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Despite immense challenges, we must adhere to three core principles:
Eliminating waste and inefficiency
Restoring fiscal balance starts with a careful accounting of every taxpayer
dollar. At a time when families across the Commonwealth are finding new ways
to save and make do with less, state government needs to do the same. The
Romney budget streamlines government and improves the delivery of services
by zeroing out waste and inefficiency. It combines and simplifies agencies
to prevent needless duplication, coordinates programs, and adopts common sense
employment practices. Merit and performance replace cronyism and patronage
as the standards governing the administration of state programs.
Delivering the core missions of government
Helping those who cannot help themselves will remain a priority in our budget
decisions. Veterans’ benefits, welfare payments to the poor, childcare
funding and homeless assistance are all preserved in the Romney budget. But,
over the last decade, our state has drifted far away from its core mission.
We have granted free and subsidized services far beyond the definition of
real need and in excess of our ability to pay for it. We will still be one
of the most generous states in the nation, but we will only be as generous
as we can afford to be. We will adopt a new vision of shared responsibility,
where every family contributes something to its own well-being.
Sharing the sacrifice with cities and towns
Over the last decade, state
aid to cities and towns has grown an average of 7.5 percent each year, a generous
benefit during good times. But the current fiscal crisis has caused state
revenues to collapse even while local revenues have remained steady. The Romney
budget calls on cities and towns to share equally in the sacrifice while the
state weathers this temporary storm.
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