Brodeur, Lewis Backing Melrose Override: Letter

The following letter was submitted by State Representative Paul Brodeur and State Senator Jason Lewis:

We are all committed to supporting the City of Melrose and ensuring the best possible services for all residents. When the Board of Aldermen voted to place on the upcoming ballot an override to fund important city services, it saw the need for residents to decide the course for preserving those services. We hope the community will come together in support of this proposal.

Without these necessary funds, Melrose will need to make very difficult and painful decisions, including laying off teachers as the student population increases, reducing operating hours and programming at the library, limiting services and events at the senior center, and cutting back on DPW and other services.

The state and the city are partners in addressing these fiscal challenges. We’re doing the best we can to invest in the community together. Every year when we debate the state budget we prioritize local aid, special education circuit breaker funding, Chapter 70 school funding, Council on Aging grants, and more. These accounts have grown for Melrose every year over the past five years, but the increases are still not enough to keep up with the growth in unavoidable costs facing the city, especially health insurance and increased student enrollment. This is an experience shared by many cities and towns that, like Melrose, do not have a significant, growing commercial tax base to help meet rising expenses.

We are working hard to reform our state’s school funding formula which no longer accurately reflects the true costs to educate our students. However, while this effort, if successful, will certainly help the Melrose public schools, it will not bring enough additional state aid to Melrose to avoid the need for an override. We know that passing an override is not an easy decision, but this one is badly needed in order to preserve vital services and a high quality of life for all the
residents of Melrose.

State Senator Jason Lewis
State Representative Paul Brodeur