Lawmakers override $150m in vetoes,
restore pension payments

By Daniel J. Fitzgibbons, Chronicle staff

awmakers last week restored more than $150 million of the $271 million trimmed from the fiscal 2002 budget by Acting Gov. Jane Swift, but virtually all of the money returned to the budget was in the form of state payments to the pension fund for public employees.

     The major override defeated Swift's attempt to divert $134 million in pension fund payments to social services. Under the governor's plan, state efforts to fully fund the pension system by 2008 would have extended payments by another 10 years to 2018. Opponents said it was unfair to shift responsibility for pension payments to future generations.

     The other overrides restored support for anti-smoking efforts, high school enrollment aid, travel and tourism grants and health education programs.

     None of the overrides affected public higher education. As a result, Swift's vetoes of more than $5.3 million for state and community colleges were allowed to stand. The veto of another $5 million to match private fund-raising by the University and public colleges also was sustained.

     Lawmakers also did not take up Swift's proposed $592 million supplemental appropriation bill, which would have restored some funds for higher education, including the dual enrollment program for high school students and the New England Board of Higher Education, which administers regional tuition exchange programs.

     The legislative budget plan eliminated funding for the state's participation in the regional program, which was created in 1955 to allow students to attend out-of-state institutions at in-state tuition rates if their academic program wasn't offered in their home state.

     Elimination of the program is expected to affect 2,100 Massachusetts residents studying in the other New England states as well as 468 out-of-state residents enrolled in programs on this campus.

     The dual enrollment program allows high school students to simultaneously attend public colleges. Currently, about 65 area high schools students are enrolled at the Amherst campus.

     The Legislature could take up Swift's supplemental spending package next month.