Good news for many communities around the state — especially Fall River and New Bedford (email, no link):
Moving to help municipal fire departments impacted by budget cuts that have forced layoffs and vacancies resulting from attrition, Governor Deval Patrick today announced he will release $8.1 million in federal stimulus funds to 13 municipal fire departments in the Commonwealth. The funds will be used to rehire 127 firefighters who were laid off because of budget reductions.
Today’s announcement marks the first round of awards to fire departments from the $20 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) discretionary funds the Patrick-Murray Administration set aside specifically to help fire departments address staffing reductions caused by the current recession….
In this first round of grant awards, $8.1 million will be used to rehire 127 laid off firefighters in Bridgewater, Easton, Fall River, Hull, Lakeville, Lawrence, Methuen, Monson, New Bedford, North Attleboro, Quincy, Walpole and Worcester….
[EOPS Secretary Kevin Burke said] “This is just the first round of funding. The administration will be awarding another $11.9 million to communities that have seen their fire departments downsized as a result of budget cuts. We are moving quickly to provide critically needed assistance to local fire departments.”
Here’s the full list:
should my Town have laid off a firefighter or two, instead choosing to spend the money on other important needs… in the hope that the two firefighters’ salaries would have been covered by the Commonwealth using stimcash?
stimulus money has been going to towns, dollars come in different ways. It could be that dollars that have already been distributed to a town, for example, like yours.
or is it $100k?
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p>I can see people being frustrated by decisions like this, but Fall River and New Bedford are two of the poorest communities in the state. They just do not have the tax base to provide for all the necessary services they need. Each of them laying off 33-44 firefighters is a massive amount. I have no problem with the state kicking in extra help through fed stimulus funding, especially given the fact that there’s an even bigger round 2 coming for different communities. Disclosure: Once upon a time, I did live in N. Bedford for a short while.
I’m just concerned about the possibility for towns changing their M. O. and trying to game the system by doing things just like I propose. It’s a gamble to be sure, but I could certainly imagine it happening.
but those towns would be rather foolish, given we don’t typically have $20 million in stimulus funds lying around to plug in these holes.
I continue to be amazed at the government largess showered on this region. It’s like Robert Byrd’s West Virginia down there. I mean, seriously, $5+ million for Fall River and New Bedford, $3m for the rest of the state???
is looking at the needs of the state as a whole and not specifically your town. Stimulus money for police layoffs have also been set aside, like firefighters. That should be coming out soon, as this has been released.
precisely what I posted to Stomv’s comment, but I’ll actually go a bit further.
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p>These communities struggle to pay for services in ways that others don’t. The median family incomes of those two cities is $25k. To put that in perspective, the per capita personal income in Massachusetts is almost $48k. So, a family in N. Bedford makes roughly half of what a single person makes in Massachusetts. And you call state help for that region “largess?” Really?
While I don’t disagree with your premise at all, you appear to be comparing median income with mean income (the “per capita”), which is never appropriate or useful. For the record, the median household income in MA is $65k according to this particular source. NB and FR are under $30k, although I think they’re more like $28k than $25k.