LEVEL 1 - 88 OF 136 STORIES                           


                                The Boston Globe

                   September 21, 1989, Thursday, City Edition

SECTION: METRO/REGION; Pg. 29

LENGTH: 887 words

HEADLINE: Dukakis staffers face grilling on state layoffs; McGovern 
hearing to focus on delays; human services coalition decries toll of 
budget cuts

BYLINE: By M.E. Malone, Globe Staff

KEYWORD: MICHAEL DUKAKIS; ADMINISTRATION; EMPLOYEE; DECREASE; BUDGET

 BODY:     Top members of Gov. Dukakis' staff are expected to be put 
under a high-powered microscope today by Senate Ways and Means Committee 
Chairwoman Patricia McGovern as she begins a series of hearings expected 
to focus on one of the touchiest subjects on Beacon Hill - the layoff of 
state workers.

   Members of the governor's staff reportedly are angry at McGovern for 
her plan to scrutinize Dukakis' attempts to whittle down the state 
budget, but publicly have said that they are looking forward to the 
opportunity to present the savings and cuts they have made already.

   Today, heads of the state's biggest agencies are expected to detail 
the number of jobs they have eliminated in recent months, as well as how 
many workers will have to be laid off before the year is out.

   Administration and Finance Secretary L. Edward Lashman told House 
leaders earlier in the week that the state expects to reduce its total 
work force by 5,000, including the approximately 2,700 job slots 
eliminated since last summer.

   But legislative and administrative sources, who acknowledge that the 
state has been cutting back by not filling vacant jobs, said that only 
about 300 layoff notices have been mailed this month. In August, the 
administration's budget analysts predicted that about 1,400 layoffs would 
be needed by Oct. 1 because of the $ 491 million in cuts announced by 
Dukakis in July.

   This week, Lashman told department heads to formulate budget reduction 
plans by Oct. 15 that would trim an additional 5 percent from their 
agencies in the face of lower-than-expected revenues. No estimates are 
yet available as to how many more jobs will be lost to meet those 
targets.

   Because the state has promised workers 30 days' notice of layoffs, 
McGovern has expressed concern that the state is dragging its feet, and 
will end up laying off more workers later in the year and is wasting 
money as a result.

   "My trouble now is that the longer it takes us to cope with these 
problems, the worse the deficits are," McGovern said.



                                                                       
PAGE   26                  (c) 1989, The Boston Globe, September 21, 1989                 


   McGovern estimates that the state's deficit for this year is more than 
$ 400 million, including $ 170 million in revenue shortfalls, $ 70 
million in group insurance costs, and millions more in health and welfare 
benefits than the state had included in the budget.

   To make up for at least $ 295 million of the expected deficit, House 
and administration leaders continue to exchange plans for either raising 
more money or cutting spending.

   Included in the administration's latest draft is a special lottery 
game tied to professional football that, if approved, would likely 
premiere next fall. Gone from the ever-changing budget-balancing plan is 
a previous proposal, unpopular with many state legislators, to try to 
make state workers pay some of their health insurance premiums.

   A lawmaker from Amherst said yesterday that a major piece of the 
governor's budget-balancing package would drive up student fees in public 
colleges by at

least $ 1,000 to $ 1,200 next semester.

   Democratic Rep.  Stanley Rosenberg  said Dukakis' plan to save $ 40 
million by halting state payment of certain college costs would increase 
hospital fees at University of Massachusetts at Amherst and student 
dormitory fees at other UMass campuses.

   Rosenberg said the plan would merely shift payments from the state to 
the students and the patients at the UMass campus infirmary. "So this is 
funny money," he said, adding that it will take years to generate the $ 
40 million in savings that Dukakis thinks he can obtain in a year.

   Rep. Susan Tucker (D-Andover) said most of the savings proposals 
currently floating around Beacon Hill, including the governor's and 
several put forth by House members, are overblown. "You have to be very, 
very skeptical of every single item," she said.

   A coalition of human service agencies yesterday also cast doubt on the 
government's ability to raise between $ 200 million and $ 300 million 
without cutting services that it considers vital to some elderly, poor, 
handicapped or homeless people.

   "To the extent that budget-cutters do not concentrate on the efficient 
collection of fees, fines and federal reimbursements, it doesn't take 
long before the pocket calculators are applied to making cuts in 
services," the Massachusetts Human Services Coalition said in an analysis 
of the cuts in the 1990 budget.

   Deborah Weinstein, author of the budget report, said she hopes state 
leaders will learn that they cannot call for across-the-board cuts of 5 
or 10 percent without "devastating effects."

   "What we hope is that people will see the budget in terms of human 
services and see that, already, those that have been hurt by cuts are the 
most vulnerable, low-income people," she said.

   Weinstein also criticized those competing to succeed Dukakis as 
governor for neglecting the needs of the state's poor residents when 
outlining their ideals                                                                        
PAGE   27                  (c) 1989, The Boston Globe, September 21, 1989                 


and goals for the office, saying they are "budgeting by robot" when they 
propose across-the-board cuts.

   Prominent on the list of budget cuts most hurtful to the state's poor 
is the decision to pay welfare recipients the same amount they received 
last year, at the same time that housing, child care, transportation, and 
medical expenses and other needs are rising.

   "Everywhere a poor person turns, the state is cutting off help," 
Weinstein said.