Finance Committee Criticizes MARS Report on Regional Schools. Raises Possibility of Tax Override for Roads.
Photo: istock
By Maura and Art Keene
This meeting was held over Zoom and was recorded.
The Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools Reports
The Finance Committee discussed at their meeting on September 16, four reports prepared for the Amherst and Amherst Regional School Committees by the Massachusetts Association of Regional Schools (MARS). These reports use publicly available data to create a summary about shifting school enrollments and demographics, as well as municipal finances of the four towns in the regional district, and are a standard report that MARS provides to school districts upon request. Amherst School Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman (Dr. Xi) requested the reports so that the district leadership, the Regional School Committee, and town representatives from Leverett, Shutesbury and Pelham have a common set of facts to work with when framing discussions on fiscal sustainability. A representative from MARS is tentatively scheduled to attend a joint meeting of the School Committees on September 25 at 5:00 p.m.
Finance Committee members were critical of the reports, particularly sections that focused on Amherst’s municipal finances, which Town Councilor Mandi Jo Hanneke characterized as “misleading.” For example, she asked why the total amount of free cash was included in the report.
Unspent budgeted funds or surplus revenue is certified as free cash in the fall, after a full accounting of the previous fiscal year is complete. According to the report, “Amherst maintains a significant 2025 free cash balance of $10,422,416 which represents 10.05% of the general budget.” The issue of free cash has been raised in recent years, with some residents questioning whether the end-of-year surplus could be reduced in order to have more money in the operating budget for town services, such as school funding.
Finance Committee members also took issue with some of the data that pertained to the schools themselves. Councilor Bob Hegner indicated that he felt that use of certain figures, such as the percentage of students who have disabilities, are low-income, or are high-need are not relevant because numbers, not percentages, drive costs. This topic has come up frequently with respect to school costs, with School Committee members often explaining that as enrollment in our elementary and regional schools has declined, the percentage of students needing extra support (high need students, English-language learners, low-income students, students with disabilities) has risen. This shift to a proportionally higher-need population is one of the drivers of average per-pupil spending.
In general, Finance Committee members questioned what the school committees would actually be able to do with this data. They also suggested that the school committees present their own questions at the next School Committee meeting, when a MARS representative will be present to answer questions.
Planning Ahead for FY26
Members of the Finance Committee discussed planning for the upcoming budget. They hope to learn more from municipal departments, as well as the schools and the library about specific stress points or unknowns for the next year, including unsettled union contracts and uncertainty around federal funds. They discussed whether it would be possible to meet with town department heads earlier than usual to get a sense of these issues. They also discussed wanting to see certain metrics ahead of the annual financial indicators meeting, which has been scheduled for November 3. Some of this information may be challenging to obtain due to vacancies in several key Finance Department roles, although new Finance Director Sean Mangano is slated to start in October.
An Override for Roads?
At the end of the meeting, Hanneke raised the possibility of a tax override to fund road work. Committee members discussed that the town’s voters would have to authorize an override specifically for “capital use” and then funds raised through the increased taxes could be used to complete road repair within the same year that the funds were collected. The Committee wanted more information on how this would work and, given past challenges with securing contractors for road work, whether it would be possible to guarantee that Amherst would be able to get the work done on time.
The congnitive dissonance on the Finance Committee rivals what we see at the federal level.
Hanneke, Steinberg and company propose an “override for roads” after supporting a commitment of $25 million in local tax dollars including interest to demolish, renovate and expand the historic and privately owned Jones Library building.
Since when did increasing the library size by 15,000 sq. ft. for additional programming become more important than maintaining town roads in good condition?
Jeff Lee’s comment underscores my beef with the library renovation and expansion since it was first proposed. Taxes in Amherst are among the highest assessments in Massachusetts already. How much more can residents bear?
An article in the 29 November 2024 Bulletin notes that Councilor Hanneke voted no on a request to spend $1 million from free cash on repairs to roads and sidewalks, and quotes her as stating that “to me, the roads are not in as dire a situation as many people paint them.”
Yet here she is suggesting a tax override for road repair at a time of increasing and massive financial uncertainty — an idea that would surely be voted down by residents. I would wager that rather than a sincere solution to a long-standing and well-documented problem, this move is instead a calculated means to divert attention from the town’s misplaced spending priorities, instead placing the blame on residents, and implying that it is they, rather than the town, who have misplaced priorities.
Totally agree with Jeff Lee’s comment. I am really saddened to see how the town leadership has ignored the importance of fixing our roads year after year. There will be a time I vote with my feet. Amherst town leadership, you are a scam and a joke for the amount of tax I pay every year.
If one drives a car, the roads in Amherst are in poor repair. If one drives a bicycle, the roads are dangerous.
For example, on Belchertown Road and College Street (the Town-owned portions of Route 9 in Amherst) summer potholes have developed where last winter’s potholes were “repaired” with cold patch:
• some on the eastbound side, near Shumway St are a yard wide, many yards long, and seem to be filled with a mix of coarse gravel, sand and soil — though only an inch or so deep at the moment, no telling what will happen there when the rains return;
• others on the eastbound side, just west of Stanley St are deep “canyons” in the broken asphalt, a few inches wide, many inches deep and several feet long, and parallel to the travel direction, making them the more dangerous for a cyclist than trolley tracks, especially since they are near the shoulder; and
• the westbound direction along that same stretch of Route 9 has more of the same.
Were a public safety department to leave dangerous weapons in a place where the public had access, something would be done immediately to correct that situation; and those responsible for that oversight would face serious consequences, especially if an injury or a death resulted.
Which public departments bear legal responsibility for the dangers posed by these un-repaired roads?