Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
Dear Senator,
On behalf of cities and towns across the Commonwealth, the Massachusetts Municipal Association calls on you to reject the massive local aid cuts in the fiscal 2010 state budget that will be before you on Tuesday, May 19.
The Senate Ways and Means proposal would inflict extraordinarily deep and harmful local aid cuts that would cause immediate and lasting damage to cities and towns in every corner of Massachusetts. This budget would force communities to lay off thousands of teachers, police officers, firefighters, public works employees, librarians and other key staff. Essential services would be severely weakened, and reliance on the regressive property tax would skyrocket. This budget would cause greater harm to the Massachusetts economy, and make the recession last longer than necessary.
The budget proposal would slash municipal aid by $484 million below original (pre-9C) fiscal 2009 levels, a 37 percent reduction. This represents the largest municipal aid cut in history and would bring municipal aid down to levels last seen in the 1980s. Further, the Senate Ways and Means budget would eliminate $79 million in Chapter 70 school aid, a cut of up to 2 percent for most school districts, and would cut another $271 million from other vital local aid accounts including special education funds (a $125 million cut), school transportation reimbursements (a $31 million cut), sewer rate relief (a $20 million cut), community policing grants and anti-gang programs (a $34 million cut), police career incentive payments (a $50 million cut), library grants (an $8 million cut), PILOT funds (a $3 million cut) and many other valuable programs. In total, the proposed Senate budget would cut local aid programs by a staggering $834 million.
It is urgent that you reject these cuts and restore local aid, including using state stabilization funds, federal stimulus funds, and increasing state taxes. The MMA strongly supports raising the state sales tax up to 7 percent to provide shared relief for state and local government. This is a needed investment to protect the very services that hold up our state’s economy. Even with this tax increase, other revenue and savings measures are essential. It is imperative that the Legislature immediately enact a real municipal relief bill that removes health insurance decisions from collective bargaining, finally allows for local option taxes, and closes the telecommunications property tax loopholes that give $50 million in tax breaks that cannot be justified in these difficult times.
Please note that in the area of municipal health reform, the MMA strongly opposes the deeply flawed approach taken by the Municipal Relief Commission, which would be a major step backward, as it provides no relief from collective bargaining mandates (the state exempts itself from all collective bargaining requirements in the area of health insurance, but imposes this on cities and towns) and actually reintroduces a form of binding arbitration, which was repealed by the voters as a key element of Proposition 2½. Please see our detailed testimony to the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government for local government’s position [click here] on this matter and on the Municipal Relief Commission report [click here]. Municipal leaders look forward to a full discussion and debate on achieving reform and relief for cities and towns when the Legislature takes up a municipal relief package in the next few weeks. The commission’s report has been filed as an amendment to the budget (in Amendments Other 1 & 2). We support the very important local-option revenue provisions of the amendment, but strongly oppose and ask you to reject the health insurance sections, as these would seriously harm municipalities and make the situation worse at the local level.
The reality is that the Senate Ways and Means budget would deepen the fiscal crisis for cities and towns, force sweeping and damaging cuts to public safety, education, road and bridge maintenance, libraries and other vital services, increase reliance on property taxes, and erode the very services that support our economy.
This is a shared crisis, and cities and towns need basic levels of local aid and powerful tools to protect their communities. This budget does not contain the local aid or municipal management tools that are required. Local leaders call upon the Legislature to take this necessary action and work together as partners to deliver essential services to the people of the Commonwealth. Unless this action is taken, communities will be weaker, Massachusetts will experience a longer and deeper recession, and our economic recovery will be postponed.
• Municipal Aid: Vote to amend the budget to restore $264 million to Municipal Aid, bringing municipal aid up to the same level as the House and Governor’s budgets (this would still slash municipal aid by $220 million below original fiscal 2009 levels). Please use Sen. Brewer’s “placeholder” amendment (LOC 62) as the basis for restoring municipal aid.
• Chapter 70: Amendment EDU 351 (Sen. O’Leary) to restore $79 million to Chapter 70 school aid.
• Special Education: Amendment EDU 358 (Sen. O’Leary) to restore $79.8 million in funding for the special education circuit-breaker program, bringing the account up to $184.9 million.
• Regional School Transportation: Amendment EDU 329 (Sens. Brewer and O’Leary) to restore $20 million in regional school transportation funds, bringing the account up to $50.5 million.
• PILOT: Amendment GOV 135 (Sen. Rosenberg) to restore $3 million to the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) program, bringing the account up to $30.3 million.
• Quinn Bill: Amendment EPS 431 (Sen. Tisei) to level-fund the police career incentive pay program at $50.2 million (still millions below full funding), and limit the program only to current participants.
• Community Policing: Amendment EPS 417 (Sen. Timilty) to restore $5.3 million to community policing.
• Sales Tax Increase: Vote to support the vitally necessary sales tax increase and other revenues that will be presented during the debate to limit the damaging cuts in the Senate budget and provide a lifeline level of municipal and state funding for essential programs.
• Local-Option Taxes: Vote to support the extremely important local-option tax provisions, allowing for a 2 percent local-option sales tax on meals and an increase of up to 4 percent in the local room occupancy tax (Sen. Rosenberg has sponsored language in Amendments Other 1 & 2).
• Telecommunications Loopholes: Vote to support Amendment Other 19 (Sen. Creem) that would close the telecommunications tax loopholes that are abused by telecommunications companies at the expense of local taxpayers.
• Pension Schedules: Vote to support amendment LOC 78 (Sen. Tarr) to extend the pension funding schedule from 2028 to 2030, reducing the pension funding requirement for fiscal 2010, an important cost reduction for localities.
• School Construction Grants: Vote to strike Section 33 of the Senate Ways and Means budget, which proposes to eliminate the state’s minimum reimbursement percentage for school building projects, currently set at 40 percent.
• Municipal Health Insurance: Vote to oppose the municipal health insurance provisions included in Amendments Other 1 & 2 discussed above. Municipal officials across the state strongly oppose the Municipal Relief Commission language because the provisions would move communities backward, and they report that this change would be even worse than no reform at all. Sen. Hedlund has filed very good language (LOC 65) that would achieve real and meaningful municipal health insurance reform by giving localities plan design flexibility while granting unions impact bargaining power. LOC 65 is the amendment to support.
Cities and towns need your support to prevent the fiscal crisis from becoming a fiscal catastrophe that would harm the services, residents and taxpayers of Massachusetts. Failure to protect cities and towns will deepen the recession, and inflict unnecessary harm on the communities and people of the Commonwealth. Together, we know that Massachusetts can overcome the crisis that confronts us. Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Geoffrey C. Beckwith
MMA Executive Director