Committee Criticizes Proposed State Budget

The House Ways and Means Committee gave a chilly reception yesterday to the Dukakis administration's proposed $13.4 billion fiscal 1990 budget, grilling administration officials about a possible $1 billion increase in spending.

Legislators have called the proposed budget financially unsound because of its dependence on a $604 million tax hike that Dukakis proposed last month. Opponents of the plan also criticized its provision for $495 million in savings that includes a plan to recover $227 million by tightening Medicaid eligibility.

Rep. Angelo Scaccia (D-Boston) publicly voiced the private sentiments of many legislators at the Statehouse yesterday when he chastised Secretary of Administration and Finance L. Edward Lashman for the budget's suggested spending increases and criticized its savings plan as impractical.

"You folks chickened out," Scaccia said. "You shouldn't have a role in preparing this budget anymore because this budget just doesn't make sense."

Scaccia and other committee members said Dukakis should have submitted a smaller spending recommendation since he faces a $636 million deficit for the fiscal year ending June 30.

"There's nothing in [the fiscal 1990 budget] that has a kernel of truth to it. This isn't balanced," Scaccia said, referring to the administration's supposed savings.

"All of those figures in there are phony. You know it and I know it. If you came in here with a pared-down budget, with some basis in reality, we could've been in the pot together," Scaccia said.

Lashman, the former director of external projects at Harvard, did not respond directly to Scaccia's comments. After the morning hearing he said, "I don't think it was my mission to convince them of the governor's plan. My mission was to answer their question."

Throughout the morning, Lashman replied to the committee's criticism by saying the Dukakis budget meets the state's committments on education, mental health, the homeless, hazardous waste cleanup and the environment.

Cabinet secretaries and department heads will continue to appear before the House Ways and Means Committee throughout the week to defend their budget recommendations. The committee plans to hold public hearings on the budget at the end of the week.