A critical event in the state’s annual budget cycle is the issuance of the report of the joint legislative conference committee.  Both the House and the Senate prepare their own budgets and those budgets often contain different amounts of funding for many line items.  A small committee consisting of two state senators and two state representatives meets to resolve those differences.  This year, our region is well represented: Steve Panagiotakos, as chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee is one of the senate representatives; Stephen Brewer, whose primarily-Worcester County district extends from Ashburnham down to Sturbridge, is the other senator.  The two representatives are Charles Murphy of Burlington (the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee) and Barbara L’Italien whose district includes portions of Andover, Methuen, North Andover, Boxford, Georgetown and Haverhill.

 

Yesterday, the Conference Committee issued its report and both houses of the legislature will vote on it today.  No doubt there will be intense lobbying through the day, but the chances are good that by the end of today, the Conference Committee’s bill will be adopted largely intact as the FY2010 state budget.

 

The Conference Committee report, called House 4129, is available online here.  The city of Lowell’s local aid allocation can be found on page 204.  Here are the figures for Lowell:

  • 7061-0008 – Chapter 70 - $117,484,100

  • Unrestricted General Government Aid – 22,192,157

  • Potential Allocation of Federal Funds from the ARRA State Fiscal Stabilization Fund – 3,695,048

  • Potential Total Section 3 Local Aid – 143,371,305