The state legislature approved a supplemental budget in mid-November. Governor Romney announced his vetoes the day before Thanksgiving. The legislature may then attempt to override vetoes when the session resumes.

The supplemental budget as approved by the Massachusetts house and senate included an amendment that would have directed DMA to enroll elderly and disabled special status immigrants in the MassHealth Essential program if there are projected funds available. The amendment would have used surplus money from MassHealth Essential to provide coverage for 2,500 of the 10,000 immigrants who were cut from the program in August. Currently, only 12,000 of the 36,000 slots in MassHealth Essential are filled. Governor Mitt Romney vetoed this amendment. (state Senator Mark Montigny, D- New Bedford), said he hopes leg-islators will be able to override the veto and restore some of the coverage for the 2,500 oldest and sickest legal immigrants.

Other provisions:

Romney approved $3.7 million for the Department of Social Services to prevent layoffs of counselors and lawyers; $3.1 million for the Department of Youth Services so it can avoid prematurely releasing juvenile offenders; and $3.2 million for the Department of Mental Retardation's residential and day programs.

Public Health

• Substance Abuse Services - Dedicates $500K for Substance Abuse Services. Also dedicates existing substance abuse funds to specific programs.
• Family Health Services - The legislators' budget dedicated $2M for Family Health Services. It appears that Gov. Romney may have reduced this to $1.5. Neither version of the budget defined the amounts to be distributed to the various programs that fall under this line-item. These include family planning services, rape crisis services, poison control, LGBT youth programs and several others services. The amount allocated (under both versions) is not sufficient to keep all these programs up and running for the fiscal year. The programs are left to "fight it out" among themselves.
• School Health Services - Dedicates $6M from collection of federal funds for School Health Services
• Amyotrophic Leteral Sclerosis Registry - Authorizes DPH to establish an Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis registry by area and regions of the state. Specific data must be obtained from urban low and middle income communities and minority communities throughout the Commonwealth.
• Benign Brain-Related Tumor Registry - Authorizes DPH to keep records of benign brain-related tumors; current collection is limited to malignant cancers.

Mental Health

Homeless Mentally Ill - Dedicates $1.5M for Homeless Mentally Ill program

Health Disparities

Included an amendment to create a Special Commission to Eliminate Health Disparities. Latinos in Massachusetts are 3 times more likely to die from diabetes than their white counterparts and black infants are 5 times more likely to die in their first year of life than white infants. Yet there is no state with a comprehensive plan to eliminate disparities.

-Adapted from materials from MIRA, Partners Government Relations, and "Governor Slashes New Spending, vetoes $80m Of Legislature's Appropriations": By Scott S. Greenberger, Boston Globe Staff, 11/27/2003. Thanks also to Patricia McMullen and Bonnie Zimmer for additional information.