Today the financial leadership of the House, the Senate and the Governor’s office held their annual “consensus revenue hearing”. In short, the outlook is fair — a continuing moderate budget squeeze with some warning flags about long-term issues. But those long-term issues — health care, pensions, and financial reserves — mean that the budgetary choices over the next few months won’t be easy.
Budget and Local Aid Updates
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Time to reform MA Records Access and stop Government Extortion (Support MA H.2772 and S.1676)
Will — Please support H.2772 and S.1676 Background http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2015/03/19/how-massachusetts-keeps-secrets-from-you/NatKrY9ISxepNBOLDSfzYK/story.html When the watchdog group the State Integrity Investigation graded states on how well they make public information available, Massachusetts failed. State Sen. Jason Lewis and Rep. Peter Kocot aim to improve the state’s reputation with a new bill that would increase public access to records. But …
Legislature Passes Final FY 2015 Supplemental Budget
We share this press release from Senate Ways and Means on passage of H.3829, the FY15 Supplemental Budget. It now goes to the Governor.
Senate Passes FY15 Close Out Budget
We share this press release from the Senate Committee on Ways and Means on the passage of the supplemental budget to close out Fiscal Year 2015.
The technical fight about ambulance rates
For municipal government buffs and for the record, here is a discussion of a technical issue that we voted on as an amendment to the recent supplementary/deficiency budget. The issue is insurer reimbursements to municipalities for ambulance service.
The Education Aid Conversation for FY17
Over the next few weeks, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will finalize the data underlying the Chapter 70 education aid distribution for next year and begin to explore options for tweaking the distribution formula. Over the past few years, I’ve been particularly concerned to influence the Chapter 70 formula to address the shortfall that Watertown has experienced.