Tuesday, May 20, 2014
Fiscal Year 2015 State Budget Amendments
With the Senate preparing to
debate the Fiscal Year 2015 Operating Budget, I wanted to highlight the
following amendments that the Senate Republican Caucus filed to better aid our
local communities:
Amendment 8-Exempting
Cities and Towns from Gas Tax Increases
·
Reimburses cities
and towns for the gas tax they paid
Amendment 14-Municipal Gas Tax Exemption (and 62 Filed by Senator Richard Ross)
·
Exempts cities
and towns from having to pay the gas tax
Amendment 63-Streaming Municipal Collection (Filed by Senator
Richard Ross)
·
Clarifies the law
that allows municipalities to designate a Town Collector. Currently, the law requires all funds due to
the municipality to be paid to the Town Collector, including such minor sums as
library fines and senior lunch payments. This amendment would eliminate the
mandate that all fees be paid to the Town Collector, providing the municipality
with the discretion to determine which fees go through that office.
Amendment 82/504-Education Pothole
·
Line item
7061-0011 contains a reserve fund to provide financial relief to communities
involved in a newly-formed regional vocational district, and to help mitigate one-time
municipal cost increases associated with the withdrawal of a member from a
regional school district. This amendment increases the recommended
appropriation for the line item from $2 million to $5 million.· Provides for 50 percent of the state’s FY 2014 surplus, or $50 million (whichever is less), to be redistributed to cities and towns through the Lottery funding formula as a one-time local aid payment. 80 percent of these funds are to be expended by October 31, 2014.
Amendment 87- Restoring Unrestricted General
Government Aid
·
Provides a
partial restoration of Unrestricted General Government Aid (UGGA) to those
communities whose FY 2015 UGGA appropriation is less than its combined
Additional Assistance and Lottery funding appropriation from FY 2008. Qualifying communities would receive 1/3 of
the difference between their FY 2015 and FY 2008 appropriations.
Amendment 470- Unfunded Education Mandates
·
Allows cities and
towns to petition the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE)
for a waiver from any unfunded mandate, unless DESE determines the absence of
the mandate will lower the quality of education provided. The waiver request will be deemed granted if
DESE fails to respond within 90 days of the submission of the request.
Amendment 545-Regional School Transportation
·
Increases the
Regional School Transportation line item (7035-0006) by $3,161,320 to ensure a
95 percent reimbursement rate for cities and towns
To view all of the amendments
filed by the members of the Senate or to read the budget in its entirety,
please click here.
