Newton Avoids Budget Cuts in Governor's Local Aid Plan
Friday, January 29, 2010 at 11:00AM 
Yesterday, Governor Patrick released his proposed Fiscal Year 2011 local aid budget, which would provide Newton with almost the identical local aid we received last year (about $20 million total, including $14 million in Chapter 70 School Aid $5 million in unrestricted local aid, and various grants). That's great news for two reasons: 1) the legislature rarely cuts local aid below a governor's request, often increasing the numbers and 2) Newton's budget projections have been based on the assumption that we would have a significant cut in local aid.
I believe that it will now be possible to balance Newton's Fiscal Year 2011 budget without cuts in services or increases in class size if the union contracts can be settled for and amount that does not exceed the rate of increase in our costs. That probably means either a freeze in base salary or health insurance concessions, since offering the same health insurance package and a base salary hike would likely push our costs beyond revenue increases.
The logical position for the School Committee and Mayor to take in contract negotiations is that our increased local revenues (mostly property taxes) will be needed to pay increased health insurance costs, so without an increase in state aid, we cannot offer a wage increase in FY '11. Of course, most of the unions have yet to settle their Fiscal Year '10 contracts with the city, so a great deal of work remains to secure a balanced budget without service cuts in the new budget. The key indicator of Mayor Warren's intentions will be whether he budgets any funds for salary increases in the budget reserve account of his Fiscal Year 2011 proposed operating budget.
Reader Comments (1)
In talking to Rep Balser last night, it sounds like at least some members of the legislature think the governor's budget is more wishful thinking than actual math... and we see in today's Globe that House leader DeLeo is saying "no new taxes", and the governor was relying on a slew of new taxes... in sum I think we in Newton should not count on local aid not being cut.