According to this article in yesterday’s Boston Globe, approximately $2 billion will be distributed to Mass cities and towns as part of the federal government’s recently passed American Rescue Plan. Who gets what will be largely dictated by the decades old Community Block Grant formula.
According to the article Newton will be allotted approximately $65 million of the funds – roughly 15% of the city’s annual municipal budget. As compared to some of our surrounding neighbors, Newton will be getting quite a big piece of the pie due largely to the city’s population. Under the funding formula, the 37 Mass municipalities with populations over 50,000 (Newton is one of them) will be slicing up $1.7 billion between them, while all the remaining MA towns will be splitting up a much smaller $368 million pie.
One quirk of the funding formula, pointed out by one of our Needham readers – Needham has one-third of Newton’s population but will be allocated one-twentieth as much as Newton ($3 million).
Another more concerning quirk of the population based funding formula is that Newton’s piece of the pie will be bigger than some of MA’s hardest hit cities (e.g Chelsea $11 Million). The Baker administration has announced that they are intending to target additional funding for some of state’s hardest hit communities to help compensate for the funding formula’s shortcomings.
From the mayors newsletter, the use of $ seemed to indicate (below).
Not sure if summer school could be covered… but strangely water/sewer infrastructure is somehow covid related. How about a few million to restore cheesecake brook
The U.S. Department of Treasury is writing the specific guidelines and defining the terms in the Plan to explain the allowable uses. Right now, the information is a bit opaque. The Plan says the allowable uses include:
Responding to the public health emergency or its negative economic impacts, including assistance to households, small businesses, or aid to impacted industries such as tourism, travel and hospitality
Providing premium pay to eligible workers performing essential work to maintain continuity of operations of essential critical infrastructure sectors and additional sectors as determined by the chief executive officer as critical to protect the health and well-being of the residents of the local government (capped at $13 per hour);
Replacing revenue reductions due to the pandemic, to the extent that these revenues are used to provide services (the base year to determine revenue losses is fiscal year 2019)
Making necessary investments in water, sewer or broadband infrastructure
Depending on the funds restrictions and competitive needs, I would advocate for a significant allocation in two areas of investment: public art and after school programs.
The arts community has been strongly and negatively impacted by a year of public isolation. And in a complementary way, the public psyche needs the healing power of art after the past year. An investment in public art and arts programs will help bring people out of their homes and into our village centers and open spaces. It will harness joy and wonder to fight memories of fear and sadness. It will provide financial benefit to artists who have been crushed financially. And it will enliven our public spaces. Small outdoor concerts, murals, sculpture, performance. Any and all public art, done within evolving health and safety guidelines, will help heal our COVID wounds. In the spirit of the WPA, art matters.
After-school programs have similarly been decimated by a year of school closure. They are so important for so many reasons. They provide a place where Newton’s community of young people can begin to rebuild. They provide important touch points and interactions where kids who need more help after COVID shutdowns (mental, physical, emotional, scholastic) can be identified. They provide precious time for parents to get their lives back in order, whether that’s adjusting to a new work schedule, looking for a job, or recovering from personal or family illness. After-school programs also employ a large number of highly talented staff who need urgent financial support. Bootstrapping Newton’s after-school programs, and potentially helping resolve long-standing issues such as transportation and waiting lists, would be a huge boon to Newton’s families.
I would like like to see the cities/towns hit the hardest get some of our funds. Those people need it much more. If you disagree with that statement you are not a kind person.
@Jerry, please round out your thought about how “concerning” it is that Newton received relatively more cash than some other towns (and relatively less than others). Let’s assume we can agree on which towns are harder-hit by COVID. About how much cash should Newton donate, and which items in the city’s budget (schools, pensions*, outdoor space?) that otherwise could receive this benefit should absorb the reduction?
*I realize there’s a specific prohibition in the federal law using this cash for pension contributions, however cash is fungible within a city’s budget. I’ll share a big secret if you don’t tell anyone: the feds know that too.
Ken,
Ppl are free to write large checks to those cities/towns.
Businesses in Newton have been destroyed, selfishly we should take care of our residents and Businesses first.
Its easy for someone in Waban to advocate spending the money to another city than to say Nonantum Businesses and residents
Newton school children should get first priority to repair the year of lost learning
Mike, your idea about the after-school programs is an excellent one. The program at our elementary school has been decimated. It could use additional funding to improve its space and facilities and get ready to re-open fully next year (or perhaps even later this spring).
The devil is in the details. We know the amount, but not the restrictions. $65 million is far more than I would have expected.
For folks advocating giving the money to other communities, that typically is not how a federal govt allocation would work. We’d just be returning the money to the federal govt.
Much of what the federal govt does for localities is based on population density.
I’d advocate for a more robust summer program for the schools, additional teachers/aids for classrooms for next year, reimbursement for the expenditures spent on the school HVAC systems, grants to businesses to help them set up/reimburse for set-up outside dining, installation of more tables/chairs in outside areas throughout Newton, a significant portion spent on water/sewer repairs, gas line repairs, and road repairs to jump start that work. It won’t go as far as it sounds.
Good call on the after school programs – both the in-school programs and programs like the YMCA and Boys and Girls Club which offer other opportunities for recreation and athletics on a sliding scale.
And art – yes. We have a lot of underutilized space with regards to art. More public visual art always spruces things up. Let’s have music throughout the warmer months in all of the little parks, plazas, and other spaces.
A lot of Newton has felt blighted to me as of late. Empty storefronts, more litter strewn about than usual, etc. West Newton Square just feels depressing, empty, and grey. I’m sure spring/flowers/leaves will help that feeling but art and music will help, too.
We should reject the we-got-ours-you-go-get-yours philosophy at every turn. We should be very mindful of the larger equities of all of our policy decisions, including accepting funds when other, more needy municipalities don’t get nearly the same amount, proportionally.
@Bugek: I just Googled Ken Laird and see that he lives either in Lawrence or Brookline, not in Waban! I understand your need to scapegoat others, but I hope your arguments are not just spiteful. I know for certain that the businesses in Waban Centre are hurting, too.
Sallee
Its easy for folks who are comfortable to advocate giving the money to other towns. But its simply wrong to think everyone in Newton has not been adversely affected… especially in the higher density areas of Newton
As mentioned, if it matters so much, everyone is welcome to write a check to other towns. Dont advocate to take money away from folks who need it in Newton
I fully support advocating for additional local aid / federal relief money for hard-hit communities, whether they be municipalities or socio-economic groups.
However, something like declining federal money or trying to invent some mechanism to redirect already-allocated money is only going to delay getting help to those who need it, with no assurance whatsoever of better results.People in need are all around us.
“Put on your own oxygen mask first before attempting to help others.”
Spend the money allocated to us as effectively, equitably, and expeditiously as we can, then work earnestly to make sure our municipal neighbors get what they desperately need as well.
Now, if there an actual expeditious state discussion about the allocation formula for this stimulus within Massachusetts, Newton should of course participate.
Can Newton use the stimulus money to buy out Fleishman’s contract and make him go away like NBA teams do to get rid of bad players?
@Bugek: I hear you about not wanting to redirect federal money elsewhere. I just want you to understand that Waban is not immune to Covid pain.Please don’t direct your anger at our Village. I suspect that the areas delineated by the CPA will be given priority for spending the funds. Does anyone know where in Newton this money is supposed to be spent?
Sallee,
Yes i should have just said affluent instead of Waban, sorry. The point i was trying to make is that its easy for someone who is relatively unaffected to advocate giving the money to other towns… while not realizing there are many different income brackets in Newton…
Not everyone in Newton is comfortable
Rather than assessing need by municipal/city borders, a more equitable approach would be to focus on people in need. The focus should be on making sure the funds go to helping those who’ve been most deeply affected by the pandemic – small businesses, .the arts community, after school programs so parents can work and children can socialize seem like worthy recipients
Spending any of this money on long-standing city problems unrelated to the pandemic seems really inappropriate. The stimulus package was clearly intended to help those whose lives have been upended by this beast. If cities and towns spend the money on projects unrelated to the effects of the pandemic, we can be sure that there won’t be another one in the future. Newton, a city viewed as one where everyone is wealthy, should be careful that the stimulus money isn’t looked upon as a piggy bank. If Newton chooses this route, Ken Laird (no matter where he lives) makes a valid point.
Totally agree Jane.
Jane, the city’s has experienced revenue shortfalls, unexpected expenses, increased demand for public services, and loss of productivity from city employees with family obligations (just like many of the rest of us). I think the city would be well within the spirit of the relief funds just to fix those things up, which might be dangerously close to some people’s definition of “piggy bank”. I hope we do more to make people whole, though.
Mike – I agree in part, but the fact remains that Newton’s infrastructure was neglected for decades. Roads, sewers, buildings, etc. were a mess when I moved here in the early ’80s. To say the one-year pandemic had a significant impact on these problems is a major stretch in my book. Not to mention, spending it on long-term problems caused by neglect could very well get the city into some hot water.
Spend all the money to make people whole – it will likely take way more than the stimulus funds to get that much done.
The Community Block Grant formula has been in place for several decades and I don’t think the American Rescue Plan could have gone through the laborious bureaucratic process of changing these logistics and still funneled these payments out expeditiously. Not certain if there are other parts of the Rescue Plan that include more generous allocations to cities like Chelsea home to a lot of low wage essential workers. Some of Chelsea’s needs involve immediate life and death matters for a population that has already suffered disproportionately from COVID 19. The same applies to Lawrence and several other medium sized municipalities in Massachusetts.
@Bob: Thanks, Bob…the Community Block Grant that identifies communities in need (including those in Newton) was what I was alluding to when I misspoke, saying CPA funds above…glad you reminded me of the correct distribution formula source!
@Sallee. Thanks but I must confess I googled to verify before I put pen to paper.
Gov. Baker announced today that he’s directing an additional $100M in Federal aid to Chelsea, Everett, Methuen, and Randolph to help counter the inequitable allocation resulting from the Community Block Grant formula. (Newton’s high per-capital allocation is mentioned in the Globe article.)
It would be great if the funds could be used to address the learning deficits that are occurring with our students. The afterschool programs have been an asset to the kids in our district and their working parents. They run on shoe string budgets and likely don’t have a lot of cushion so it would be money well spent to help them out so they are still able to provide future services. To those who think we should pass on the money, how about we help the small businesses struggling in Newton in particular the restaurants that have been hard hit. Many businesses employ people who live outside our borders so keep those businesses going not only helps Newton but helps their employees who have been hard hit.
Of course the money should go to the schools and programs which benefit our children. Addressing the learning gap and the psychological calamity that our middle and high schoolers have experienced should be central.
What concerns me is that these plans aren’t ready to go. Just as last summer was wasted from a planning perspective, we knew that these moneys would be coming and we’re not prepared. There’s a lack of creativity and originality across the board. We keep making the same mistakes and not learning from them. Newton deserves more and better.
Sorry. Put me in the camp of this being ridiculous. If Newton feels a need to use public money to help out business and people here, we have plenty of ways to make that happen. Newton does not need tax payer money from other areas. Send that money to those that really need it. We are freaking rich. Really really rich compared to many areas. We should find ways to help our own with the resources we have. This is an abuse of the idea of using taxpayer funds to help the needy.
Keith B
Its so easy to virtue signal with other people’s money. So many newton businesses have been devastated, so many kids have lost a year of learning…
There is no shortage of Newton residents/businesses that need help.
If newton was so rich, why are roads so bad, why are the athletic fields so dire, why are so many school buildings in horrible condition
Maybe your the ppl who live on your block are rich, but most are certainly not