Cities and Towns May Come Out All Right

We won't really know much until next week when his proposals have begun to sink in. Governor Deval Patrick will announce and discuss his budget on Tuesday night. The analysis will start Wednesday morning. By the weekend, we'll see what will fly with the legislature and which interests will kick up dust.

I'm new to following budgets, but so far two things are clear: the age of tax cuts has passed; the age of targeted tax increases may have begun with the elimination of closing loopholes. If Patrick gets everything he's ordering, cities and towns should be able to relax. If they don't, it's time to turn back the clocks a few years and tighten our belts.

From the Globe:

Governor Deval Patrick will unveil a budget Tuesday that would boost state aid to cities and towns by more than 5 percent, and increase spending on community policing, while providing virtually no increase for the state's human service agencies.

Patrick, seeking to fulfill campaign promises while grappling with a gaping budget deficit, would send an additional $200 million to communities for education, which would mean at least $50 extra per student, according to administration sources. His budget proposal also calls for:

• Spending $13 million to help 800 of the state's 1,500 half-day kindergarten classrooms expand to a full day.
• Doubling the amount spent on extended school day programs to $13 million.
• Increasing other local aid to communities by $112 million, including a $15 million increase in lottery distributions.
• Adding about $10 million in community policing grants to help pay for 250 new officers.

"Even while facing a $1.3 billion deficit, the governor made it clear that he was not going to balance this budget on the backs of our schools and cities and towns," an administration source said.

--Mb