Moore briefs area officials on state cuts in local aid funds
School, municipal and town finance members attend session
By Donna Boynton TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
NORTHBRIDGE — State Sens. Richard T. Moore, D-Uxbridge, and Steven C. Panagiotakos, D-Lowell, met with local officials yesterday to discuss the state of local aid, days after cuts to that aid and other state programs were announced for fiscal 2011.
The meeting, attended by school, city and town finance officials from Mr. Moore’s district, was held at the GB & Lexi Singh Performance Center at Alternatives, where Mr. Moore and Mr. Panagiotakos, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, were peppered with questions about helping municipalities control health care costs and providing relief from Quinn Bill obligations that the state has stopped funding.
While state and local leaders are still anticipating difficult economic times ahead, Mr. Moore said there is a light at the end of the tunnel, because the state’s unemployment rate is dropping.
“Things aren’t great, but the good news is that the March unemployment numbers went down,” Mr. Panagiotakos said, noting unemployment in the state is at 9.3 percent, which is lower than the national unemployment rate of 9.7 percent.
Mr. Panagiotakos explained that 75 percent of the state’s tax revenue — the 55 percent that is income tax and the 20 percent that is sales tax — is directly connected to employment. Income tax is applied to income, and sales tax revenues rely in large part on discretionary spending.
“Until we see job creation, there is no recovery,” Mr. Panagiotakos said, adding that between December 2000 and December 2009, the state lost 190,000 jobs, the fifth largest loss in the nation. “Until we see job creation, we are not going to see revenues.”
Mr. Panagiotakos told local leaders that while the state Legislature tried to refrain from cutting education aid in recent years, it may be unavoidable this year and in the future, especially without federal stimulus funds.
Local leaders questioned what the state is doing to help towns negotiate municipal health insurance that would allow towns to save money.
The legislators said they’ve tried. For fiscal 2010, the Senate proposed a provision that would have allowed cities and towns to negotiate into the Group Insurance Commission or find an equivalent outside of collective bargaining agreements. Whatever savings resulted would be shared by the municipality and union. However, the provision was not included in the fiscal 2010 budget.
“We chip away at this year in and year out,” said Webster Town Administrator John F. McAuliffe, noting that rising health care costs are a significant portion of towns’ budgets, leaving little wiggle room for other increasing expenses. “Before we put pen to paper, we’ve blown out our Proposition 2-1/2 increase.”
Mr. McAuliffe also challenged the senators on Quinn Bill funding, saying towns are being held responsible not only for their portion of the funding, but for the funding the state has eliminated.
Mr. Moore reiterated that he voted against a sales tax increase and remains committed to preserving local aid to towns.
Mr. Moore said there will be a question on the November ballot to repeal the sales tax increase and then some, rolling it back to 3 percent. The sales tax was increased to 6.25 percent last year.
Both Mr. Moore and Mr. Panagiotakos said it is important for local leaders to communicate with elected senators and representatives to work together to find solutions.
“The best ideas come from you, and we need to have that exchange of ideas between you and your representative and senators,” Mr. Panagiotakos said. “Don’t think that by being elected we know all of your problems.”
This
site was created by Senator Richard T.
Moore to provide citizens with the opportunity
to post their suggestions for dealing with the drastic drop in state and local
revenues and for making government more
efficient and responsive.
