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Advocacy Press Room Municipal leaders call on Legislature to protect local aid and immediately pass real reforms to aid cities and towns
For immediate release – For more information, contact Geoff Beckwith or Pat Mikes at (617) 426-7272
Dozens of city and town leaders from across the state gathered today at a special meeting of the Massachusetts Municipal Association to call on the Legislature to protect local aid and immediately pass real and meaningful reforms to prevent massive layoffs, service reductions, and increased reliance on the property tax.
Responding to the fiscal 2010 state budget bill released on Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee, local officials described the fiscal crisis facing cities and towns and said that the proposed budget would force thousands of layoffs, slash key municipal services, and weaken the Massachusetts economy.
MMA leaders said that the House budget would cut municipal aid by $425 million below original fiscal 2009 levels, a 32 percent reduction – the largest municipal aid cut in history, bringing municipal aid down to 1987 levels. The House Ways and Means budget would also eliminate more than $100 million from other vital local aid accounts, including special education funds, school transportation reimbursements, sewer rate relief, community policing grants, anti-gang initiatives, police career incentive payments, and other valuable local programs. The proposed House budget would result in a total local aid cut of well over $500 million.
Franklin Town Administrator Jeffrey Nutting, the President of the MMA, said, “The proposed House budget contains extraordinarily deep and harmful local aid cuts that would cause immediate and lasting damage to cities and towns in every corner of Massachusetts.”
Beverly Mayor William Scanlon, the Vice President of the MMA, said, “There is no question about it, this budget would force communities to lay off thousands of teachers, police officers, firefighters, public works employees, librarians and other key staff.”
Melrose Mayor Robert Dolan, the President of the Massachusetts Mayors’ Association, a member organization of the MMA, said, “Essential services would be severely weakened, and reliance on the regressive property tax would skyrocket. Unfortunately, this budget would cause greater harm to the Massachusetts economy, and make the recession last longer than necessary.”
The MMA and city and town leaders from across the state said legislators must take every possible step to reverse these cuts and restore local aid to acceptable levels, including using state stabilization funds, federal stimulus funds, and increasing state taxes.
The municipal leaders called on the Legislature to immediately enact a real municipal relief bill that removes health insurance decisions from collective bargaining, allows for a local-option meals tax and an increase in the local hotel-motel tax, and finally closes the telecommunications property tax loopholes that give the telephone company a $50 million tax break that cannot be justified in these difficult times.
“Now is the time for action,” said MMA President Nutting. “We are in the middle of the deepest fiscal crisis and economic recession of our lifetimes, and we need real tools and real reform today.”
MMA Executive Director Geoffrey Beckwith said, “The reality is that this 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 and their citizens. Unless this action is taken, Massachusetts will experience a longer and deeper recession, and our economic recovery will be postponed.”
Advocacy Press Room Municipal leaders call on Legislature to protect local aid and immediately pass real reforms to aid cities and towns
Municipal leaders call on Legislature to protect local aid and immediately pass real reforms to aid cities and towns
For immediate release – For more information, contact Geoff Beckwith or Pat Mikes at (617) 426-7272
Dozens of city and town leaders from across the state gathered today at a special meeting of the Massachusetts Municipal Association to call on the Legislature to protect local aid and immediately pass real and meaningful reforms to prevent massive layoffs, service reductions, and increased reliance on the property tax.
Responding to the fiscal 2010 state budget bill released on Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee, local officials described the fiscal crisis facing cities and towns and said that the proposed budget would force thousands of layoffs, slash key municipal services, and weaken the Massachusetts economy.
MMA leaders said that the House budget would cut municipal aid by $425 million below original fiscal 2009 levels, a 32 percent reduction – the largest municipal aid cut in history, bringing municipal aid down to 1987 levels. The House Ways and Means budget would also eliminate more than $100 million from other vital local aid accounts, including special education funds, school transportation reimbursements, sewer rate relief, community policing grants, anti-gang initiatives, police career incentive payments, and other valuable local programs. The proposed House budget would result in a total local aid cut of well over $500 million.
Franklin Town Administrator Jeffrey Nutting, the President of the MMA, said, “The proposed House budget contains extraordinarily deep and harmful local aid cuts that would cause immediate and lasting damage to cities and towns in every corner of Massachusetts.”
Beverly Mayor William Scanlon, the Vice President of the MMA, said, “There is no question about it, this budget would force communities to lay off thousands of teachers, police officers, firefighters, public works employees, librarians and other key staff.”
Melrose Mayor Robert Dolan, the President of the Massachusetts Mayors’ Association, a member organization of the MMA, said, “Essential services would be severely weakened, and reliance on the regressive property tax would skyrocket. Unfortunately, this budget would cause greater harm to the Massachusetts economy, and make the recession last longer than necessary.”
The MMA and city and town leaders from across the state said legislators must take every possible step to reverse these cuts and restore local aid to acceptable levels, including using state stabilization funds, federal stimulus funds, and increasing state taxes.
The municipal leaders called on the Legislature to immediately enact a real municipal relief bill that removes health insurance decisions from collective bargaining, allows for a local-option meals tax and an increase in the local hotel-motel tax, and finally closes the telecommunications property tax loopholes that give the telephone company a $50 million tax break that cannot be justified in these difficult times.
“Now is the time for action,” said MMA President Nutting. “We are in the middle of the deepest fiscal crisis and economic recession of our lifetimes, and we need real tools and real reform today.”
MMA Executive Director Geoffrey Beckwith said, “The reality is that this 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 and their citizens. Unless this action is taken, Massachusetts will experience a longer and deeper recession, and our economic recovery will be postponed.”
