In announcing her administration’s $1.23 billion plan to modernize its IT systems, Gov. Maura Healey stressed the positives for constituents.

“Our administration is committed to making state government more accessible to the residents, businesses and visitors of Massachusetts – and a key way to do that is to ensure that our IT services are updated and easy to use,” she said.

Be careful what you wish for: Healey and other leaders may not like what constituents have to say as they make use of that boosted access to state government.

Such as the phrase “we can spend $45 million a month to shelter migrants, but we can’t cover…”

Thanks to budget cuts stemming from a $1 billion shortfall in the state’s FY2024 revenue forecast, there are a number of things on the “we can’t cover” list.

As the Herald reported, the budget for MassHealth, the state’s insurance plan, will drop by $294 million. The Commonwealth Care Trust Fund, which helps those who can’t afford insurance but don’t qualify for MassHealth, was set to receive $50 million in 2024. It will instead get nothing, “because the existing balance of the (fund) is sufficient to support projected spending.”

This begs the question: If the existing balance is enough to support projected FY24 spending, why was $50 million on the budget?

Especially painful: The Emergency Aid to the Elderly Disabled and Children program, Community College SUCCESS fund, and the State Scholarship Program will be reduce by $4 million or more.

IT upgrades are important, of course, but given the revenue shortfall and budget cuts, is this the best time to pursue such a spending bill? If Massachusetts can come up with funding for the ever-growing needs of the state’s emergency shelter system due to the influx of migrants and homeless, surely a fiscal focus on the elderly disabled, underinsured and community colleges is equally worthy.

The IT spending bill does have real-world benefits. “We are thrilled to see a $12 million investment to support the Child Care Financial Assistance Modernization (CCFA) project in the bill filed today by Governor Healey,” Amy O’Leary, Executive Director, Strategies for Children said in a statement on the state’s web site. “This capital project is critical to continue the momentum at the Department of Early Education and Care to better serve children and families. Infrastructure matters.”

True. A lot of things matter. Efficient processing of financial assistance, keeping families from living on the streets, helping the elderly poor. We don’t envy Gov. Healey’s job in having to triage the needs of Mass. residents.

But what constituents see in the day-to-day is less money going to things they need. Healey may excel at seeing the glass as half full, saying the IT borrowing bill shows the “strength” of Massachusetts’ fiscal standing, despite the $1 billion revenue slowdown and hundreds of millions in budget cuts, but for residents on the business end of those cuts, the glass has a hole in it.

And no one is footing the bill for glue.

Editorial cartoon by Bob Gorrell (Creators Syndicate)