Representative Don Humason



CLICHÉS April 18, 2009 By State Representative Don Humason, Jr. This is the last week for my State House Legislative Aide, Jonelle Gingrich. She is moving to Washington, DC to pursue a career in military intelligence. While she will be missed, I wish her well and want to thank her for her service in my Boston office to my Westfield constituents. I want to congratulate Charles Delarosa who was named Amelia Ferst Memorial Youth of the Year by the Westfield Boys and Girls Club this week. And, on a sad note, I would like to extend my condolences to the family and co-workers of Dan Golubek of the Westfield G&E. Next week is school vacation week. The Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism is offering a Spring Mass Value Pass with deals on lodging, restaurants, attractions, and retail. Go to www.massvacation.com to check it out. My grandmother used to use clichés when she spoke and I always thought they were pretty funny. During college, my English professor told us that using clichés was a sign that you weren’t very intelligent. Today, however, I recognize there is a great deal of wisdom in clichés. Call it peasant wisdom, but we can all learn a great deal if we heed the words of clichés, especially as they pertain to the House Ways and Means version of the Fiscal Year 2010 state budget released this past Wednesday: What goes up must come down. March tax receipts for the Commonwealth were down 16.1%. Unemployment was up to 7.9% Consumer confidence and business confidence have been plunging. So it was not surprising that the House Ways and Means Committee chose to release such an austere budget. The sky is falling and we must all tighten our belts. State budgets have been growing every year since after September 11 by nearly a billion dollars a year. Just last spring, we House Republicans warned that the out of control growth of our annual budget was unsustainable. This year, with the national recession and the state’s troubled economy; the chickens have come home to roost (to use another cliché). Despite the pain that the cuts in the FY 2010 budget will cause, I applaud Chairman Charlie Murphy (D-Burlington). At last, a Democrat in legislative leadership who gets it: what goes up must come down, and, you can’t get blood from a stone. Representative Murphy wrote in a letter to legislators on April 8, “Speaker DeLeo has made it very clear that he expects us to make the difficult choices necessary to lead the Commonwealth through this fiscal downturn. As we are all aware, the economic forecast for the next few years is not terribly optimistic. Charting the responsible budgetary course will take great resolve.” He continued, “Balancing the FY10 state budget, as we are constitutionally mandated to do, will necessitate making difficult decisions in all areas of state government…at least forty five other states find themselves in similar situations. The various steps taken by other states to balance their budgets have ranged from unpalatable to unacceptable.” The Chairman concluded, “Tax receipts are down drastically, the federal stimulus money, while welcome and helpful, is fleeting, our FY10 consensus revenue forecast risks being downgraded, and our rainy day fund balance is alarmingly low. Additionally, we must realize the choices we make today will have a great impact upon the decisions we will be forced to make in FY11 and FY12. The next few weeks will not be easy for us, or for the people we represent. It is my hope, however, that through our collective efforts we will be able to craft a budget that is a true representation of the will of the body, and in the long-term best interests of the Commonwealth.” I am a fiscal conservative and so it should surprise nobody how I feel about bloated state budgets, out of control spending, and raising taxes during an economy like this one. But I agree with Chairman Murphy and want to use his words to show that even legislators on the other side of the political aisle are waking up to the fact that we can’t keep doing what we’ve done before. Here are more of his lines, right out of the Chairman’s message in the first few pages of the proposed budget: “At a time of falling revenues and rising demand for services, we have put forward a budget based on a fundamental belief in fiscal prudence and shared responsibility…consumer confidence is down, as is consumer spending. Our unemployment rate continues to grow, while our tax base continues to shrink…this document relies on over $1.8 billion in cuts to state programs and services. It is impossible to make budget cuts of this magnitude without adversely affecting wide portions of our society. While difficult, these cuts are necessitated by the drop off in capital gains, corporate, and personal income taxes, none of which are expected to return to healthy levels for several years.” I’d like to finish my column optimistically by saying I hope if we make the tough choices now, perhaps the state can recover from this fiscal and economic malaise more quickly, but, to quote my late grandmother, “We can’t count our chickens until they’ve hatched.” * * * Representative Humason and his Legislative Aide Jonelle Gingrich may be reached at his State House office, Room 542. Boston, MA 02133. (617) 722-2803. Representative Humason and his Chief of Staff Sarah Latour may be reached at his Westfield district office, 64 Noble Street, Westfield, MA 01085. (413) 568-1366. Representative Don Humason’s website is www.DonHumason.org
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CLICHÉS

April 18, 2009

By State Representative Don Humason, Jr.

This is the last week for my State House Legislative Aide, Jonelle Gingrich. She is moving to Washington, DC to pursue a career in military intelligence. While she will be missed, I wish her well and want to thank her for her service in my Boston office to my Westfield constituents.

I want to congratulate Charles Delarosa who was named Amelia Ferst Memorial Youth of the Year by the Westfield Boys and Girls Club this week. And, on a sad note, I would like to extend my condolences to the family and co-workers of Dan Golubek of the Westfield G&E.

Next week is school vacation week. The Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism is offering a Spring Mass Value Pass with deals on lodging, restaurants, attractions, and retail. Go to www.massvacation.com to check it out.

My grandmother used to use clichés when she spoke and I always thought they were pretty funny. During college, my English professor told us that using clichés was a sign that you weren’t very intelligent. Today, however, I recognize there is a great deal of wisdom in clichés.

Call it peasant wisdom, but we can all learn a great deal if we heed the words of clichés, especially as they pertain to the House Ways and Means version of the Fiscal Year 2010 state budget released this past Wednesday: What goes up must come down.

March tax receipts for the Commonwealth were down 16.1%. Unemployment was up to 7.9% Consumer confidence and business confidence have been plunging. So it was not surprising that the House Ways and Means Committee chose to release such an austere budget. The sky is falling and we must all tighten our belts.

State budgets have been growing every year since after September 11 by nearly a billion dollars a year. Just last spring, we House Republicans warned that the out of control growth of our annual budget was unsustainable. This year, with the national recession and the state’s troubled economy; the chickens have come home to roost (to use another cliché).

Despite the pain that the cuts in the FY 2010 budget will cause, I applaud Chairman Charlie Murphy (D-Burlington). At last, a Democrat in legislative leadership who gets it: what goes up must come down, and, you can’t get blood from a stone.

Representative Murphy wrote in a letter to legislators on April 8, “Speaker DeLeo has made it very clear that he expects us to make the difficult choices necessary to lead the Commonwealth through this fiscal downturn. As we are all aware, the economic forecast for the next few years is not terribly optimistic. Charting the responsible budgetary course will take great resolve.”

He continued, “Balancing the FY10 state budget, as we are constitutionally mandated to do, will necessitate making difficult decisions in all areas of state government…at least forty five other states find themselves in similar situations. The various steps taken by other states to balance their budgets have ranged from unpalatable to unacceptable.”

The Chairman concluded, “Tax receipts are down drastically, the federal stimulus money, while welcome and helpful, is fleeting, our FY10 consensus revenue forecast risks being downgraded, and our rainy day fund balance is alarmingly low. Additionally, we must realize the choices we make today will have a great impact upon the decisions we will be forced to make in FY11 and FY12. The next few weeks will not be easy for us, or for the people we represent. It is my hope, however, that through our collective efforts we will be able to craft a budget that is a true representation of the will of the body, and in the long-term best interests of the Commonwealth.”

I am a fiscal conservative and so it should surprise nobody how I feel about bloated state budgets, out of control spending, and raising taxes during an economy like this one. But I agree with Chairman Murphy and want to use his words to show that even legislators on the other side of the political aisle are waking up to the fact that we can’t keep doing what we’ve done before.

Here are more of his lines, right out of the Chairman’s message in the first few pages of the proposed budget: “At a time of falling revenues and rising demand for services, we have put forward a budget based on a fundamental belief in fiscal prudence and shared responsibility…consumer confidence is down, as is consumer spending. Our unemployment rate continues to grow, while our tax base continues to shrink…this document relies on over $1.8 billion in cuts to state programs and services. It is impossible to make budget cuts of this magnitude without adversely affecting wide portions of our society. While difficult, these cuts are necessitated by the drop off in capital gains, corporate, and personal income taxes, none of which are expected to return to healthy levels for several years.”

I’d like to finish my column optimistically by saying I hope if we make the tough choices now, perhaps the state can recover from this fiscal and economic malaise more quickly, but, to quote my late grandmother, “We can’t count our chickens until they’ve hatched.”

* * *

Representative Humason and his Legislative Aide Jonelle Gingrich may be reached at his State House office, Room 542. Boston, MA 02133. (617) 722-2803. Representative Humason and his Chief of Staff Sarah Latour may be reached at his Westfield district office, 64 Noble Street, Westfield, MA 01085. (413) 568-1366. Representative Don Humason’s website is www.DonHumason.org