Issue: Local Aid

We need to increase, not reduce, local aid. Local aid is essential to provide needed town services without increasing property taxes even further. We also have to look at specifics, such as the Chapter 70 Education formula, to assure that our communities are treated fairly, including funding for high enrollment-growth communities such as Medfield, and funding the minimum 17.5 percent education commitment. But we need to recognize that pressure on local aid is driven by the state’s structural deficit, because local aid is the largest discretionary part of the budget, and thus the easiest to cut. That’s why it’s important that we act to rebuild our economy with infrastructure investment and sound business and workforce development policies to increase state general revenue without new taxes.

If there have to be reductions in state distributions, we should reduce state-mandated costs to cities and towns as well. There are identified opportunities to consolidate redundant programming at the state level, and to remove barriers to regionalization of services to save administrative costs. We should review each element of the state budget, achieving every economy we can, to assure that the public is getting value for the tax dollars that we have.