Clancy: MSBA cuts just another sign of times

LYNN – Add the Massachusetts School Building Authority to the flowing list of state agencies feeling the sting of a nationwide economic recession.The agency that helps communities pay for school construction and renovations announced this week that future projects may need to be scaled back because of sinking sales tax revenue that could hinder the MSBA’s ability to fund them.This means that the city’s already aging school buildings may have to wait even longer to receive much-needed repairs, a reality that Mayor Edward J. Clancy Jr. is taking in stride in a time when seemingly every program is facing a cut.”It is not good news. Any time the funding slows it is not helpful,” he said Thursday. “But it is really just an outgrowth of all of the financial problems going on in this recession.”The MSBA said all projects currently in the pipeline will remain funded, but the future of proposed repairs and construction is unclear.For Lynn, which has had a strong relationship with the MSBA in the past, the announcement is especially hard to swallow, given that the organization skipped over the city – specifically a project to repair Marshal Middle School’s leaking roof – last spring when it handed out cash for new project proposals.City officials were not happy with the decision at the time, but Clancy says he cannot hold anything against the MSBA given all of the help they have sent the city’s way in the past.”The MSBA has been great to the city of Lynn,” he said. “All of those projects that they funded 90 percent at English and Classical, we could never have done those without their help. Even the new Executive Director (Katherine Craven) has been very helpful.”The state agency is funded through tax revenue, as one cent of every nickel raised by the sales tax goes to the 5-year-old agency, equaling about $2.5 billion to spend on projects.Craven said Wednesday the drop in revenue is “unprecedented.”Clancy said the city will still look into ways to fund the city’s construction and reclamation projects, but reiterated that if the MSBA has to cut funds, it could be bad news for aging schools.”What it does is it delays trying to do anything with the older schools,” he said. “And it also hurts us if we want to try and get any other new projects off of the ground.”