My name is Karin Rhoton and I am a North Andover School Committee member, a mom, a taxpayer and a concerned citizen of Massachusetts. I made time to be here today to illustrate the problems that will be caused by further cuts in local aid. Cuts that are thrust upon us by a state legislature that thought it was reasonable to increase state spending by 3.2 percent while raising the citizen’s tax rate and drastically cutting local aid to cities and towns. To make matters worse, municipalities like North Andover were held in limbo while federal stimulus funds were held at the state level for over 10 months.
With the proposed cuts in local aid, the circuit breaker reimbursement for special education costs — costs that are mandated by state regulations — are expected to be funded at a mere 30 percent of the actual budgeted amount. In a town like mine that cut translates to roughly $400,000 or eight full time teaching positions. Shouldn’t the legislature look at cutting expenses at their level instead of telling cities and towns to cut more services? During these difficult financial times my household cut discretionary and at times, not so discretionary spending, long before any cuts would have to be made for the basic needs of my children. One would expect our governor and legislative leadership to make the same difficult decisions with their budgets prior to recklessly cutting in areas that affect every child in the Commonwealth.
In this unfriendly economic climate, increases in state spending and cuts in local aid that affect education programs required by legislature equate to unfunded mandates for our cities and towns. I think it is time to ask our governor and legislative leadership to look to control spending and reduce their budgets just like every citizen of the Commonwealth has had to do. I feel strongly that we can get this state back on track to fiscal responsibility by electing the right people to serve. If that happens maybe the phrase “together we can” will mean more than just words on a bumper sticker.