This from the Massachusetts Municipal Association –
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
HOUSE W&M COMMITTEE RELEASES FY 2014 BUDGET
Proposal Spends $1B Less than House One
Debate to Start on April 22
• Unrestricted General Government Aid (UGGA) Increased by $21.3M
• Chapter 70 Education Aid Increased by $110M Using Existing Formula
• All Cities, Towns & Districts Guaranteed $25 Per Student Minimum Aid
• Special Ed Circuit Breaker Increased by $5M above House One
• Regional School Transportation Increased by $1M above House One
Highlights of the House W&M Proposed FY 2014 Budget:
• Offers a $21.3 million increase in Unrestricted General Government Aid (UGGA), guaranteeing that cities and towns will receive all of their Lottery revenues. The budget does not include the Governor’s new “formula aid” account.
• Adds $110 Million to Chapter 70 to guarantee $25 per student minimum aid for all cities, towns and school districts, and fully funds the existing schedule to implement the Chapter 70 formula. The budget does not include the Governor’s proposed formula changes and accelerated implementation schedule.
• Increases the Special Education Circuit-Breaker account to $235 million, $5 million above the Governor’s budget, which had level funded the program at $230 million (the circuit breaker was originally $242M for fiscal 2013, but was cut by $11.5 million in December using 9C powers).
• Increases the Regional School Transportation account to $45.5 million, $1 million above the Governor’s budget, which had level funded the program at $44.5 million (the account was originally $45.5 million for fiscal 2013, but was cut by $1 million in December using 9C powers).
• Level-funds the McKinney-Vento Reimbursement at $6.1M, the same amount as House One.
• Level-funds Library aid at $16M, the same amount as House One.
On Wednesday afternoon, April 10, the House Ways and Means Committee released its version of the fiscal 2014 state budget, a $33.8 billion proposal that is $1 billion lower than the budget filed by the Governor in January. The Governor’s budget had relied on a sweeping $1.9 billion tax increase, and the Legislature is preparing to enact a smaller budget plan because their tax package is smaller, and is targeted to transportation.
Municipal Aid
The House Ways and Means Committee’s proposed budget would increase fiscal 2014 Unrestricted General Government Aid (UGGA) by $21.3 million, increasing the account up to $920.2 million. The expected growth in Lottery proceeds is predicted to be $10 million, thus the proposed budget would guarantee that cities and towns will receive 100% of their Lottery funds, and an increase above that amount. Further, because the municipal aid increase is proposed in the existing UGGA program, these funds will be much more predictable in future years, ensuring a stable source of direct, unrestricted municipal aid. House One had level-funded UGGA at $899 million.
The HW&M proposed budget does not include the new “Annual Formula Local Aid” program proposed in House One. That new $31 million program would have used a new distribution formula instead of restoring UGGA funds, and was linked to another proposal to establish a special fund to be distributed to communities who qualified based on state-set incentives to be determined by A&F in the future.
Chapter 70
The House Ways and Means budget proposes to increase fiscal 2014 Chapter 70 distributions by $110 million, fully funding the existing Chapter 70 formula and implementation schedule, while also guaranteeing an increase of at least $25 per student for all cities, towns and school districts. The Governor had proposed to expand the Ch. 70 formula to give greater weight to out-of-district Special Education placements and eliminate the cap on pre-K students included in enrollment for formula purposes, and to accelerate the implementation schedule for the 2007 “target share” changes passed by the Legislature.
151 cities, towns and school districts will receive the same amount of aid under both plans, but, for many cities and towns, Chapter 70 is perhaps the largest difference between the House Ways and Means budget and the Governor’s proposal. House One would have used revenues from the Governor’s income tax increase to boost Chapter 70 by $226 million through the enhancements noted above, while the House plan would fully implement the existing Chapter 70 formula through the current schedule. MMA recommends that you contact DESE directly to determine how the changes would affect your minimum required local contribution.
Other Key Accounts
Special Education Circuit-Breaker – The House Ways and Means Committee budget would increase the Special Education Circuit-Breaker account to $235 million, $5 million above the Governor’s budget, which had level funded the program at $230 million (the circuit breaker was originally $242M for fiscal 2013, but was cut by $11.5 million in December using 9C powers). This is approximately $5 million below full funding.
Regional School Transportation – The House Ways and Means Committee budget would increase the Regional School Transportation account to $45.5 million, $1 million above the Governor’s budget, which had level funded the program at $44.5 million (the account was originally $45.5 million for fiscal 2013, but was cut by $1 million in December using 9C powers). This is still below full funding.
Charter School Reimbursements – This account would be level-funded, which is approximately $10 million below the amount needed to fully fund the reimbursement formula.
PILOT – The House Ways and Means budget would level-fund the Payment-in-lieu-of-taxes program at $26.3 million, the same as House One.
HOUSE BUDGET DEBATE WILL START ON MONDAY, APRIL 22
PLEASE CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES TODAY
DISCUSS THE IMPORTANCE OF FUNDING FOR LOCAL AID AND EDUCATION ACCOUNTS – PLEASE SUPPORT THE INCREASE IN UNRESTRICTED MUNICIPAL AID (UGGA), THE SPECIAL EDUCATION CIRCUIT BREAKER, AND REGIONAL TRANSPORTATION, AND ADVOCATE FOR ALL ACCOUNTS THAT ARE KEY TO YOUR COMMUNITY
THE MMA WILL CONTINUE TO ANALYZE THE BUDGET AND AMENDMENTS, AND WILL BE PUSHING HARD FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT PRIORITIES THROUGHOUT THE PROCESS. PLEASE CHECK THE MMA WEBSITE (WWW.MMA.ORG) FOR FURTHER UPDATES.
Medfield02052's Blog 