In The News

"The administration kept denying the obvious,'' Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a business-backed watchdog group, said in a recent interview. "If you keep spending more on the Central Artery, you're going to have less to spend on state highways. I learned that in second grade. If you've got a dollar, you can only spend it once.''

Even if that happens, Widmer still thinks it would be a bad idea to hold the holiday. Sure, state revenues have stabilized: Tax collections for the first five months of the year essentially matched the total for the same time in 2009. But Widmer argues that the Legislature needs to wait until revenues are climbing at a steady pace again.

In a letter to legislative leaders this week, MTF President Michael J. Widmer said requiring municipal officials to bargain (and possibly submit to arbitration) over the use of any savings from changes in health coverage "places unnecessary further restrictions on a community's ability to manage health care costs." In fact, he adds, such a mandate "could well lead to higher costs down the road."

"We're seeing more of ‘Let's get through this year and worry about the next year when it comes,' '' Widmer said. "My overall sense is even in communities that often pass overrides there is a recognition of the realities of an economic recession and that the only chance of passage is if they are modest. This is not the time to ask for large numbers.''

But no matter how widely the pain is spread, its impact would be deep, said Michael J. Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a business-funded watchdog group. "Since most of these programs have already suffered several rounds of cuts, this additional cut will have very serious consequences for human services, public higher education, health care, and a wide range of other programs," Widmer said.

"To the extent there was ever any justification for this - it's long gone," said Michael Widmer, who chaired a Transportation Finance Commission charged with reporting on the Bay State's crumbling infrastructure. "Transportation agencies in the state are in desperate need of resources, and even if the money lost from this isn't huge, every penny counts."

And that's where the new reality comes in. With experts like Cathy Minehan, former president of the Boston Fed, Mike Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, and Sam Tyler, president of the Boston Municipal Research Bureau, warning about a still-uncertain economy and serious ongoing state and local fiscal problems, most councilors clearly recognized they had to take a broader view.

Michael Widmer, executive director of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, hit the nail on the head when he called the unexpected bonus payments "illogical." If the state's fiscal crisis were over, it might make sense to give a year-end reward in recognition of financial sacrifices made, but Massachusetts' monetary woes are far from resolved, Widmer argued. We wholeheartedly agree.

Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayer Foundation, warned the state will be facing a $2 billion shortfall in 2012 that could balloon to $5 billion. "We are a long way from being out of the fiscal woods," Widmer said. "The only question is how severe will the budget cuts be."

"If we were at the end of the fiscal crisis it might make sense to give an end of the year reward, but in the next two fiscal years we're going to require more budget cuts," said Widmer. "So it makes no sense when you've already asked employees to make a sacrifice to essentially pay back half of that without making them work."