budget and local aid updates, community preservation act, financial outlook, local aid policy, priorities/requests, resources, revenue, taxes
Today, Senator Brownsberger submitted the following letter to the Chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means outlining his budget priorities for Fiscal Year 2015. You will find a link to the signed document below. Read the Senator’s signed letter expressing his budget priorities here. Anne Johnson Landry Committee Counsel and Policy Advisor Office …
Continue reading “FY15 Budget Priorities Letter to Senate Ways and Means”
Yesterday I got an email from another parent, saying that most if not all Boston public schools are facing substantial budget cuts next year. For example, Winship Elementary (where my son goes) shows a WSF allocation of $2,867,109 for FY14 (http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/cms/lib07/MA01906464/Centricity/Domain/108/Budget%20Resources/7._fy14_wsf_budgets_by_school_20130202.pdf page 115) and a projected WSF allocation of $2,349,227 for FY15 (http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/cms/lib07/MA01906464/Centricity/Domain/184/FY15%20budget%20resources/FY15%20Allocations_2015.02.05.pdf page 3) …
Quite appropriately, Governor Patrick’s Fiscal 2015 budget continues and extends the priorities he has defined together with the legislature over the past 8 years. It does not propose major new initiatives. Total proposed Fiscal 2015 budgetary spending is $36.4 billion — up $1.7 billion or 4.9% over projected Fiscal 2014 budgetary spending. This growth is …
The Patrick Administration deserves great credit for its efforts to make its budget as transparent as possible. Nonetheless, a 46 billion dollar spending program is intrinsically complex, so here are answers to a few questions that I found myself asking as I worked through the presentation. How big is the budget? The financial statement section shows proposed …
Continue reading “Understanding the Governor’s Budget Presentation”
Wall Street has applauded our state-level efforts to manage long-term liabilities — the rating agencies are giving the Commonwealth its highest ever bond ratings. But we should consider carefully whether we should accept Wall Street’s metrics for financial health — not that I doubt the need for financial discipline, but rather that we should, perhaps, …
The Community Preservation Act, signed into law in 2000, authorizes communities to create local Community Preservation Funds for the purpose of open space protection, affordable housing, outdoor recreation, and historic preservation. A community’s monies are raised through imposing a surcharge not greater than 3% of the tax levy on real property. Communities may adopt the CPA through …
