In The News

Although Massachusetts has tried to protect investments in early education from the economic and fiscal crisis, overall funding of early education and care has decreased in recent years. According to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, state funding of early education and care has declined by $104 million in inflation-adjusted dollars since fiscal year 2009.

The Triton Regional School Committee Wednesday night approved a $36 million budget for fiscal 2013 that will require an almost 5 percent increase in the overall net assessment for the three towns in the district...Superintendent Christopher Farmer added that a published analysis by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, which indicated that state funding of public schools was shortchanging special education and health insurance funding, has resulted in a reduction in the proportion of total spending on teaching and learning and a transfer of costs to local taxpayers.

Feeding the tech and biotech industries, tens of colleges and universities...have become incubators for the skilled, high paying jobs the U.S. economy needs to develop to remain competitive in the global economy. In fact, the Massachusetts workforce is made to compete on this level. The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center say it is the country's most educated with 43.9 percent of its residents holding a bachelor's degree or higher.

Here's how various stakeholders reacted to the governor's budget proposal. Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center: "Faced with long-term structural budget deficits and the lingering effects of the national economic crisis, the governor proposes to balance the budget largely through cuts and other savings."

Gov. Deval Patrick's fiscal 2013 budget proposal, coming after four years of tight budgets and in the face of a still-sluggish economy, is subject to competing analyses from groups critical of service cuts and those devoted to fighting tax increases...MassBudget, a liberal-leaning policy group, says the $32 billion budget depends largely on cutting spending, even after $3 billion has already been cut over the past four years.

As Worcester begins to consider next year's budget, it is time to take a clear-eyed look at the budget of the Worcester public schools. A recent report by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, Cutting Class: Underfunding the Foundation Budget's Core Education Program, found a number of areas of substantive concern in the calculation of the foundation budget.

Town and city leaders can expect a boost of $145 million in school aid and level funding for the other main source of state aid to municipalities when Gov. Deval Patrick releases his fiscal 2013 budget proposal next week...The same day the governor's numbers were released, the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center released a report finding Massachusetts has cut general local aid 36 percent since the end of fiscal 2008, after adjusting for inflation.

Traditionally, Massachusetts' 237 housing authorities rely on state subsidies to help cover their operational and capital costs...According to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, state funding for housing authorities has declined by $6.3 million when adjusting for inflation, going from $68.8 million in fiscal year 2009 to $62.5 million in fiscal year 2012.

The city's public schools are in line for a potential $2 million funding increase in Gov. Deval Patrick's budget proposal, while unrestricted local aid coming into the city would be level funded...Last year was the first that lawmakers level funded local aid after three consecutive years of cuts, according to a recent report from the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. Because of the way local aid is distributed, cuts have hit poorer cities and towns harder, ranging from $114 per capita in the least wealthy fifth of communities to $40 per capita in the top fifth, the report said.

Framingham Public Schools could receive $26.5 million in state aid in Fiscal Year 2013, a $4.5 million increase, under the $32.3 billion budget released by Gov. Deval Patrick...An analysis of the governor's budget, provided by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center—an independent public policy center—indicates the governor has sought to balance the state budget through a combination of cuts and savings.

The School Committee heard the second part of the Superintendent's proposed fiscal year 2013 budget on Jan. 19. Here's a look at the special education and health services cost centers...The most recent MassBudget Study points out that the foundation budget underfunds special education's actual cost by $1 billion, in their quest to bring special education corrections to the foundation budget and to fully fund "Circuit Breaker."

Due to changes in the American economy, rising inflation and a stronger correlation between education and salary, the gap between the country's wealthy and poor has grown over the past 30 years, a new report by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center shows.

In this video, MassBudget President Noah Berger discusses the State of Working Massachusetts 2011 with BNN News anchor Christopher Lovett.

The annual State of Working Massachusetts report from the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center found that income inequality is widening faster in Massachusetts than in the nation as a whole.

The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center today releases its annual "State of Working" report showing that while the Bay State’s economy has outperformed the nation's, workers with less schooling and lower incomes still face high levels of joblessness.

Thanks to one of the best-educated workforces in the nation, Massachusetts has weathered the economic storm in stronger shape than the U.S. in general. But a new report contends many residents have not enjoyed as safe a harbor. The analysis by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center points to a widening income gap in the state, with significant gains among top earners but only modest or little improvement for those in the middle and lower rungs.

A study by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center examined the combined state and local taxes across each state, using combined personal income, the total amount of salaries, benefits and wages earned in each state. According to the analysis, Massachusetts's residents do pay more in taxes, but not by as much as commonly thought. Massachusetts residents paid 9.8 percent of their combined income in state and local taxes in 2009, while New Hampshire residents paid 8.2 percent.

According to a report released by the state Budget and Policy Center and the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials, issues with implementation of inflation adjustments over time has caused the full foundation budget to lag behind the true cost of growth since 1993. This lagging in value, it said, helps explain a portion of the foundation budget's understatement of actual district spending.

In response to the public's rightful clamoring for more transparency, the governor's office and state legislators worked with several public-advocacy groups—MassPIRG, Common Cause, the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, the Pioneer Institute, and the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation—to create and design the website.

The foundation budget established under the Education Reform Act of 1993 to calculate adequate baseline spending for the state’s public school districts understates the costs of special education and health insurance by more than $2 billion, according to a new report from the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center.

Rhode Island does more than any other state "to level the playing field by redistributing money through education spending, unemployment benefits, health care, welfare, and other means," according to a list put together by 24/7 Wall St..."Of course," they add, "taxes must be relatively high to fund these programs. The state has the fifth-highest state-local tax burden in the country." (The fifth-highest figure comes from the Tax Foundation; the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center puts it a bit lower, at 12th-highest.)

Massachusetts residents who want to find out how their tax dollars are being spent will now have an easier time rummaging through the state’s checkbook. Top state officials on Monday unveiled a new website designed to help members of the public track state spending..."This new tool will empower active residents to help make sure that our tax dollars are achieving our goals and that our government is operating efficiently and effectively," said Noah Berger, president of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center.

Schools across the state are hiring fewer teachers, providing less professional development, and spending less on materials & technology than the state funding formula considers adequate.

Local leaders said yesterday they are not surprised by a recent study that found the state underestimates the cost of health care and special education programs for school districts by $2.1 billion a year. A Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center report says low-income and regular education students are being hurt when school districts are forced to divert funds to pay for special education programs and employee health care.

The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget), an independent nonprofit organization, recently reviewed the foundation budget and identified significant gaps between what the foundation budget says districts need for certain cost categories in Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 and what districts were actually spending.

All kinds of questions are raised by Stephanie Ebbert's story in the Globe on the Mass Budget and Policy's report on the growing costs of special education and teacher's health insurance to school budgets. Oh dear. Let's hope that this report prompts some positive response from the State to help local communities support every public education program from those for traditional special needs students to intellectually gifted students. And provide quality and affordable health care for our teachers at the same time.

The state's funding formula for public schools underestimates the rising cost of special education and teachers' health care by more than $2 billion a year, forcing some schools to cut costs on regular education and creating inequities in a system designed to make funding fairer across communities, according to a new report. The report, released today by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, found major gaps between the "foundation budget"—the state’s estimate of what each district needs to run its schools—and what the 328 districts actually spend.

The $7.5 billion in state and local taxes paid by Rhode Islanders in 2008-09 totaled 11% of their personal income, according to an analysis of Census data by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center.

Several studies have shown that trying to entice corporations to bring jobs to a state via tax credits is a fool’s errand. As the Economic Policy Institute and the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center found, "a growing body of research suggests that state and local tax cuts and incentives cannot create jobs in a cost-effective manner."

Massachusetts residents paid 9.8 percent of their income in state and local taxes in fiscal year 2009, according to U.S. Census data analyzed by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center.

The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center analysis concluded the amount of state and local taxes paid in Massachusetts as a share of total personal income was 9.8 percent, saying that measurement "allows for a meaningful comparison among states."

Several experts on the state's economy said that by increasing tax enforcement, Mr. Romney staved off wider cuts to essential services. When you do the cold, hard calculations, the benefits of reducing corporate tax avoidance clearly outweigh the costs, said Noah Berger, president of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a nonpartisan research organization.

Despite the increase, Massachusetts continued to rank among the 10 states with the lowest poverty levels, according to an analysis of the census data by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a Boston-based research group.

What does it mean to be poor? Well, try this: the official poverty rate for a family of four is a little over $22,000 a year. That's about $430 a week for rent, food, gas, utilities, clothes and anything else that you need to live on. Again, $430 a week for a family of four. We're talking about this because more data about poverty were released Thursday from the 2010 census. Last week we learned that 1 in 6 Americans -- more than 15 percent -- are living in poverty. That's the highest poverty rate since 1993. And we learned the total number of Americans living in poverty is now at an all time high. Guests: Sidney Fuller-Jones and Noah Berger, President, Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center

Census data compiled today by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center finds that Massachusetts continues to lead the nation in health care coverage, with 96 percent of all residents having access to insurance, including 98.5 percent of children.

"We are very much an innovation economy, so cuts to things like basic research, health care research, scientific research would be damaging," said Noah Berger, president of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, which conducts nonpartisan research on the state budget.

Massachusetts, as a whole, is doing better than most other states both during and after the recession, according to a report released Friday from the nonpartisan Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. "Still, both the national and state economies have a long way to go," the report said, before reaching levels that can generate well-paying jobs and reduce unemployment rates.

In fiscal 2001, state programs to combat smoking were flush with cigarette tax revenue and funding from a 1998 multi-state settlement with the tobacco industry. The statewide budget for those initiatives was $50.5 million, according to the nonpartisan Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center.

In fiscal 2001, state programs to combat smoking were flush with cigarette tax revenue and funding from a 1998 multi-state settlement with the tobacco industry, with a budget of $50.5 million, according to the Mass. Budget and Policy Center.

Noah Berger, president of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, said companies will build their businesses where it makes the most economic sense, not where they get tax breaks. Taxpayer money would be better spent on work-force training and education, he said. "It's wasteful for the state to use capital to subsidize companies to do things that don't make sense anyway," Berger said.

The recently enacted state budget for fiscal 2012 calls for $770 million in cuts to keep up with the expected growth in MassHealth, the state's Medicaid program, according to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a think tank.

While the House had recommended keeping the Department of Agricultural Resources at current levels, the Senate would trim about $300, according to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. The center is still working on a thorough analysis that compares the House and Senate versions of the budget. General school aid would increase by $139 million next year under both proposals. Meanwhile, the House has approved $213 million for the special education "circuit breaker" program - $80 million more than current level and about $20 million more than the Senate appropriation.

These neighbors have endured approximately 15 years of stagnating, government-subsidized programs that have either remained at outdated funding levels or have been subject to cutbacks. Regarding the current budget cycle, the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center website notes that "Like the governor's budget, the final House budget calls for cuts across state government, including in local aid and education, health care and public health, human services and public safety. These cuts are on top of cuts implemented in fiscal years 2009, 2010 and 2011."

The House provided near level funding for adult services, according to the Mass Budget Policy Center. The $16.4 million cut to hospital services, however, was softened by only $1 million, said Laurie Martinelli, executive director for the Massachusetts chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Even worse is that the proposed budget doesn't just deprive poor kids of food; it also keeps them out of subsidized nursery schools and, for those with developmental delays, out of early intervention programs. The $7.5 million earmarked for the Universal Pre-Kindergarten Program is a 40 percent reduction from 2009 levels, according to an analysis by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. And the $21.5 million budgeted for early intervention services is $8 million less than last year. According to the policy center, these cuts reduce or eliminate services for something like half of the 30,000 infants and toddlers now receiving occupational, physical, speech, or other therapies.

After the holiday weekend it's back to business on Beacon Hill, with the state budget a top priority. Both the state House and Senate have approved their versions, which now head into the next phase of negotiations. Lawmakers from both chambers will be chosen to sit on a six-member conference committee. The committee will meet behind closed doors to resolve differences between the two spending plans, or, at least, to reach a compromise. Noah Berger, executive director of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, joined Morning Edition Tuesday for some analysis.

Michael Widmer, president of the business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said the downturn began in Massachusetts in the 2009 fiscal year and is continuing through the 2012 fiscal year that starts July 1. It's an unprecedented four-year cycle of fiscal hits, Widmer said. "I don't ever recall four years of budget cuts for most state programs," he said. Tough as things were for Beacon Hill budget cutters, Widmer said it could have been much worse if not for two factors -- the federal stimulus program pumped about $6 billion in one-time funds into Massachusetts, and the state's own rainy day fund provided another $2 billion in one-time funds during the recession years. "Without that money, it would have been an utter catastrophe," Widmer said. The state's economic tough times can be traced back to the so-called dot-com bubble of the late 1990s, and the subsequent lowering of the state's income tax rate from 5.95 to 5.3 percent, according to Noah Berger, president of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a Boston-based research group. "We've had an ongoing fiscal crisis for more than a decade," he said. "The state cut taxes ... with no plan to pay for them." Even though Massachusetts is showing signs of a recovery, it's unlikely the economy will grow fast enough to fully restore all the cuts of the past four years, he added.

"The only practical way for states to collect sales taxes of any kind - including those due on Internet sales - is to require businesses to collect these taxes at the time of sale and remit them to the state," the Massachusetts Policy and Budget Center says in a report on the problems online sales have caused state tax collectors.

According to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, total environmental spending has fallen by 21 percent from $224.8 million in the year ending June 30, 2009, to $176.8 million this year.

We should find out if that is really true. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that there is money somewhere. For instance, data kept by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center indicate that while spending on higher education has declined dramatically since fiscal year 2002, economic development tax breaks have risen by 35 percent, to about $2 billion a year. Last year, the center said neither Governor Patrick nor the Legislature have analyzed whether such breaks are effective. Last month, state auditor Suzanne Bump said such tax breaks disappear into a "black box" that lacks any "basic accountability and transparency."

In terms of other state-funded programs, according to the non-partisan Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, the Senate Ways and Means budget "does not impose the deep cut to early intervention proposed by the Governor, and appears to fully fund the Commonwealth Care Bridge program to provide health insurance for certain legal immigrants (the House had only funded the program with enough funding for half a year). The SWM budget, however, does not propose restoring as much of the funding for the Special Education Circuit Breaker program as the Governor and the House had."

Still, residents should not let their hopes soar. Eliminating waste is unlikely to be enough. According to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, since the recession began, Massachusetts has cut about $3 billion in spending. The reductions hit cities and towns especially hard. Comparing fiscal 2009 with Governor Patrick's fiscal 2012 budget proposal, the center projected a drop in unrestricted local aid of $528 million, or almost 40 percent. Education has suffered big losses as well.

People making under $104,000 a year are taxed roughly 10 percent of their total income in the state, while those making $580,000 are taxed six percent, according to a presentation by Noah Berger, president of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a non-partisan and nonprofit organization that provides analysis of the state budget.

Massachusetts municipalities have few options to raise revenue, short of tacking on a meals tax and cutting services, said Noah Berger, executive director of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. Local aid, which cities and towns use to fix roads and buildings and pay municipal workers, is projected to decrease this coming budget year by 37 percent, adjusted for inflation, since fiscal 2009, he said.

According to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, the original House Ways and Means Committee budget cuts funding for public health programs by 6.5 percent compared to this year's fiscal budget, and funding for public health services has been cut by more than 20 percent compared to pre-recession levels.

Despite the restoration, the budget for environmental and recreation programs would still be cut by about $6.8 million from this year, according to an analysis by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center in Boston. The new budget would be $158.3 million, down about 4 percent from this year.

Financially, moving up to Division I means a 57 percent increase in annual expenditures, up to $6.9 million. This is at a time when the House Ways and Means budget proposes a 6.5 percent cut of $30.3 million for UMass campuses. The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center this month calculated that during this fiscal crisis UMass has lost $86.7 million in public support, counting next year's proposed cut.

According to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, which monitors state spending, the House's proposed Chapter 70 allocation represents a nearly $82 million cut from current spending levels.

PITTSFIELD, MA (WAMC) - In their proposed budget for 2012, the House Ways and Means committee recommends spending $154.4 million on environment and recreation programs. That's $10.7 million less than in 2011, and $11.7 million less than proposed for 2012 by Gov. Deval Patrick, according to a report from the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center.

The House budget calls for cutting money for defense of the indigent to $151 million for the next fiscal year, a 27 percent drop from $208 million this year, according to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a private, nonprofit research organization. Those numbers include both private lawyers and staff lawyers who defend the poor.

It would double the number of public defenders at the Committee for Public Counsel Services, according to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. This would reduce, but not eliminate, the number of indigent cases handled by private attorneys.

The House would double the number of public defenders at the Committee for Public Counsel Services. The committee's spending proposal includes cutting funds for the trial courts, probation and parole departments; increasing district attorneys' budgets statewide; and level-funding state police, sheriffs' departments and the Department of Corrections, according to the Budget and Policy Center.

WHAT IT IS - The decrease since Fiscal Year 2009 in unrestricted government aid flowing from the State House to Cambridge, if the governor's Fiscal Year 2012 budget passes.

THE LEGISLATURE'S recent hearings on the corporate tax deals offered to Fidelity Investments and Evergreen Solar weren't as dramatic as the ones that dragged Goldman Sachs executives before Congress last year. But they were a start.

In a recent report detailing state budget cuts over the last three years, the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center said the fiscal 2010 budget--which ended June 30 of last year--cut Chapter 70 by up to 2 percent per district, with reductions varying locally. This year's budget cut Chapter 70 by 4 percent, MassBudget said.

"There have been budget cuts all across the board and they are impacting every community in the commonwealth," said Noah Berger, executive director of MassBudget. "To the extent the cuts undermine those services, they both affect quality of life in our communities and make them less attractive places for businesses to locate."

Marshfield -- State leaders have whittled down the core form of aid to cities and towns by more than a third since the recession began, according to an analysis by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. The nonprofit research group's report analyzed cuts to a bevy of programs and public services from fiscal 2009 through Gov. Deval Patrick's spending plan for next budget year.

Despite differences on tax policies, the panelists agreed that state government often lacks any information to measure whether heavy public investments in economic development are working.

Teachers, public-safety officials and social-service agencies could once again face the chopping block as state funding continues to dry up. A new study from the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center takes a look at how funding for these state and local groups has been impacted over the last three fiscal years and adjusts the dollar figures for inflation. It uses Gov. Deval Patrick's proposed budget for the next fiscal year as a point of comparison.

As the state House of Representatives readies the release of its fiscal 2012 budget next week, municipalities and state agencies are bracing for another round of steep budget cuts.

Repeated cuts in state aid for local cities and towns are adding up with each budget season. The Patrick administration's proposed budget for fiscal year 2012 represents a 39 percent reduction in unrestricted aid to local cities and towns over four years, when adjusted for inflation, according to a new report by Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, an independent research group.

The bottom line: Cities and towns in Central Massachusetts have collectively lost $66.3 million in state money during the downturn. The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, or MassBudget, compared actual local aid amounts from fiscal 2009, adjusted for inflation, to the governor's budget proposal for fiscal 2012, which begins July 1.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- Berkshire County towns have lost 40 percent or more in state aid over four years as Massachusetts struggled through one of the deepest economic downturns since the Great Depression. A study released Sunday by the nonpartisan Massachusett Budget and Policy Center details the billions cut from local and state agencies from the fiscal 2009 budget to Gov. Deval Patrick's proposed 2012 budget, including the disappearance of some $10.7 million in general aid to the Berkshires.

BOSTON -- A new report on recent state budget cuts shows that since 2009, the state has cut $3 billion from its programs, with state aid to local communities slashed by more than 30 percent. The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center examined the past three years of state budgets and the cuts proposed by Gov. Deval Patrick for fiscal year 2012.

BOSTON -- Massachusetts has been forced to cut $3 billion from its state budget and slash local aid to cities and towns by nearly 40 percent since the start of the national recession, according to an analysis by an independent research group.

The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center report details cuts in programs and services made by state government over the past three years as the Legislature and Gov. Deval Patrick coped with the impact of steep job and tax revenue losses by going heavy on three main strategies: cutting spending and passing efficiency-minded reforms, spending down reserves and one-time federal revenues, and raising taxes.

The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, an independent research group, is trying to throw some facts at the raging fire of public anger over the supposedly plush salaries and benefits of public employees. The group did an analysis of state and local government workers in Massachusetts and compared their compensation to employees in the private sector.

Noah Berger, president of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, an independent research group, said the state has made significant progress in making tax and spending data available to citizens. "Now when you go to the state budget website, you can fairly easily find spending proposals for each area of the budget, see how spending levels have changed over the past several years, click to descriptions of what the various programs do and what the missions of different parts of government are," said Berger.

According to a recent Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center report, Head Start, which provides comprehensive early childhood development services for children up to 5 from low-income families, would lose $17 million in Massachusetts, enough to serve roughly 2,200 children. The program also provides early childhood education, provides child care for working families, and offers those families support and counseling for living independently and sustainably.

MASSACHUSETTS (WAMC) - Public sector workers are getting paid significantly less than their private sector counterparts in the state of Massachusetts according to a study released this week by an economic think tank. WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief Charlie Deitz reports that labor relations experts see the study as a necessary piece of information when it comes to contract negotiations.

But Massachusetts lawmakers have not approved the required changes. "Concerns about joining the agreement include the effects some of the changes might have on the progressivity of the Massachusetts sales tax; the potential for revenue losses once changes are made at the state level but prior to approval of the agreement at the federal level; and the percentage of collected tax revenues that vendors would be allowed to keep as compensation for collecting and remitting the tax," according to a report on the overall state tax system issued last year by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a research organization that focuses on the effects of state policies on low- and middle-income people.

In the next fiscal year, the state is facing a budget gap of approximately $1.9 billion between the cost of providing current services and the revenue projected to be available, according to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank. Overall, the governor's budget proposal relies on cuts and savings to close $1.3 billion of the budget gap, counts on $360 million in temporary revenues (including $200 million from the state stabilization fund) and anticipates $244 million from modest tax reforms and other revenue initiatives.

The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a nonpartisan organization, said "the coming budget year will likely be even more challenging than the past three."

As the budget process for 2012 gets underway, a new report released last week by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center gives the state high marks for "efficient" spending.

According to the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center (MassBudget), Patrick's proposed budget funds unrestricted general government aid at $834 million, a $65 million decrease from the current fiscal 2011 budget.

The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center estimated that state colleges and universities would see a $79 million cut in the governor's budget.

A new study just out from the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center finds that public payers like Medicaid get to shell out just 80% of what private insurers pay for the exact same hospital services.

WITH THE governor scheduled to file his budget proposal for the coming year on Wednesday, and the Commonwealth facing a budget gap of close to $2 billion, knowing that our government provides services as efficiently as possible will be more important than ever.

MASSACHUSETTS (WAMC) - Top Massachusetts lawmakers have agreed on a projected revenue estimate of 20.5 billion dollars for fiscal year 2012. The number shows that tax revenues are on the rise, but WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief Charlie Deitz reports it's not enough to close a 1.5 billion dollar budget gap.

Noah Berger, executive director of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a nonpartisan budget watchdog, said the estimate was "reasonable and cautious." The total of $20.525 billion in tax revenue estimate reflects growth from the revised estimate of $19.784 billion for the current year.

Noah Berger of the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center discusses the 2012 Massachusetts budget with Steve Ives.

All that good news comes from a report released earlier this month by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. The State of Working Massachusetts 2010 examines the state's rise since 1979 from the middle of the pack nationally in terms of wages and incomes to a sixth-place ranking (behind Maryland, New Jersey, Connecticut, Alaska and Hawaii) in median household income.

MASSACHUSETTS (WAMC) - Massachusetts is weathering the economic downturn better than most states, that's according to a new report released by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center. WAMC's Berkshire Bureau Chief Charlie Deitz reports that the reason for the state's performance is its' commitment to higher education over the last three decades.

The gap between projected state spending needed to maintain state services and available revenues next fiscal year is just shy of $1.8 billion, according to a preliminary analysis released Tuesday morning by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center.

Massachusetts has fared better than most states during the recession but will face "enormous fiscal and economic challenges" in the years ahead, according to a report released Sunday by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center.

The state Budget and Policy Center's report, "The State of Working Massachusetts 2010," says Massachusetss has seen a 95 percent increase since 1979 in workers who at least hold a bachelor's degree.

During the recent crisis, Massachusetts lost fewer jobs than most states and maintained higher wages, all while avoiding a significant increase in poverty, according to "The State of Working Massachusetts," a report prepared by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank that studies economic issues.

Thanks to its colleges and universities, Massachusetts has one of the best-educated, best-paid workforces in the nation, but a new study shows the gap between the haves and have-nots has widened--especially during the recent recession.

I recently attended a presentation about the Massachusetts School "Foundation Budget" by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center at the State House...I am no policy expert, but I learned that the Education Reform Bill passed in 1993 established a "Foundation Budget" for schools to provide a floor, or "foundation" amount each school district should have to spend to provide a decent education.