Important Update on the House Budget and Advocacy Needed!

Yesterday’s blog post was MALC’S guide to understanding the budget process. There is a refresher at the end of the blog post on how to follow/watch the House budget debate. But if you haven’t read yesterday’s post it would be worth the time to review it.

The four House budget amendments MALC is following have now been placed in their “bundles or bundle categories”. What this means is it that there will be (or has been) meetings for those bundle categories. Those meetings can only be attended by Representatives and are not open to the public. Some of the amendments will make it into the final “bundle” to be voted on. Many will not. And those that do make it in will more than likely have revisions to them (language and/or funding numbers revised).

 To follow the House budget debate and what bundles amendments have been placed where -and to follow what has/is happening to them see the “action” area of the webpage: https://malegislature.gov/Budget/HouseDebate

The two Library amendments MALC has been following were voted on yesterday evening and were placed in Consolidated Amendment “A”:

Amendment #570- Line Item 7000-9506 for Library and Technology and Resource Sharing – filed by Representative Meschino

This amendment sought to increase the funding for this line item to $3,259,000

This line item was funded at $2,215,928, a level slightly higher than originally proposed in the House Ways & Means budget ($2,115,928)

Amendment #1265- Line Item 7000-9508 for the Massachusetts Center for the Book – filed by Representative Hogan

This amendment proposed to restore and increase the funding for Center for the Book to $300,000. The House Ways and Means budget did NOT provide any funding for this center/line item.

The line item was restored and was funded at $200,000!

There are two amendments left that need your advocacy:

Please contact your State Representative and urge them to support the two amendments listed below. If they have signed on to the amendments, remember to thank them for doing so.  It is expected that the House budget debate will be completed by this Thursday evening. No word yet on when they will meet/debate the bundle category: Labor and Economic Development

You can check to see if your state rep has signed on to any of the two amendments listed below via this link (just find and click on the budget amendment number)  https://malegislature.gov/Budget/HouseDebate

To find out who your state representative is and the link on how to connect with them: http://www.wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo.aspx

These two amendments that need your advocacy!!

Amendment #184 to H4400 Line Item 0640-300 for the Massachusetts Cultural Council – filed by Representative Atkins

It is in the bundle: Constitutional Officers and State Administration

Representative Corry Atkins has filed this amendment to increase the budget of the Mass Cultural Council to $17 Million. The House Ways & Mean budget level funded the MCC at $13,950,699.

It is in the bundle: Labor and Economic Development

Amendment #185 to H4400 Line Item 7008-1001 for the Regional Tourism Councils – filed by Representative Atkins

Representative Atkins has also filed an amendment to support the regional tourism councils-by inserting a new line item- 7008-1001 -to fund the councils at $4,000,000.

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Refresher on How to follow the Budget Debate:

Watch the debate live!

You can go in person to watch the House debate! When either the House or Senate is in what is called “formal session”, the State House, by law, needs to remain open to the public. This means if the debate goes into the late evening or early morning, the State House will be open to allow members of the public to watch the debate in person.

If you can’t be at the State House in person to observe the budget debate, you can watch the session via live stream on the “the House Cam”. (Click on the session name. Adobe Flash Player required.):
https://malegislature.gov/Events

(Note: you can watch both the House and Senate when they are in formal session via the live stream, as above)

Tips

You might want to open another window to monitor what actions the House “chamber” takes on the filed amendments by using the following link. The House clerk is tasked with keeping this page as up-to-date as possible:
https://malegislature.gov/Budget/HouseDebate