The Massachusetts Municipal Association has called on the leadership of the state legislature, the General Court, to issue a resolution detailing the amount of state aid that cities and towns are likely to receive in the upcoming budget.
LOCAL AID RESOLUTION NEEDED NOW!
Please Call Your Legislators Today and Ask for Action in March
Cities and towns are working hard to prepare their fiscal 2012 budgets, facing extremely difficult funding decisions and clear fiscal distress. With the state facing a $1.8 billion budget crisis of its own, the Governor and Legislature have already announced that their own spending plan will bring a fourth straight year of local aid cuts. Communities cannot make timely and informed decisions unless Legislators let local officials know as early as possible what the minimum level of local aid will be for fiscal 2012.
Last year, House and Senate leadership released a special “statement” on March 12 announcing minimum levels of municipal and school aid prior to any legislative budget debate. In 2009, both branches approved Local Aid Resolutions before the budget debate. This year, legislators have started to warn local officials not to count on the Governor’s local aid numbers released in January and to anticipate deeper cuts. The House and Senate budget committees wrapped up hearings on the Governor’s budget on March 4, and the House is expected to release a budget bill in mid-April. Cities and towns cannot afford to wait four weeks to learn what Beacon Hill is contemplating regarding local aid levels. It is time for both branches to tell cities and towns what to expect!
The Legislature faces a difficult task in balancing the state’s fiscal 2012 operating budget. Even though tax collections are forecast to grow by $741 million next year, the temporary federal revenues used over the past three years are nearly exhausted and state Medicaid cost trends are more than eclipsing all revenue growth. The Legislature has been evaluating the measures proposed by the Governor ...
...in January to balance the budget, including his aggressive savings initiatives in health programs, spending cuts and new revenues. None of them are easy or popular.
Please call your Representatives and Senators today and tell them that a Local Aid Resolution or statement is needed NOW to help prepare municipal budgets and to inform local decisions on spending. Remind them that you face your own set of difficult choices about program funding, staffing levels and raising revenues. Tell them about the choices your community is facing. Without a formal local aid notice that commits to a basic level of local aid, final numbers may be delayed until the Legislature votes a fiscal 2012 budget bill sometime in June. Please let your Legislators know that this is too late and that minimum municipal and school aid numbers are needed today!
If you value good government, call or email Representative Chris Markey and Senator Mark Montigny and ask them to pass a local aid resolution.
The continuing shortfall of revenue makes this a very challenging year. Dartmouth managers and decision makers need to know what they have to work with. You can help by clicking the links associated with our state legislators names above and ask for enactment of a local aid resolution Click here to read on!