Budget Minutiae – Part 1 of a 700 part series

Spring in Massachusetts! Ahh, the joys… Opening Day, bulbs blooming, and, of course, budget season.

House Ways and Means filed last week and amendments are due to be debated next week. The power and specificity of these amendments are little noticed and that’s unfortunate.

Governor Patrick ran on a platform of minimizing earmarks to save money ($100 million in first year savings, if his now-very-hard-to-find press release is to be believed.).

And to his credit, his budget did cut back on earmarks and rolled up a number of line items.

However, the amendment season is now upon us and we’ll see how many earmarks make it back into the budget. A few of my favorites:

Your town needs a new dumptruck? Receive $95,000 and pass go.

Or maybe your local carnival is short of funds? Here’s $15,000.

Don’t let me have all the fun, take a look at the entire list for yourself. And feel free to add your favorites…