Working for Fall River and Freetown during Beacon Hill's Budget Week

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Since I started my job as state representative in September, my State House colleagues had told me that Budget Week in April was the busiest time of year. At the time, it was hard to imagine being busier than I already was, but I prepared myself as best as possible in anticipation of the week when it began on Monday, April 28. It was a week of debating the proposed budget and its amendments with each day bookended by early morning and late night hours.

While I knew long nights in the House Chamber were ahead, I didn’t expect working on the Fiscal ‘15 budget to be as rewarding as it turned out to be. Not every person or institution can be completely satisfied on the outcome of the finalized budget; there is only so much state money to go around. However, I truly feel as if this year, much was done to support those programs that needed funding the most.

I’d like to share with you a few highlights from Budget Week and what we as legislators were able to do without raising taxes.

Along with my colleagues, I had the opportunity to advocate for issues that were both related to my local district in Fall River and Freetown and also to the commonwealth as a whole. For example, we sought and secured for our public schools over $102.9 million for Fall River and $388,787 for Freetown, an increase over Fiscal ‘14 in Chapter 70 funding, and $21.2 million for Fall River and $844,945 for Freetown in local unrestricted aid.

I successfully secured money to fix localized flooding issues in the Assonet Bay Shores area and cosponsored dozens of amendments, including one that added necessary funding for caseload management in the Department of Children and Families.

As a Legislature, my colleagues and I voted to support various necessary programs across the commonwealth, by amending them in consolidated amendments. For example, education is a priority.

For early education and care, the consolidated amendment funds programs such as the waitlist for income-eligible children, serving approximately 1,200 children from birth to age 5 who are currently receiving no child care.

For elementary and secondary education, we provided $2.75 million for school-to-career connecting activities, which is a $1.75 million increase over the original House Ways and Means appropriation. This provides funding to local workforce investment boards to connect at-risk students with academic and job opportunities that can enable them to successfully enter the mainstream economy.

Other important education elements that were funded are adult basic education, the special education circuit breaker, the safe and supportive schools initiative, charter school reimbursement, and YouthBuild, a fantastic program that operates a local chapter in Fall River that helps low-income young people work towards their GEDs, learn job skills, and serve their communities by building affordable housing.

We were able to secure $19.48 million (an additional $1.31 million from last year) for Bristol Community College, a jewel of higher education in Fall River, bringing it closer in line to the piece of the funding pie that it deserves.

For elders, we provided funding for councils on aging, homecare programs, Meals on Wheels, and maintaining high quality services in nursing homes. To respond to the mental health and substance abuse needs in the commonwealth, we increased funding for the Bureau of Substance Abuse Treatment from the Fiscal ‘14 amount of $83.9 million to over $90.2 million, which allows the bureau to provide critical services to more people more effectively, expanding the number of detox beds and clinical stabilization beds.

In addition, $1.3 million was allocated to improve the analytic capability of the current Prescription Drug Monitoring Program and to upgrade the PMP computer software to take advantage of current technologies that include a secure, Internet-based application, along with supporting the regular activities of the drug control program. Our veterans services were given an additional $3 million over the initial House budget at the end of the debate.

There are numerous other items in the budget that received well deserved funding, such as regional tourism councils and other cultural programs, and Budget Week lived up to its promise of a hectic atmosphere as we dealt with each of the 1,175 amendments.

Of course, I was not left alone in this process. The local delegation has been tremendously supportive. House Speaker Pro Tempore Pat Haddad, Rep. Paul Schmid, and Rep. Alan Silvia and their staff have been gracious in their guidance and helpfulness and have worked tirelessly as well.

As the Senate now takes up their budget, you can be certain that state Sen. Michael Rodrigues will carry our needs in that debate, and he and his staff have also been most helpful to me. We truly are working as a team for our districts, and we are lucky to have the experience and leadership of Speaker Pro Temp Patricia Haddad and Sen. Michael Rodrigues as we fight for progress.

It is through our work together that we can respond to the financial needs of the commonwealth. We have a myriad of wonderful programs that help the residents of our state on a daily basis. I am proud to work with my colleagues to support these as best as possible and to ensure that our state’s finances are used wisely.

Carole Fiola, D-Fall River, is the representative for the Sixth Bristol District.