Experienced activists protecting programs AND searching for additional revenues
One last picture of Leslie Kirwan as she gets ready to leave for a more peaceful job as Dean for Administration and Finance for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, where she only has to deal with a couple hundred tenured professors and academic politics, which as everyone knows is sweetness and light.
As she begins to hand over the reins to Under Secretary Jay Gonzalez, Lesley will be engaged in round the clock meetings with the Governor to review the September revenue figures and the recommendations for 9C cuts that have been submitted by the various Executive Agencies earlier this month.
The “may” in the headline of Matt Viser’s very clear and informative story in the Globe today is countered by the Mass Taxpayer's Mike Widmer’s “O Lordy” exclamation as he estimates that our revenue predictions may be $500 million or more too high for this fiscal year.
Experienced advocates from all sectors (municipal officials and activists from the environmental, human services, affordable housing, social services, public safety, transportation etc etc communities), who are already working to reform and repair public structures at the state and local level just went on overtime building a case to the Governor that their program should be spared from 9C cuts.
And some of them are triple time working together through ONE Massachusetts to advocate for the obvious alternative to 9C cuts, which is, to be blunt, additional adequate and balanced revenues. And one place to look is the Tax Expenditure Budget to find those potential revenues.
Talk about civic engagement!!
Have you signed up for the October 22 Insider Budget Briefing with Peter Enrich? Enrich, Law Professor at Northeastern University and former general counsel to the Massachusetts Executive Office for Administration and Finance, will offer a close look at our Tax Expenditure Budget (sometimes called the "Loopholes"), and what it means for our state's fiscal health.