Melrose Gets $642K Bump In House's Initial Fiscal 2013 Budget

Melrose would receive a $623,138 boost in local aid over last year's state budget in the House Ways and Means fiscal 2013 proposal that the House began debating yesterday.

The city's local aid figure in the House's initial budget proposal for next year is also approximately $306,000 more than what was included in Gov. Deval Patrick's budget proposal for fiscal 2013. The additional funding is included in the unrestricted government aid line item; the city's Chapter 70 education funding would remain the same as the governor's budget.

Rep. Paul Brodeur, D-Melrose, explained that the increase over the governor's budget comes from $65 million in local aid that Patrick made contingent upon state revenues, as was done this past year.

Last October, Melrose received an additional $300,000 in local aid, due to a clause included in the fiscal 2012 Massachusetts budget that .

"The governor made it contigent the same way as last year, dependent on revenue benchmarks," Brodeur said. "This year, that $65 million is baked into the original budget in the line item (in the House Ways and Means budget), which means that cities and towns can budget it, for DOR (Department of Revenue) purposes and such.

"Assuming it lives through the final verison of the budget," he continued, "they'll be able to count on that for municipal budgets, as opposed to a contigency figure that probably wouldn’t arrive until at least October, which means you can’t count it on your DOR reporting."

Mayor Rob Dolan said that his proposed fiscal 2013 budget is based upon the state including that $65 million, adding that city officials had "a lot of discussion" with people at the State House and that he was "lucky enough" to have a meeting with House Speaker Robert DeLeo about three weeks ago.

"That was a key thing we had to hit with this budget," Dolan said. "We had to hit that real level funding based on the total amount we got last year compared to this year. That was critical. There was some talk about not getting it until October or November. We’re very pleased."

Brodeur said he expects the increased local aid number to hold in both the final House budget and to be included in the Senate Ways and Means Committee's initial budget proposal.

"The House budget is essentially, in terms of local aid, the new floor," he said. "I think it would be very hard for the Senate to come in with a lower local aid number or a contingent local aid number. I don’t think the governor—kind of guessing about this—will veto any of the House money ... I think he embraces the idea of more local aid. His budget was just different."

Dolan echoed that sentiment, saying that in his opinion he hasn't seen an instance where local aid is put in the House budget and then removed in the Senate budget.

Another important aspect of the House Ways and Means budget, Brodeur said, is an increase of $8.5 million in the special education circuit breaker line item. The circuit breaker reimbures cities and towns for special education costs that are four times the state average foundation budget per pupil, as calculated by the Chapter 70 formula, with the state paying 75 percent of the costs above that threshold.

The chart below shows the figures from last year's local aid and state assessments to Melrose according to the fiscal 2012 cherry sheet, the governor's proposed budget and the House Ways and Means proposed budget.

Fiscal 2013 Local Aid Estimates

FY2012 Cherry Sheet Estimate

FY2013 Governor’s Budget (H2)

Education:

  Chapter 70

7,323,565

7,672,924

  School Transportation

0

0

  Charter Tuition Reimbursement

409,402

459,109

  Smart Growth School Reimbursement

0

0

Offset Receipts:

  School Lunch

12,885

12,530

  School Choice Receiving Tuition

0

0

Sub-Total, All Education Items

7,745,852

8,144,563

General Government:

  Unrestricted General Government Aid

4,024,121

4,024,121

  Local Share of Racing Taxes

0

0

  Regional Public Libraries

0

0

  Urban Renewal Projects

0

0

  Veterans’ Benefits

154,478

264,148

  State Owned Land

824

824

  Exemptions: Vets, Blind, Surviving Spouses 

  & Elderly

107,961

104,359

Offset Receipts:

  Public Libraries

25,864

26,063

Sub-Total, All General Government

4,313,248

4,419,515

Total Estimated Receipt

12,059,100

12,564,078

Fiscal 2013 Local Aid Assessments

FY2012 Cherry Sheet Estimate

FY2013 Governor’s Budget (H2)

FY2013 House Ways and Means

County Assessments:

County Tax

0

0

   0

Suffolk County Retirement

0

0

   0

Sub-Total, County Assessments

   0

   0

   0

State Assessments and Charges:

  Retired Employees Health Insurance

0

0

   0

  Retired Teachers Health Insurance

0

0

   0

  Mosquito Control Projects

0

0

   0

  Air Pollution Districts

7,729

7,935

 7,935

  Metropolitan Area Planning Council

8,243

8,501

 8,501

  Old Colony Planning Council

0

0

   0

  RMV Non-Renewal Surcharge

45,560

44,260

44,260

Sub-Total, State Assessments

61,532

60,696

60,696

Transportation Authorities:

  MBTA

544,237

570,200

570,200

  Boston Metro. Transit District

0

0

   0

  Regional Transit

0

0

   0

Sub-Total, Transportation Authorities

544,237

570,200

570,200

Annual Charges Against Receipts:

  Special Education

182

9,549

9,549

  STRAP Repayments

0

0

   0

Sub-Total, Annual Charges

 182

9,549

9,549

Tuition Assessments

  School Choice Sending Tuition

0

5,000

5,000

  Charter School Sending Tuition

2,504,155

2,657,347

2,514,494

  Essex County Tech Sending Tuition

36,816

12,475

12,475

Sub-Total, Tuition Assessments

2,540,971

2,674,822

2,531,969

Total Estimated Charges

3,146,922

3,315,267

3,172,414