The Massachusetts Chapter of Indian American Forum for Political Education held its Annual Meeting in Cary Memorial Library, Lexington, MA on Saturday, February 2, 2008. Forum's express charter is to get the Indian American community become more politically aware and  more engaged in broad community.

Ravi Sakhuja gave an overview of the Indian American Forum for Political Education. “IAFPE started in 1982 and currently has 20 chapters nationally. The New England Chapter has provided internships for more than 140 students in the political offices of congressmen, senators and governors. Ten of these students have themselves gone on the serve in various positions at the state and national level,” said Sakhuja.

In one of the most delightful discussions, State Senators Pat Jehlen (Somerville/Medford) and Jim Marzilli (Lexington/ Arlington/Burlington) gave an over view of the state budget and its operation. According to FY 2006 Conference Report, the state spent 28.2 % of it budget on Health Care, 16.7% on Human Service, 11.8% on debt services and pensions, 18.3% on K-12 education, 3.7% on higher education, 8.0% on law enforcement, 4.5% on local aid and 8.9% on everything else including environmental affairs, transportation, housing, economic development, group insurance and libraries. The role of the government is to set the rules and the playing field and provide the services we often take for granted such as safety, education, judicial, transportation and public health, said Jehlen.

According to Marzilli, State is a purchaser of labor and health care costs have a major impact on its budget.  In order to do what the government does best, we need to increase revenues by closing the loopholes in corporate tax code and giving the cities and town the authority to charge additional local sales / meal tax. In addition, we need to reduce waste in long term care spending, and invest money in energy system that powers the economy, said Marzilli. Both Senators are opposed to Gov. Patrick’s $1B life science bill and do not believe that the state should be in the business of deciding between different technologies and focusing its resources to support a single industry / sector.
 
The nominating committee consisted of Dr. Janine Saldhana, Dr. Sahdev Passey and Mr. Anupam Wali. Congratulations to the members of the newly elected Executive Committee who are:

President: Dr. Satya Mitra
Vice President: Poornima Sangal
Secretary: Melvin Menezes
Associate Secretary: Gauri Shankar
Treasurer: Ajay Saini
Member at Large: Sanjay Kaul
Member at Large: Brinda Kamat

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