Tewksbury taxpayers send $45Million/yr in tax revenue to the State...

As we approach the end of our Fiscal Year in Tewksbury and prepare for Town Meeting on May 5th, Town Manager Montouri is refining all of the work that he has done with his Department Heads, the Board of Selectmen and the Finance Committee over the past few months regarding our FY15 budget. It continues to be a work in process in an effort to balance our budget and still meet the growing needs of our community.

It’s even more challenging because, in my opinion, we are not getting the appropriate amount of local aid that we deserve based upon the amount of revenue that we contribute to the state in terms of income and sales taxes. The recent data shows that Tewksbury taxpayers send $45Million in tax revenue to the State and yet we only receive under $15Million back in local aid. It could always be worse as North Andover has $65Million taken from them and only receive $9Million in local aid. But our $30,000,000 tax deficit is unacceptable.

To make matters worse, since 2009, local aid to Tewksbury taxpayers has been reduced by $1.3Million and we have also incurred State and County charges of $978,000 for a net loss in our budget of $2.278Million. Most residents would assume that the loss of local aid and increase in state and county charges equated with a reduction in state revenues. Yet, here are the state revenues through 2012:

FY08 – $22.059B

FY09 - $19.683B

FY10 - $20.091B

FY11 - $22.087B

FY12 - $22.806B

 Source: US Census Bureau

As you can see, the revenues in FY2011 and FY2012 have exceeded the revenues for the previous 3 years, yet local aid to each Tewksbury taxpayer is still not at the level of 2008. So, local aid to Tewksbury taxpayers was cut by our state representatives when revenues decreased but it was never restored when revenues increased. This does not even include the revenue for FY2013 which was larger than FY2012 and also the revenue for FY2014 which is projected to be greater than any year since 2008.

Why are we, as town leaders, still forced to operate at 2009 levels in terms of local aid while our State is recording record revenues? For Tewksbury, we can review the latest votes from our state delegation as an indication.

The Lowell Sun reported recently that there was a proposed Senate Bill (S2010) that I thought was absolutely appropriate and beneficial to the taxpayers in Tewksbury. Senate Bill 2010 was filed because the lottery is reporting revenue this year of $957Million instead of $937Million and this bill proposed sending the extra $20Million to cities and towns. Now, the lottery was set up to benefit cities and towns like Tewksbury but our Senator, Barry Finegold, voted against this supplemental bill, it failed, and now this excess revenue will be going into the 2015 budget rather than coming to towns like Tewksbury. I did talk to Rep. Miceli and Rep. Lyons about this at the Selectmen’s Meeting last Tuesday but I haven’t talked to Senator Finegold about it. I found about it after the fact by reading about it in the Lowell Sun like everyone else. That $20Million that should be going to towns like us is now going into the overall budget for next year.

Yesterday’s edition of the Lowell Sun (03/17/14) reported on the State Bills that were aimed at Local Aid for Tewksbury that were voted on by our State Delegation last week. They are as follows:

Increase local aid by $25 million instead of $75 million (H 3951) -- House 123-29, approved a Democratic leadership-sponsored amendment increasing unrestricted local aid by only $25 million instead of the $75 million proposed by the Republicans.

YES: Rep. James Miceli

NO: Rep. James Lyons

Increase education aid by $100 million instead of $113 million (H 3951) -- House 123-28, approved a Democratic leadership-sponsored amendment increasing Chapter 70 education aid by only $100 million instead of the $113 million proposed by the Republicans.

YES: Rep. James Miceli

NO: Rep. James Lyons

Increase education aid by $13 million (H 3951) -- Senate 6-32, rejected a Republican-sponsored amendment increasing Chapter 70 education aid by $13 million (from $100 million to $113 million)

NO: Barry Finegold

Use surplus for local aid to cities and towns (S 2039) -- Senate 5-33, rejected an amendment that would require one-half of any state surplus tax revenue remaining at the end of this fiscal year on June 30 to be distributed to cities and towns as additional local aid. The amendment would cap the amount at $50 million.

NO: Sen. Barry Finegold

Two out of three of our members of the State Delegation voted against an additional increase in local aid for towns and schools in the face of state budget surpluses.

As an aside, Senator Finegold has worked diligently to see that an appropriation of $10Million is included in the Transportation Bill for improvements for Route 38 from Pleasant Street to Shawsheen Street. We are hoping that money survives the House/Senate Conference process as the lack of funding from our State Delegation over the last 20 years for Route 38 is impacting our economic development and our ability to fully maximize our empty retail storefronts.

Our town leadership, town committees and resident volunteers are focused on what we can do to continue to help grow this community but we will also hold our state delegation accountable for helping us increase the amount of local aid that comes back to Tewksbury to reduce that $30Million tax deficit.

Our Town Manager, his Department Heads and the Finance Committee could do a lot with an additional $2.278Million to provide additional town services as well as reduce the water, sewer and tax burden on all of our residents.

Jim

For those folks reading this blog, although I work closely with the Town Manager and my fellow Selectmen and discuss these issues at great length, I am accountable for providing these facts and opinions to our residents. I can assure you that my colleagues have no problem speaking for themselves.