BEACON HILL BEAT
April 2005
HOUSE RELEASES $23.6 BILLION BUDGET PROPOSAL FOR FY 2006
On April 13th, the House Ways & Means Committee, Chaired
by Representative Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop) released their
$23.6 billion budget proposal for FY 2006, which represents
a 3.6% increase over FY 2005. It also represents a $300 million
increase over the Governor’s budget proposal released
in January.
The House budget allocates $12.5 million for the Commonwealth
Water and Sewer Rate Relief Fund. This program helps to offset
water and sewer rates for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
A large portion of this fund is utilized by the MWRA, which
on a daily basis treats over 373 million gallons of sewage,
and provides service to over 2.5 million people, serves 870,000
households, and 5,500 businesses. Governor Romney failed to
include this important line-item in his FY 2006 proposed budget.
Only a few years ago, the Rate Relief Program was funded at
$58 million. Due to the need to close the state budget gaps,
this program was reduced to $10 million in the finalized Fiscal
Year 2005 budget. UCANE applauds the House for including this
important funding, and will ask the Senate to increase this
program to $20 million in their budget proposal.
Contract Assistance for the Clean Water and Drinking Water
State Revolving Loan Fund (SRF) programs were level funded
at $55 million and $9.4 million respectively. It is important
to maintain this level of funding to ensure that wastewater
and drinking water projects, which have already been approved,
continue to be funded. UCANE opposes any change to the funding
level for the Water Pollution Abatement Trust which administers
SRF financing.
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UCANE MEMBERS MEET WITH DEP AND MWRA OFFICIALS TO PROMOTE
FUNDING FOR WATER INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS
A delegation of UCANE members met with DEP Commissioner Bob
Golledge and MWRA Executive Director Fred Laskey to discuss
the importance of continued funding for critical wastewater
and drinking water construction projects. In the finalized
SRF Intended Use Plan released by the DEP last month, the
approved funding for both wastewater and drinking water projects
for CY 2005 totaled over $519 million. UCANE asked the DEP
to develop a 3-5 year plan to determine future water infrastructure
projects and also do develop a water infrastructure master
plan to map out the state’s needs for modernizing and
upgrading the water pipes throughout the Commonwealth.
UCANE members also met with MWRA Executive Director Fred
Laskey to express the Association’s concern of the dramatic
decline in water infrastructure projects beginning in 2008.
UCANE recognizes the enormous task of balancing MWRA’s
budget and addressing the concerns of increased water rates,
but failing to maintain and modernize the MWRA’s aging
infrastructure will result in more costly projects in the
future. As Massachusetts learned in the 1970’s and 1980’s,
failure to upgrade the state’s infrastructure will lead
to water contamination of the rivers, streams, and embayments,
along with compromising water quality and the effectiveness
of treating wastewater. The MWRA has made great strides in
cleaning up waterways throughout metropolitan Boston, providing
safe drinking water, and upgrading long neglected infrastructure.
UCANE requests that the MWRA to continue its work which is
in the long term interest of the ratepayers and citizens of
Massachusetts.
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GOVERNOR ROMNEY RELEASES ROAD FUNDS TO MUNICIPALITIES
Governor Mitt Romney released $120 million to upgrade the
state’s local roads and bridges. The release of funds
came earlier than projected because the Governor wanted to
assist municipalities in facilitating local project planning
for the spring construction season. Last year the funds were
awarded to communities in mid-August. Romney stated, Chapter
90 funds represent an important investment to our state infrastructure.
By releasing this funding earlier than in past years, communities
will be able to know how much money is available to them,
and they will be able to move forward quickly on their priority
road projects. These funds are allocated to cities and towns
based on a formula that takes into account the number of miles
of local roadways, population, and employment rate in a given
community. Individual municipal allocations of these funds
can be found on the Internet at www.state.ma.us/mhd
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