MA budget woes and the federal stimulus package

Governor Patrick has to close a budget gap of at least $950 million at this point. How will he do it?

What we know so far is that the Governor is seeking
· Over $300 million in additional cuts
· $128 million local aid cuts

Which means that via withdrawals from state reserves and anticipated assistance from the still being defined federal stimulus package, he will need to close at least half a billion dollars of the budget gap.

I think we will be learning quite a lot about the federal stimulus package from the Governor’s budget announcement at 11 a.m.