Home 
Local Aid and Finance MMA testifies before Municipal Relief Commission
To help them survive the current fiscal crisis, Massachusetts cities and towns need local taxing authority, more control over health insurance plans, closure of the telecommunications tax loophole, and charter school funding reform, the MMA testified today before the Legislature’s Special Municipal Relief Commission.
The MMA argued that “cities and towns need powerful tools and resources to reduce the recession’s impact on municipal services, ensure that municipal personnel levels are adequate to deliver these services, and protect local taxpayers from increases in the overburdened property tax.”
The MMA called for a local option meals tax of up to 3 percent and an increase in the local option room occupancy excise (commonly known as the hotel-motel tax) of up to 2 percent.
The MMA also pointed out that municipalities are required to negotiate and receive union approval to implement significant changes in their health insurance plans, while the state has exempted itself from this requirement and implements basic decisions on health insurance outside of collective bargaining. The MMA urged the Legislature to give cities and towns the same authority as the state in designing health insurance plans for employees.
“This one reform is the most effective way to bring immediate fiscal relief to all cities and towns,” the MMA testified.
The MMA also urged the Legislature to codify last year’s Appellate Tax Board’s ruling that telecommunications companies are subject to local taxation on poles and wires over public ways, and to eliminate the remaining exemption of telecommunications equipment from the personal property tax.
The MMA also pointed out that the current funding system for charter schools drains resources from public school districts. For fiscal 2009, Chapter 70 school aid deductions from municipal and regional school districts to pay tuition to charter schools are expected to total $273 million. This is only partially offset by reimbursements that total $80 million, resulting in a net loss of $193 million. School aid losses due to charter schools affect 199 municipal and regional school districts.
“Without these reforms, communities will experience greater hardship, municipal services will suffer, the reliance on property taxes will increase even more, and our overall economy will be weaker,” the MMA testified.
The MMA also called for a number of smaller improvements and action steps that the Legislature can take to provide relief to cities and towns.
These include abolishing the civil service system, reforming the disability retirement system, enacting pension reform, reforming Chapter 111F, removing roadblocks to drug and alcohol testing, eliminating obstacles to the regionalization of services, extending the current pension funding schedules by up to three years, reforming procurement rules, allowing red-light cameras, allowing taxation of for-profit businesses on state property, and allowing the executive authority in cities and towns to shape early retirement incentives as a means of reducing layoffs.
• See complete text of MMA written testimony
Local Aid and Finance MMA testifies before Municipal Relief Commission
MMA testifies before Municipal Relief Commission
To help them survive the current fiscal crisis, Massachusetts cities and towns need local taxing authority, more control over health insurance plans, closure of the telecommunications tax loophole, and charter school funding reform, the MMA testified today before the Legislature’s Special Municipal Relief Commission.
The MMA argued that “cities and towns need powerful tools and resources to reduce the recession’s impact on municipal services, ensure that municipal personnel levels are adequate to deliver these services, and protect local taxpayers from increases in the overburdened property tax.”
The MMA called for a local option meals tax of up to 3 percent and an increase in the local option room occupancy excise (commonly known as the hotel-motel tax) of up to 2 percent.
The MMA also pointed out that municipalities are required to negotiate and receive union approval to implement significant changes in their health insurance plans, while the state has exempted itself from this requirement and implements basic decisions on health insurance outside of collective bargaining. The MMA urged the Legislature to give cities and towns the same authority as the state in designing health insurance plans for employees.
“This one reform is the most effective way to bring immediate fiscal relief to all cities and towns,” the MMA testified.
The MMA also urged the Legislature to codify last year’s Appellate Tax Board’s ruling that telecommunications companies are subject to local taxation on poles and wires over public ways, and to eliminate the remaining exemption of telecommunications equipment from the personal property tax.
The MMA also pointed out that the current funding system for charter schools drains resources from public school districts. For fiscal 2009, Chapter 70 school aid deductions from municipal and regional school districts to pay tuition to charter schools are expected to total $273 million. This is only partially offset by reimbursements that total $80 million, resulting in a net loss of $193 million. School aid losses due to charter schools affect 199 municipal and regional school districts.
“Without these reforms, communities will experience greater hardship, municipal services will suffer, the reliance on property taxes will increase even more, and our overall economy will be weaker,” the MMA testified.
The MMA also called for a number of smaller improvements and action steps that the Legislature can take to provide relief to cities and towns.
These include abolishing the civil service system, reforming the disability retirement system, enacting pension reform, reforming Chapter 111F, removing roadblocks to drug and alcohol testing, eliminating obstacles to the regionalization of services, extending the current pension funding schedules by up to three years, reforming procurement rules, allowing red-light cameras, allowing taxation of for-profit businesses on state property, and allowing the executive authority in cities and towns to shape early retirement incentives as a means of reducing layoffs.
• See complete text of MMA written testimony
Written by MMA Publications/Web Director John Ouellette
