Massachusetts Legislature Passes $541 Million Supplement Spending Bill

The house and senate cut a deal to divvy up an over $1.1 billion tax revenue surplus.

What happens to your tax dollars …
Image via Cheat Sheet

– News covered by Quincy Quarry News with commentary added.

Massachusetts legislature passes $541 million supplement spending bill.

Amazingly, however, the state house and state senate also both agreed to deposit a proposed $587 million into the state’s “rainy day” fund, over half of this year’s over $1.1 billion tax revenue surplus. 

In turn, doing so would push the balance of the state’s reserve account to $3.45 billion, an over 20% increase, and so moving the state’s rainy day fund into the realm of prudent reserves by approaching 8% of annual state spending.

Always follow the money.
Image via oxycom.com

Local implications are multiple, with two of arguable significance addressed below. 

One is that the Quincy City Council agreed to the Koch Maladministration retaining roughly only 25% of unspent Fiscal Year 2019 City of Quincy budget appropriations surplus into the city’s less restricted Free Cash reserve account rather than move it into the City of Quincy’s Reserve Fund rainy day fund equivalent account after variously allocating the approximately 75% unspent towards other uses. 

Financial legerdemain
Image via Les Stewart

Granted, while Free Cash does count towards the total of available city reserves, the total of all City of Quincy reserves on a percentage basis is roughly but only half of what is viewed as financially prudent.

Further troubling, the Reserve Fund balance is yet again continuing to fail to keep pace with annual city spending increases on a percentage basis.

And the other local implication, the legislature’s proposed pending bill proposes to only fund $32 million of the $50 million requested by Governor Charlie Baker to pay for MBTA renovation costs. 

Blown out Red Line Window at the Quincy Center MBTA station
MBTA Passenger Catherine Groux Twitter photo

Granted, while different buckets of money would be entailed, the legislature’s parsimony towards the T would not bode well for Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch’s promoting of the MBTA buying the white elephant former Lowe’s location in Quincy for a new MBTA bus yard and which would entail a several ten of millions dollar purchase price and even more money for relocation and renovation costs at a time when the T is scrambling for funding for other projects already in the pipeline.

Source: House, Senate Pass $541 Million Spending Bill

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