BOSTON –  A unanimous vote by the Massachusetts Senate to increase regional school transportation reimbursement funding by $2,000,000 during Tuesday’s budget debate.  The amendment raises the reimbursement rate to 73 percent of full funding, at a total of $61,021,000.

Regional school districts often have higher student transportation costs since they cover larger geographic regions. There are currently 58 regional school districts in Massachusetts with 171 member schools.  The transportation money that is not reimbursed by the state comes directly out of their school budgets.  

“Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools (MARS).  “The Senate funding level will maintain reimbursement at 73 percent for FY17.  MARS continues to advocate for funding regional transportation reimbursement at 100 percent, as stated in MGL chapter 71, Section 16C.”

The House of Representatives approved $60,021,000 and the two amounts will be negotiated by the conference committee.

posted by Jeff Bennett

May 27, 2016

The Senate last night approved a $39.5 billion state budget bill for fiscal 2017 that includes some key increases in local accounts.
 
The House and Senate state budget bills now go to a conference committee to work out some significant differences, with a goal of getting a final legislative budget to the governor before the fiscal year begins on July 1.
 
Both budget bills would bring a revenue-sharing approach to municipal aid that was sought by the MMA, increasing the Cherry Sheet Unrestricted General Government Aid account by 4.3 percent, the same rate that state taxes are projected to grow next year. UGGA would grow by $42.1 million next year to $1.02 billion, the same number recommended by the governor in January.
 
The stability in the UGGA number throughout the budget process has helped cities and towns minimize revenue uncertainty and finalize local spending plans on time. Funding for UGGA next year would reach its highest level since the reductions imposed during the Great Recession of 2007-2009.
 
The House and Senate head into conference committee with some differences in calculations of Chapter 70 local contribution and school aid amounts. In both branches, the Chapter 70 appropriation would cover the basics of the law by ensuring that all districts are able to reach the current “foundation” level of spending and providing minimum new aid of $55 per student. (Most districts are minimum aid districts.)
 
Neither branch began implementing the recommendations of the Foundation Budget Review Commission to update the “foundation budget” spending standard, which was supported by the MMA and school groups. House and Senate negotiators will have to sort out the different approaches taken to addressing the concerns of cities and towns about the new method of counting low-income students and how far to go in implementing the “target share” equity provisions adopted in 2006. The Senate included special low-income student provisions as part of the Chapter 70 calculation, while the House addressed the issue through a separate reserve account.
 
The Senate budget would appropriate $4.63 billion for Chapter 70, an increase of $116 million over the fiscal 2016 amount, while the House would appropriate slightly less.
 
The conference committee will also have to resolve differences in a wide variety of other municipal and school aid accounts and in approaches taken in legislative sections in the budget relating to a wide variety of non-budget subjects.
 
The MMA is opposing non-budget language added by amendment in the Senate that would extend, for a second time, a two-year freeze on municipal contribution rates toward health insurance for retired local employees in cities and towns that used the 2011 municipal health insurance reform law. The 2011 law froze rates for three years before being extended. The Senate amendment would undermine local efforts to address the massive unfunded liability for retiree health costs. The freeze language is not in the House budget bill.
 
The MMA is supporting Senate language, added by amendment, that would authorize cities and towns to enforce rules governing removal of doubled-up utility poles in certain cases through imposing fines of up to $1,000. The double pole language is not in the House bill.
 
In total, the House and Senate budget bills would appropriate roughly the same amount, about $39.5 billion, and would hold spending growth to less than 3 percent. Both budgets include revenue plans based on the “consensus” revenue projection adopted earlier in the year, which anticipates a reduction in the income tax rate effective Jan. 1 that would reduce revenues by almost $80 million.
 
The Senate budget plan would provide $281 million for the special education “circuit breaker” program, a $9.3 million increase above fiscal 2016, which is necessary to fully fund the state’s statutory share of funding for high-cost special education services. This is a vital program that every city, town and school district relies on to fund state-mandated services. The House appropriated $277 million.
 
One area of major disagreement is the level of funding for kindergarten grants that support full-day programs in 164 school districts. The House level-funded the appropriation at $18.6 million, while the Senate appropriated only $2 million. Maintaining funding for this program is a major priority for the MMA during conference committee deliberations, as a 90 percent reduction now would have a negative impact on communities across the state.
 
Both the House and Senate would increase funding for the state’s statutory commitment under charter school law to temporarily reimburse local school districts for a portion of assessments used to pay tuition to charter schools. The state last fully funded these transition payments in fiscal 2014, but is underfunding reimbursements by approximately $47 million this year. The Senate would increase funding for charter school reimbursements to $90 million, an $8.5 million increase. This is $4.5 million more than the amount the House proposed. Full funding would require an estimated $134 million, and the higher Senate funding level is needed to lessen the shortfall.
 
Other local government accounts with House-Senate differences include funding for regional school district transportation reimbursements at $61 million in the Senate, $1 million more than the House budget; library aid programs, where the House is slightly higher; Chapter 40S reimbursements, where the Senate is higher; out-of-district vocational education transportation, where the Senate is higher; and the Shannon anti-gang grant program, where the Senate is higher.
 
There are a few accounts where the House and Senate would appropriate the same amount, including level-funding for Cherry Sheet PILOT payments at $26.8 million and level-funding for McKinney-Vento student transportation reimbursements at $8.4 million.
 
The House and Senate both included a provision that would dedicate up to $10 million of any fiscal 2016 year-end state budget surplus to supplement the fiscal 2017 state match for the Community Preservation Act. During fiscal 2016, 158 cities and towns collected the local CPA surcharge and are eligible for state matching grants in fiscal 2017. The Division of Local Services estimates that, without supplemental funding, the balance in the state trust fund will be sufficient to provide a first-round match of only 19 percent of the surcharge levied by each city and town. This would be one of the lowest state matches in the program’s history.
 
The Senate budget includes an outside section that would ban certain stores from providing single-use carryout bags to customers. The statewide ban would apply to stores larger than 3,000 square feet or with at least three locations in the Commonwealth. Stores may instead make available reusable grocery bags or recycled paper bags for at least 10 cents each.

Written by MMA Legislative Director John Robertson

posted by Jeff Bennett