​Speaker DeLeo rejects $25.5M municipal aid cut

On Thursday morning, less than 24 hours after Gov. Deval Patrick filed legislation to impose a $25.5 million mid-year cut in Unrestricted General Government Aid, House Speaker Robert DeLeo issued a strong statement in opposition to the measure.

“Understanding the vital role cities and towns play in providing services and jobs, I will not support a reduction of unrestricted local aid,” said DeLeo.

DeLeo’s opposition to mid-year cuts to local aid will effectively kill the proposal for the remainder of the legislative session.

“This is very good news for communities across Massachusetts,” said MMA Executive Director Geoff Beckwith. “We applaud and deeply appreciate the leadership of Speaker DeLeo and his colleagues in the Legislature for rejecting the administration’s unwise and damaging proposal to slash unrestricted municipal aid.”

Yesterday, the governor announced his desire to close a $329 million state budget deficit by imposing more than $65 million in mid-year cuts on cities and towns. He used his statutory budget authority to reduce key municipal and education reimbursements and aid programs by $40.3 million, and filed legislation seeking a $25.5 million reduction in unrestricted local aid. Speaker DeLeo’s opposition to the cut in unrestricted local aid will block that proposal, yet communities will still be hit with the $40.3 million reduction because the Gov. Patrick can implement those cuts unilaterally without legislative approval.

The governor’s $40.3 million in mid-year cuts to key municipal and education programs includes the following:

• $18.7 million from regional school transportation, a 27% cut
• $7.1 million from the regionalization and efficiencies reserve, which will shelve most, if not all, of the Community Innovation Challenge Grant program
• $3.86 million from the Special Education Circuit Breaker program, a 1.5% cut
• $2.88 million from the Chapter 70 “pothole” account, an 85% cut
• $2.24 million from vocational school transportation, a 100% cut
• $1.3 million from public school military mitigation grants, a 100% cut
• $1.2 million from charter school reimbursements, a 1.5% cut in a program that is already underfunded by $33 million
• $1.1 million from sewer rate relief funding, a 100% cut
• $1 million from extended learning time grants, a 6.8% cut
• $359,000 from kindergarten expansion grants, a 1.5% cut
• $287,000 from METCO, a 1.5% cut
• $283,000 from library aid, a 1.5% cut

Every city, town and school district will be hit with one or more of these cuts. In most cases, the cuts will feel deeper because the reductions are being implemented five months into the fiscal year.