Improving MA State Funding to Towns

PETITION

TO THE GOVERNOR AND THE GENERAL COURT
OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS:

We, the undersigned citizens of suburban towns of Massachusetts, respectfully request the following:

Many of our towns have been faced with the increasing demands of education reform, special education mandates, and No Child Left Behind, while the restrictions of Proposition 2 1/2 have made it difficult to fund even the annual increases in pension and healthcare costs of our towns employees, let alone rising general and special education costs. We are meeting with more and more difficulty passing Proposition 2 1/2 overrides and our towns, our children and our infrastructure are suffering as a result.

We approve of the Commonwealths commitment to provide a 17.5\% minimum floor of foundation funding for education, an increase that has been promised to be reached over the next five years. To meet local needs, however, the Commonwealth must take additional steps, including:

* providing a reliable source of funding for both regular and special education tied to community needs and based on real education costs (the funding floor must be based on true costs, not political expediency), and

* creating the means by which municipal employees healthcare plans and pension funds can be consolidated into the Commonwealths group healthcare insurance plan and pension fund in order to reduce needless, duplicative expenditures based upon antiquated systems.

Thank you for your service to the Commonwealth.

Respectfully submitted,

(This Petition was initiated by Save Our Services Grassroots Organization,
Wayland, Massachusetts) 4/9/07, 1:17 PM