Mayor: Governor’s Budget “Disappointing”

After reviewing Governor Charlie Baker’s budget proposal last week, Mayor Infurna described the proposed minor increase in local aid as “disappointing and even lower than our expectations.”

“At the State of the City address in January, I outlined to the community that the City is facing a major budget shortfall for Fiscal Year 2020, which begins on July 1st of this year. We had estimated an overall increase in state aid of approximately 1.5% over last year. The Governor’s proposal is less than half of that, with a total net increase of only 0.7% or $76,000. This is completely inadequate and only increases the gap between what we will have for funding and what we will need.”

“I know our state delegation will continue to advocate for increases in local funding during the House and Senate budget deliberations, but we need to plan accordingly, as we won’t have a final budget from the State until July. Unfortunately, this is going to make a very difficult budget cycle even more challenging.”