A Report of the Special Committee to Recommend Mitigation for Local Aid Cuts

The Committee acknowledges the work of Robert Edgren, Thomas Moreau, Timothy Weeks and Lynda Wik in the preparation of this report.

The Committee would also like to acknowledge the ideas, comments and assistance of all those individuals and organizations, though too numerous to name, that provided us with the information contained in the report.

Committee Scope and Purpose

The Committee was created by a Senate Order adopted on January 16, 2003:

Ordered. That the President appoint a special committee of the Senate to recommend legislation and other methods for mitigating the effect of local aid reductions for cities and towns. The special committee shall report not later than February 15, 2003.

Committee Members

In fulfillment of the Senate Order creating the Special Committee, the Senate President appointed the following members:

The Context

The Committee began its work immediately upon its creation and in the context of a widening fiscal crisis. Governor Romney had been granted expanded powers by the General Court to extend his budget cutting authority to include local aid programs and other segments of the state budget traditionally off limits to his 9-C powers. In the wake of this action, and in light of Governor Romney's subsequent announcement of a $114 million cut in local aid, the Massachusetts State Senate began taking steps to identify measures that would help mitigate the effect of local aid cuts in both the current fiscal year and in fiscal year 2004, which begins in July 2003.

The Committee set out to identify and catalogue a wide variety of steps that could potentially be enacted by the legislature to provide such mitigation. The Committee has limited itself to identifying the various proposals that have been put forward which require state action and has not sought to pass judgment on the merits or feasibility of actually enacting the proposals identified. To do so would require expertise reaching across various aspects of state and local governance and spanning an extraordinarily broad range of policy issues. The Committee concurs with Senate President Travaglini's preference that a substantive review of each idea be conducted by the chair, members, and staff of the appropriate committee of jurisdiction so that their expertise can inform the decision as to the viability and usefulness of each idea.

Information Gathering

Given the short timeframe in which the Committee was asked to conduct its work and report on its findings, it was deemed impractical to schedule and hold traditional public hearings. Instead, the Committee made a good faith effort to contact as many individuals and groups as possible who it believed to possess information relative to the Committee's charge.

As a result of that process, the Committee reached out to a great many individuals and organizations across the Commonwealth. Committee members and staff made personal phone calls, faxed requests, and sent letters to local officials, organizational leaders, and state officials. A partial list of those contacted includes: The Massachusetts Municipal Association, mayors of all cities in the Commonwealth, dozens of town managers and selectmen, associations representing tax assessors and collectors, building inspectors, and transportation officials. It also included the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools. The committee solicited input from labor unions representing school teachers, police officers, and firefighters. The outreach also extended to state officials such as the Lieutenant Governor, the Office of State Auditor, and the Office of Inspector General, as well as all members of the Massachusetts State Senate.

The response received by the Committee's requests was typically positive, constructive, and prompt. The committee received an impressively large number of suggestions of ways in which the Commonwealth could relieve the financial and bureaucratic pressure currently confronting local governmental entities. Some proposals were focused on long-term problems that would require complicated legislative and regulatory reform and others appear to lend themselves to more immediate implementation.

To all of those who responded to the Committee's request for information and assistance, we thank you for the cooperation and assistance you provided and acknowledge the thoughtful, informed contributions you have made to our work.

Presentation of Proposals

If a submitted proposal fell within the scope of the Committee's charge to bring forward recommendations that could potentially mitigate the effect of local aid reductions, it was included in the list presented below. Only proposals that fell outside a broad interpretation of the Committee's charge were excluded from the list.

In some instances, those submitting a proposal also included a brief description or background material in support of their proposal. When such material was provided it was either included or summarized as part of our presentation. In each instance, an effort was made to accurately reflect the argument put forward by those who offered the proposal in question.

While the Committee has tried to present the proposals without commentary or bias it has attempted to arrange the proposals along the lines used to organize the joint and standing committees of the General Court. This was done to facilitate a timely and appropriate assignment of each proposal to the appropriate committee of jurisdiction.

Next Steps

It is the expectation of the Committee that upon completion of its work, each of the various proposals catalogued here will be referred for consideration to the Senate chairs and staff of the appropriate joint or standing committee. At that point, a more substantive review of the merits can be made and recommendations regarding appropriate legislative action can be advanced. The Committee stands ready to assist in this process in any way deemed appropriate by the Senate and its leadership team.

Submitted Proposals

Commerce and Labor

• Workers Compensation
  • Adjust the payments for police and fire personnel who are injured on the job so that they can no longer receive 100% of their salary tax-free.
  • Future injured police and fire personnel should be dealt with under regular workers compensation rules.
  • The current IAB process is very time-consuming, adding costs to the process of trying to get employees back to work.
  • Provide better controls on workers compensation rate setting.
  • Replace the so-called Injured on Duty Law with a worker's compensation system for public safety personnel.
• Unemployment Insurance
  • Find a way to turn current or future local contributions into unemployment compensation fund into an early retirement plan.
  • Three cost
  • driving factors of unemployment insurance need to be reconsidered:
    • "Second employer obligation" - this requires a municipality to pay a share of unemployment if the new employer subsequently lays off a former employee, who left on his/her own for another job. Municipalities should be removed from this requirement.
    • Definition of "seasonal employees" - currently, according to DET's regulations, seasonal employees who are hired to augment existing staff are eligible for unemployment once the seasonal employment ceases.
    • Fired employees - currently, according to DET's regulations, if an employee is fired for poor performance, bad attendance, etc., s/he is eligible for unemployment. Only those employees who committed a "knowing violation" are exempt from collecting unemployment.
• Make more balanced appointments to the Labor Relations Commission

Counties

• Abolish Suffolk County and have state assume control of the corrections system.
• Restructure County Government
  • The process was begun but needs to be finished. For example, according to Brookline town government, they pay more than $500,000 to the county and receive virtually no direct services for the payment.

Education

• Eliminate requirement for $125 per pupil requirement for spending on professional development in school districts.
  • Would free up Chapter 70 money for instructional costs.
  • Allow local staff to be paid with professional development grant funds for in-house professional development programs.
• Student Transportation
  • Extend mileage requirements or eliminate the transportation requirement on locals.
  • Encourage user fees for non-mandated services
  • Allow transportation in excess of one hour. Extra vehicles are required as a result of this time limit requirement.
  • Fully fund regional transportation program.
  • Eliminate Department of Education Regulations relative to school bussing.
  • Put reasonable limits on choice in school transportation.
• Charter Schools
  • Freeze applications and award of new charter schools or expansion of existing charters.
  • Reimburse charters the average cost for a type of student, not average for all students - elementary, secondary, special needs.
  • Eliminate the mandate that local communities are charged on the cherry sheet when students attend charter schools.
• School Finance
  • Allow a percentage of school budgets to be carried forward to following fiscal year without reverting back to general fund.
  • Decouple Education and General Fund aid, so the two sectors are not pitted against each other.
  • Expand the flexibility of any town that is not the member of a district to renegotiate the terms of tuition or buy
  • in to the district.
• Eliminate annual audit of each district's end-of-year report; conduct random audits similar to IRS approach.
• Reallocate Teacher Quality Enhancement grants to other more vital services (603 CMR 7.00). Signing bonuses are irrational during period of layoffs. Resources in this program may be better utilized on basic services by existing staff.
• Out-of District Special Education
  • Rates should be rolled back to June 30, 2002 rates or freeze them for the next fiscal year.
  • Commit to full funding of 50-50 program until Circuit Breaker is fully implemented.
  • Create a pooled risk program for small school districts in order to avoid large spikes in costs.
• MCAS
  • Postpone administration of all MCAS tests other the English Language Arts and Mathematics.
  • Suspend funding for the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability. It is redundant to the DOE's own accountability system.
  • Conduct assessment of total costs associated with test administration; both state contracts and local district costs.
  • Postpone MCAS tests and remediation for two years.
  • Testing requirements constitute an "unfunded mandate" by the state., fund them or repeal them.
  • Examine cost implications of retaining students enrolled in Special Education programs for several years when they don't pass MCAS.
  • Eliminate the duplication of after school programs and MCAS remediation that are overlapping and redundant.
• Direct Department of Education (DOE) to identify and eliminate reports and plans that are unneeded and/or redundant.
  • For example, DOE requires schools to prepare Individual Student Success Plans, - District Improvement Plans, District Curriculum Accommodation Plans, District Technology Plans, Mentoring and Induction Plans, and Staff Development Plans.
  • DOE should select a single vendor to distribute software for the Student's Information initiative.
• State Education Grants
  • Allow state grants to be used to supplant local services as opposed to only allowing these funds to be supplemental.
  • Distribute state grants as block grants to allow districts to manage their tight budgets more effectively.
  • Prioritize funding for Chapter 70 over targeted grants that affect non-core courses and programs.
• Chapter 70 - Funding Formula
  • Simplify the education formula.
  • Regional assessment formula: The formula does not have a mechanism to adjust downward with drops in enrollment, so they are paying a higher assessment with every student they lose. The per-pupil costs are too high.
  • Fund education from a stable, multi-year formula at adequate level of funding and allow for growth overrides.
  • State must take into account population growth for high-growth, moderate-income districts; they have been left behind by education reform.
  • Take uncertainty out of local budgeting process.
  • Support S1849 to let town meeting by-pass override vote up to amount of foundation increase due to enrollment.
• Reduce Required Local Contribution to reflect current and future local aid cuts.
  • Local contribution calculations included state revenues in determining a community's ability to pay and should be updated to reflect cuts.
• Special Education
  • Eliminate Chapter 766 and all related state regulations. Federal law and regulations believed to be sufficient. Direct DOE to produce analysis of cost savings and potential impact on service level if only Fed law was in place. Savings to districts will come from in freeing time for direct service rather than record keeping and filing.
  • Reduce required ratios for instructional assistants in Special Education classrooms.
  • Allow local districts to determine grade spans in Special Education classrooms as opposed to state determination.
  • Examine and update mandates under Special Education. Identify and fully fund all special education mandates, otherwise they should be eliminated.
  • Review mandated neuropsychologists. Schools need to be able to reject 2nd opinions without going to a hearing.
  • Create boards of state and federal officials to approve Individual Education Plans (IEP's) and limit local cost to average cost plus a fixed percentage.
  • Certain medical services for some SPED students must be paid by the School Department and cannot be covered by health insurance. This should be changed.
  • Encourage and assist local communities to more effectively seek Medicaid reimbursements for medically necessary services provided to students as part of their special education programs.
• School Buildings
  • Follow Connecticut model of reimbursing municipalities during construction to reduce temporary borrowing costs. Or move to reimbursement of construction cost immediately upon completion of final audit.
  • Relax spending requirements for school maintenance under Chapter 194 of the Acts of 1998.
  • Remove regulatory requirement for expenditures such as lighting of parking lots and school buildings at night.
  • Review construction requirements in school buildings overall - could be relaxed without jeopardizing student health and safety.
  • Provide incentives for locals to refinance debt if significant savings would result in joint costs to state and local entities. Currently incentive exists only if savings outweigh refinancing costs to locals.
  • Create incentives for communities who can afford to move immediately to permanent financing to do so.
  • Set time limit for final audits by DOE in order to move to final reimbursement schedule sooner.
  • Adopt a moratorium on SBA and institute a plan to fund it.
  • Grandfather towns already far along in planning from any moratorium.
  • The length of time that municipalities can borrow for school construction projects should be extended to match the number of years' delay for receiving reimbursement from the State for approved school construction projects.
• Length of day / Length of school year
  • Reexamine traditional school day and school calendar. Solicit proposals from Superintendents in this regard.
• Technology Plans
  • Eliminate them. State requirements are unreasonable in current fiscal climate.
  • Place technology licenses on the state bid list.
  • Reduce requirement for 1:5 computer to student ratio for type A or B computers.
• Bilingual Education
  • State cannot hope to implement the new Structured Bilingual Immersion Program under these circumstances.
• Excess Debt
  • Suspend or Revise calculation of excess debt for purposes of community contributions to regional school districts.
• Extend re-certification timeline for certified teachers.
  • Providing and certifying professional development for teachers is a financial and bureaucratic burden for DOE and local districts alike. Extend re-certification deadline by two years for those coming due in 2004 and 2005.
  • Release schools from the requirement to provide no-cost path for teacher certifications.
• Reduce requirement that all school nurses be registered and certified.
• Repeal School Choice Law.
  • Reduce or eliminate the drain on public school resources caused by School Choice Law.
• Homeless Families
  • After children classified as homeless have established residence in a school district, that original district remains responsible for their education after they have moved out of the district. This needs to be re-evaluated.
• Reduce student / teacher ratios for preschool programs.
• Change requirement for training personnel on physical restraint techniques
  • Adopted several years ago this law overreaches and costs districts both time and money unnecessarily training some personnel. Some staff should be trained once, not all staff annually.
• Freeze pricing to the schools for Transportation, fuel, utilities and other essential products/services.
  • Allow favorable bids to be extended beyond Chapter 30B when they benefit the localities.
• Defer summer pay for teachers to future fiscal years.
  • Teachers still get paid but costs get spread over a set number of fiscal years to be determined by statute. See Chap. 336 of Acts of 1991 for previous use of this approach.
• Narrow definitions under 150E to provide more flexibility to school districts regarding what can be grieved around working conditions and hours. (Also in Public Service)
• Identify and relax education reform mandates.
• Limit costs for locals of students choosing to attend out-of-district vocational schools.
  • Make reimbursement of out-of-district vocational transportation consistent with the school choice policies in place for local districts. Total cost should not exceed cost of attending in-district vocational and transportation costs limited to district average.

Election Laws

• Nomination Papers / Initiative Petitions
  • Eliminate the need for lengthy signature petition process for nomination of candidates. Review process to gain ballot access to increase effectiveness, timeliness, and cost efficiency.
• Relating to Primary Procedures and Unenrolled Voters (HD 2426)
  • The bill relating to primary procedures would maintain the practice at state primaries of making no automatic change to a voter's party status caused by participation in the primary and extend that situation to presidential primaries. Currently unenrolled voters in a presidential primary automatically join the party whose ballot they choose. Since a very large majority chooses to return to unenrolled status, clerks must enter party changes voter by voter and inform each one by first class mail. Clerks estimate savings in excess of $300,000.
  • Eliminate the use of 'change of party enrollment cards' for presidential primaries.
• Annual Census
  • Abolish annual census in favor of one every two or three years.
• Constable on Duty
  • Eliminate the requirement for a constable to be on duty at the polls (Chapter 54, Section 72 amend to change shall to may).
• Campaign Finance
  • Require reporting only for local candidates who have expended money. Currently all candidates are required to report, even though most have never spent any campaign money or a minimal amount for an election. Should only need to report before and after an election. Filing of the annual report is meaningless in small towns. It seems that the filings and the informational brochures could be accomplished in a far more economical way. The Internet opens up a lot of possibilities for this information to be on the web, rather than all these printed booklets, which become obsolete.

Energy

• Extend the MA Renewable Energy Trust enabling statute (expired 2002).
  • Continue to provide grants to municipalities to alleviate payment obligations incurred by municipalities required to participate in federal or state mandated installation of pollution control technology on public and private waste disposal plants.
• Renewable Sources
  • The state should foster development of energy from renewable sources in order to reduce the region's dependency on fossil fuels. Such dependency places municipal utility budgets (and all rate-payers' budgets) at risk of sharp increases in prices, given the volatility of fossil fuel prices.

Government Regulations

• Remove the Ban on Lottery Advertising
• Relating to Birth, Marriage, and Death Records (HD2428)
  • The bill relating to the birth, death and marriage records would permit the development of a statewide database to serve the needs of the public.
  • Through a surcharge on certified copies of vital records, the state projects income of $1.28 million in the first year, rising to $2.09 million in the seventh year, with surpluses ranging from $327,000 to $663,000.
• Municipal Light Plant
  • Make it easier for a municipality to organize a municipal light plant, thereby yielding savings via lower electric rates. At a minimum, existing MLP's should be able to competitively bid to provide electricity contracts for other cities and towns.
• "Congestion" -
  • The state needs to play a strong role in getting the recent FERC ruling regarding congestion overturned. This ruling will have a major impact on municipal electricity budgets.
• Increase ABCC Liquor License Application Fees
  • The Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission should raise their application fees from $50 to $100. The ABCC should also charge an annual Renewal fee.
• Reduce Lottery Payouts - Send Increased Revenue to Local Aid Fund
• Delay implementation of GASB 34 accounting system for two years.
  • This unfunded mandate is time consuming to local accountants and other officials to implement and causing a severe financial drain
• MGL Ch. 271 Sect. 7A does not allow a city or town to hold a raffle. Add cities and towns to the list of organizations allowed to conduct raffles for special items.
• Ease the conflict of interest laws to allow very specific and controlled private sponsorships of public sector participation in professional organizations and seminars. This would keep professionals up to date in their fields while minimizing costs borne directly by the taxpayers.
• Suspend, temporarily, the requirement for training of inspectors and let towns assess the risks of inadequate training.
• Allow for expansion of Keno into more establishments.
• Adjust the fees established by the License Commission in regard to Common Victuallers, Motor Vehicle Dealers, and Entertainment.

Healthcare

• TB Testing
  • This requirement should be eliminated in communities with low prevalence of TB.
• More Federal Financial Support for Medicaid Funding
  • Lobby to get the Federal Government to pick up more than the current 50%.
• Food Code
  • The regulations are very detailed, require the local health official to understand complex scientific and regulatory processes, require additional variance hearing before a Board of Health, and require considerably more time per inspection.

Housing

• Chapter 40B Comprehensive Permit Reform
  • Builders are using Chapter 40B Comprehensive Permit process to circumvent local zoning. These end runs need to be controlled through reform legislation to reduce operating/staff costs to the community.
  • Temporarily suspend Chapter 40B.
• Allow a regional housing production submission for Franklin County towns for fiscal year 2004 Executive Order 418 certification requirements and regional submissions in subsequent years if the program continues.
• Housing Violations
  • Tenants should be required to report housing violations to their landlords before involving local public health departments/inspectional service departments.

Human Service

• Full-Time Veterans Agent Requirement
  • Municipalities should not be required to have a full-time Veterans agent unless the community determines the workload requires one.
• Mass General Laws Ch. 115 obligates the Town to pay medical bills for Veterans. To quote one agent, "the state is proposing to reduce MassHealth members. Our Veterans Agent has worked hard to get needy veterans and their dependents on the MassHealth rolls. If these people come off the rolls the town will be obligated to pay their medical bills by law. This could be a budget buster".
• New enrollment in the state funded Prescription Advantage Program has been terminated. This together with a waiting period of 8 months to enroll in the VA healthcare system would impact the Town's budget for Veteran's services.
• Municipal Recreation Programs
  • Exempt municipal recreation programs from OCCS licensing and re-licensing. Also in Local Affairs)

Judiciary

• Streamline non-custodial parent law.
  • At minimum, repeal requirement that court authorization be provided annually by non-custodial parent. Put burden on custodial parent to flag and deny records access.
• Support Holyoke Police Chief Scott in court fees dispute, which would return more fees to municipalities through police departments
• Reform the amount of time it takes for the towns to foreclose the right of redemption and get properties back on the tax rolls.

Local Affairs

• Pension Obligation Bonds
  • Allow cities and towns to issue pension obligation bonds without legislative approval. Current low interest rates make this an attractive savings possibility. (Also in Public Service)
• Revolving Funds
  • The existing cap on expenditures of revolving funds established under Ch. 44, Sec. 53E ˝ should be increased from an amount not more than one percent of the local property tax levy to an amount not more than five percent of the levy.
• Treasurer's and Investments
  • CH. 44, Sec. 54 restricts the investment of trust funds to what has become known as the "legal list", which is the list of investments available for savings institutions. This list is archaic and not very useful to local treasurers, as there are other instruments that would generate higher yields and long-term appreciation. Treasurers should be permitted to seek better yields while continuing to seek safety and liquidity. This can be accomplished with the following changes:
    • Allow treasurers to hire professional money managers.
    • Allow treasurers to invest funds similar to how retirement systems can.
    • Allow treasurers to invest in the PRIT/PRIM (the state retirement investment pool).
    • Establish a state-wide trust fund investment pool.
    • Update and maintain a sound and progressive "legal list".
• An Act Relative to Certain Checks not Cashed and Deemed Abandoned
  • This proposal has been filed to modernize the procedures for local Treasurers to search for owners of uncashed checks and to simplify the process for moving the related unencumbered funds into the general treasury to become available for appropriation to meet other municipal expenses.
• Local Authority for Fund Transfers
  • Submit legislation that grants municipal executives the authority to transfer funds between accounts with local legislative action.
• Allow Towns to Reduce Budget without Town Meeting Approval
  • Section 16 of Chapter 39 of the Massachusetts General Laws require that town budgets must be approved by a town meeting. This includes both appropriations and reductions of the town's budgets. Given the timing of the current local aid reductions and the potential for future reductions, town governments should be allowed to be able to reduce their budgets without town meeting under very specific circumstances.
• Local Municipal Executives Limited "Fiscal Emergency" Powers
  • Submit legislation that would allow the Governor and Legislature to declare a "fiscal emergency" that would grant municipal executives limited power to override collective bargaining agreements.
• Excavation of Public Ways
  • The state should enact a law that confirms the authority of cities and towns to recover costs of enforcing and repairing utility street cuts and allow municipalities to charge reasonable inspection and excavation permit fees. (Also in Transportation)
• Allow for Regional Cooperatives in purchase of certain public works equipment in smaller communities.
• GASB 34
  • Drop the requirement to implement a fixed asset inventory and accounting system for municipalities. Eliminate the need to expand local audits to include the GASB module.
• Municipal Recreation Programs
  • Exempt municipal recreation programs from OCCS licensing and re-licensing. (Also in Human Services)
• Property Foreclosures
  • Allow accelerated procedures to removing property foreclosures from the tax rolls, including dual district court and land court jurisdiction.
• Maintain the existing level of state / local cost sharing.
• City must forego or revisit expensive projects like the canal walks and the bike trails
• "Make changes to cost centers"- consolidate and streamline.
• Changes and Additions to Local Fee Structure
  • Submit legislation that authorizes municipal planning boards to impose development and impact fees.
  • As municipal boards and officers are given responsibility for issuance and review of a greater number of applications and variance requests, the fees received by the state for these reviews should go to the towns (for example variances from the state sanitary code are reviewed by the Board of Health but the state receives the $200 application fee).
  • Eliminate references to specific fee amounts within statutes that have the effect of prohibiting localities from implementing "reasonable" cost recovery schedules. Under Massachusetts General Laws there are numerous statutes that specify a dollar amount for fees that no longer mirror the true cost of doing business.
  • Currently, local fire departments charge the same minimal fee for a routine inspection as they do for a longer, more complicated building inspection. The fee imposed does not reflect the work being done nor the time it takes for the inspection. By grading the fees so that time and effort is reflected would make more financial sense to the local fire departments.
  • Allow municipalities to charge a fee for work on storm drains in the same way that fees are charged for water and sewer. This could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars to individual cities and towns.
  • Increase the lease surcharge on all car rental transactions within a locality. This has not been raised for 16 years. (Also in Taxation)
  • Allow Cities to collect fines from violations written on lease or rental cars.
  • Eliminate Special Fuels Application Form. Currently a municipality or regional school that uses or sells special fuels is required to get a Special Fuels License at a cost of $1.00. The cost to the state to produce the bill and the cost to the locality to pay the bill far exceeds $1, so we should just send the license and do away with the $1 fee.

Natural Resources

• Increase wetland filing fees. Divide them between local communities and DEP. They have not been raised in 16 years.
• Designate design and review consultant fees to local conservation committee.
• Cities should do a better job promoting Heritage Park or their special resources.
• Develop state policies that encourage quality development by providing for flexible policies regarding the development of new or expanded water supplies. Current state and federal environmental policies make this difficult.
• Identifying and suspending enforcement of non-critical environmental mandates, such as landfill monitoring in instances where no threat to drinking water exists.
• The DEP needs to develop more flexible capping requirements for landfills, as they are more stringent than Federal EPA standards. Additionally, DEP should implement Sec. 22 of Ch. 584 of the Acts of 1987 (Solid Waste Act) by writing rules and regulations for a landfill capping grant program to provide state assistance to communities that are closing or have closed their landfills in accordance with DEP rules and regulations.
• The regulations concerning disposal of street sweepings and road pavement result in expensive processes.
• Allow for the relaxation of implementation schedules for DEP-required capital projects for the next three years, or until the fiscal crisis is over.
• Eliminate DEP Safe Drinking Water Act Assessment. Re-institute water sampling waivers.
• Reduce the frequency and duplication of water testing requirements.
• Eliminate "administrative" payments to DEP by municipalities
• Delay Phase II storm water program and the municipal industrial storm water applications.
• Fund local costs imposed on local governments by new water quality tests required under the Beaches Act of 2000. Auditor's report in December 2000 estimated these costs at $389,070 during the 2001 bathing season. State Grant program established by the Act was never funded.
• Use the Clean Environment Fund to fund recycling mandates imposed on cities and towns by the state.
  • If funding is not forthcoming, provide for a temporary relaxation of waste bans for non-hazardous materials.
• Expand Waste reduction programs.

Public Safety

• Establish a Uniform Rate of Parking fines.
• Amend Chapter 90, Sections 20A, 20A 1/2 and 20E to increase a $15 parking fine to $25.
• Permit Cities and Towns to Impose an Excise on the Use of Off-Street Parking Facilities
• Increase the authority of RMV to enforce payment of fines for violations of local parking laws.
• Allow cities and towns to charge the maximum amount allowed under state law for Tow removal.
• Eliminate RMV Time Requirement for Local Submission of Traffic Citations
  • Currently the RMV requires cities and towns to submit a hard copy of traffic citations within four days or forfeit their share of the fine. Extend this submission time frame and / or use electronic means of notification of citations.
• Grant powers to law enforcement to check commercial trucks for untaxed fuel. Some law enforcement officers are of the opinion that up to 50% of commercial vehicles are using home heating oil to avoid purchasing taxed fuel at local gas stations. (Also in Taxation)
• Grant power to allow a state to seize the property of companies that do not pay commercial vehicle fines which are issued to the companies rather than to the drivers. If a "driver" is cited, the RMV can suspend their license but under the law the companies must receive the citation. Most states have a provision for issuing "Distress Warrants" (Also in Taxation).
• Reduce the frequency of the requirement for local communities to review application for firearms identification cards under the 1998 Gun control Act. Current law requires it every 4 years.
• Increase the gun registration fee to $50: the rate is currently $25 and that is not sufficient to cover administrative costs.
• Allow the towns to keep the gun processing permit fee.
• Eliminate "earmarking" of grant funds and make awards based on the merit of applications in the Community Policing Grant Program.
• Reduce mandated 22 week academy training for new recruits at the Criminal Justice Training Council.
• Adjust the Firearm ID Card fee to cover local police departments' mandate to conduct applicant background checks, fingerprinting, photographing etc.
  • Amend the Gun Control Act to allow municipalities to retain the entire fee.
• Emergency Medical Services
  • Remove the Department of Public Health requirement that two paramedics ride on an ambulance call.
  • Streamline the waiver system for call / volunteer departments.
  • Maintain emergency response service zones, which help local fire departments meet EMS needs.
  • Extend EMT re-certification time from 2 years to 3 years.
  • Allow all regions to allow a paramedic and an EMT Basic.
• Remove the requirements that police officers be used for road details, and allow for flagmen, particularly for municipal road projects
• Eliminate use of two license plates
• Regionalize Police and Fire Departments
  • If a simplified method of regionalizing forces were available to save on fire and police, towns would consider it.
  • Regionalize dispatching services.
• Fines other than motor vehicle violations (chapter 90) should be split with the courts. This would induce courts to both levy and collect fines. This would discourage the practice of plea bargaining away fines. Also look at increasing all fines other than speeding. (Also in Taxation)

Public Service

• Collective Bargaining
  • Narrow definitions under 150E to provide more flexibility to school districts regarding what can be grieved around working conditions and hours. (Also in Education)
  • Allow localities the right to reset benefit rate for employees without an extended bargaining process. An independent board could grant relief based on the fact of need up to a predetermined amount…perhaps 5%.
  • Provide legal method to implement emergency modifications to collective bargaining agreements without spending years in remediation, arbitration, and the courts.
• Prohibit people with disability pensions from applying for unemployment insurance.
• Submit legislation that would allow municipal executives to override minimum manning clauses in collective bargaining agreements in fiscal emergencies, or that requires renegotiation in each successive contract.
• Health Care Costs
  • Submit legislation that grants municipal executives greater control over the management of employee health insurance plans. Eliminate statutory requirements that each collective bargaining unit must sign off on health benefits changes. Allow municipalities to charge different fee schedules to those requesting Indemnity plans and those requesting HMO's.
  • Allow school districts and communities to participate in GIC and purchase medical insurance through state contracted providers without having to bargain with unions for the option. Small communities are locked in to collaborative purchasing which means that current plans can't be changed without negotiating across multiple bargaining groups. GIC may produce lower average costs for small communities without compromising service.
  • Make statutory provisions for group purchasing of health insurance by school districts. Allowing them to separate from municipal plans and gain from pooled purchasing power.
  • Do not hold health insurance subject to collective bargaining.
  • Decision to join a joint purchase group should not be subject to collective bargaining.
  • Health insurance costs increase annually. Current statutory authority requires locals to offer health insurance to all employees at an equal contribution rate. All unions must agree before rate can be changed. If rate equalization language was stricken, city could negotiate a more reasonable rate. Provisions of Chapter 32B should be relaxed to give municipalities and school districts flexibility in controlling health costs such as:
    • Grandfather current employees while allowing differentiation of plans for different groups of employees and retirees.
    • Allow districts to freeze enrollments in the most expensive plan -traditional indemnity plans.
    • Allow changes in insurance purchasing for some covered employees without having to negotiate with all bargaining groups.
    • Cap % of premiums for all health care plans, including indemnity plans, at 75%. Current standard for HMO premiums is 90% and for indemnity plans it is 100%.
    • Decrease the town's assessment for retired Teacher's Health Insurance from 90% to 75% making it equivalent to Governor Romney's proposal for state employees.
    • Hold health insurance contribution of municipalities to 80%.
    • Allow local option to establish minimum number of hours for health care eligibility and allow prorating benefits for part time employees.
    • Rate Setting Commission should freeze retirement health insurance.
  • Remove any city charter or ordinance barriers to consolidation of group health insurance plans with the City of Boston.
    • Legislation that authorizes those coalition cities that must convert from self-funded plans to Boston's premium-based plans to amortize the cost of claims incurred but not reported.
  • The State should assume the health insurance costs for retired employees of the Jail and the Registry of Deeds, from the former Franklin County, as the continuance of this cost as part of the Franklin Regional Council of Governments' budget is unfair when other county governments that have been dissolved do not have these costs.
• Civil Service
  • Submit legislation that would abolish civil service and the Civil Service Commission.
  • Eliminate civil service except for police and fire.
  • The HRD should only offer exams for Public Safety personnel.
  • Evaluate the effects of discontinuing the Civil Service Commission's appellate role in non-public safety hiring and its appellate role in disciplinary appeals.
  • Make more balanced appointments to the Civil Service Commission.
  • Change the posting requirements. A town with no civil service positions still receives and posts notices on a regular basis. The cost of printing and mailing these notices must be significant. It seems that posting on the Internet or through the Department of Employment and Training would make more sense.
  • Revise hiring process to eliminate costly delays and attorney's fees. Either fund or eliminate physical fitness testing mandates.
• Find a way to turn current or future local contributions into unemployment compensation fund into an early retirement plan.
• Early Retirement Incentive Program
  • Approve a new ERI program that gives municipalities maximum control and flexibility of timing and options.
• Binding arbitration for police and firefighters. These two groups get protection that no other group receives
• Pension Fund Liabilities
  • Extend un
  • funded liability for chapter 32 pensions beyond 2028 and provide maximum flexibility in setting the structure of the funding schedule going forward.
  • Authorize municipalities to bond the unfunded pension liability by issuing pension obligation bonds.
    • Current low interest rates make this an attractive savings possibility.
  • Adjust the schedule for the unfunded pension liability.
  • The current schedule is back loaded to be fully paid by 2028, but many towns increased their payments so that many are on schedule to be fully funded by 2015 or 2018. Instead of simply extending the payment schedule, other ways to adjust the unfunded pension liability include:
    1. Check the assumptions being used in valuations because the old assumptions are considered conservative;
    2. Adopt a smoothing technique for actuarial value to reduce the volatility of the market approach;
    3. Work with systems to determine a schedule as the actuary to be reasonable, i.e. develop more creative schedules, not simply the 4.5% to 2028.
    4. Or, if the schedule is extended, make sure that the money goes toward alleviating the local aid cuts.
  • Allow locals not to pay into the pension system for one year, because the amount they need to close the unfunded liability pay back over time.
  • Increase minimum employee pension requirements.
  • Change Contribution Requirements on an Emergency Basis.
• Consider creation of a more unified retirement system, instead of having 105 separate systems.
• Call / Volunteer Firefighters Eliminate Chapter 31 Section 61A requirement that call and volunteer firefighters comply wit medical and physical ability standards. Provide only necessary testing to encourage call / volunteer participation.
• Quinn Bill Options
  • Eliminate the Quinn Bill or end the Quinn Bill for all incoming police and require a college degree as a job requirement. Grandfather current officers to maintain Quinn Bill provisions as modified (eliminating life experience credits and town reimbursement issues below).
  • Freeze the Quinn Bill.
  • Reform by moving to a bonus system, ensuring accredited programs, and allowing cities and towns to reduce payments if under funded by the state.
  • Make bonuses awarded under Quinn Bill provision a fixed dollar amount as opposed to a % of base pay.
• Eliminate the personnel use of a vehicle in calculating the pension benefits of police chiefs and other public employees

State Administration

• Establish a Massachusetts Security for Public Deposits Commission
  • This proposal would establish a Commission made up of the State Treasurer, the State Auditor and the Secretary of Administration and Finance to develop regulations and collateral requirements for institutions that accept public deposits. No depository or investment would be allowed to accept public deposits unless qualified by the Commission and on a list to be published quarterly.
• State government should encourage intergovernmental cooperation.
• Allow for standardization and rationalization of design processes for school buildings and other municipal facilities.
  • include provisions for utilization of renewable energy.
• Libraries
  • Allow a short-term increase in waivers to libraries to give them flexibility to manage shrinking resources.
    • Municipalities should be able to determine their resource allocation level for library materials without losing state library grants.
  • Postpone or Eliminate Required Increase in Library Spending
    • Currently to get library state aid, municipalities have to increase funding by 2.5% over the past three year average and to increase their materials budget. Either eliminate the requirement or postpone it for the next three years.
    • Loosen or eliminate the requirements for Public Library certification: that a minimum of 13% of library budget be used for books and audiovisual materials; that the library be open 64 hours per week, and that the library budget exceed the average of the 3 previous fiscal years' budgets by 2.5%.
    • Continue grant funding for libraries based on incentives and benchmarks that encourage public libraries to improve services.
• Pacheco Law
  • Make required comparison between privates and existing public sector cost rather than between privates and most efficient public sector cost.
• Prevailing Wage Law
  • Repeal prevailing wage law for school construction projects.
  • Eliminate or reform prevailing wage requirements.
  • Exempt municipalities of fewer than 5,000 population and for projects of less than $100,000.
  • Grant waivers from prevailing wage for small projects, for example those under $25,000 or $50,000. This would save small towns substantial money. Local contractors would be able to quote the project at their normal rate rather than the higher prevailing wage.
  • Prevailing wage should be set at the prevailing wage in each SMSA rather than a statewide rate based on wages in Boston.
• Streamline Massachusetts codes to conform to national accepted building and zoning standards. Update and modernize the Massachusetts Zoning Act.
• Reduce publication fees by using cable television or the Internet for Legal Advertising.
• Reduce mandates to retain certain records indefinitely.
• Emergency Finance Board
  • Eliminate Emergency Finance Board reviews for municipal public building repair projects and debt issuance under MGL c. 44 sect. 7
  • Consider eliminating the Emergency Finance Board.
• Encourage the regionalization of services delivered by local government.
• Bidding, Procurement, and Construction Reform
  • Suspend the Requirements of the Uniform Procurement Act (Chapter 30B)
  • Streamline procurement requirements in all areas, especially in Chapters 3 and 149.
  • Increase the threshold for full bid process.
  • The dollar thresholds for goods and services (Ch. 30B), public works (Ch. 30, Sec. 39M), and building construction (Ch. 149) need to be increased and/or indexed to inflation. The current requirements are expensive for Advertising and Posting.
  • Raise the limits of the Uniform Procurement Act to $100,000.
  • Costs and attorney fees should be awarded to the municipality, when the court finds in favor of them, in defense of contractor claims for contract balance retained under Ch. 30, Sec. 39K.
  • Dollar thresholds should be indexed to inflation so that they continue to rise over the years without additional legislation.
  • Change state procurement laws in regard to street and sidewalk construction and construction and repair of buildings.
  • Filed sub-bids (Ch. 149, Sec. 44F) should be eliminated.
  • The low-bid requirement for general contractors needs to be changed in order to give municipalities additional flexibility.
  • The existing certification process undertaken by DCAM must be improved.
  • The liability for contractor evaluations needs to be eliminated, in addition to the indemnification for architects that file contractor evaluations.
  • Revise, eliminate, or include the PLA in the filed sub-bid law
  • Authorize municipalities to use design-build construction rather than traditional design-bid-build methods.
• Provide for electronic production for all construction documents such as plans, specifications, addendums and distribution for all capital programs.
• Increase the bonding requirements to give cities and towns flexibility in protecting themselves and encourage smaller contractors to bid on construction projects.
  • Raise bonding requirements to $100,000 level but allow cities and towns to require bonds, certified checks, and/or treasurers checks.
  • Performance and Payment bond requirements for projects under $25,000 are not worth the administrative time and should be eliminated.

Taxation

• Motor Vehicle Excise Tax Adjustment
  • According to the M.G.L, Chap. 60A, motor vehicles are taxed $25 per $1000 of valuation of the vehicle. The valuation of the vehicle is defined as a percentage of the list price established by the manufacturer and adjusted through the first five years after purchase. There are two main methods of restructuring the motor vehicle excise tax. The first increases the rate from $25 to $30 or higher. This can be done statewide, or through a local option. The second method attempts to establish a higher value for the vehicle over a longer period of time by increasing the percentages of depreciation, increasing the length of time that the vehicle depreciates, or some combination of the two. Finally, revise the minimum excise tax bill to cover the local municipal expense of billing, mailing, posting, reconciling etc.
• Auto Excise Collection
  • Amend Ch. 60A, Sec. 2A by allowing municipalities to directly flag a debtor's RMV file if that person has not paid auto excise taxes. - Authorize the RMV to work in closer partnership with local communities in the collection of overdue auto excise taxes and parking fines. Senate bill 1749 proposes changes in this area.
  • Require colleges and universities to provide the necessary information to municipalities to insure compliance by students with the auto excise tax.
  • Provide for better measures to collect unpaid excise tax on motorboats and aircraft.
  • Such measures could include substituting a personal property tax when excise tax is not paid, establishing a provision whereby any seller of a motor vehicle in a private sale shall provide the name and address of the buyer to the respective agency, or providing a tax amnesty program for the collection of motor boat and aircraft excise taxes.
• Collection of Local Taxes
  • Improve the accuracy and currency of property tax bills by authorizing cities and towns to send out updated and accurate tax bills as soon as new construction is completed, as provided for in Senate bill 1749.
  • Modernize how cities and towns manage so-called abandoned property.
  • Bring the statutorily allowable fees chargeable by local collectors more in line with current costs, to reduce the minimum time for filing a tax title petition, and to allow local collectors and treasurers to add the legal expenses of tax taking and tax foreclosure to the fees prescribed for their preparation.
• Provide Cherry Sheets to municipalities in a timely fashion.
• Property Re-Valuation
  • Extend the 3-year required re-valuation and re-certification of Property Values to a 5-year cycle.
  • Make provision for mid cycle property reevaluations an opt
  • out program as opposed to the current opt
  • in status.
• Prop. 2 1/2
  • Give towns more flexibility in distributing the relative burden between residential and commercial property. The current formula shifts the burden onto the residential property and, because of this, the commercial property tax rate falls while the residential tax rate continues to increase.
  • Exempt police and/or fire departments from 2 ˝ provisions
  • Create separate water and fire districts, outside of Proposition 2 ˝ provisions.
  • Exclude county assessments from Prop. 2 ˝ provisions, for cities and towns still responsible for such costs.
  • Exclude certain fixed costs from the levy limit. This would include employee health insurance and retirement system assessments
  • Index Proposition 2 ˝ to Inflation.
  • Amend Prop 2 1/2 to exclude the "overlay" in the calculation.
  • Increase a municipality's levy limit annually by the percentage increase in the prior year's student enrollment multiplied by the prior year's school district operating budget. For example, if a school district's enrollment increased by 3 percent and the prior year's operating budget was $20 million, the levy limit would be automatically increased by an additional $600,000.
  • Allow local option for imposition of 3% year in growth of property tax on commercial property without an override, as opposed to 2.5%.
  • Eliminate voter approval for property tax increases to pay for long term debt and unfunded pension costs or the increased cost of operating critical services like fire, police, and K
  • 12 education.
  • Allow towns to add the FY'03 Snow and Ice deficit to their FY'04 levy capacity.
• Local Option Room Occupancy Tax
  • Allow towns to charge an additional 1-2% for room occupancy tax.
• Eliminate UMASS Amherst Campus Center's exemption from hotel / motel tax (that tax doesn't cost the state anything, doesn't cost the university anything, shouldn't be an edge in competition against local hotels / motels). This could be a significant ($70,000+) help to Amherst.
• Local Option Rooms Tax on Rentals
  • Expand the local room occupancy tax (MGL C.64G) to include taxing short-term rentals.
  • Increase local option lodging tax ceiling.
• Local Option Taxes- Approve enabling statutes for the following new local option taxes or surcharges:
  • Meals tax of up to 3%.
  • Excise tax on billboards and signs of 20% to replace existing property tax on these structures.
  • Luxury tax on items of $10,000 plus.
  • Payroll tax.
  • Tax the real estate of charitable organizations and other tax
  • exempt property in certain limited circumstances.
  • Surcharge of $.50 on entertainment events or services.
  • Road tax evasion fines or ordinances to encourage local government participation.
  • Change tax classification of income
  • producing apartments (Chapter 59, Section 2A). to allow cities to classify apartment houses (4 units or more) as commercial properties rather than residential units and tax accordingly.
  • Remove the exempt status of property for commercial purposes on Massport and MBTA land.
  • Remove real estate exemptions for parking lots. A statute dating back to 1946 provides a property tax exemption to parking facilities leased from the City of Boston.
• Existing taxes and surcharges- Amend or increase
  • Local option sales tax with increase earmarked for that town or city.
  • Increase the lease surcharge on all car rental transactions within a locality. (Also in Local Affairs)
• Clarifying the Personal Property Tax Exemptions for Telecommunications Companies.
  • Requires legislation to eliminate outdated statutory provision dating back to the 1900's exempting telecommunications equipment including switches.
• Collection of Municipal Taxes and Charges
  • Increase statewide sales tax rate with additional funds directed in favor of local services and earmark a 1% increase for Education.
  • Legislation that would allow Collectors and Treasurers to apply partial payments to interest and charges prior to applying any part of the payment to taxes. The intent of this bill is to correct the problem created by the Molesworth v. DOR decision of the Supreme Judicial Court. The SJC ruled that under current law a collector must apply partial payments as directed by the taxpayer. As a result, those taxpayers who pay their bills on time are required to subsidize those who do not, since the Collector has little ability to collect delinquent interest and charges after the delinquent tax is paid. Passage of this legislation would restore to local City and Town Collectors an administrative remedy that had been in use for many years, and would return to delinquent taxpayers the full responsibility to pay their duly assessed interest and charges as well as their delinquent taxes.
• Local Tax Amnesty at local option.
• Return local share of transportation taxes from the sale of motor fuels.
• Municipalities should not be subject to the fuel excise tax on gasoline and diesel.
• Allow local taxes to be collected with credit cards.
• Pledged Securities
  • Letters of credit or pledged securities should be allowed instead of payment or performance bonds, the cost of which is passed onto communities.
• Sanctions to discourage a municipality from changing its budget after DOR has approved property tax rates and valuations
  • Communities may be forced to change their tax rates as a result of the change to their municipal budgets. Cities and towns property tax rates and valuations were recently completed this winter.
• Fully fund PILOT
  • When the state purchases land it is removed from the tax rolls. The State needs to commit to making up for that lost revenue.
• Allow adjustments in Jet Fuel excise payment schedule from semi-annual to quarterly.
• Grant powers to law enforcement to check commercial trucks for untaxed fuel. Some law enforcement officers are of the opinion that up to 50% of commercial vehicles are using home heating oil to avoid purchasing taxed fuel at local gas stations. (Also in Public Safety)
• Grant power to seize the property of companies that do not pay commercial vehicle fines that are issued to the companies rather than to the drivers. If a "driver" is cited, the RMV can suspend their license but under the law the companies must receive the citation. Most states have a provision for issuing "Distress Warrants" (Also in Public Safety).
• Fines other than motor vehicle violations (chapter 90) should be split with the courts. This would induce courts to both levy and collect fines. This would discourage the practice of plea bargaining away fines. Also look at increasing all fines other than speeding. (Also in Public Safety))
• State program where they buy the tax receivables for the local community, where the state is responsible for the collection of this and future taxes up to the time of sale. Upon action, they simply deduct any unrealized tax from that years purchase of taxes receivable

Transportation

• Allocate more road improvement resources to bridge repair.
• Exempt towns from pothole claims, just as Mass Highway is now exempt from Ch 81 Sect 18.
• Streamline Massachusetts Highway Department design and review processes so that they are appropriate to the project. Inflexible scope of submissions and time delays waste significant amounts of staff time and of money better spent on infrastructure improvements.
• Continue the mandated elimination of barriers to wheelchair bound and handicapped person's mobility but don't require the "Cadillac". When the state requires replacement of whole sections of sidewalk that are traversable, but don't meet the letter of the regulations on longitudinal or transverse slopes, this limits resources for additional projects, which in turn leaves barriers that cannot be repaired.
• Host community for MBTA stations should recoup a share of the parking costs.
• Excavation of Public Ways.
  • The state should enact a law that confirms the authority of cities and towns to recover costs of enforcing and repairing utility street cuts and allow municipalities to charge reasonable inspection and excavation permit fees. (Also Local Affairs)
• The state should enact a law that confirms the authority of cities and towns to recover costs of enforcing and repairing utility street cuts and allow municipalities to charge reasonable inspection and excavation permit fees. (Also in Local Affairs)
• Allow flexibility in the use of Chapter 90 funds.

Ways and Means

• Reduce the number of earmarks in the budget.
• Create an Emergency Local Aid Fund
  • Create a fund to be dispersed to communities facing extraordinary hardship or financial insolvency as a result of cuts in state aid. Model such a fund on a program established during the last fiscal crisis (see Acts 1989, Sect. 7), which authorized the Division of Local Services to establish criteria for fund utilization.
• Adopt a Local Aid Resolution Early in the Calendar Year
  • While always important to get timely information on budget numbers, it is particularly so during periods of declining budgets. Town meetings and regional school district budgets would be particularly well served by early adoption of a budget for local aid accounts by the Governor and both branches of the General Court.
• Create formulas for revenue sharing and leave them in place without being subject to the annual political process.