Post-Paving Reality Check Your Roads Are Getting Fixed. Your Schools Are Not. Your city’s state aid grew 5% in twelve years. Inflation grew 37%. Here is what that means for our district.

As construction season begins and we all start dodging the potholes that winter left behind, I want to share some good news and some numbers that have been weighing on me. Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee reported out a $2.2 billion transportation bond bill that includes a historic increase to the Chapter 90 program, which is how the state pays to fix your roads and bridges.

I want to break down what that actually means for our district, and then share something that has been weighing on me about the bigger picture.

What just changed?

For more than ten years, Chapter 90 was frozen at $200 million while construction costs kept climbing. Somerville residents filed more than 1,200 pothole reports through 311 last year, a 38% increase over the year before, and that is just one city in our district. This bill raises the program to $300 million, a 50% increase, with $200 million distributed through the traditional formula and $100 million based on road mileage.

For our district, that means $1.27 million for Medford (up from $955,000 under the old formula), $1.53 million for Somerville, $3.29 million for Cambridge, and $755,000 for Winchester.

Chapter 90 was stuck for over a decade, and people said it could not be increased, but the MMA pushed, municipal leaders organized, legislators made the case, and the state delivered. Real progress.

But that only covers roads. Here is the part that has been on my mind.

What about everything that is not a road?

Chapter 90 fixes pavement. It does not pay for your child’s teacher, or the firefighter who responds when you call 911, or the librarian who keeps the doors open on weekends. That comes from a different pot of state money called general state aid (formally, Unrestricted General Government Aid), and it has not gotten anything close to the same treatment.

Here is what happened to your city’s funding: since 2014, the state has sent your city more dollars every year, about 44% more in total. But your city’s costs grew faster. The result: the share of your budget covered by state aid has been shrinking for over a decade, and the difference lands on your property tax bill.

25% → 15% Somerville’s state aid share

19% → 16% Medford’s state aid share

10% → 8% Winchester’s state aid share

Source: MA DOR Division of Local Services, Schedule A General Fund Revenue Reports (FY2014–FY2025).

The state did not cut your city’s aid. It did not have to. By growing aid more slowly than your city’s costs, the state shifted more and more of the burden onto your property tax bill, and Proposition 2½ means there is a limit to how much your city can raise that way. That is why Medford needed its first override in 44 years, why Winchester’s failed by 300 votes, why Somerville is cutting school budgets right now.

What has that meant?

In Medford, it meant the city had to ask voters for a tax increase for the first time in 44 years just to prevent as many as 45 teachers from losing their jobs and to begin addressing tens of millions of dollars in deferred road and sidewalk repairs. The public library is still closed on weekends.

In Somerville, it means right now. This month, the superintendent asked every school to prepare for up to $1 million in cuts to account for a $5.3 million city budget deficit, and the educators’ union says that would put the school budget “well below level-service.”

In Winchester, it meant an $11.5 million override (the largest ever proposed there) failed by fewer than 300 votes. Without it, the town faces teacher layoffs, reduced library hours, and potential cuts to first responders.

In Cambridge, the city is bracing for the loss of $23 million in annual federal funding on top of the state aid gap, with the city manager calling it “a troubling and uncertain time.”

Four cities, one pattern. Every one of these communities has been stretching every dollar, and the gap is not local, it is structural.

Chapter 90 was stuck for a decade, and the state stepped up because people made the case with data, organized across communities, and refused to accept that level-funding was good enough. If we can do that for roads, we can do it for the aid that funds our schools, our public safety, and our libraries.

Why does this give me hope?

Because we just proved the model works. I dug into twelve years of state financial records for every city in our district, because I believe you deserve to see what is actually happening with your money, not just hear that local aid is at “record levels.”

That is how I approach this work: not just showing up for the vote, but doing the work before and after. The state’s share of your city’s budget has been shrinking for over a decade, and that did not happen by accident. It happened because nobody on Beacon Hill fought hard enough to change it.

A shrinking partnership is not a partnership, it is a problem we can fix. And I intend to be the person who fights hard enough to fix it.

What you can do: If you know someone who needs to see these numbers, please forward this to them. If your family has been affected by school cuts, reduced city services, or a property tax increase, please reply and tell me your story. And please follow the FY2027 budget as it moves through the House. I will keep you updated, because this is the kind of work I intend to keep doing.

Keep This Work Going →

P.S. I believe in showing my work. Data sources for this newsletter: MA DOR Division of Local Services Schedule A General Fund Revenue Reports (FY2014–FY2025), Cherry Sheet Trend Data, and H.5375 (the transportation bond bill). If you want to support the kind of representative who does the reading, please chip in here.

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