Tuesday, January 26, 2010
‘Am I wrong? Am I missing something?’
Ah, when state spending increases from $22.2 billion to $27.7 billion over five years, for a 24.7 percent spike, I’d say the budget has ‘skyrocketed.’ … OK, let’s use the projected budget figure. It’s still a 21.6 percent increase -- despite a recession. Lord knows what it would have been without the worst economic downturn in decades. …
Update – A couple of readers have emailed in to disagree. First, A Reader:
Ah, when state spending increases from $22.2 billion to $27.7 billion over five years, for a 24.7 percent spike, I’d say the budget has ‘skyrocketed.’ … OK, let’s use the projected budget figure. It’s still a 21.6 percent increase -- despite a recession. Lord knows what it would have been without the worst economic downturn in decades. …
Update – A couple of readers have emailed in to disagree. First, A Reader:
I think you're really cherry-picking your stats. Did spending "skyrocket" under this governor, as Baker has claimed? Pure nonsense.And from Ben:
Romney's last budget: 26.2 bill
FY10 Budget: 27.0 bill
That's a 3% increase over three years -- NOT accounting for inflation, i.e. it's a *cut*.
The jump between 07 and 08 can at least partially be on account of health care expansion, a big chunk of which was paid for by the federal Medicaid waiver.
I mean ... come on. And to say, "without the worst recession" ... yeah, if things were different, they'd be different. But Baker's statement is still just plain nonsense.
If you do the math, the growth averages out to 5% annually. Higher than inflation but not crazy if you factor in the healthcare cost.My response: I’m going off the Baker quote provided in the post, i.e., state spending is skyrocketing. It’s a general statement with no reference to Patrick. So I took it at face value: state spending is skyrocketing. The numbers on the chart confirm, in my opinion, that contention. State government has grown by more than 20 percent in the past five years – despite the recession. I’m not cherry picking anything. The numbers provided are right there.
