Like other towns around Massachusetts, Dedham will not take a big hit from the budget-cutting plan Gov. Deval Patrick unveiled last week, though it could lose about $63,000 in state funding.
Under Patrick’s plan, Dedham’s two biggest sources of state money will remain intact for fiscal 2010 – Chapter 70 education funding, at $3.86 million, and unrestricted local aid, at $2.88 million.
But its special education “circuit breaker” reimbursement money could be cut by $28,690, from the current amount of $573,818; charter tuition reimbursements would drop $4,223, from $64,968; library funding would fall $851, from $21,280; and Quinn Bill funding would be cut another $29,537, from $59,075. Those numbers are all estimated cuts, said Finance Director Mariellen Murphy.
Patrick also needs expanded authority from the Legislature to make mid-year reductions outside the executive branch, such as the Quinn Bill cuts. The state already slashed most of its funding for the education incentive program for police officers – which ups their pay between 10 and 25 percent, depending on their higher ed degree – at the start of this fiscal year.
Town Administrator William Keegan has said that it is not clear if Dedham still needs to pay for the state’s portion of the program, but that the town is doing so to safeguard itself from possible legal challenges.
Patrick’s plan for the Bay State’s estimated $600 million budget gap calls for $352 million in cuts in state government, including up to 2,000 layoffs – but spares education funding and local aid, he emphasized.
Murphy said that Dedham’s operating budget is $77 million, so the cuts announced last week “won’t have a major impact.”
But, Murphy noted, “Based upon what we’ve seen so far, we’re still bracing for cuts this year, like we did last year. If the situation doesn’t improve, he’ll have no place left to go,” she said of Patrick and local aid.
