Many municipalities find themselves caught in a “tightening vise” of financial pressures that are making it increasingly difficult to avoid cuts to local schools and services, according to a new report that could ramp up pressure on Beacon Hill.
Likening the confluence of factors to a “perfect storm,” authors said the combination of sluggish state aid growth and strict limits on local tax increases has trapped many local budget-writers in a difficult position with few options to absorb rising costs. Those effects have sizable geographic disparities, with many rural communities weighing school cuts that are less common in urban and suburban communities.
The 12-page report from the Massachusetts Municipal Association and the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University stops short of recommending specific reforms, but it underlines a key tension as many communities struggle to balance their budgets within the constraints set by state law and Beacon Hill contends with that federal funding cuts that could upend the state budget. “Municipalities have been frugal, and any cuts they’re forced to make are now cutting bone,” MMA Executive Director Adam Chapdelaine said in a statement. “Even with the most valiant efforts to operate efficiently, city and town leaders simply can’t overcome the larger trends that are forcing them to make drastic reductions, felt by local residents and local businesses.”…