Who is a member?
Our members are the local governments of Massachusetts and their elected and appointed leadership.
Dear Legislator,
On behalf of the cities and towns of the Commonwealth, the Massachusetts Municipal Association is writing to urgently request that you and your colleagues take action to override Governor Patrick’s $177 million local aid veto as soon as possible. If this veto is allowed to stand, communities will face an unexpected, undeserved and devastating fiscal crisis.
This massive and unnecessary local aid veto, announced by the Governor last Friday, would impose deep and painful cuts on cities, towns, schools and citizens in every corner of Massachusetts. The veto would slash unrestricted municipal aid to 1986 levels and create widespread fiscal distress in nearly every city and town. If the cut is actually imposed, communities would see their aid levels rolled back by 27 years, and local officials would be forced to implement sweeping reductions in vital services, including police and fire protection, public education, public works, libraries and much more. Cities and towns would be forced to reopen their local budgets, lay off thousands of municipal and school employees, and increase their reliance on regressive property taxes.
The Governor’s $177 million veto would reduce Unrestricted General Government Aid (UGGA) by 19 percent, from $920 million as passed by the Legislature to $743 million. As a result, the veto would divert $110 million in local Lottery funds away from cities and towns and use those dollars to balance the state budget instead of funding local services. The Lottery was established to generate local revenues for local government, not as a fund for the state to access when it needs money.
The MMA and local officials were among the very first to endorse the Legislature’s transportation finance framework and the resulting tax legislation that has been sent to the Governor, and in addition to restoring local aid, we also urge you to take all votes necessary to secure final enactment of the transportation finance package, so that the transportation-related components of the fiscal 2014 state budget are made whole, and the long-range investment in repairing our transportation infrastructure can begin in earnest.
On behalf of cities and towns across the state, we urge you vote to override the Governor’s local aid veto as quickly as possible to restore stability to local budgets and ensure that communities can deliver the essential municipal and education services that the taxpayers of Massachusetts expect and deserve.
Local officials across the state know that cities and towns are a high priority for you and your colleagues in the Legislature. The MMA and our members are grateful for your leadership, and we know we can count on you to restore full funding for local aid in the days ahead.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Geoffrey C. Beckwith
Executive Director, MMA