Casey calls for residents to step up Chapter 70 lobbying
Published on November 2nd, 2005
Stoneham State Representative Paul Casey called upon the town's residents and officials to step-up a grassroots lobbying campaign for education or Chapter 70 aid reform on Tuesday night.
Historically proving to be a dead-end issue, as town officials have cried foul about Stoneham's share of Chapter 70 appropriations for over a decade, Casey urged the Selectmen to labor towards making an educational aid formula change a reality this year.
According to the veteran state legislator, the political atmosphere at the State House has recently shifted in the town's favor, especially since the two Ways and Means Chairmen in both legislative bodies resided in communities hurt by the current Chapter 70 arrangement.
"What we're trying to do right now with a Senate bill that passed last year is bring Stoneham back in-line with other communities. We've gotten assurances that we will be covering the new formula some time this year," Casey explained, who addressed the Selectmen last week on the issue at the board's request.
"We need movement now," the local legislator added. "I'm very bullish on this. We have two Ways and Means Chairmen whose communities benefit from it. I doesn't get much better than that. We have to keep knocking and knocking until we get it passed. The time is now."
According to Michael Lindstrom, a member of Stoneham State Senator Richard Tisei's office, a bill that was passed by the senate earlier last spring would funnel over $1 billion into Chapter 70 appropriations, benefiting Stoneham and nearly 40 other Massachusetts' communities whose state appropriations for education pale to similar surrounding municipalities.
That bill was pushed into a legislative black hole upon hitting the house for consideration last spring, although Casey remarked that state legislators have since vowed to address the issue sometime next year.
"This is a $1.2 billion overhaul over seven years that's to be phased in at $175 million per year. That would help address the historical inequities [faced by the town]," Lindstrom commented.
With several town officials questioning why the measure would be blocked or stymied by state legislators, Casey surmised that the bulk of opposition has historically been voiced by communities fearing that a new Chapter 70 formula would eat into their appropriation.
"Can't you just sell this to your colleagues as a matter of fairness?" Selectman John DePinto asked. "If it wasn't us [being underfunded] and somebody came to you with the same situation, I would hope [you'd support that]."
"If you were getting a fortune, 98 to 99 percent of your budget funded by the formula, would you want to change that?" Casey responded, explaining the mindset of some legislators hindering Chapter 70 reform.
However, Casey and Lindstrom characterized the new proposal as potentially limiting that traditional reason for opposing educational aid reform, as the measure would hold all communities "harmless", meaning their piece of the financial pie won't be impacted by the bill.
At the same time, the bill is likely still to face some criticism by state officials concerned with the Commonwealth's ability to foot the bill on a reoccurring basis, the legislator warned. With that in mind, Casey cautioned the Selectmen that previous propositions that would have filled Stoneham's coffers with millions of dollars in new aid are unlikely to garner enough support for passage.
Specifically, the State Representative was referring to comments made by Selectman Tony Kennedy, who argued in favor of a measure that would reimburse the town by readjusting Stoneham's share of Chapter 70 funds to percentage levels comparable to surrounding communities.
According to Casey, while that proposal would surely rain millions of dollars into the town's schools, the political reality is that specific reform was extremely unlikely. Instead, said Casey, Stoneham should first seek a return to its pre-2004 funding levels, which were cut by $600,000 in recent years. Then, the town should expect a modest, but fair increase in state education funding in future years, as the current bill calls for.
"That's still alive, but my sense is that much money, which is about $1 billion a year in Chapter 70 increases, just isn't realistic," Casey explained.
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