Paul Wilson asks:
Will, Please comment on this article: Mass. Taxpayers Will Fund Sandwich Project That Sandwich Voters Did Not Want to Fund Why is the state funding a local project that was rejected for funding by the town residents?
The state is funding a project of considerable local value that local residents wanted but were unable to afford. In offering this budget amendment, Senate President Murray, who is not seeking re-election, is doing her best to provide for her constituents.
How do you address the obvious reaction from people in other towns (like me) who look at this and think the state should be handling local aid in a more even manner? As an alternative way to say the same thing, is it fair to give Sandwich $500k for a local project like this and not give to all the other, similar sized towns?
Fair question. Generally, we prefer formulaic approaches to local aid that assure some kind of comparative equity. Alternatively, we create some kind of collaborative project review mechanism, like the Boston Metropolitan Planning Organization (for highway projects).
The overwhelming majority of state funds for localities to do go out through more structured mechanisms, but all legislators, including me, fight to fund smaller projects in our district when we feel that they have merit. As legislators, hearing regularly from hundreds of people, we do have a relatively informed perspective on the needs of our districts.