More Proof this is no $27.4 Billion Budget

A couple of days ago I reported that this budget is actually more like a $30.3 billion budget than the $27.4 billion budget reported in the media. Now I have more proof from the Governor himself. The Governor has been updating his own website with not only his revised budget -- revised in light of the declining revenues -- but has also been keeping up a spreadsheet that compares the appropriation amounts from the various versions of the budget. This spreadsheet -- "fy10compare" -- documents the fact that even without the federal grants, the Conference report is actually $27.8 billion and not $27.4 billion. If you add in the 447 federal grants, the budget total, as previously reported, is actually just shy of $30.3 billion.

Click here to see a list of the 447 federal grants included in the Conference Report.

Conference Committee Report, Take 2

In case you hadn't noticed, the House and Senate have posted a new version of the Conference Committee Budget, since the version that they had originally posted on Friday morning had so many formatting errors in the revenue and local aid tables. As far as I can tell they have not revised any of the numbers or language -- that would be truly feckless, even for the Legislature -- but they have cleaned up the tables and the formatting.

• Click here for the first version of the Conference Committee report, released on Friday morning, June 19.
• Click here for the second version of the Conference Committee report, released on Monday, June 22.

Comparison of House, Senate, Conference Appropriations

We've completed our analysis of the House, Senate and Conference budgets, and the numbers don't add up to what was reported in the news with respect to how much the budget actually costs. Below is our spreadsheet that compares the House, Senate and Conference numbers:

The press reported that this is a $27.4 billion budget, but our numbers indicate that it's a $27.8 billion budget, and then only if you don't include the federal grants. However, the problem with that is that the federal grants are appropriated for, and they are part of the regular budget. Our numbers indicate that the conference committee actually approved a $30.3 billion budget (as can be seen below).

     Type                       House           Senate          Conference
     =======================================================================
     Direct Appropriation  $26,564,903,856  $26,827,416,172  $26,907,008,724
     Chargeback               $400,189,124     $391,745,702     $391,745,702
     Retained Revenue         $467,318,771     $503,056,162     $499,891,667
     Subotal               $27,432,411,751  $27,722,218,036  $27,798,646,093
     Federal Grants         $2,394,648,332   $2,300,842,188   $2,485,936,271
     =======================================================================
     Grand Total           $29,827,060,083  $30,023,060,224  $30,284,582,364

Click here to see a spreadsheet that compares all the House, Senate and Conference Report Appropriations.

Am I wrong? Show me where. I'm using the numbers that the House and Senate reported in their respective budgets and in the Conference committee reports.

Joint Rule 11A Conference Reports

Under the requirements of Joint Rule 11A, the Conference Committee has also put out several reports that note the resolution of the various items in conference. There are three of these reports posted on the State, dealing consecutively with:

• Differences in Section 2 (direct appropriations) between House and Senate engrossed budgets.
• Differences in Section 2B (chargebacks) between House and Senate engrossed budgets.
• Differences in Outside Sections between the House and Senate engrossed budgets.

Budget Conference Report Released

The House and Senate have released their conference report on the Budget. The Conference Bill number is House 4129, and this behemoth was printed at 1:25 a.m. last night and released to the web at 6:15 a.m. this morning (notwithstanding that the budget was allegedly "released" last night). It appears that the printing was a bit of a rush job as the tables for revenues and local aid are basically . . . how does one put this politely? . . . all screwed up.

Budget Monitor Review of new House Budget

The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center has compiled a new Budget Monitor report, which looks at the Governor's revised budget and compares it to the budgets engrossed by the House and Senate. This is a detailed 26 report that divides the budget up into the various topica parts of government, such as educaiton, health care, human services, transportation, public safety, etc.

Governor Patrick's Revised FY 2010 Budget.

This may have escaped your notice, but at the end of last week, the Governor put out a revised FY 2010 budget. What's the point, given that the House and Senate have already engrossed their own budgets and are already at Conference?

Beats me.

My guess is that the Governor feels the need to weigh in politically, given the dramatically reduced (and predictable) revenue estimates. In any case, the Governor published a press-release on the matter.

According to the Governor's website, the difference in aggregate numbers from what he had recommended before and what he is recommending now is as follows:

Sales Tax Increase a Certainty

The Boston Globe reports today that Massachusetts business advocates and Republican lawmakers are resigned to the certainty of a sales tax increase. Given that the 5% to 6.25% increase is in both engrossed budgets, I'd say they're pretty much dead on. The two constituencies still battling are package store operators and satellilte TV companies, who opposed specific tax increases added to the Senate budget that impact their particular industries.

Three for Three on Speaker Indictments

Well, I trust that by now most of you know that we're now three-for-three on indictments of former speakers. To wit:

• First there was Charlie Flaherty, who pled guilty to tax evasion and ethics violations.
• Then, there was Tom Finneran, who pled guilty to obstruction of justice and was placed on 18 months probation.
• Now we have Sal DiMasi, indicted on seven counts of mail and wire fraud and five counts of criminal conspiracy, all to help Cognos software win two state contracts.  In return,  Salutatorian Sal got $57,000 in cash.

For risking 20 years in prison, you would have thought Sal would have done something bolder, made more money.

Conspicuously absent from this list, by the way, is former Senate President Billy Bulger who, his brother notwithstanding, has never been indicted for anything.  Of course, he did make a nice pension haul and failed to cooperate in the search for his brother, but he's had the good sense never to do anything indictable.  And trust me, if he had, they would have indicted him.

Set forth below is a copy of the actual indictment against  Sal DiMasi and associates Joseph Lally, Richard McDonough and Richard Vitaly:

House vs. Senate Inside Language

Well, we're back from a blessed week off and away from budget stuff.  Hope we weren't unduly missed.  In any case, to get back on-track, set forth below is an extensive redline version of the inside language from the House (HB 4101) and Senate (SB 2060) engrossed budgets:

Local Aid comparison for FY 2010

We've also been running some numbers comparing Local Aid from FY 2009 to the various proposals made in FY 2010. As you can see, the Local Aid numbers will definitely be going town from the $5.26 billion that was allotted in FY 2009. While the House is now at $5.2 billionm the Senate stayed at $4.9 billion, virtually assuring a real decrease for FY 2010.

           Actor   Local Aid Totals for FY 2010
           ====================================
           FY09 .................$5,262,370,332
           GOV ..................$5,042,908,473
           HWM ..................$5,022,107,434
           HFA ..................$5,213,217,134
           SWM ..................$4,879,765,707
           SFA ..................$4,914,765,707

Click here to view a comparison table of Local Aid from FY09, the Governor, House and Senate.

Comparative Analysis of Appropriations

The spreadsheet below sets forth a comparative analysis of appropriations. Our analysis is that the budget is still hovering around $30 billion, and that with the sales tax increase to 6.25% (and other revenue enhancements), it looks like the Senate restored more that $2.5 billion in spending.

           Actor ...Total Appropriation for FY 2010
           ========================================
           FY09 ....................$29,666,643,801
           GOV .....................$30,870,923,459
           HWM .....................$29,351,895,971
           HFA .....................$29,826,460,083
           SWM .....................$27,415,699,490
           SFA .....................$30,019,374,638

The detailed analysis is set forth below.  Keep in mind that the columns here represent the following "actors" in state government and the budgets that they have recommended:

• FY 2009 enacted budget
• Governor's House 1 recommendations
• House Ways & Means recommendations
• House Engrossed (HB 4101), printed as amended
• Senate Ways & Means recommendations
• Senate Engrossed (SB 2060), printed as amended

Please note also that for "ATP" (or Approrpiation Type) the following applies:

• 1C: direct approrpriation
• 1I: chargeback between agency
• 1R: retained revenue (by agency generating the revenue)
• 4F: federal grant

Click here to see the comparative spreadsheet in its entirety.