State Budget Holds No Surprises For Belmont Officials

When Gov. Deval Patrick on Wednesday signed the $27.6 billion fiscal 2011 state budget, no Belmont elected official was surprised that state aid to cities and towns would fall by four percent.

In fact, Belmont has been banking on it.

"We have always talked about (state aid) going down by at least five percent," said Ralph Jones, chairman of Belmont's Board of Selectmen.

The forecasted $8.7 million in total state aid to Belmont for the coming fiscal year may not be chump change towards the $84.4 million that is the 2011 budget.

Yet it remains less than what the town needed to fill the $3.5 million gap between expected revenue and anticipated needs.

And that fall off was already calculated into departmental budgets across the town with cuts and reduced services, said Jones, as nearly every area of town government will see reductions in staff and material.

Yet Jones is reluctant to use a portion of the town's "rainy day" reserve to easy the coming year's budget pain.

"I'd hate to do that," said Jones, noting it could harm the towns' ability to borrow on the bond market at advantageous rates.

In addition, taking essentially emergency funds to pay for day-to-day expenses, "only sets you up to do it again if the economic conditions remain bad," said Jones. 

The reduction in the state's municipal aid package to cities and towns had as much to do with the state's miscalculated hope in the will of the federal government.

State Rep. William Brownsberger of Belmont said besides falling state revenues, the state pinned its optimistic 2011 budget forecasts on receiving $700 million from the White House and Congress in added stimulus money. Those funds which were in a second round of federal spending could not muster the necessary support to win passage.

Brownsberger noted that cuts in local aid occurred before the $700 million was considered and despite the loss of the federal funding, the state legislature made no additional cuts to cities and towns. 

And Belmont is still waiting for the next shoe to drop, said Jones, when the state-managed pension fund issues its financial report later this year in the midst of seeing its investment portfolio suffer during the economic downturn.

"It will be the towns that will need to deal with any shortfall," he said.

And the fall out of less revenue to spend on state projects will be felt in Belmont, said Brownsberger.

"We'll feel it here," said Brownsberger, as projects on state roads and parks are hampered and the state has less to invest on flood protection.

"But it will be in human services where the cuts will be felt the most," said Brownsberger.

"There will be individuals and families in need who will see less counseling and mental illness care," he said.

Clarification: In an earlier version of this story, it was inferred that local aid was decreased to cities and towns when the state did not receive an anticipated $700 million in federal stimulus funds. In fact, no additional cuts to local aid occurred.