Rep. Costello Expresses Dissatisfaction with Gov's Budget Plan on Local Aid

We already know that the lottery revenues that drive local aid in MA were down last year and are expected to be down for fiscal year 2009. As the Commonwealth puts together a budget, many will be watching how the budget handles this. As reported in the previous post, Governor Patrick is proposing to make up for the shortfall in lottery revenue with proceeds from casino development. Given Speaker Dimasi's strong opposition (for now) to the casino plan, this revenue is speculative, to say the least.

Representative Costello weighed in on this issue. This is from the 1/26 Daily News:

Costello rips into Patrick plan; Rep. says budget does little for cities like Newburyport

By Katie Curley , Staff Writer
Daily News of Newburyport

NEWBURYPORT - Rep. Michael Costello blasted the governor's proposed budget this week, saying the plan is based on casino money that isn't there and ignores "real issues" like special education costs and charter school reimbursements.

Gov. Deval Patrick touted his proposed $28.2 billion budget this week as boosting state spending on aid to cities and towns, but local cities and towns won't see much of that increased spending, if any, Costello said.