Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Here come the 9C cuts

This afternoon, Governor Baker announced mid-year (9C) budget cuts. The full spreadsheet is online here. MassLive has a good introduction. Speaker DeLeo is entirely correct when he comments:
"It seems that the Administration is seeking to achieve policy objectives that have previously been rejected by the Legislature through its unilateral use of 9C cuts."
The cuts largely come in accounts the Governor had originally funded differently, or vetoed, or both.

I tweeted out the education line cuts earlier; they begin with 7009 lines. I'll recreate that here with whatever else I can turn up by checking them against the budget as passed; UPDATE: I've also updated with the specifics if I've been able to find them.
  • $1 million has been cut for English Language Learners in Gateway Cities. That line item is what it says it is. It was passed at $2M, so that's a 50% cut. That is bigger cut than his veto, which had been for $250,000 for this line. 
  • $250,000 was cut from inclusive, concurrent enrollment from a $1.6M line item. That was specifically targeted at expanding concurrent enrollment (being enrolled in college while in high school) at students with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 22. This parallels a veto.
  • $1.8M cut from DESE. Given that this brings them back down to $12.4M, which is still more than the Governor's original budget had it, my guess is that this is a cut parallel to that made by Baker in his veto, which cut the earmarks out of DESE's budget. It doesn't get specified in anything released by the Governor. 
  • $266,000 cut from the Bay State Reading Institute, even though the full $400,000 that the Institute is funded at has already been expended. This parallels a veto.
  • $580,000 is cut from literacy programs, from a $2.2M line item. His veto had cut $600K from this line. He is specifying Reading Recovery and literacy in the Hopkinton schools. 
  • $400,000 cut from school to career connecting activities from a $3.3M line item. In his veto, he had cut the same amount. The Governor is specifying Bottom Line and the South Hadley culinary arts program.
  • $644,444 cut from adult basic education, cut from $29.4M. He had vetoed $375,000 in the spring. 
  • School breakfast was cut by $250,000, which I'm assuming cuts this: "$250,000 shall be expended for a grant for the Chefs in Schools program, operated by Project Bread: The Walk for Hunger, Inc"
  • $100,000 cut from military mitigation, bringing it down to $1.3M, paralleling his overridden veto; he is specifying Lincoln's mitigation.
  • $350,000 from innovation schools, zeroing out the line item, which is the same as his overridden veto, and brought this reaction from Senator Chang-Diaz: 
  • the innovative assessment consortium likewise is zeroed out from its $350,000 budget, which also is an overridden veto.
  • $466,666 cut from college and career readiness programs from a $700,000 line. He vetoed $200,000 back in the spring.
  • $300,000 cut from targeted intervention, a $8.1M line. This is the same as his veto in the spring. He is specifying the Pilot Parent Engagement Project and the Randolph science program.
  • After and out of school grants cut by $714,999 from a $3.4M line. He vetoed $935,000 in the spring.
That's it on the education accounts, but in terms of things that will hit kids, everything from drug treatment to suicide prevention to basic health services are hit in these cuts. 

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