Published in the January 28, 2019 edition.
By COLIN A. YOUNG
State House News Service
As cities and towns look forward to springtime town meetings and the local budgeting process, the Department of Revenue last week provided its best estimates for amounts of local aid and school aid the state will provide in fiscal year 2020.
DOR’s Division of Local Services posted its
preliminary cherry sheet estimates based on the fiscal year 2020 budget that Gov. Charlie Baker rolled out Wednesday. The numbers give local leaders an idea of how much state aid their town might receive and how much the town will be required to pay to the state in assessments.
For the year beginning July 1, Baker’s budget proposes giving Wakefield $6,726,614 in Chapter 70 school assistance, up from the $6,547,440 the town is receiving in fiscal 2019.
The governor’s budget also allocates $3,883,989 to the town for general government purposes in the coming year, up from the $3,782,295 it is getting in fiscal 2019.
The total in estimated receipts by the town would be $10,610,603 in the governor’s budget proposal, up from the $10,329,735 commitment in the current year.
The budget that Baker unveiled Wednesday would increase unrestricted general government aid across the state by $29.7 million to $1.129 billion and would increase Chapter 70 school aid by $200.3 million to $5.108 billion. The Division of Local Services said the budget would increase charter school tuition assessment reimbursements by $16 million to $106 million while “level funding [for] most other cherry sheet accounts at the FY2019 amounts.”
The cherry sheets also include information for towns on monthly local aid payments, Community Preservation Act state matching funds, smart growth school cost reimbursement and property tax exemption reimbursements. DOR said local boards of assessors are required to use the cherry sheet estimates when determining their local budgets.
DOR said local officials should keep in mind that the estimates will likely change when the House and Senate pick up the budget process this spring with their own budget plans for fiscal 2020.
