Local officials greeted the announcement with cautious optimism, saying it’s still below what many municipalities need. The proposal also falls far short of the $351 million increase local officials initially sought from the Legislature to help relieve the pain created by reduced federal aid and high inflation.
“We’re pleased to see that move in the right direction,” said Fitchburg Mayor Samantha Squailia. “But it is not enough.”
Brookline Town Administrator Chas Carey said “every little bit helps,” but that he wants to see a fuller picture of the Senate’s math, including how much they also plan to budget for local school funding.
“I would hope it’s not just robbing one pot of money to pay for another,” Carey said.
The Senate also wants to change how local aid funds are distributed. Under the budget plan they plan to release Tuesday, unrestricted local aid would be divvied up between cities and towns based on the size of their population. For roughly the last two decades, there has been no specific formula for how to divide the funding, said state Senator Michael Rodrigues, the chamber’s budget chief.
He called the Senate’s proposal “a much fairer way” to allocate the funds.
For example, under the current state budget, Boston received $235.9 million in unrestricted local aid as the state’s most populous city. Worcester, the second largest city, got $51.7 million, according to data from the state’s Department of Revenue. It was unclear Monday how much aid each city and town would collect under the Senate’s new proposal.
A clear prescription for how Legislature carves up the pot of local funding would give local officials a better forecast as they’re building their own budget proposals, said Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo. But “if there’s going to be a formula it really needs to be developed thoughtfully,” he said.
“A per capita basis may not be the best reflection of where the greatest demand for services are,” Pangallo said. He noted that while Salem has 45,000 residents, a flood of visitors flock to the city around Halloween each year, “which is a considerable strain on our public safety and public works departments. And we have to manage those costs.”
Unlike state funds earmarked for specific purposes, municipalities have wide latitude to spend unrestricted state funding, which can go toward local public works projects, funding police and fire departments, or helping pay for any number of municipal needs. Lawmakers separately budget billions of dollars in so-called Chapter 70 funding, which is local aid specifically for schools.
Governor Maura Healey and House lawmakers each proposed their own smaller increases. Healey’s budget plan would increase unrestricted state funding for cities and towns roughly $33 million, while the House proposed a $10 million bump over the current budget.
Both fell far short of the $351 million increase sought by the Massachusetts Municipal Association, which represents the state’s cities and towns and said they desperately need given the “perfect storm” of financial pressure.
Still, the Senate’s plan is “an acknowledgement of the real needs of cities and towns,” Adam Chapdelaine, MMA’s executive director, said Monday.
“We’ve been ringing the alarm bells for almost a year now,” he said, “so to have to have the Senate acknowledge that and make this proposal is exciting.”
In two reports last year, the MMA said many municipal budgets were in a dire situation, particularly because of state restrictions on cities and towns’ abilities to impose and increase taxes.
Municipalities are limited by a state law known as Prop 2½, which caps the amount of property tax revenue that can be raised annually to no more than 2.5 percent. That rate has not kept pace with inflation, local officials contend.
As costs for special education, transportation, health insurance for municipal workers and even snow removal have grown, local officials have repeatedly asked residents to approve tax hikes. In other cases, they’ve slashed funding for schools, libraries, and other municipal services.
Communities across the state have put property tax overrides on the ballot, to mixed results.
Stoneham residents approved a property tax hike last year to support spending an additional $9.3 million to prevent the town from eliminating dozens of school positions and cutting funding for the town’s library, senior center, and ice arena. In March, Arlington voters passed a $14.8 million override, the biggest in the state, in an effort to prevent widespread school and town job cuts.
Brookline residents will decide Tuesday whether to approve an even larger $23.25 million override that town officials say is necessary to avoid cuts to school programs and the fire department.
South Hadley voters, meanwhile, voted down two separate ballot questions that would have implemented either a $9 million or $11 million override after a heated campaign that drew national attention.
Kelly Garrity can be reached at kelly.garrity@globe.com.
