Property tax relief?
Not this year!
Isn't this an election year? Hmmmmmmm......
Seeking to divert some state-held “rainy day” funding to local cities and towns, Massachusetts state representatives are putting up a bill that would transfer $450,000,000 into the state’s General Fund, which would then be disbursed to communities throughout the state. SpringfieldIntruder
Loscocco: Public must fight for needed state aid
By Paul J.P. Loscocco, Guest columnist
GHS
Wed Dec 26, 2007, 12:20 AM EST
Several weeks ago, with very little debate and even less public notice, the Massachusetts Legislature enacted a so-called "deficiency budget" which the governor promptly signed into law. With the stroke of a pen, nearly $450 million in new-found "surplus" funds was quietly spent during a single afternoon. Yet the message from Beacon Hill could not have been louder: there will be no additional local aid from the state this year to our struggling cities and towns.
In theory, a deficiency budget is supposed to use additional available funds to cover actual "deficiencies" in current spending during a fiscal year. In reality, despite the repeated "warnings" about a $1 billion budgetary shortfall, nearly $450 million in surplus funds was "found" and promptly spent on such critical new items as pay raises for elected constitutional officers, doubling the size of the Governor's Office in Washington, D.C., and (accounting for the bulk of the spending) the full funding of numerous union contracts.
Notwithstanding the staggering deficiencies in municipal budgets that all our local communities are experiencing, not one penny of the $450 million was spent that afternoon on additional municipal assistance. So much for all the talk on Beacon Hill about meaningful property tax relief. The Daily News Tribune
GHS
Wed Dec 26, 2007, 12:20 AM EST
Several weeks ago, with very little debate and even less public notice, the Massachusetts Legislature enacted a so-called "deficiency budget" which the governor promptly signed into law. With the stroke of a pen, nearly $450 million in new-found "surplus" funds was quietly spent during a single afternoon. Yet the message from Beacon Hill could not have been louder: there will be no additional local aid from the state this year to our struggling cities and towns.
In theory, a deficiency budget is supposed to use additional available funds to cover actual "deficiencies" in current spending during a fiscal year. In reality, despite the repeated "warnings" about a $1 billion budgetary shortfall, nearly $450 million in surplus funds was "found" and promptly spent on such critical new items as pay raises for elected constitutional officers, doubling the size of the Governor's Office in Washington, D.C., and (accounting for the bulk of the spending) the full funding of numerous union contracts.
Notwithstanding the staggering deficiencies in municipal budgets that all our local communities are experiencing, not one penny of the $450 million was spent that afternoon on additional municipal assistance. So much for all the talk on Beacon Hill about meaningful property tax relief. The Daily News Tribune
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