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- November 2009
Cities and towns across the Commonwealth are facing enormous fiscal pressures which will only worsen over the next two years and likely beyond. Confronted by structural deficits in good times, municipalities have had to deal with major cuts in local aid during two recessions this decade. There will be further cuts in state aid in fiscal 2011, made worse by the end of federal stimulus dollars which have been supporting Chapter 70 education aid.
The dramatically increasing costs of health insurance and the large jump in unfunded pension liabilities must be addressed through comprehensive reform. Controlling the growth of municipal health care costs, which have increased at five times the inflation rate since 2001, is the most important step cities and towns can take to weather the fiscal storm ahead.
- October 6 2009MTF President Michael Widmer presented an overview of state and local finances to the Boston Municipal Analyst Forum
- December 10 2008The cities and towns of Massachusetts are facing a relentless fiscal squeeze in which year after year costs are growing faster than revenues for almost all communities.
- November 2008
Driven by the global economic problems and the state's fiscal crisis, cities and towns are about to enter another period of cutbacks and serious retrenchment.
- August 2007Cities and towns across the Commonwealth can save as much as $750 million in 2013 and $2.5 billion in 2018 by taking advantage of a new law that allows them to join the Group Insurance Commission (GIC), the state agency which administers health insurance for state employees, according to a joint report by the Foundation and the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.
- November 2006The overall municipal financial picture stabilized in 2006. Nevertheless, most communities continue to face a fiscal squeeze as underlying costs grow faster than revenues, according to the Foundation's 36th annual analysis of local revenues and spending.
- November 2005In order to help address the "relentless squeeze" on municipal finances in Massachusetts, the state should dedicate 40 percent of tax revenues to local aid and develop a new system for benchmarking local costs, according to the Foundation's 35th annual analysis of local revenues and spending.
- July 2005Health insurance costs for municipal employees in Massachusetts have skyrocketed by 63 percent between 2001 and 2005, according to a new Foundation report. This growth is more than four times greater than the rate of growth in local budgets and almost double the rate of annual increase in the state's cost of providing health benefits to its employees.
- October 2004Cities and towns are facing a combination of higher property taxes and employee layoffs as a result of cuts in state aid, according to the Foundation's 34th annual analysis of local revenues and spending. Although the 2005 state budget provides modest relief from the recent deep cuts in aid, total assistance to municipalities remains below pre-crisis levels in most Massachusetts communities.