Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
Before ending formal legislative sessions on July 31 for the August summer break, the House and Senate overrode several dozen of Gov. Charlie Baker’s fiscal 2016 state budget vetoes, adding back about $97 million in spending.
The overrides included unanimous votes in both branches to restore funding for kindergarten expansion grants to the $18.6 million level that had been approved by the Legislature. The governor used his veto authority to reduce the appropriation to $1 million.
This grant program to support full-day access to local kindergarten programs is used by 177 cities, towns and regional school districts across the state. Funding for the program in the fiscal 2015 state budget was $23.9 million before it was reduced through two rounds of Section 9C cuts to $18.6 million.
The MMA strongly supported maintaining kindergarten development grants at the fiscal 2015 post-9C level of $18.6 million. Without these funds, communities across the state would have struggled to maintain their existing kindergarten offerings.