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Patrick: Fiscal year may close without more budget cuts

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Patrick: Fiscal year may close without more budget cuts

RICHMOND, Mass. — Gov. Deval Patrick says he thinks the state will have some good news and be able to close out its most recently completed fiscal year without any more cuts.

It ended June 30, but lagging tax collections left state officials fearing they might have to cut more services or personnel after four earlier rounds of cuts.

During a news conference last Friday near his Berkshire Mountains vacation home, Patrick said, “All indications are that we are going to have some good news.”

He also says he had called the chief executive officer of Hyatt Hotel Corp. to complain after 100 Boston-area housekeepers were laid off and replaced with out-of-state workers. The governor says he asked him to reconsider. The company has said the staff cuts came after continuing declines in revenue.

Big Dig glue company settles federal charge

The company that supplied epoxy glue used in that part of the massive Big Dig underground highway project in Boston, where a ceiling collapsed and killed a motorist, has agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge of making a false statement.

Prosecutors said Powers Fasteners Inc. has agreed to a $100,000 fine. They say the Brewster, N.Y., company failed to disclose in a written manual that an epoxy it supplied for the project was not suitable for securing overhead loads such as the ceiling panels.

Powers denies any wrongdoing. It said last Friday it settled “a technical charge” to avoid further litigation.

Milena Del Valle, a Costa Rica native, was killed and her husband injured when their car was crushed by the panels in July 2006. Powers has already settled with the state and Del Valle’s family.

Report: Mass. quasi-public agencies lack oversight

Massachusetts’ many quasi-public agencies constitute a “largely unregulated government sector” that offer inappropriate compensation packages to top executives, according to a report released last Friday.

The study, conducted by the University of Massachusetts McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, found that while most salaries of executives at the agencies are appropriate, many compensation perks aren’t.

Those include excessive severance pay requirements, guaranteed raises and bonuses, and excessive sick pay cash outs.

Gov. Deval Patrick had requested the study after a public outcry over an attempt to give state Sen. Marian Walsh — an early Patrick supporter — a $175,000 per year post at a quasi-public agency.

(Associated Press)