House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones, Jr. (R-North
Reading) issued the following statement today after the House voted to accept the
final conference committee report on the Fiscal Year 2018 state budget:
“I commend the conference committee members for their
hard work in producing a budget that provides local aid increases for our
cities and towns while also rejecting any broad-based tax increases. The conference committee was faced with the
difficult task of putting together a budget at a time of rising costs and declining
revenues, but rose to the challenge by working to preserve critical programs
and attempting to limit spending reductions to areas that will have minimal
impact on the state’s residents.
I’m pleased to see the budget also acknowledges the
Baker-Polito Administration’s efforts to rein in MassHealth costs and to provide
unemployment insurance relief to the state’s employers, particularly the small
businesses that help create jobs and fuel the Massachusetts economy. However, this work is far from done, and it’s
important that we continue to pursue other MassHealth reforms put forward by
the administration that were not addressed in this budget.
Moving forward, we must be cognizant of the fact that we
still face a significant revenue shortfall, and will need to do everything we
can to protect the interests of the state’s taxpayers by making sure the state spends
within its means. While I continue to have concerns about certain accounts that
have traditionally been left underfunded, I know we have a Governor in the
corner office who is committed to fiscal responsibility and will do the right
thing to ensure we have a balanced and sustainable budget. What we should not
do is rush into taking up overrides once the Governor has issued his vetoes,
but instead should allow some time to pass so we can get a better sense of
where revenues are trending in the new fiscal year.”
