It is still the beginning of a long process, but state aid figures show drops in town aid while the school district managed a sizeable gain, if the newest state budget figures hold up.
The House Ways and Means committee recently released its budget to the full House, which shows differences from Gov. Maura Healey’s budget.
The impacts for towns include increases in Chapter 70 education aid to school districts. But that was balanced by reductions in the unrestricted aid that goes to communities.
Towns have largely figured their budgets as they head toward the annual town meetings, usually basing budgets on the the state aid in the budget released by the governor.
A common complaint is that towns do not get the final aid figures until late in the budget process; some years those figures are approved by the Legislature and governor after budgets have been voted at town meetings, requiring adjustments after the fact.
With many communities are feeling pressure to keep services in strained budgets as costs rise, aid cuts can have outsize impacts.
The result in the House budget will potentially change as the budget moves through the full House, then on to the Senate before a conference committee and final votes and ultimately to the governor’s desk.
But the House figures tend to be a good idea of where the final figures may come out at the end of the process.
For the Wachusett district towns, the net is a gain of $399,300.
But the rising tide did not lift all boats.
The Wachusett Regional School District gained $503,718 in the new budget, with state aid rising to $36,558,963; Holden also gained a smidgen of school aid, with a $4 increase in its aid budget, rising to $14,521, up from $14,517 in the governor’s proposed budget.
Sterling also had Chapter 70 state aid, steady at $14,521. The other towns — Paxton, Princeton and Rutland — had none.
But in unrestricted town aid, the numbers went down.
Holden had the largest drop. Its $2,308,473 in aid was down $45,712 in the House budget.
Paxton saw its figure drop to $653,372, down $12,938.
In Princeton the $357,494 was a reduction of $7,079.
Rutland, which gets a large state aid package, $1,116,941, lost $22,117 from the initial budget.
Sterling’s $837,088 was down $16,576.
The total drop in unrestricted aid for the five Wachusett towns from the governor’s budget to the House budget was $104,422.
The towns are struggling with budgets, and the final numbers are not likely to come until after voters approve town budgets at the town meetings.
