To the Editor,
City Councilor and Write-In candidate for State Representative Dan Allie placed two questions on November 3rd ballot. Allie put these two questions on the 2014 ballot. Governor Baker on his first day in office, restored 100 million dollars in road funding. Westfield received $675,000.
Restore Local Aid
The Mass State Lottery was created to provide revenue to cities and towns for police, fire and education, in the form of Local Aid. The state has taken about a billion dollars out of the Lottery in the last ten years, even in years when the state had billion dollar surpluses. If the state had surpluses, why was it still taking our money? This loss of revenue puts pressure on local budgets and property taxes.
Increase state funding for road maintenance to at least 300 million dollars
The state recently passed a 17 billion dollar transportation bond bill, but only allocates 200 million dollars per year, for the entire state to cities for road maintenance. This amount should be 400 to 500 million dollars per year. If elected, Dan will file legislation, lobby and vote for increased state road funding.
With a 43 billion dollar state budget, not enough “transportation funding” goes to basic road maintenance. Drivers pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fuel taxes. The Registry of Motor Vehicles takes in 600 million dollars per year for an operation that costs 60 million to run. Where does the other 540 million dollars go? Westfield collects 5 million dollars in vehicle excise tax. Drivers are paying enough in taxes, fees and tolls to maintain our roads. Why are we not getting what we have paid for?
Dan Allie
Westfield
