Mass. panel proposes 'grim' budget

BOSTON, April 23 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts House committee Wednesday proposed a budget that calls for "grim" program cuts to deal with the state's fiscal crisis, but no new taxes.

The proposal, to be debated by the full House next week, seeks deeper cuts in education, local aid and health care programs for the poor than called for by the governor.

"Most of the decisions we had to make in this budget were grim," House Ways and Means Democratic Chairman John H. Rogers told the Boston Herald in a preview of the budget.

"There's no taxes proposed in this budget," Democratic House Speaker Thomas Finneran said Wednesday. He said he did not detect any support for taxes in the House.

The speaker told a business group on Tuesday that the House "will cut spending dramatically."

The $22.5 billion state budget the committee proposed for the fiscal year that begins July 1 would cut $350 million more from the $22.9 billion plan offered by Republican Gov. Mitt Romney.

It is also about $300 million less than the current fiscal year's spending plan.

While there are no new taxes in the proposal, the budget would impose $700 million more in fines, mostly in the court system, and fees for such items as birth certificates, marriage licenses and land transactions.

The proposal also ignores much of the government restructuring reforms suggested by Romney. Finneran said the governor's reform package relied on unrealistic numbers.

"The idea that he could save $2 billion in waste, fraud, and patronage -- what complete drivel," Finneran told the Boston Globe.

Under the committee's proposal, most school districts would lose about 20 percent of their aid, while cities and towns would see their aid cut by up to 15 percent.

The plan would also reduce higher education funding by about 20 percent, or $170 million.

The proposal did adopt reforms Romney suggested to limit eligibility for the Medicaid program, estimated to save $470 million a year.

The proposal would also restructure state debt to generate some $600 million in savings that would be used to spur economic development, Finneran said.

The Senate will take up the budget next month after the House completes its version. The lawmakers will have until July 1 to resolve any differences.

Two advocacy groups, meanwhile, have launched broadcast campaigns to convince lawmakers to raise taxes to fix the state's fiscal problems.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association and the Massachusetts Municipal association warned the proposed severe cuts would be a blow to education reform and result in the layoff of firefighters, police and other public employees.

In Rhode Island, meanwhile, Gov. Don Carcieri unveiled a plan to have 50 state workers from various branches work full time over the next eight months to examine how the state could conduct its business more efficiently and effectively.

George Nee, secretary-treasurer of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, praised the governor's "Fiscal Fitness" program.

"We believe the best ideas will come from those employees who are out there every day to serve the public," Nee said.