Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
The Honorable Antonio F.D. Cabral, Chairman
The Honorable Thomas A. Golden Jr., Vice Chairman
House Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State Assets
State House, Boston
Dear Chairman Cabral, Vice Chairman Golden and Distinguished Committee Members,
On behalf of the cities and towns of the Commonwealth, the Massachusetts Municipal Association supports H. 3763, An Act Financing Improvements to the Commonwealth’s Transportation System, and urges you to incorporate a multi-year, $300 million-a-year Chapter 90 program into the bill.
H. 3763 did not include a Chapter 90 component when reported out of the Joint Committee on Transportation. Without swift action on a Chapter 90 authorization for fiscal 2015 and beyond, we are seriously concerned that cities and towns will once again face a lengthy delay in the notification and release of Chapter 90 funds, which is why we are asking you to incorporate Chapter 90 into the transportation bond bill now. As you know, delays in each of the past two years have shortened the construction season and delayed important projects across the state.
We request that the new Chapter 90 authorization be for five years and provide $300 million annually, indexed for inflation. We deeply appreciate your successful efforts in the last legislative session to fast-track a one-year $300 million Chapter 90 bond authorization and ask the committee to expedite H. 3763, including a multi-year Chapter 90 program, to avoid future delays.
As you know, the passage of a bond bill (and the companion terms bill) requires a long journey along a very time-consuming pathway. Last session, not withstanding your efforts to fast-track Chapter 90, the process, coupled with the debate over the transportation finance bill, resulted in the Governor delaying release of final Chapter 90 allocation letters until July 30, rather than the customary and statutory date of April 1. Provisional and contingent letters were sent in April and May, but these notifications were merely symbolic, and did not provide cities and towns with legal authorization to enter into road construction contracts or to start work.
Over the past few years, it has become commonplace for final Chapter 90 allocation letters to be released by the Administration late in the construction season, and this has caused major project delays for cities and towns across the Commonwealth. The Legislature established April 1 as the statutory date for official notification of Chapter 90 allocations so that cities and towns could award paving contracts in time for the summer construction season. When communities do not receive their final Chapter 90 allocation letters on time, many paving projects have to be postponed until the next fiscal year in order to properly bid and award the contracts, missing an entire construction season and disrupting pavement management plans. We urge the committee, the Legislature, and the Administration to meet the statutory date of April 1 for fiscal 2015 by including Chapter 90 in H. 3763. Acting on Chapter 90 now will help to break the cycle of frustration and delays.
Last year, the MMA released a report documenting that cities and towns across the state need to spend at least $562 million every year just to bring local roads into a state of good repair, the industry standard for ensuring well-maintained roads in good condition. Currently, municipalities spend far less because of inadequate resources and because, for most cities and towns, Chapter 90 is the only source of funds for road construction and repairs. Funding the Chapter 90 program at $300 million annually, with an inflation-based adjustment in future years, will close a portion of this huge gap.
We also note that the Chapter 90 program is the most effective and efficient way to ensure regional equity and regional access to the increased transportation tax revenues included in the final transportation finance bill, including the increase in the gas tax that was supported by the MMA. Chapter 90 shares transportation revenues in a fair way in every corner of the Commonwealth. Further, cities and towns face such a backlog of need that the increase will immediately result in visible and necessary construction and repair projects on local roads across Massachusetts.
Local officials across the state applaud the Legislature’s success in steering the current fiscal 2014 Chapter 90 authorization of $300 million into law. We are extremely disappointed in the Administration’s unwise decision to withhold $100 million from cities and towns – communities are dismayed that the Administration is unilaterally refusing to share any portion of the new transportation tax revenues with the Chapter 90 program.
The MMA and local officials will continue to call on the Governor to release the full amount of Chapter 90 funding that is due cities and towns, and we are grateful that you and your colleagues are continuing to urge the Governor to provide the full $300 million to cities and towns, knowing that your advocacy and support is vitally important in this process.
Investing more in Chapter 90 funding to improve the quality of local roads will actually save taxpayers millions of dollars a year. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, once a local road is in a state of good repair, every dollar invested to keep it properly maintained will save $6 to $10 in avoided repair costs that become necessary to rebuild the road when it fails due to a lack of maintenance.
We look forward to working in partnership with you and the entire Legislature to quickly move H. 3763 forward, including a multi-year Chapter 90 program, to put people back to work maintaining our existing state and local infrastructure, expanding our system and investing in our future.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Geoffrey C. Beckwith
Executive Director, MMA
cc: The Honorable Robert DeLeo, Speaker of the House
The Honorable Therese Murray, Senate President