Lesser, Rosenberg hear from local leaders at roundtable

Aug. 25, 2016 | Chris Goudreau
cgoudreau@thereminder.com

State Senate President Stanley Rosenberg (right) and state Sen. Eric Lesser met with town officials from the communities of Granby, East Longmeadow, Wilbraham, Ludlow, Longmeadow, and Belchertown during a roundtable discussion at Longmeadow High School on Aug. 17.
Reminder Publications photo by Chris Goudreau

LONGMEADOW – State Senate President Stanley Rosenberg and state Sen. Eric Lesser met with officials from communities such as Belchertown, Longmeadow, Wilbraham, Granby, Ludlow, and East Longmeadow on Aug. 17 to gain input about issues affecting the towns.

Rosenberg told the group of town officials about a bill recently passed by the senate during the last two weeks of its formal sessions – the Municipal Modernization Act.

“As the governor described it, it’s 200 sections of weed whacking,” he explained. “It basically goes through and tries to get rid of a lot of old [statutes] that don’t work anymore or don’t make any sense anymore and to clean it up, get rid of it completely, or to revise it so that it would work in the modern times.”

He suggested the town officials be in contact with the senators if any municipalities need help understanding the new law, which was recently signed by Gov. Charlie Baker.

Lesser said he and Rosenberg plan to follow up with officials from the communities to respond to issues facing residents of the towns.

Longmeadow Selectman Mark Gold said he is concerned with Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB) costs.

“With pension reform, many of these are issues that need to be done at the state level, and there’s unfunded obligations for OPEB,” he noted. “We’re part of the Hampden County Retirement Board, which has a massive unfunded liability.”

Rosenberg responded to Gold by stating the senate is creating a series of work groups for its next term that would focus on OPEB issues.

Longmeadow Selectman Richard Foster said his town has been built out since the 1970s and has had low growth.

“We have the honor of having the highest tax rate in any community in the state,” he added. “Within three to five years, without any major intervention, we’re going to tax ourselves out. We’re going to hit the limit. We’re facing some problems that are well beyond our ability, as a community, being that we are 96 to 98 percent residential, to accommodate.”  

Foster said the town also receives poor Chapter 90 funding for its roadways, which are not equipped to deal with the high volume of traffic coming from Interstate-91.

Rosenberg said although the state revised its Chapter 90 funding model several years ago to better serve small communities, he believes Longmeadow’s problem might not be addressed in the funding formula.

“It’s a problem that we should take a look at and figure out if there’s a way of doing it,” he noted.  

Ludlow Selectman Carmina Fernandes said she completely agreed with Foster’s issue with lack of funding for roadways near major highways. Ludlow is constantly faced with high levels of traffic from out of town via the Mass Pike and Route 21.

“We’re especially concerned with the [MGM Springfield] casino coming in,” she noted.

East Longmeadow Town Council Vice President Paul Federici asked Rosenberg about $745,000 in decreased funding to the Hampden County District Attorney’s (DA) Office. Other DA’s offices across the state offered to give up additional funding to aid the Hampden County DA’s office, but that idea was shot down by the senate.

“We ran into problems this year because the revenue got soft, so the district attorney [Anthony Gulluni] made a very compelling case and it is really unusual to everyone else in the system to come to the aid of one,” Rosenberg stated. “We know that this is serious and we will revisit this next year. If there’s any way of revisiting it earlier, we will, but that will be very difficult due to our current revenue situation.”

Granby Select Board Chair Mark Bail said Granby’s issues are a lack of adequate buildings and modern equipment.

“I think Longmeadow is closest to their levy ceiling; Granby’s approaching it,” he added. “Granby’s just like everybody else, except we’ll take your old infrastructure … Our school computers are Army surplus, no lie.”

After the meeting, Rosenberg spoke with member of the press, stating that he frequently attends roundtable discussions with community officials from across the Commonwealth when a senator invites him.

“Most of the communities out here are very small communities and they have a different set of problems,” he added. “Everybody has concerns such as state mandates and funding, but when you come out here you see very different forms of that and different priorities that require attention.”

Rosenberg, a resident of Amherst, said he plans to bring a lot of the information he received from the town officials back to the Statehouse.

“There was some very good ideas about trying to create some more additional revenue at the local level to be in control of the local community as opposed to having to rely on Boston,” he added.

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