http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-965413.mp3
Boston, MA – Massachusetts House lawmakers are launching a second day of debate on their proposed $30.4 billion state budget for the new fiscal year. WAMC's Tristan O'Neill reports...
Lawmakers defeated a Republican-backed amendment Monday to cut the state's 5.3 percent income tax to 5 percent over a three-year period beginning July 1, 2012. A proposal to reduce the 6.25 percent sales tax was also defeated.
Democratic House leaders say the budget trims spending and dips deeper into the state's reserve fund. It also offers local communities relief from soaring municipal health insurance costs at the expense of some union collective bargaining rights.
The spending plan, which includes no new taxes, is designed to bridge what's been estimated as a nearly $2 billion structural gap between revenues and spending levels in the fiscal year that begins July 1.
Tristan O'Neill, WAMC News.
Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.