fees

Cities and towns are now beginning their FY 2013 budget planning and estimation processes.  There's no more federal stimulus dollars, and the economy hasn't bounced back as everyone hoped it would.  The state hasn't been able to provide much financial relief...it has reduced local aid and other program funding for the past handful of years.  When will the Administration and leaders in the State House come to fully understand that we need new revenues to invest in our communities for the health, education and safety of all our people?

One concerning trend is the decreasing level of revenue from economic growth, such as permit fees, commercial tax growth and excise taxes. The amount of that revenue has gone down two years in a row.

"Those are reflections of economic activity," Walters Young said. "When economic activity slows, the amount of money the government collects goes down. [Full Article: Wicked Local Natick]

What happens when our schools don't have the money for basic supplies that are needed in the classrooms to teach our children?  At the start of the school year, students are given a list of things to buy.  This is on top of fees for buses, music, sports and sports equipment, ... the list goes on.  What about the families that can't afford to pay for the supplies and fees?  And, let's not forget that this list of supplies does not cover all that is really needed in the class that the school district budget cut.  Our teachers, who are much maligned and disrespected, pay to supply their classrooms, and they are not reimbursed for these expenditures.

“It’s understood that with budget cuts, teachers have to do more on their own,’’ said Stephanie Powers, 25, a first-grade teacher in Whitman. “If I didn’t, the classroom wouldn’t look good, and it wouldn’t be organized.’’  Even before she began teaching, Powers saved up to furnish her first classroom, buying more than 100 books and the bookcases to put them on. With school approaching, she picked up personalized desk plates for each student, so they would feel at home on the first day.  [Full Article: The Boston Globe]

When faced with a potential $3 billion deficit in fiscal year 2003, the Massachusetts legislature took a balanced approach including approving a revenue package worth $1.1 billion.   Our current Senator Brown doesn't recall this bit of history, but we're hoping he takes this correct Mass model to Washington, DC for a balanced approach to addressing federal deficit.  Now, if only we could replicate this model for the Mass budget for fiscal year 2013.

“Every time we ran into a bump, no matter whether the year was ’01, ’02, ’03, or ’04, it was a combination of stuff,’’ recalls former House Speaker Tom Finneran, a fiscal conservative. “We would draw down the rainy day fund, we would do cuts, and we did revenue.’’  [Full Op-Ed: The Boston Globe]

University of Massachusetts trustees recommended yesterday that student fees be increased by 7.5 percent to help bridge a budget gap created by shrinking state and federal funds. [Full Article: Boston Globe]