Gov. Baker announces 4.3% increase in main local aid account

January 22, 2016

Warmly received by 900 local officials from across Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker announced at the MMA Annual Meeting this morning that cities and towns would receive a 4.3 percent increase in discretionary local aid under the fiscal 2017 state budget bill that he plans to file next week.
 
Chapter 70 education aid would increase at a much lower rate of 1.6 percent.
 
Unrestricted General Government Aid would increase by $42.1 million over the current year, to $1.02 billion, fulfilling the governor’s promise to increase the account at the same rate as the growth in state revenues.
 
Chapter 70 would increase by $72.1 million, to $4.58 billion.
 
The modest increase in Chapter 70 fulfills the state’s commitment under the current formula, but does not begin to implement the recommendations of the Foundation Budget Review Commission, which concluded its work last fall. The MMA will be advocating for the commission’s recommendations, which recognize the inadequacy of the current formula, particularly with regard to special education and school personnel costs.
 
The administration distributed a printout with the Chapter 70 and UGGA numbers for each city, town and regional school district, but it was not clear what the budget would provide for Chapter 70 per pupil minimum aid.
 
The governor also said his administration would soon file a bill to provide $200 million in fiscal 2017 for the Chapter 90 local road and bridge program. He added that his administration will soon file an economic development bill including a reauthorization and $10 million expansion of the MassWorks program, boosting funding for the multi-faceted program to $85 million.
 
The governor said his budget will include funding for state and local police to expand efforts to address drug trafficking in medium-sized cities.
 
The governor spent half of his 20-minute speech on his “municipal modernization” bill, urging local officials to show their support for the package on Beacon Hill.
 
“We think you have done a lot of important work to help us craft a bill that can make life far better, less complicated, more effective and more efficient,” he said. “Now we need to make the sale to the folks in the Legislature so they can see the value and power and importance of this.”
 
“The whole idea here was to update a lot of obsolete laws and statutes and regulations that are currently in place and to basically accept the fact that it’s 2016 now, not 1916. And many of the laws and the rules that have been on the books for anywhere from 30 to 40 to 50 to 100 years probably ought to get reconsidered at this point in time.”