As debate on the Senate budget began, I spoke about the ongoing deficit situation and our inability to fund programs that our constituents value.  Here' are some of my remarks:

There will be real pain in many communities and families as – despite our efforts  -- cuts continue in human services, public health, environmental safety, higher education, local aid and more.

It is a tribute to the skill and compassion of this chairman, his predecessor, and the Senate President that the pain has often been invisible to the general public.  It’s also thanks to the federal stimulus money, which cushioned the worst of the past two years.

Yet we are like the proverbial frogs: you probably know the story of the frogs who would jump out if thrown into a pot of boiling water, but would stay in a pot if the heat were gradually raised to boiling.

The cuts have been gradual, but the state’s role in many areas has shrunk.  Some may think that’s a good thing.

But we all have aspirations for better things for our communities and our constituents.  We all are sponsoring amendments to restore or add funding for programs we believe are extremely important.  And we know that most of our aspirations will not be fulfilled, as our amendments are bundled – thoughtfully and compassionately but finally – into oblivion.

At the end of the budget process, we will have continued a slide which many of us disagree with.

Budgets are about choices.  Our choices this year are limited by choices we have made in the past.  And by choosing not to consider revenue increases this year, we choose to continue the downward slide.

In good times, we have cut taxes more than we raised spending, and in bad times, we’ve cut spending more than we’ve raised taxes.  This ratcheting down has brought us to a level of spending less than national average.

Since 2001, we have cut

Early education and care by 30%

Chapter 70 (aid to local education) by 7%.  The Mass. Business Alliance for Education reports that "the foundation budget...[has] failed to keep up with rising costs... Over the 17 years since the Education Reform Act passed, there has been virtually no equalization in spending or state aid between rich districts and poor."

Public health by 30%: two weeks ago, 50 layoffs there included inspectors of nursing homes, hospitals and restaurants, risking not only the health of residents, patients, and diners, but federal funding

Higher education by 32%:  We have cut higher ed more than any other state in past 3 years; our state support is the second lowest in country; so the costs for students are among the highest

Environment and recreation by 30%; in 2003 we were 49th in the country in spending on these

Local aid by 47%

This is not even to mention the long-deferred maintenance of our transportation system, which is crucial for economic development.  The Transportation Finance Advisory Commission called our surface transportation system "frighteningly underfunded and ill prepared to meet the needs of the Commonwealth."  They conservatively estimated a funding gap of $15 billion to $19 billion over the next 20 years, which only includes maintaining the present system without enhancements or expansions

If we and our constituents were satisfied with those cuts, we wouldn’t be filing so many amendments.

Many of us believe that the growing gap in income and wealth and power endangers not only our democracy but our economic future and the survival of a middle class.

The ratcheting down of spending and taxes has – unintentionally and against any of our wills – only contributed to that gap, as tax changes have (along with the outrageous federal tax cuts) disproportionately benefited the wealthy,  and spending cuts on education have disproportionately affected the choices of the middle class.  Meanwhile rate freezes have kept human service workers surviving on lower and lower wages. 

Our choices this year are painful.  We are constrained in many ways.  But if we don’t understand how we got here, if we don’t realize how we are endangering our future, we will not even confront the choices that would allow us to escape the downward ratcheting of our aspirations.