HADLEY — With Hadley facing at least $90 million in expenses to keep intact and expand the levee and dike system along the Connecticut River, Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, is pledging to have the state involved in the continuing conversations.
“Hadley will, for me, be a priority in the environmental bond bill. I think I’ve already made that clear to the town,” Comerford told the Select Board, during a wide-ranging conversation at its Dec. 17 meeting.
Comerford spoke about the need for continued advocacy for improved education funding, with her district featuring mostly rural school districts with declining enrollment, and to address the ballooning costs of health insurance, which has led eight of the 73 members of the Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust to depart for the Group Insurance Commission.
For the system that protects Hadley center and Route 9 from flooding, Comerford said the environmental bond bill calls for a Connecticut River commission focused on Hadley, Northampton and Hatfield. This will be a way for the state to have an intermunicipal conversation and to also engage the federal government at a scale each municipality would be unable to do on its own.
“We need the state’s power, so we’ve been working on that,” Comerford said.
Specifically, the bill calls for the commission, within 18 months of becoming law, to focus “on flood risk mitigation and resilience in the Connecticut River Valley” and “prepare a plan that identifies and prioritizes regional resilience projects that reduce flood risk in the Connecticut River Valley through 2050.”
Comerford said any work associated with upgrading the levee and dike is an earmark priority, along with other inland waterway funding in the bill, while the commission allows for a systemic approach.
“I will make sure that gets through,” Comerford said.
For school funding, Comerford said the foundation budget needs to be reviewed for the first time in 10 years so schools that are losing population can get their fair share of state aid.
“This is a wider western Mass. problem that we’re trying to address,” Comerford said.
She urged the Select Board and School Committee to send in “hard-hitting testimony,” calling it their moment to talk about the target local contribution.
Comerford said she and her team, including Jessie Cooley, director of constituent services, would amplify this message at the State House.
Hadley Schools Superintendent Anne McKenzie said she has submitted testimony on local contribution, observing that Hadley saw a cut of $30,000 in rural aid from what had been projected.
McKenzie said while regionalization is being pursued in some districts, and she wouldn’t dismiss it out of hand, it shouldn’t be seen as a panacea. In Hadley, education expanses are only about 33% of the town budget, which is a lot less than many other communities.
Comerford said officials need to be forceful. “I hope we get loud and cranky … no joke,” Comerford said.
On health insurance, the 73 units had been in the Hampshire County Group Insurance Trust represented 12,200 employees, of which about 40% are her constituents.
She worked with the trust’s staff and executive committee and had conversations with various state officials.
But even though the trust asked the Legislature for $25 million and other measures, legislators only passed a small piece of this request, allowing communities leaving the trust the ability to amortize the current expenses and any runoff costs.
“There isn’t going be any state money for HCGIT. That was something we could not secure,” Comerford said.
From what she learned the concern was that the trust is a totally private organziation, even if there are many municipal employees affected.
On giving communities the possibility of increasing local options taxes, such as meals and lodging, Comerford said she supports the contents of the municipal empowerment act. She also advocates for the luxury real estate transfer tax that would give communities a new source of money for affordable housing, and will try to get a municipal building bill through with Rep. Natalie Blais, D-Deerfield, that would help communities with projects such as fire stations and Department of Public Works headquarters.
Comerford said part of the problem is that payment in lieu of taxes disadvantages the region, as do algorithms for scoring grants.
“There are structural inequities baked into and fossilized over hundreds of years,” Comerford said.