Murphy: State budget picture remains unsettled

A day after Gov. Deval Patrick told local officials that his budget bill would level-fund the main local aid accounts, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Charles Murphy warned local officials that the state’s budget situation remains unsettled.

“All I suggest to you folks is don’t go running out and putting your budgets together” based on local aid amounts in the governor’s proposal, Murphy said during the MMA’s Annual Business Meeting on Jan. 23 in Boston.

He said the state still faces a $3 billion budget gap and is only slowly emerging from an economic crisis. While state revenue collections are showing modest growth, he said, it’s too early to tell if the trend is reliable.

Even if revenue growth does hit the 3.2 percent benchmark for fiscal 2011 that state leaders are using for budget-crafting purposes, Murphy pointed out, the state’s tax collections will still fall shy of levels achieved in fiscal 2007.

“We’re facing a fiscal situation for fiscal 2011 that hasn’t been seen in decades,” he said. “When we put this fiscal 2011 budget together, it’s going to make fiscal 2010 look like the good old days. … We have to balance the budget. We’re going to have to make difficult choices.”

He said there is “no appetite” on Beacon Hill for raising taxes.

He added, however, that legislators will make every effort to protect local aid.

“We are trying to help cities and towns,” he said. “We understand the challenges you face. … Nobody in the building wants to cut local aid.”

He said legislators are likely to pass a local aid resolution so that local leaders will have reliable numbers for crafting municipal budgets.

“We are hopeful to get a local aid resolution,” he said. “You might not like the numbers, but you need the numbers.”

Legislators did not adopt a local aid resolution last year. For fiscal 2008 and 2009, the Legislature passed resolutions in March.

Murphy did not offer any specifics about what legislators might do on local aid. The format did not allow for questions from the audience.

The House Ways and Means Committee is expected to file its fiscal 2011 budget recommendation in mid-April.