Massachusetts Budget “Negotiated” After Midnight – Jobs Created to Oversee Welfare Fraud – New Taxes on Tap - Another Day in Tax&FraudAchusetts

Image from WGGB.com with article: Mass Budget Proposals plays to Mixed Reviews - Seriously - Who doesn't want more fraud, waste, abuse and higher taxes? The state of Massachusetts has been operating on a interim budget, the Govenor wanted Billions in additional taxes, the House Half a Billion, and the Senate slightly more – However, the ”Lawmakers” met in private to broker a deal on the budget: From My Fox Boston:

Both the House and Senate budgets are predicated on about $500 million in new revenue, including hikes in gasoline and cigarette taxes, which were tied to a separate transportation financing bill.

Budget negotiators will be seeking compromises on areas including education, health care, housing and youth violence prevention programs.

One potential sticking point could be funding for the University of Massachusetts system. The House approved $478 million for the university, while the Senate came in at $455 million. Both figures represent increases over the current year, but UMass officials have said the House appropriation would enable them to freeze tuition and fees in the coming academic year.

The House budget also included steps to address welfare fraud, including a requirement that photo identification be put on electronic benefit cards used by public benefit recipients. Senate President Therese Murray has indicated that she would prefer to address welfare reform in separate legislation later this year.

Accordingly those negotiating the bill reached a deal in the wee hours on a 34 Billion dollar budget, which included additional funding for the University of Massachusetts, as well as the creation of an oversight bureau to attempt to pinpoint fraud.(Boston Globe)

The extensive amount of waste and fraud prevalent in Massachusetts entitlement programs has been ongoing since inception – yet one wonders how serious this department would be given the fact that that 30,000 ebt cards went missing, apparently sent to those deceased, and millions are sent to addresses for non-documented and non-residents of the state and nation.(Valley Patriot)

The increase in revenue will come from taxes on gasoline, cigarettes, (hear border states rejoicing!) and tech services – including software (don’t start a business in Massachusetts – consider Texas).

Overall it is apparently more of the same – one wonders when the populace will ever reach the breaking point.

If the State Employees were trained and or educated for a specific job, there would be no need for an “oversight” bureau designed to watch over employees of the state who are obviously making serious and compounded errors. What happens if those in this newly created Bureau are on a par with those they have been installed to watch? – Expectations for this entire schematic are low prior to inception.