Communities to get more state aidDate: 8/31/2011 Aug. 31, 2011
By Debbie Gardner
Assistant Editor
GREATER SPRINGFIELD —Local cities and towns are projected to receive an unexpected bump in local aid from the state, thanks to a surplus in the state’s fiscal year 2011 (FY11) budget.
State Rep. Nicholas Boldyga confirmed last week that a Republican caucus-sponsored Local Aid amendment, which was included in the language of the FY12 budget passed by Gov. Deval Patrick on July 11, will allow half of the state’s FY11 general fund surplus —up to a maximum of $65 million —to be returned to cities and towns in the form of a one-time-only local aid supplement.
“It’s anticipatory,” Boldyga said of the projected aid numbers. He further explained that the exact amount allocated for each city and town would be based on the original lottery formula used to draft the state’s FY12 budget.
Using that formula, Boldyga said the cities and towns in in his 3rd Hampden District are expected to receive the following in supplemental state aid for FY12: Agawam —$225,300; Granville —$9,805; Russell —$15,104 and Southwick —$77, 144.
State Sen. James Welch confirmed that West Springfield is expected to receive $219,185 in additional local aid, Springfield, $2,315,207 and Chicopee, $704,230.
According to Boldyga, wording in the amendment indicates the money must be distributed to cities and towns by Oct. 31.
“We’re trying to backfill the money we cut from local aid [in the initial FY12 budget],” Welch said. “This will be unrestricted local aid ...[that] can be spent on anything a municipality sees fit.”
Agawam Mayor Richard Cohen said he would be asking the City Council and School Committee to use a portion of his town’s additional state aid to eliminate recently instituted student fees at the high school.
“We are one of the few communities that has no fees,” Cohen said, “As I stated [at the Aug. 16 School Committee meeting], if I could eliminate the fees, I would.”
West Springfield Mayor Edward Gibson said he was still waiting for official word on the amount of additional aid his city would receive before making definite plans, but said he would “utilize these funds for one-time expenditures rather than continuing operational expenditures.”
One area where Gibson is contemplating applying the money is to offset the city’s tornado-related expenses, which now total $1 million. Gibson said though the accounting is not complete, he expects a balance once West Springfield receives reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Another area where Gibson said he might consider using a portion of the additional aid is to fund some of the items that were eliminated from the city’s FY12 capital budget.
Even with this additional state aid, information on the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center Web site indicates “the state will still be providing $460 million (or 33 percent) less in local aid [to cities and towns] in FY 12 than in the original FY 09 budget, after accounting for inflation.”
Debbie Gardner can be reached by e-mail at debbieg@thereminder.com
|
