Non-profits, businesses lobby for funding

Date: 12/22/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



SPRINGFIELD -- Advocates seeking funding for local tourism marketing efforts and housing for the poor were among those offering testimony at a budget hearing last week presided over by Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Gregory Bialecki.

Bialecki and other officials of the Patrick Administration recently conducted hearings and forums around the state to listen to how Massachusetts citizens want their tax dollars spent. Last week's forum was at the former visitors center building on Columbus Avenue and was attended by about 25 people.

Speaking on the upcoming budget year, Bialecki explained the state is facing spending growth on expenditures such as Chapter 70 school funding and Medicaid payments at the same time no additional federal recovery dollars are expected and there is only "moderate" growth in revenue. The result is a $3 billion gap.

"This is an extra difficult budget time not only for us, but for every state," he said.

He added that cuts to programs, furloughs, layoffs, new revenues and use of the "rainy day" funds as well as federal stimulus money have been used to balance the state budget, but some of these "tools" won't be available to the state this year.

The goal, he said, is for the administration to preserve Gov. Deval Patrick's key values of funding education, health care, higher education and workforce training. Bialecki said businesses have commented the skilled workforce in Massachusetts provides the state with an advantage.

"We can't lose that competitive edge," he said.

Bialecki asked the attendees to consider what are the fundamental services the state needs to fund as well as what they would recommend cutting. He also asked for ideas about revenue generation.

Tourism is the third largest industry in the state and representatives of the Greater Springfield Visitors and Convention Bureau (GSVCB) lobbied for restoring funding. Greg Chiecko, the chair of the GSVCB, explained that while the state agency in charge of tourism is doing a fine job, the members of the 13 regional tourism boards rely on their local organizations. The state funding for the regional board was cut by 75 percent.

Both Wayne McCary, the president of the Eastern States Exposition and Larry Litton, the president of Six Flags New England, spoke on the importance tourism plays in the local economy. The Eastern States Exposition alone puts $225 million into the region's economy as well as generating $7.5 million in sales taxes and $500,000 in hotel taxes, McCarey said.

Six Flags New England is the largest seasonal employer in New England, Litton said. The company has invested $261 million into the amusement park over the last 11 years and does business with 300 vendors based in the state.

McCary asked the state not to further "compromise the mechanisms we need to drive the business."

Andrew Morehouse, the executive director of the Western Massachusetts Food Bank, asked for budget support that would leverage additional federal dollars for more hunger programs.

Dr. Nancy Miller, of Baystate Pediatric Associates, spoke about the importance of funding Reach Out and Read, a national literacy program. The state had reduced a grant to the program, which also raises its own funds. Pediatricians who participate in the Reach Out and Read program work with expectant parents on literacy issues, preparing them to read to their children from birth as well as making sure the children learn to read.

Miller asked the state to continue funding the program, but also to consider restoring its previous level of commitment.

The cost of housing homeless families in shelters as opposed to finding them permanent housing was the principal message of Peter Gagliardi, the executive director of HAP and William Abrashkin, the executive director of the Springfield Housing Authority.

Gagliardi said that in Western Massachusetts there are more than 300 families being housed in motels by the state as part of its shelter program, resulting in a price tag of $1 million a month. Abrashkin noted that providing housing vouchers is much less expensive that keeping families in the shelter program.

The two men asserted that additional funding of affordable housing programs would be less expensive and more beneficial to the state.