House leaders said Wednesday they hoped to override $97 million of the vetoes, targeting education and economic development among other areas. Yesterday the House began restoring millions’ worth of the stuff to the state budget, in an expression of some misguided “priorities”. Most if not all of his vetoes were expected to be overridden by the Legislature.
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The state House and Senate voted on Wednesday to override Governor Charlie Baker’s veto and restore $2.3 million in funding in the fiscal 2016 budget for the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Baker said upon taking office in January that he had inherited from the administration of former Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick a budget deficit for the fiscal year that ended last month, along with a potential $1.8 billion shortfall in the current year.
The House also voted 139-16 to restore $5 million cut by Baker from the $526 million in state funding provided to the University of Massachusetts system.
DeLeo said the House this week would also consider, likely on Thursday, some of the budget amendments returned by Baker, including a deal reached between the governor and legislative leaders to delay a corporate tax break in order to pay for an expansion of the earned-income tax credit for low-income families. The administration argued that the grant program was intended to help school districts start kindergarten programs, but not continue to fund them forever.
But supporters of the kindergarten grants said the money was a critical component of education funding and Spilka said there are 33 communities in Massachusetts that still don’t have fullday kindergarten.
In the Senate that override passed unanimously.
Baker appeared resigned to seeing many of his vetoes overturned.
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“When they finish their work we’ll take a look at it, add it up and figure out what we need to do to make sure that the budget is balanced and that we live within our means”, Baker said, “because that fundamentally is the end game we’re all collectively seeking to pursue”.
