Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
Dear Representative,
Local officials recognize that you and your colleagues in state government are facing major challenges as you seek to balance the state’s fiscal 2011 budget, due primarily to the economic erosion caused by the deep recession that began over two years ago. As you know, municipal budgets are also facing extreme fiscal distress because of weak growth in local revenues, deep cuts in local aid and state assistance programs, and unsustainable growth in health insurance and other costs that are unavoidable under current law. Cities and towns have downsized their workforces, imposed furloughs and salary freezes, and cut important services and programs in education, public safety, public works, libraries and much more.
This is a big week for local government. We look forward to enactment of a comprehensive municipal relief bill that will provide at least a measure of relief for fiscal 2011 and beyond. Changes to municipal health insurance law, the single most important relief opportunity, remain a work in progress, and we hope to see real and meaningful reform proposed and approved over the next several weeks separate from the relief bill and the budget bill.
The budget bill before you this week cuts the main municipal and school aid accounts by up to 4 percent for each community, a total reduction of $148 million below the current fiscal 2010 level of funding (and $159 million below the Governor’s proposed fiscal 2011 spending plan). This would mark the third straight year of deep and painful local aid cuts.
During the budget debate there will be several amendments that would provide modest help to cities and towns or set the stage for improvements when the economy recovers, and there are a number of amendments that would be harmful or undermine local finances in the long term.
Please Support the Following Amendments:
Special Education Funding. Amendment #721 would increase the appropriation for the special education “circuit breaker” account from $135 million to $148 million to help with the high cost of special education in all cities, towns and school districts. A similar amendment (#720) would increase the account to $142 million.
Surplus Revenues to Local Aid. Amendment #587 would use a portion of any fiscal 2011 year-end state tax surplus to reduce or eliminate the cuts and restore municipal and school aid to the fiscal 2010 level.
Education Funding Adequacy Study. Amendment #696 would create a special commission to study the adequacy and fairness of school finance law and make recommendations for changes. With two years of cuts to Chapter 70, and many formula flaws, this study is long overdue. Amendments #586, #761, and #802 propose similar reviews.
Please Oppose the Following Amendments:
Deeper Cuts to Unrestricted General Government Aid by Earmarking the Funds for the Quinn Bill. Amendment #664 would earmark Cherry Sheet “Unrestricted General Government Aid” to pay for the state’s share of the Police Incentive (Quinn) program. This harmful amendment would earmark (and effectively cut) local aid and divert the funds to the state for their share of the Quinn Bill. The MMA has asked for legislation to clarify that cities and towns are not responsible for the state’s share absent contract local language to the contrary.
Destabilizing Changes to Regional School Funding. Amendment #801 would allow a regional school district committee to change the formula for allocating the district assessment to a per-student allocation without any vote of the member municipalities. This would result in substantial destabilizing changes to municipal budgets in many cities and towns.
Deferring Teacher Salaries. Amendment #299 would allow for the deferral of teacher salary amounts from fiscal 2011 to fiscal 2012. This amendment sounds good, but it would allow deficit financing of municipal budgets next year and would create lasting structural budget shortfalls in fiscal 2012 and beyond. The last time this was tried, two decades ago, participating communities faced budget problems for many years.
We urge you in the strongest possible terms to enact a state budget that provides the maximum level of support to local government. The longer our communities face fiscal distress, the longer it will take for Massachusetts to begin its economic recovery. If you have any questions regarding these amendments or any aspect of the state budget, please do not hesitate to contact us; for budget and local aid questions, MMA Deputy Legislative Director John Robertson can be reached at (617) 426-7272 or jrobertson@mma.org at any time.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Geoffrey C. Beckwith
MMA Executive Director