I need a 300 word reply to the following discussion question response:
Governor Healey of Massachusetts has recently released some preliminary financial figures, before she is required to reveal an entire state budget proposal on March 1st of this year, and these initial figures demonstrate some of the policy priorities of the newly elected governor. The most noteworthy aspect of Governor Healey’s currently released information related to her imminently published budget proposal is that the governor wants to drastically increase the funding that municipalities receive from the state government during the upcoming fiscal year. This additional funding for municipalities would be focused on improving access to transportation for public schooling, public education institution themselves, and county and regional libraries. The state government of Massachusetts will increase its funding of municipalities by 8.2 percent or six-hundred-thirty-five-million dollars. These funds will empower local governments to expand economic and social programs that include affordable housing construction and youth violence prevention programs, while local governments will also be able make critical investments in their public works, cybersecurity, and first responders. The school transportation budget would rise to ninety-seven-million dollars, thus Healey’s plan would provide the program with an additional fifteen-million dollars than the program received from the state government during the current fiscal year. Governor Healey would also increase state aid to public schools through the Chapter 70 program by ten percent, therefore the state would give public schools 6.929 billion dollars under Governor Healey’s plan. Funding for charter school reimbursements would remain the same under Healey’s plan at two-hundred-forty-three-million dollars that was allocated to the program in the previous budget. Healey’s budget proposal is also expected to cause the state to fully fund the programs that were authorized by the state’s Student Opportunity Act for the first time in the state’s history. Governor Healey claimed that the values of transparency and predictability motivated her budgetary recommendations to the state legislature, as local government must be able to trust and rely on the state government to provide them with the funding that they need to effectively serve their populations. These principles of Governor Healey demonstrated how she emphasized that local governments were generally better equipped than the state government to enact certain policies related to public education, public safety, and community social programs, while the state government served the essential role of empowering local governments with more financial flexibility to enact these policies with sufficient funding by the state government. The city of Worchester, Massachusetts would have its Charles E. Shannon Community Safety Initiative receive 12.3 million dollars under Healey’s plan, and the program only got 1.284 million dollars from the state in the 2021 fiscal year, as this program worked to prevent the youth of the community from participating in gang activity. Worchester’s chapter 70 funds alone would receive an additional 41.3 million that the city’s public schools got from the last budget. Lieutenant Governor Driscoll emphasized the administration’s belief that it is important for the state government to clarify how much funding that local governments would receive from the state government as quickly as possible, so that local governments had enough time to determine how to most efficiently utilize the funds that they receive from the state. A government’s budget determines whether policy makers and administrators have the financial resources to enact their policies. Kettl discussed how state and local governments are severely limited in how they can borrow money, thus budgets of state and local governments must be even, while federal budgets can utilize deficit spending. The article did not highlight how Healey’s budget proposal would raise the state’s revenue enough to afford her demands to increase funding to municipalities, but the state will have to either cut spending on other programs, raise taxes, or a combination of the two for the state to operate an even budget while increasing funding to local governments. Kettl also emphasized how chief executives in the U.S. have had an increasingly prominent role in the budgeting process since the twentieth century, as governments have drastically increased their expenditures and services that are offered to the public. Healey submitting a budget proposal resembled how the U.S. President is legally required to submit a budget proposal that was compiled with the cooperation of each agency in the Executive branch calculating the costs of their prioritized programs and policies. Kettl also mentioned that legislatures especially at the federal level make the final determinations on budgetary issues, although the article did not include any responses from state legislators on whether they would support Healey’s proposals. The fiscal year for all states begin on July 1st, while the federal government’s fiscal year begin on October 1st. Healey being forced to reveal her full budget proposal on March 1st means that the Massachusetts state legislature would have about five months to negotiate among themselves the state’s final budget, after Healey submits her proposal that would serve as the foundation for such legislative negotiations. Kettl also mentioned the importance of deadlines related to government budgets and the fiscal year. What political values should policy makers emphasize over other to create a sustainable budget that meets the needs of the citizenry? How does the fact of whether a budget is made by the federal government or a state and local government impact which political values that would be strategically preferrable for policy makers to prioritize, as they are negotiating a budget? What steps can local governments take to improve their own budgets and the cost effectiveness of their programs and services, if state governments only allocate insufficient funds to local governments in state budgets?
Resources
Borondy, K. (February 24, 2023). More Funding for Local government, Schools in Healey’s Preliminary Budget. Yahoo News. Accessed February 28, 2023 from More funding for local government, schools in Healey’s preliminary budget (yahoo.com)
Kettl, D. F. (2017). Politics of the Administrative Process. CQ Press. ISBN: 92176536 pg. 315-317