Facing July 1 deadline, Massachusetts legislators pass state budget for FY 2011

BOSTON – State legislators, facing a July 1 deadline, authorized a $27.9 billion budget last month that cuts spending and uses reserves to compensate for the loss of extra federal support for Medicaid, Bloomberg News reported.
Lawmakers authorized a spending plan that uses $374 million in cuts and draws at least $100 million from the state’s rainy day fund to help make up for the Medicaid funds that may never arrive, according to a joint statement from Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Robert DeLeo.
Part of the new gap was closed on the assumption that more revenue will come from programs such as the state lottery, said Kara Keefe, a spokeswoman for Senate Ways and Means Committee Chairman Steven Panagiotakos, a Democrat from Lowell.
Gov. Deval L. Patrick, a Democrat, and lawmakers earlier this year proposed budgets that assumed the receipt of at least $600 million from the additional Medicaid subsidies.
There were at least 23 states that completed budgets for the coming fiscal year that counted on enhanced Medicaid spending, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said in a report earlier this month. •