MMA letter to governor urging release of full amount of Ch. 90 funds

His Excellency Deval L. Patrick
Governor of the Commonwealth
State House, Boston

Dear Governor Patrick,

The Massachusetts Municipal Association respectfully and urgently requests that you direct your Administration to release the entire $300 million in local Chapter 90 funds due to cities and towns. To date, you have authorized the release of only $200 million, which includes $150 million released two months ago, and $50 million released yesterday. That total merely provides level funding to cities and towns, even though the state has passed a significant tax increase to provide new resources to meet transportation needs. Now that the transportation finance bill has been enacted into law, the Commonwealth should immediately release the full $300 million distribution to communities. This would fulfill the intent of Chapter 18 of the Acts of 2013, the law unanimously passed by the Legislature to provide vital infrastructure funds to cities and towns. The communities of Massachusetts desperately need the remaining $100 million in order to move forward with essential projects to maintain and improve the local roadways that our citizens use every day.

Cities and towns are responsible for maintaining, repairing and rebuilding 30,000 miles of roads, nearly 90 percent of the roadways in Massachusetts, and adequate funding for Chapter 90 is necessary to ensure that local transportation needs are met. Cities and towns in every corner of the state use Chapter 90 to provide safe roads that are essential for economic growth, commerce and everyday living.

Chapter 90 was funded at $200 million in fiscal years 2012 and 2013, and increasing the program to $300 million in fiscal 2014 is clearly affordable. The transportation revenue package provides more than enough new revenue to support the $11-million-a-year debt service expense necessary to increase the program by $100 million. With a half billion in new tax dollars secured in the transportation finance package, Chapter 90 funding can easily increase to the $300 million level as intended by the Legislature.

To put it plainly, we strongly disagree with the decision to level-fund Chapter 90 distributions at $200 million, as this would unfairly deny cities and towns access to the new tax revenues that will be available for transportation maintenance and improvements. Communities need a true partnership with the state that shares tax dollars with local residents to support local road and infrastructure projects. Simply put, withholding Chapter 90 funds from municipalities will shortchange cities and towns, stall important local road maintenance and repair initiatives, and undermine the local-state partnership that is necessary to move the Commonwealth forward.

As you know, under Proposition 2½, cities and towns cannot increase local funding to repair roads unless they cut other important services such as public safety and local schools, or pass a tax override, which increases local reliance on the already overburdened property tax. It is important to note that investing more in Chapter 90 will actually save taxpayers millions of dollars a year because, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, once a local road is in a state of good repair, every dollar invested for maintenance will save 6 to 10 dollars in avoided repair costs that become necessary to rebuild the road when it fails due to a lack of maintenance. Further, Chapter 90 strengthens the Massachusetts economy. All experts and stakeholders agree that investing in transportation is essential for our state’s economic growth and competitiveness, and Chapter 90 builds economic progress in every community, which is good for every resident, taxpayer, and business owner in the state.

Again, we respectfully and urgently ask you to release all of the remaining $100 million in Chapter 90 funds before cities and towns lose any more days in the construction season. The program is a necessary, affordable and money-saving way to improve the quality and safety of our roads, build our economy, create jobs, protect local taxpayers, ensure equity across the state, and return new tax dollars to every single community.

We thank you for your attention to this vitally important matter.

Sincerely,

Geoffrey C. Beckwith
Executive Director, MMA

cc: Secretary Richard Davey, Massachusetts Department of Transportation