Governor Deval Patrick today is expected to announce that state revenues will decline this year by as much as $1.5 billion, giving greater urgency to the state budget cuts and layoffs he is expected to announce in a televised news conference this afternoon.The governor is planning to announce the cuts at 5 p.m., giving him a local news broadcast platform so he can speak directly to Massachusetts residents and explain to them how the national and foreign economic chaos has hit home.
"People will feel this in their services," Patrick said yesterday in remarks to reporters. "This is not about, you know, cutting so-called fat. This is going to cut muscle, because the scale of the issue requires that. We're going to feel it in services, we're going to see a smaller work force."
Patrick has been working with top officials in his administration to develop the targeted, specific reductions. But in public he has kept his pronouncements general, saying only that he plans to eliminate hundreds of millions of dollars from the $28.2 billion budget that is only three months old.
The governor met for nearly 1 1/2 hours last night with top House and Senate leaders in Senate President Therese Murray's office. Those involved declined to discuss any details of the meeting.
The growing size of the revenue shortfall, pegged just two weeks ago at $400 million, is in large part a result of plummeting amounts collected in taxes on capital gains. Losses in the stock and real estate markets mean that there have been fewer such taxes to collect. Other revenues, including sales and income taxes, are also expected to decline as consumer spending dries up and the unemployment rate rises.
The state disclosed the larger budget gap, which it said would be $800 million to $1.5 billion, in a disclosure document filed jointly for bond investors by state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill and Secretary of Administration and Finance Leslie A. Kirwan. The document was filed on Friday, but was not previously released.
They are so scared of Question 1, it isn't funny.
UPDATE: More from the Herald and Holly Robichaud.
SECOND UPDATE: More from the Globe, Herald and AP.