The $63.42 billion budget signed into law last month by Governor Maura Healey sets out to fund important public services like transit and schools and provide almost $10 billion in local aid to cities and towns. It is also packed with pork.
Traditionally, pork-barrel spending is defined as appropriations that benefit a special interest, rather than the general public good.
“Massachusetts taxpayers have limited financial resources. Every taxpayer dollar spent on pork projects is a dollar that’s unavailable for higher public priorities or tax cuts that would let taxpayers keep their money. When state budgets are filled with pork and driven by politics, taxpayers aren’t getting the best return on investment for their money,” Mariana Trujillo, managing director of government finance at the Reason Foundation, told NewBostonPost.
While there is pork throughout the budget, most of it appears to be concentrated under the Massachusetts Marketing Partnership – with funding for things like senior programs, youth activities, museums, Halls of Fame, and parades. Only a handful of the listed expenditures relate to tourism or marketing, the ostensible purpose of the agency.
Although some of the amounts are relatively small – such as $75,000 for the Friends of Reggie Wong Park, Inc. and $25,000 for the Lena Park Community Center – it adds up quickly, totaling approximately $34 million in this section of the budget.
“Massachusetts is the sixth-most indebted state in the country, with roughly $25,000 in state and local government debt per resident, according to Reason Foundation analysis. With taxpayers already carrying substantial liabilities, lawmakers should be focused on cutting spending, not piling politically motivated pork onto an already overburdened public,” Trujillo said.
The office of House Speaker Ronald Mariano did not respond to a request for comment, and a spokeswoman for Senate President Karen Spilka was not available to comment.
Here are the 10 worst instances of pork-barrel spending in the budget.
1. $1.3M for a weekend of football at Harvard
State lawmakers have set aside $1.3 million for the city of Boston to spend on the HBCU Kickoff Classic Weekend at Harvard University, which culminates in a football game on Labor Day.
Some of the money will pay for “career fairs and mentorship opportunities for students.”
This one’s a real headscratcher for several reasons. For starters, Harvard is not an HBCU (historically black college and university, most of which are small public and private colleges in the South). Last year, the first time this game was held, two out-of-state HBUCs played.
Harvard is welcome to host whoever it wants at its football stadium, but why does it have to cost taxpayers $1.3 million? Couldn’t Harvard reach into its $56.9 billion endowment for this?
2. Robot mowers
No one is saying Massachusetts cities and towns should neglect maintaining their parks and ball fields, but does North Andover really need $20,000 for “any costs related to robotic lawn mowers”? What’s the matter with a $5,000 John Deere riding mower?
3. The graveyard shift
Historic graveyards are both history and sacred ground. Caring for them may be a legitimate local public expense, but the $10,000 going to Wenham for “software to analyze historic graveyards” is a stretch.
If the local history buff or amateur forensic anthropologist wants to study local graveyards, then why can’t they do it on their own dime or get the local historic preservation society to fund it?
4. Urban forests on the beach
Falmouth is known for many things – its beaches, the Shining Sea Bikeway, the launching point for the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
It’s not what comes to mind when you think of Massachusetts cities. But apparently, Falmouth is due for $25,000 for an “urban forest.” Plus, the budget has no funding for urban forests in any actual cities.
5. Funding for Fido
Not to be left out, the Bay State’s canine citizens will also get their piece of pork in the form of $15,000 for Responsible Urbanites For Fido, Inc. (aka RUFF).
Among other activities, RUFF helps clean up and maintain dog parks in Boston. RUFF sounds like an important part of the communities it serves, but this use of state funds to benefit a very localized constituency should have Massachusetts taxpayers howling.
6. Booking it on a bike
This is another one to file under questionable vehicular expenditures. In Westborough, the town library is getting $12,500 for a “book bike." It's a tricycle-like structure that supports a large box holding books.
When not being pedaled, the box can open up into a mini-book display. (See pictures here and here.)
At the NewBostonPost, we are all for both reading and exercise, but $12,500 for a bike leaves us a bit breathless. If Westborough librarians really believe in the book bike concept, a bicycle with a trailer could achieve the same results at a fraction of the cost.
7. Day of the Dead
The budget also has $10,000 that is going to Casita Cultura Latina, Inc. for the Día de los Muertos and “and other cultural events in the city of Worcester.” Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a traditional Mexican festival that corresponds with All Saints and All Souls Day, on Nov. 1 and 2.
According to legend, families are reunited with their deceased relatives on these days. Usually there’s also a parade with people in skeleton costumes or face-painted skulls.
Depending on how you approach it, it sounds like it could be fun, or a meaningful way to honor your relatives. But it definitely does not sound like something that should be in the state budget.
To their credit, state lawmakers are equal-opportunity pork-barrel spenders (for Worcester at least): another $10,000 will fund the local Black Heritage Juneteenth festival and $10,000 is also slated for the Worcester Pride festival. That's $30,000 for these identity-based Worcester festivals.
8. Budget-busting bathrooms
Lawmakers have also set aside $50,000 for the Jones Library in Amherst “to support the construction of a gender inclusive ADA compliant restroom.”
That seems like an awful lot for a single bathroom, but when we checked, ADA-compliant bathrooms actually can cost that much. (However, it’s worth noting that figure is on the higher end of the estimates we saw.)
So what explains the $100,000 budgeted for “restroom construction” at Veterans Field in Wakefield?
9. The tolling of the bell
Paul Revere is best remembered for his warnings that the British were about to invade.
In Longmeadow, just outside of Springfield, one of Revere’s other legacies lingers on in the ringing of a bell he forged that is at the historic First Church of Christ. But, apparently, the control tower that operates it needs to be replaced, to the tune of $28,000. Some of that money will also go towards ensuring continued “access to the historical premises for students and the community.”
It may be a worthwhile project, but should it be a taxpayer priority? Especially when there are as many as 134 total Paul Revere bells in the country, many of them in Massachusetts (according to this list.)
It’s worth noting that this is the second Paul Revere-related expenditure in the budget: the state is also spending $50,000 on the Paul Revere Heritage Site in Canton.
10. Multiple Museums
Museums are referenced 26 times in the budget.
Plus, there is funding for three Halls of Fame – the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, the International Volleyball Hall of Fame, and the Boch Center’s Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame.
One can argue that funding for museums may be justifiable if the goal is to generate tourism and spur economic activity – although not everyone agrees that’s a wise use of public funds. But approximately 20 or more museums seems a few too many.
Sure, places like the Plimoth Patuxet Museums (formerly Plimoth Plantation) are major tourist attractions, but how many people are really visiting Massachusetts to check out the Public Health Museum in Tewksbury? Or the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation in Waltham? Or the Cape Cod Children’s Museum?
