Monday, April 15, 2013
State Rep. Jonathan Hecht sees some good signs in the budget passed by the House.
The Fiscal 2014 town budget will be tight, but the budget passed by the House of Representatives provides some hope that state funding won't be as bad as expected. Watertown will receive slightly more Chapter 70 school funding as well as some extra local aid money, but Watertown State Rep. Jonathan Hecht said the biggest improvement comes in special education dollars. "The other good thing is the Special Education Circuit Breaker is pretty strong," Hecht said. The money provided by the state goes to the highest cost special education students. The district pays the first $40,000, or so, for each student, said District Business Director Jack Loughran, and the state reimburses part of anything beyond that. The Circuit Breaker law calls …
Saturday, January 26, 2013
The town's schools would get $1.6 million more in Chapter 70 school aid in Gov. Patrick's proposal.
Gov. Deval Patrick's Fiscal 2014 budget has some very good news for the Watertown Public Schools with school aid going up more than $1.6 million from last year. Chapter 70 school aid would increase greatly under the budget released by Gov. Patrick this week. During a visit to Watertown's Perkins School for the Blind this week, Patrick said the tax increases called for in the budget would be invested in both education and transporation. State Sen. Will Brownsberger, D-Belmont, welcomed the proposed budget in a post on his website. "The Governor, in his fiscal 2014 budget, has proposed to finally complete the education aid reform initiated in 2006. This is extremely good news for Watertown — Watertown had, for years, been badly short-…
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Most of the cut comes in unrestricted local aid.
When state Rep. Jonathan Hecht, D-Watertown, addressed the Town Council Tuesday, he warned that despite promises by the governor that school and road project funding will not be cut, Watertown could lose local aid. His warning bore out. Watertown would lose more than $400,000 in local aid under the fiscal 2012 budget released by Gov. Deval Patrick Wednesday. Town Councilor Angeline Kounelis noted that in years past Watertown's local aid dropped more than neighboring Belmont. Hecht said part of the reason for that was More of Watertown's local aid is unrestricted dollars, while Belmont has more money in Chapter 70 school aid. "Unfortunately, we have instances where formulas (made years ago), if followed religiously, can have a bit impact on…
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Vinnie Dummerino
12:14 pm on Saturday, January 26, 2013
cutting spending would mean losing the votes the gov bought over the last 6 years by shorting everyone else ...the money went someplace for the last 6 years while ed and transportation got less and less; the question is where and why. Raising taxes without spending cuts is just trying to buy more votes and payback certain supporters. Not going to help as it is not going to create new job which … more ›