“Despite the laudable efforts of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means to
level fund or reduce the funding for more than 300 line items, the overall cost
of the budget now before us represents a 4.4% increase for Fiscal Year 2014 over
the current year,” said Senator Tarr. “Given the uncertainty of the
continuing economic recovery and the proposed $350 million withdrawal from the
stabilization fund, we need to exhaust every option to save money, capture
efficiencies, boost economic growth and generate revenue that doesn’t come from
tax increases.”
Unfortunately the committee’s budget proposal does not offer meaningful reforms
to public subsidy and government welfare programs that are wracked with fraud
and government waste. Seeking to provide safeguards on such precious and
needed programs, the Senate Republican Caucus offered several amendments aimed
to achieve that goal. Those amendments include:
• Amendment #76 would allow the Attorney General to seek recovery of any
previously issued public assistance benefits from a recipient convicted under
state or federal law for the use of a weapon of mass destruction, with the
recovered money going to benefit the victims of the acts of terror.
• Amendment #549 would require all future EBT cards issued by the Department of
Transitional Assistance to include the fraud detection phone number and web
address.
• Amendment #573 would authorize the Department of Transitional Assistance to
terminate the benefits of recipients of welfare benefits if their mailing
address becomes unknown. The amendment would also prohibit the Department
of Transitional Assistance to continue using numerical placeholders instead of
valid social security numbers for a prolonged period of time.
• Amendment #583 requires the nearly operational Integrated Eligibility System
(IES) maintained by the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) to
cross-check social security numbers of applicants from state and federal data
sources and to track eligibility of public subsidies.
“Our system of public assistance provides needed help to those in difficult
economic circumstances, and we need to ensure that every dollar we allocate to
that purpose gets to them, rather than being consumed by any waste, fraud or
abuse,” said Senator Tarr.
Other amendments filed by the Senate Republican Caucus include cuts to the
budget, jobs creation incentives, meaningful reforms to higher education
funding, and revenue gains provided by online gaming. Some of those
proposals include:
• Amendment #157 creates a job incentive tax credit eligible to companies that
increase their net employment figures in the Commonwealth.
• Amendment #143 would require certain government agencies, departments, and
offices to reduce its spending by 1% for Fiscal Year 2014.
• Amendment #330 would provide tuition and fee waivers for Massachusetts veterans
and active duty service members who are permanent and legal residents of the
Commonwealth.
• Amendment #346 level funds several public university and state schools line
items and places the FY14 budget proposal increases to be placed in a special
fund to be distributed on merit based measures such as graduation rates,
improved operation efficiencies, and increased academic successes.
• Amendment #123 would create 4 online gaming licenses to be made available to
the 3 fully licensed casinos and the single slot parlor, and tax online gaming
revenue at a rate of 20%, placing Massachusetts in the forefront of an evolving
industry.
The amendments filed by Senator Tarr and
the Senate Republican Caucus are part of an initiative to make government more
efficient.
