then the results vary quite a bit. Sometimes they are oppposed by a majority or plurality, sometimes they are supported by a majority or plurality. So in that sense, the word 'marriage' has become a symbolic battle over who will possess it. And its a testament to just how radical the left/gay lobby has become in its unwillingness to even accept a semantic deception or compromise; instead they now demand the word marriage as well. Its moved beyond tolerance and past even acceptance to to point where they demand celebration of their lifestyle. Romney has stood against that, and in Mass that's probably a brave thing to do.
For him to be good on Second Amendment issues would probably be too much to ask, but then again if he ever did go onto the Senate I'd bet that the chances of him voting to confirm judges who respect a citizen's INDIVIDUAL right to own guns would be greater than the two clowns they have now who see the Second Amendment as dealing with a collective right that can be rendered worthless by crazy cities like Chicago and Washington D.C.
"Romney also vetoed the Legislature's plan to charge in-state tuition rates at state colleges and universities for illegal immigrants who have been in the state at least three years. Currently, they are charged out-of-state rates."
Why are they being charged at all? They shouldn't even BE THERE.
Yes, of course you're right. But in this day and age simply opposing the granting of in-state tuition to illegal aliens is brave. I know that's a sad commentary on the state of things, but its true.
Yes, of course you're right. But in this day and age simply opposing the granting of in-state tuition to illegal aliens is brave. I know that's a sad commentary on the state of things, but its true.
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