Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
House-Senate Budget Conference Committee
State House, Boston
Dear committee member:
On behalf of the cities and towns of the Commonwealth, the Massachusetts Municipal Association offers comments on the House and Senate budget bills for fiscal 2011 that are before the Conference Committee.
City and town officials appreciate the enormous financial challenges facing the Legislature in crafting a balanced revenue and spending plan for next year. Local officials have made very tough decisions, and imposed harsh cuts in services with an impact on public education, police and fire service, public works, libraries and many other core programs. The vast majority of cities and towns have adopted their fiscal 2011 budgets, based on available information distributed by members of the General Court regarding the Legislature’s local aid appropriations. Any changes below those levels of aid would be extremely disruptive and would trigger widespread fiscal distress in cities and towns in every corner of Massachusetts. It is imperative that no further local aid cuts be implemented beyond the deep reductions that have already been announced.
The budget bills approved by the two branches include similar amounts for the main municipal and school aid accounts, but different amounts for some of the smaller accounts. The two bills also propose different law changes, including the Senate-proposed change on the extraordinarily important issue of managing health insurance costs. Giving cities and towns meaningful authority to control municipal health insurance costs would help balance local budgets and save municipal and school jobs. We have sent a separate letter to the budget conference committee members on this critical issue.
Unrestricted General Government Aid
Both the House and Senate approved the distribution of $899 million in Unrestricted General Government Aid (UGGA). This represents a 4 percent cut from the fiscal 2010 level and a 32 percent cut ($416 million) from fiscal 2009. While the proposed cut for next year is consistent with the local aid statement from the House and Senate Ways and Means Committee chairs released in March, the reduction in aid will still result in service cuts at the local level, particularly in cities and towns that rely heavily on state assistance.
Chapter 70 School Aid
Funding for Chapter 70 school aid would be reduced by 3 percent next year, including a third year of use of federal state fiscal stabilization amounts. While, again, the numbers are based on the March announcement, this level of funding will result in deep cuts in education and greater reliance on the property tax to fund schools.
Key Municipal and School Accounts
The Police Incentive Pay (Quinn) Program would be funded at $5 million in both the House and Senate budget bills. Full funding of the state’s statutory share would require almost $60 million.
The MMA strongly supports the Senate level of funding for the special education “circuit breaker” at $146 million. This important account is vitally important, offsetting a portion of the cost of providing state-mandated services in every school district.
We also strongly support the Senate level of funding for student transportation in regional school districts at $46 million, a crucial account to reimburse a portion of the costs that are unavoidable in regionalized districts.
Proposed Law Changes
The MMA strongly supports the provisions of the Senate budget that would delay implementation of the major changes in the Open Meeting Law to November 1, 2010, to provide cities and towns with more time to provide training to local officials and employees, and to identify the significant document storage and other challenges that the new law would impose on communities.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or John Robertson, the MMA’s Deputy Legislative Director, at (617) 426-7272. Thank you for your support for local government as you work to finalize a spending plan in another very difficult year.
Sincerely,
Geoffrey C. Beckwith
MMA Executive Director