SENATOR WILKERSON DEFENDS IMPORTANT PROGRAMS FROM GOVERNOR ROMNEY’S BUDGET VETOES

BOSTON—Senator Dianne Wilkerson (D-Boston) urges her colleagues to override various vetoes made by Governor Mitt Romney in the Fiscal Year 2006 State Budget which are of great significance to the Second Suffolk District and throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Governor Romney made budget cuts in a variety of areas, such as education, health and human services, and housing programs. Items of particular concern to the Second Suffolk District include:

• $10,000,000 cut from salary reserve for direct care workers, by reducing the cost of living adjustment from 3% to 1.5%
• $907,357 reduction for teenage pregnancy programs
• $221,000 cut from Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program, more specifically cutting $141,000 earmarked for the Just-A-Start program
• $500,000 overall reduction in Chapter 707 Rental Assistance
• $2,000,000 overall reduction in Rental Assistance for Families in Transition
• $250,000 for a Toxic Use Reduction Institute study on safer alternatives to five toxic chemicals
• $200,000 for Aid to Incarcerated Mothers in the Department of Corrections

“These budget items are of great significance to the people of Massachusetts and it is simply imperative that they receive enough funding to survive,” said Wilkerson. “Before these items reached the Governor’s desk, they met with unanimous approval from both the House and Senate. I do not want to think that the consensus and benefit of so many will be overturned with the vote of one person who does not recognize the importance of these programs.”

To override a veto, the House and the Senate must each achieve a two-thirds vote. In past years, the legislature has been successful in overriding many of the Governor’s vetoes and in doing so maintained a large amount of key state programs and initiatives.

“I am confident that we will once again be able to override many of the Governor’s unwise and unnecessary vetoes,” said Wilkerson. “Each line item represents the hopes of a person or family in need or a way to improve the quality of life in Massachusetts. Every item must be given careful and fair evaluation and I will continue to work on behalf of my constituents to make sure they achieve the maximum results from their tax dollars.”

Currently serving her seventh term in the Massachusetts Senate, Senator Wilkerson’s Senate District includes the Boston neighborhoods of Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Chinatown, Jamaica Plain, Mission Hill, Roxbury, the South End, and parts of the Fenway, Dorchester, and Mattapan. Wilkerson is Chair of the Joint Committee of State Administration and Regulatory Oversight.