January 19, 2018 - from the Massachusetts Municipal Association meeting:

Several days before formally submitting his fiscal 2019 state budget plan, Gov. Charlie Baker presented the broad outlines this morning to more than 1,000 local officials from across Massachusetts during the MMA Annual Meeting & Trade Show in Boston.
 
The governor said his budget bill will include a 3.5 percent increase in Unrestricted General Government Aid, raising that account to $1.1 billion. The increase matches the projected rate of growth in state tax collections for fiscal 2019, a number that administration and legislative budget writers agreed upon last Friday.
 
On the other major local aid account, the governor said he would increase Chapter 70 education aid by $118 million, $15 million of which would be set aside to assist districts teaching Puerto Rico hurricane survivors who have come to Massachusetts to attend school. The roughly 2.5 increase would bring the Chapter 70 account to $4.87 billion.
 
The UGGA account is funded mainly from Lottery and other gaming revenues and is used locally to help pay for municipal services and to reduce reliance on the property tax. During his campaign in 2014, the governor said he would increase UGGA at the same rate as the growth in tax collections, a commitment he has honored now in each of his four budget proposals.
 
The governor added that the administration has held to this commitment even in years when the revenue projections proved to be overly optimistic, protecting cities and towns when the state has needed to make mid-year cuts.
 
The governor also announced that his administration would be filing a bill in a matter of weeks with $200 million for the Chapter 90 local road and bridge program, a critical reimbursement program used by cities and towns to maintain basic infrastructure.

People better keep buying lotto tickets.