Budget week on Beacon Hill started off well for taxpayers as a chorus of voices beat back an attempted end-run around Proposition 2 1/2. Charlie Baker went on the offensive during the week highlighting opportunities for reform with a series of press conferences. I got into the act with an editorial in both the Beverly Citizen and Salem News that highlighted a needed reform in the state's MassHealth medicaid program.

However, what took place the rest of the week was a steady stream of cases-in-point of what is wrong with one-party rule on Beacon Hill. The week ended with a budget passing the House amid bi-partisan opposition which cut local aid to the tune of nearly $250 million, but raised total spending over 3% year over year. Once again, the legislature short-changes its cities and towns while protecting the status quo.

Even the Boston Globe took the House to task over the budget, accusing it of 'postponing hard choices' in dealing with 'bloat and dysfunction.' Coming from the Globe, that cannot be seen as anything but a stinging rebuke.

The first line in this Republican caucus blog posting is troubling for a couple of reasons: first, it says that a hoped-for resolution promising cities and towns level-funding of local aid and Chapter 70 education funding was not even allowed to be brought to the floor and debated and second, it says that Tuesday's formal session was the "first full formal session held in several weeks."

So much for a full-time legislature I guess.