Latest news with #StabilizationFund
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Chicopee budget up 6% on personnel, police costs; mayor proposes $3M to defray taxes
CHICOPEE — Mayor John L. Vieau's proposed budget for fiscal 2026 is up 6% from last year's plan, he announced Monday. Vieau also announced plans to use $3 million from the city's fee cash account — money raised in taxes from the previous year but not spent — to defray taxes in the next year. The budget now goes to the County Council. Cities set tax rates in the fall. The cost of health insurance drove a $3.4 million increase in the human resources budget, Vieau said. The police budget went up $3.4 million, as well, because of the cost of technology and to pay for increases in collective bargaining contracts. The new school budget reflects the minimum net school spending requirement of $123 million and the cost of the lease for the school administration building of $280,200. Additional funding coming from the Stabilization Fund for Educational Purposes. Vieau said this budget represents a transition from pandemic-era programs like American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, and Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief, often called ESSER. 'I commend our school Superintendent Dr. Marcus Ware for his difficult task of being creative about how to still deliver top-tier education to our students while also dealing with the reality that ESSER funds are gone,' Vieau said. 'Dr. Ware, myself and our mutual finance teams also recognize that the current federal administration has taken and may continue to take away funding that we have relied on in the past.' Residential retrofitting program turns on high-speed internet for Bay Meadow Apts. in Springfield ICE takes two into custody in Amherst in crackdown on 'sanctuary' communities With cannabis industry struggling, Western Mass. sellers and growers seek relief from high court Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Fall River's Diman will lose $115K as Trump's education cuts shock state. What to know.
FALL RIVER — On Friday, the Trump administration cut $106 million in education funding slated for Massachusetts students to address pandemic learning loss and the youth mental health crisis. Because of that, Diman Regional Vocational Technical High School will lose $115, 465. In February, the Trump administration reaffirmed that Massachusetts recipients had until March 2026 — 120 days after the original deadline — to spend the grant money from a COVID-era Education Stabilization Fund. However, on Friday, at 5:03 p.m., the federal Department of Education notified all states that it had 'reconsidered your request' and terminated the program at 5 p.m. on March 28, three minutes before the statement was sent. Diman's Superintendent Brian Bentley confirmed the loss of the applied for grant would impact plans for next school year to implement 'services to students' that 'we don't normally provide during the school day.' Bentley said the funding would have been used to 'call upon outside consultants,' including mental health professionals to serve students, and professional development for instructors to assist in their response to students who are exhibiting mental health challenges. In addition to 'filling gaps' in mental health support services, Bentley maintained that after-school programs, such as math tutoring or instructional materials with a focus on science 'would be cut.' Specialty consultants who already serve Diman students or after-school instructors who invite students to participate in supplemental programming on a year-round basis will not be impacted this year, but next year, with plans in progress now off the table. 'We are already looking at contracts for next year,' Bentley said. 'If you're going to continue with those kinds of services, you would have to turn to the state or you would have to fund it out of your regular appropriation budget,' he said, speaking on behalf of public or vocational schools throughout the state. 'We're at 'minimum school spending,' which means that we only budget for things that we normally do year after year,' Bentley added, explaining no line items on the usual budget are on the chopping block. Take a look: Walk-through offers glimpse of new Diman in Fall River According to the United States Department of Education, other programs at risk in other school districts statewide involve literacy, math and science. Awarded money could have targeted enhanced screenings to identify students' risk of poor reading outcomes, including risk of dyslexia. Surveillance cameras, door alarms and emergency response technology could have been purchased to enhance school security. To Bentley, the federal funding that was committed until it was revoked last week was 'to help gateway cities like Fall River deal with extra money to call in consultants,' he said, and 'maybe even hire teachers' to help the neediest students in the district. It's a race: MBTA train vs. car from Fall River to Boston. Which is faster and better? With money in hand, school districts may have qualified for new HVAC system installation or could have built outdoor learning spaces, said Bentley. 'Projects were well underway in most schools,' he said. In New Bedford, initiatives were in motion to add a new student health center, install heating and air conditioning systems, and a variety of facility upgrades were planned to enhance the learning environment, New Bedford Public Schools Public Affairs Manager Arthur Motta said in a statement. Motta called the steep cuts an 'erroneous claw-back' that hopefully 'will ultimately be reversed,' he said, joining Gov. Maura Healey in condemning the reversal of committed awards. Healey's administration called the withdrawal of funding 'illegal.' This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Diman's plans to fund after-school mental health services get the axe
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
State using interest income to pay down $105 million in debt
BOSTON (SHNS) – State finance officials are taking advantage of a new law and a quarter of the interest generated by the state's bulging Stabilization Fund last year to pay off $105 million of the state's debt. Administration and Finance Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz alerted the House and Senate clerks last Monday that his office 'intends to make an expenditure in the amount of approximately $105,000,000 in funds from the Commonwealth Federal Matching and Debt Reduction Fund (the 'Fund') to retire eligible outstanding Commonwealth General Obligation Bonds, which is within the authorized use of the Fund.' He noted that the expenditure does not require further legislative involvement. As of Jan. 31, Massachusetts had $28.5 billion in general obligation bonds outstanding, according to a new financial report published last week. Almost all of that debt — $28.2 billion or 99.1% — was fixed-rate debt while just $256 million or 0.9% carried a variable rate. A law Gov. Maura Healey signed in September lets her administration leverage up to $750 million in Stabilization Fund interest for grant-matching purposes through November 2026, as well as to pay down state debt. Fiscal year 2024's interest earnings contributed $420.8 million to that new fund, a state financial report confirmed in February. Gorzkowicz said when Healey signed the law that its debt reduction power was 'not something we're looking at now,' but the state is now poised to use it for a second time. The secretary's March 24 letter to the clerks served as the required 30-day notice to the Legislature before an expenditure from the fund, an A&F spokesman said. The administration submitted a similar notice dated Feb. 10 before using $96.5 million from the fund to pay off the MBTA's outstanding legacy debt, a move that Healey announced in January as part of her transportation package. Between the two expenditures, the state will have pulled $201.5 million from the Stabilization Fund interest pool to reduce its debt burden. Meanwhile, A&F spokesman Matthew Murphy said the administration has identified $307.8 million in 'match commitments from the fund,' made in connection to applications seeking more than $2.4 billion in potential federal grant dollars. Some awards have been approved and some remain pending, he said. Gorzkowicz said in February that the Healey administration has 'used those funds for aggressively pursuing federal funds,' and told the Comptroller Advisory Board that the state is 'utilizing that towards a lot of good matching of federal funds.' The new fund has allowed for a $40 million state commitment toward a $400 million federal grant for the Northeast Microelectronics Coalition Hub run by MassTech, an $18.4 million state match commitment to leverage $24.4 million in federal dollars for infrastructure work at the Port of New Bedford, and a $2.5 million match for a $10.2 million federal Safe Streets for All grant through the Department of Transportation, among other projects, Murphy said. The state's recent debt reduction efforts are just some of the moving parts that Gorzkowicz and others monitor as the state attempts to stretch the resources available to it as far as possible while bracing for a potential slowdown in federal government support and warning that Beacon Hill will not be able to fill all the gaps. Reducing the state's overall debt liability will, in turn, free up money for the operating budget, Murphy said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
