Politics & Government

Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Highlights

An op-ed piece on the FY '12 budget from State Senator Katherine Clark.

Note: The following is an op-ed piece from the office of State Senator Katherine Clark:

The Fiscal Year 2012 budget was a difficult budget in a challenging economy. The legislature faced a projected $1.9 billion budget gap along with a significant revenue shortage that resulted in cuts to many important programs and services.  While we struggled with cuts, the legislature was able to preserve and in some cases increase funding for some critical programs without raising taxes.  

Special Education Circuit Breaker and METCO

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The Special Education Circuit Breaker provides funds to reimburse cities and towns for special education costs.  This funding will go directly to help some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children in our Commonwealth.  These funds are also distributed outside of the chapter 70 formula that makes the funding equitable for all communities. Since 2010, the reimbursement rate has been decreased to 40%.  The compromise budget brings the reimbursement rate back up to 75% and that will be a welcome relief for communities in our district.

METCO provides valuable educational opportunities to more than three thousand Boston and Springfield students, many of whom attend schools in my district. The Fiscal Year 2012 budget maintains level funding for this important program.

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Elder Services

Funding for senior programs has been diminishing in this fiscal crisis. This year, I was able to pass an amendment in the Senate that added $1 million to fund elder protective services. This funding supports programs and services aimed at protecting one of our most vulnerable populations from fraud and abuse and funds advocates, social workers and a 24 hour hotline.  The final budget added over $2 million from FY2011.

Many constituents contacted me about the importance of maintaining funding for adult day habilitation programs, home care, and adult foster care. All of these programs saw increases from last year and are critical to allowing families caring for loved ones to keep seniors at home and preserve seniors’ independence and safety.

Early Intervention and Child Care Vouchers

Early intervention is the state’s most cost-effective program for children birth to age three who have developmental delays and disabilities.  Over 30,000 children and families are currently served through 58 early intervention programs statewide.  Early intervention programs save significant costs for the Commonwealth and cities and towns through reduced health care and special education costs. This funding has been one of my top priorities through this budget process, and I am proud the Senate budget increased funding by approximately $6 million and that the conference budget maintained this increase.

Child care vouchers are vital to low and middle income parents maintaining their jobs. The final budget saw an approximately $4 million increase that will hopefully end the six month freeze on the issuance of new vouchers.  In related services, Boys and Girls Clubs also saw an increase from FY2011.

Legal Services

In his proposed budget, Governor Patrick called for hiring 1,000 public defenders to replace the almost 3,000 private attorneys that currently represent the bulk of indigent clients. This proposal proved to be controversial with the Committee on Public Counsel Services (CPCS) arguing they provided services for far less than public employees could. In the final budget, the legislature requires a detailed report on how CPCS will move 25% of the caseload from private attorneys to public defenders over the next year.   For years, CPCS has been asking for tighter restrictions on who qualifies for a publically paid attorney and better collection of fees from defendants as cost savings measures. The budget also adds some teeth to these provisions and adds responsibility to the Chief Probation Officer for verifying indigency.  Legal aid services were also level funded in the final budget.

Municipal Health Insurance Reform

As the Senate Chair of the Public Service Committee, I had the opportunity to play a leadership role as we drafted municipal health insurance reform. The Senate Ways and Means version has been lauded by both unions and municipalities as a fair balance. It gave cities and towns the ability to design their own health care plans, while also giving employees a voice, but not a veto at the bargaining table. The final conference committee budget included much of the Senate plan framework. I will continue to work on this issue to ensure we give cities and towns the tools to realize significant savings and preserve a meaningful voice for employees in the process.

Veterans

Veterans services and Soldiers’ Homes generally saw their funding levels preserved or increased. An exciting new program was funded that will train veterans to counsel other veterans and offer mental health services peer to peer.   

Programs for Developmentally Disabled and Mental Health Services

Community Day and Work Programs for developmentally disabled were increased by approximately $11 million over last year. Unfortunately, family support funding that provides families with respite care was cut $4 million.  Community and hospital based mental health services were increased approximately $9 million over last year, and early childhood mental health services were level funded. 

The legislature faced many difficult decisions as we worked to pass Fiscal Year 2012 budget. The advocacy and hard work from constituents was invaluable as we worked to preserve funding for critical programs and services and to protect our most vulnerable populations. The budget is now on the Governor’s desk.


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