SWAMPSCOTT — With less than a month before Town Meeting will vote on the town’s fiscal year 2024 municipal budget, Select Board members discussed state budgeting with Rep. Jenny Armini and Sen. Brendan Crighton at a meeting Wednesday evening.
Select Board Chair Neal Duffy welcomed the state legislators to discuss some of the municipality’s financial challenges and to learn about new state resources for funding.
Since 2020, Duffy said the town’s financial guidelines restrict budget increases to two percent annually, with an additional $425,000 for new growth. Duffy said the town “put those restrictions to the test” with its recent land acquisitions, such as the Hawthorne by the Sea property, as well as the town’s venture to build a new elementary school.
“You certainly know, big-picture, the challenges that everyone’s experiencing as far as special education costs, health care costs, the usual constraints,” Duffy said. “We are as constrained as anyone else, and we would just like to hear what’s going on at the state level, and where we might have some assistance.”
Armini, who worked on the House’s newly-unveiled $56.2 billion budget, said she filed an amendment to fund the design of streets around the new Hadley School.
Additionally, Armini told the Select Board that the FY24 unrestricted aid for Swampscott students will be $1,523,431, and that the House is working to budget in support for municipalities’ special education programs.
When Select Board Vice Chair David Grishman asked the legislators for an update on funding for the effort to clean the polluted waters at Kings Beach, Crighton answered that while state delegation members have spoken to Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs (EEA) Secretary Rebecca Tepper about securing funding, vouching for funding from the new administration has been a challenge.
“Right now, we’re back to trying to do what we did with previous administrations, which is trying to get them to prioritize this problem,” Crighton said.“The $5 million we were able to get from ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) was really kind of a one-time thing as far as … our ability as legislators to produce that kind of money again, it’s probably unrealistic.”
Armini added that since the efforts at Kings Beach are split between Swampscott and Lynn, a designated environmental justice community — meaning that Lynn’s population meets certain economic and minority criteria — the state delegation might be able to secure federal funding through grants from the EEA’s Office of Environmental Justice.
Armini added that generally, Swampscott could raise funds through federal and state grant programs. She offered to help identify grants that could help and vouch for funding.
“If you see something, get in touch with us and we will make the calls and write the letters to support the applications. Now, Kings Beach is a different story — that’s a much bigger fish. I’m talking more about the smaller programs. There are a lot of education programs through DESE that are grant based,” Armini said.
Select Board Member Peter Spellios thanked the legislators for being personable, helpful, and easy to reach before expressing his concerns with the state’s hand in municipal revenue. He said he was frustrated by the Commonwealth’s control over the town’s revenue-building endeavors such as outdoor dining or legal cannabis sale host agreements.
“On the revenue side, the chokehold that the state continues and historically has always kept on a town’s ability to fix their revenue problem is befuddling and frankly, frustrating,” Spellios said.
Spellios added that if Swampscott had more freedom to engage in revenue-building endeavors such as allowing restaurants to serve alcoholic beverages to-go, they wouldn’t have to “leave their hands out” to the Commonwealth to find funding for necessities like education and infrastructure.
Crighton responded that he supported regional ballot initiatives, and would also be generally supportive of municipalities’ efforts to raise their own funds.
“As far as local options go, let’s do it. I’ve been a strong supporter of regional ballot initiatives, which is slightly different, but let’s empower communities — if they want to raise revenue for certain purposes, why are we hamstringing you guys? Get to work, if you have the political will, you’re as held accountable by voters as we are, let’s work together,” Crighton said.
