There’s a fair amount of sticker shock going around the state these days as residents are opening real estate tax bills that are climbing a lot higher every year, leading to a record number of Proposition 2½ overrides.
The bad news is that unavoidable increases in things like health insurance are driving up costs for all municipalities. The even worse news is that taxes will most certainly continue to trend higher as every city and town is looking at a major capital project like a school, library, town hall or public safety building.
On top of all this there’s Whittier Regional Vocational High School, the replacement or renovation of which will easily run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
But the good news is that there’s plenty of money flooding into state coffers and using it to alleviate property taxes is simply a matter of getting Beacon Hill to restore local aid to what it was not so long ago. The Massachusetts Municipal Association (MMA) produced an excellent report entitled “Navigating the Storm: Charting a Course to Fiscal Stability” that shows how local aid was cut several years in a row after the great recession and never restored.
The fiscal 2007 budget signed by then-Gov. Mitt Romney was $26.9 billion and included $1.3 billion in Unrestricted General Government Aid (UGGA). That equates to about 4.8% of the state budget.
Today, almost 20 years later and with the state budget more than doubled at $61 billion, UGGA is still around $1.3 billion. That’s in actual dollars, not adjusted for inflation, and represents just 2.1% of the budget.
MMA provided a table showing the ratio of UGGA versus total local taxes. Total local taxes amounted to $11.32 billion in 2007, so that $1.3 billion in UGGA money represented 11.5% of all local taxes.
Today, it represents less than half at a paltry 5.4% of total local taxes. Cities and towns have been left on their own even as billions in new revenue sources flow to the state through casinos, sports betting, legalized marijuana, expanded lottery and the millionaires tax.
MMA recommends increasing UGGA by a symbolic $351 million to help all 351 cities and towns in the commonwealth. This wouldn’t get it back to where it was when adjusted for inflation, but it’s a good start and local officials are finally starting to speak up about it.
Amesbury Mayor Kassandra Gove took to social media to promote the MMA report and noted how restoring local aid will be a “rising tide that will lift all boats.” She’s absolutely correct and I hope other local officials do the same. Every mayor, select board, school committee and finance committee has been saddled with increased costs and expenses, many of which are the result of policies and mandates from our state government.
After spending a lot of years in both state and local government, I’ve noticed one constant, undeniable truth: our cities and towns are a lot more careful and frugal with our tax dollars than Beacon Hill is. Budgeting more for local aid means our tax dollars will be spent a lot more efficiently and productively.
As Gove went on to say, “Righting this ship stabilizes local funds, strengthens municipal services, alleviates pressure on taxpayers and has a ripple effect right down to putting food on the table.”
She’s right and taxpayers deserve a break.
Lenny Mirra lives in Georgetown and is a former state representative.