Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr released the following statement today regarding Governor Patrick's vetoes to the Fiscal Year 2012 State Budget:
“Through his choices and omissions regarding amendments to municipal health care legislation the Governor has indicated an understanding that collective bargaining needs to be changed to enable cities and towns to take action to save money that is desperately needed for priorities such as police and fire protection and education.
Unfortunately, he did not show the same understanding for changes to benefit those who are struggling with the costs of prescription drugs, for the need to identify and eliminate the misspending of precious dollars in our state's MassHealth system, to prevent the waste of costly drugs that could be effectively re-used, to assist those burdened by the rates of small group health insurance, and the need to apply the forces of competition to confront the costs of MassHealth managed care organizations.
Hopefully the House and Senate will soon consider the vetoes he has issued on these important provisions of the state budget, and override them swiftly and decisively."
