How much state funding will Andover lose this year? Which of your taxes will be raised? How will state employee benefits be reined in? The answers are largely in the hands of six state legislators.
One of them is Andover State Rep. Barbara L'Italien.
Until this year a state representative marginalized by previous House Speakers, L'Italien is now on the budget conference committee, which consists of three members of the Massachusetts House and three state senators. The six will hash out the differences between the House- and Senate-approved budgets and send a compromise budget back to their chambers for vote. The six seats are positions of power and pressure. Programs could be saved or cut in that room.
"It's kind of like being an air-traffic controller, but with every takeoff and landing requiring negotiation - and with every plane thinking of itself as Air Force One," said Les Bernal, former chief of staff to Andover State Sen. Sue Tucker and executive director of the Stop Predatory Gambling Foundation. "Everyone in the state is saying, 'Write the conference committee.'"
"There was a stretch of six weeks where I couldn't get an entire night's sleep because my mind would start running on 'How are we going to manage this?'" said L'Italien. "But I feel very fortunate to be in that room, looking at those issues."
On Friday at 10:15 a.m., L'Italien and the five others on the conference committee began going through the entire budget.
L'Italien lists her priorities as protecting:
early intervention, which addresses educational issues of children not yet of school age;
disability agencies such as those that help adults with developmental issues;
elder services, such as those that help people live at home longer; and
local aid to communities including Andover.
"There are 200 people on the combined committees of House and Senate, and every one would like to be in that room. It's an awesome responsibility," she said. "The fact that (fiscal) things are dropping precipitously is really frightening.
"It's not let's preserve so-and-so's earmark, it's how can we preserve the safety net," said L'Italien. "I think that's why I was put on this committee. I'm being put in a spot where I'm being asked to prioritize... There are no good answers to any of this."
She said the House removed 85 percent of earmarks, keeping only those that serve broad regional or state initiatives such as suicide prevention, and the Senate cut 100 percent of earmarks.
"I think the average person doesn't realize we've already cut $2.2 billion out of the budget," which includes cuts to projected increases needed to maintain services, said L'Italien.
Some of the key gaps to be closed between the two budget versions are that the Senate approves spending $800 million less than the House, but proposes a larger cut in local aid to cities and town and collecting a sales tax on alcohol bought in stores. The House voted for state employees to pay 20 percent of their health costs under the Group Insurance Commission, while the Senate voted for employees to cover 25 percent. There are differences on funding for prescriptions, special education and the Quinn Bill, which pays police officers for advanced education.
Bernal doesn't see L'Italien as being in a no-win situation.
"I think you want to be in the room when these decisions are made. You try to find a way to establish priorities within the budget constraints you have," said Bernal. "There's an opportunity for huge change. If you want to bring change to government, you want to be in that room."
The members of the budget conference committee are: Reps. Vinny deMacedo, Charles Murphy and L'Italien, and Sens. Mike Knapik, Stephen Brewer and Steven Panagiotakos.
For more on L'Italien's priorities and the differences between the House and Senate budgets see www.andovertownsman.com.
Whatever happens with the budget conference committee, one vote already taken is likely to trail State Rep. Barbara L'Italien during her next campaign. The Andover Democrat supporting raising the sales tax to 6.25 percent, which many store owners oppose, expecting it will drive more people from border towns like Andover to shop in tax-free New Hampshire.
After the vote, Lonnie Brennan, a Georgetown Republican who ran against L'Italien last election, quickly sent out a letter criticizing the decision and giving his former opponent a catchy new nickname.
"'Taxes' L'Italien is completely out of touch with the average taxpayer in this district," he wrote.
"No one gets elected wanting to raise people's taxes. It was particularly difficult for those of us [in districts near New Hampshire]," said L'Italien.
She said she voted in favor for three reasons: to limit the cut in state aid to communities to the 10 percent in the House budget, to allocate money to long-term transportation needs and to restore some cuts.
"One of the reasons I cast that vote on the sales tax was realizing that we had to protect cities and towns," she said. "I'm not sure we're going to be able to get to 10 percent, but I'd like to see the damage kept to that as closely as possible."
