ONE Massachusetts Weekly Update

Updates:.

Increasing Revenue. Massachusetts revenue collections for August were about $58 million above benchmarks, but still slightly lower than the same month last year... While sales tax collections overall were down, car sales taxes jumped nearly 36 percent last month, driven by an increase in the tax rate to 6.25 percent and increased sales spurred by the federal Cash for Clunkers program. [Boston Globe]
Public School Funding. The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center has released a budget brief on school funding, including a summa.ry of the education finance situation in Massachusetts in FY 2010 and a discussion of the choices the state faces for how to continue its support for public education in FY 2011 and beyond. [Full Report]
Spending Reductions. Budget aides to Gov. Deval Patrick have instructed state agencies to prepare midyear spending reduction plans by the end of the month [to help the Gov prepare his legally-mandated 9C reductions]. Patrick's budget office said the agencies should consider long-term operational changes and not simply short-term fixes tailored to the present. People who received the memo said the instructions asked for contingency plans if revenues fall short of benchmarks. [State House News Service] [More details on Budgetary "Perfect Storm"]
Tax Cut Proposals. Proposals to eliminate tolls in Massachusetts, repeal the sales tax on alcohol, and slash the 6.25 percent sales tax rate were certified Wednesday by Attorney General Martha Coakley's office. The designation means proponents are free to begin collecting thousands of signatures needed to move through the next phase in the initiative petition process. Petitions that survive the signature-gathering and verification process, which takes months, are marked for the 2010 ballot, with the exception of constitutional amendments, which are not eligible for the ballot until 2012, at the earliest. [State House News Service]
Unfunded Special Elections? Auditor Joseph DeNucci determined Tuesday that about $7.2 million in local costs tied to the special election to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat are unfunded mandates that should be paid for by the state. DeNucci said in a statement. "I request that my legal determination lead to full state funding of these costs." A 1980 state law requires that state laws imposing new costs on local governments must either be fully funded by the state, or subject to voluntary local acceptance. [State House News Service]