|
Notes provided by: SPOT June 30, 2003 Board of Selectmen meeting notes Massachusetts is receiving $550M from the federal government this year-half of it ($330M) is ear-marked for Medicaid. Charlie Lyons asked: Why can't the rest of it be used to help localities rather than put it in the bank for contingencies? Local aid has decreased over the years from a high of 24%? and recently was 8% of total state budget but is now only 4%. Arlington state aid is now at the level it was 7 years ago, ie we have lost $3M in aid from what we were getting in total amount, not even taking into account any adjustments for inflation, etc. Also, can't the legislature override Romney's veto to get us back the $272,000 cut today? Jay Kaufman's response: For the past 2 bad budget years, local aid has been held constant and instead human services has been destroyed. Many of my house colleagues do not think that local aid is a high priority right now. Also Arlington as a town is not considered a high priority (it may be felt that we didn't step up to the plate and pass our override so why should the legislature chip in more). The federal government has spent the last 20 years putting more and more responsibilities onto state governments without also sending the funding. The latest unfunded mandate is the No Child Left Behind law. How can we work with the League of Cities to fight at the Federal Level? Anne Paulsen says: As Additional Assistance is only given to a select number of communities (192?) many communities do not think this is in their interest to pass this override. Bob Havern says: We are seeing 10 years of programs being cut in 1 year-social programs have been decimated in the past 3 years. These state cuts could not have been predicted. Romney says no taxes but he is raising $700M worth of fees instead. This is taxing too in another name and is not the fairest way. The government of Massachusetts now has no reserve funds. If you're old and poor in Massachusetts then this state is no longer for you. Springfield and 3-4 other communities are going bankrupt later this year. I think there will be enough support for the senate and probably the house to propose income tax increases in the fall. I think we will need to raise revenues just to hold the line so things don't get worse. It will stay difficult for a year or two. We need to keep people from freezing in the streets. So the money that was given by the federal government is being held onto to plug holes, to keep the kids in the towns that are bankrupt in the schools, to pay for the programs we need that supposedly Romney's new savings were going to cover, but won't eg. need for paying for psychotropic drugs won't save by being able to make all generic drug purchases but will actually be more expensive, etc. Jay says: Arlington's loss of population and increase in income means that Arlington will suffer from losses in state aid whether they pass an override or not. Bob Havern says: The Governor will veto any proposed income tax increase and wants to roll the tax rate back to 5% before he's through. We as a state are losing real big thanks to the capital gains tax write offs because all those people with megaloses of options can write off their taxes so instead of raking in the money when the times were good, we are now losing for 3 years, all those taxes that would have been paid if we didn't have a capital gains tax (which are now all capital losses). The federal monies we are getting will probably all be used within 90 days to cover Romney's false cuts. Charlie Lyons says that rather than changing Chapter 70 formula, we need to get back the dollar amounts we have had cut first! Jay Kaufman says: our tax policy is bankrupt. I think the state will lose the Driscoll lawsuit, I hope it does, then like NY it will show that our state funding system for the schools is not good enough. And things will have to change. Anne Paulsen says: We all rely on each other--the elderly, the children, the homeless, the disabled are all being set up to fight with each other. We need to raise revenues and talk about the value of services, not how much they cost. When will this administration be held accountable? Romney is not even willing to talk with us! SPOT
offers these notes as a service to the community. |
|||||||||||||||||||
 |
