Massachusetts state legislators are working on a budget for fiscal year 2024 — and it’s huge.
With more than $56.2 billion in the proposed House budget (H.3900) and various non-monetary provisions, the state continues its trend of avoiding restraint in favor of massive budgets and massive spending.
The budget, which was approved 158-0 on Wednesday, April 26, contains several hundred amendments, some of which will provide extra funding for police and fire departments, roads, and schools.
However, the proposed state budget is also replete with waste and liberal social policy. Here is a look at five of the worst aspects of it.
1. Illegal Immigrant Welfare
It’s not enough to allow immigrants here illegally to stay here, illegally. We must also give them public funds.
State Representative Antonio Cabral (D-New Bedford) filed Amendment 98, which would provide $18 million in welfare benefits for illegal immigrants.
The budget amendment would open up the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program eligibility and Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children eligibility to include illegal immigrants. It would amend current state law to make non-citizens eligible for the program; additionally, it would provide $15 million in funding for the first program and $3 million for the second.
Illegal immigration already costs the state nearly $2 billion per year, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Massachusetts should look to reduce that number — not increase it.
The Bay State should not offer further incentives to encourage illegal immigration. Illegal immigration comes with many downsides, including crime, terrorism, disease, downward pressure on wages, the fiscal burden, the fracturing of social cohesion, and increased carbon emissions, among other problems.
Lawmakers should vouch for the people they represent, also known as American citizens. They should not take money from American citizens and hand it to illegal immigrants.
2. Chemical Abortions
Sadly, abortion is legal in Massachusetts. Under certain circumstances, it’s legal for all nine months of pregnancy.
Not only is it legal, but we all pay for it; Medicaid funds abortion for poor women and girls, and the state requires us all to purchase health insurance, which the state requires to cover abortion thanks to liberals in both parties.
Yet state representative Kate Hogan (D-Stow) wants to make matters worse. She filed Amendment 1102, which would provide $1 million to the Public University Health Center Sexual and Reproductive Health Preparation Fund to reimburse public universities for chemical abortion pills.
It is sad to see lawmakers push for more funding to destroy unborn lives. They should instead request funding for programs that help women facing unintended pregnancies who are open to giving birth, as well as programs that provide ways to prevent unintended pregnancies.
3. Italian Cultural Center of Western Massachusetts
Us Bay Staters are also paying to promote Italian culture.
The organization mentioned above seeks to preserve Italian culture, traditions, and heritage, and the Italian language. It sponsors “social, culinary, and educational events to foster appreciation and respect in the community for the rich contributions that Italians have made locally and throughout the world.”
Here is the list of activities the organization puts on:
Italian Movie Nights
Italian Cultural Lecture Series
Delicious Italian Dinner Events
Italian Cooking Classes
Adult Italian Language Classes
Bus Trips
Raffles
Game Nights
A Celebration of our Italian Heritage with a Flag-Raising Ceremony
And much more
They sound like great activities, which should prove enriching and invigorating to certain Massachusetts residents with close family ties to Italy.
They also sound like the sort of things private groups do — not the government.
Yet as things stand now, this group could receive $20,000 in taxpayer dollars thanks to Amendment 1092 filed by state Representative Carlos Gonzalez (D-Springfield).
This is an example of the state government promoting one group over another. At best it’s favoritism. At worst, it could fracture social cohesion.
Italians have a proud tradition and vibrant culture in this country. They can tend to it themselves.
4. NAACP Funding
The proposed state budget would provide $100,000 to the left-wing National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, thanks to state representative Russell Holmes (D-Mattapan), who filed Amendment 874 to the House budget.
The NAACP urged pro athletes not to sign with Texas teams over the state’s heartbeat abortion ban in 2021; that alone should disqualify the organization from receiving one cent from the government. Beyond that, a group that advocates on behalf of one racial group shouldn’t get money from the government because it’s excluding everyone else.
Does the black community disproportionately face problems that need addressing? Of course. However, given that one of those issues is people being killed before they’re born, this isn’t the best organization to solve those problems. Those black lives should matter, too.
5. Celebrating Walpole
Should taxpayers across the state prop up a celebration of Walpole’s 300th anniversary?
Or should Walpole pay for Walpole’s celebration?
State Representative Ted Philips (D-Sharon), whose Eighth Norfolk District includes part of Walpole, wants the state to provide the town with $50,000 (Amendment 1302) to help cover the cost of its 300th anniversary in 2024.
Walpole is a nice town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts that borders Foxborough and Sharon. Former Boston Red Sox manager Joe Morgan, who managed the team from 1988 to 1991, is from Walpole.
But the town shouldn’t need the state government’s help to fund its celebration. This money could go towards helping the less fortunate, providing funding to fire departments, or ensuring that residents have clean water to drink.
Instead, it will go to something that won’t improve the material conditions of anybody’s community, and will celebrate one community’s milestone over every other community’s.
New to NewBostonPost? Conservative media is hard to find in Massachusetts. But you’ve found it. Now dip your toe in the water for two bucks — $2 for two months. And join the real revolution.
