Mount Greylock School Committee Declines State Budget Resolution
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday opted not to advocate for fundamental changes to state budgeting in Boston.
Members Steven Miller and Curtis Elfenbein brought their colleagues a resolution that the pair proposed their committee send to the Massachusetts Association of School Committees for adoption at its 2025 annual meeting.
If advanced and, eventually, adopted by the statewide advocacy group, the resolution would have urged "elected representatives to immediately move to sustainable budgets over the next three years so that constitutionally mandated services, in particular education, receive the necessary funding."
The authors argued that, "it is not sustainable long term to consistently spend more than is collected," as they say Beacon Hill currently does.
And they argued that public education, which is enshrined in the commonwealth's constitution, stands to suffer if the portion of Massachusetts' budget dedicated to paying off debt continues to grow.
"We need to make sure we have the resources necessary [to fund education]," Miller said at Thursday's special, single-item meeting. "Our district will be OK this year. A lot of districts will be making painful cuts. If things continue on the trajectory they are on, it's going to be worse and worse and worse.
"The earlier the decisions are made, the less damaging it will be."
Four members of the seven-person committee attended Thursday's meeting. Chair Julia Bowen told the group on the Zoom call that members Elfenbein, Jose Constantine and Christina Conry had emergencies that kept them from participating.
Miller and Elfenbein had taken the proposed resolution to the committee's regular May meeting, but other members raised concerns — principally that, as written, the resolution did not stress that education was not an area that could be cut to make budgets more "sustainable."
Miller said at the time that he could amend the resolution to clarify that point, and Bowen agreed to call the special meeting so that the committee could — if it chose — agree to send the amended resolution to MASC in time to meet its deadline for member submissions to its Resolutions Committee.
Thursday's revote was 2-2 with Miller and Bowen voting in favor of the resolution and Greene and Maloy voting against. Three "yays," a majority of the members present, would have been necessary to move the resolution forward.
Miller said Tuesday that legislators need to understand that the commonwealth is spending money it doesn't have and that it needs to prioritize expenditures.
"If we stop spending money on things that are nice but are not top priorities, that are not mandated, that frees up more money to pay off the interest and principle [on the state's debt] and pay for the truly mandated needs, like education," he said.
Greene asked Miller what he considered "not top priorities," but he answered that he did not think the committee wanted him to enumerate that and the resolution was designed to let the legislators in Boston make those kinds of decisions.
"There is something driving you toward this conclusion that we're spending money on things other than education," Greene said. "Are you saying you want legislators to stop spending money on X, Y and Z to pay down the debt and pay for education? I think the legislators would say we're spending quite a bit of money on education."
Bowen answered that Miller's main argument was that the state needs to stop spending more than it takes in as revenue. And, she said, that change can come either through spending cuts or increased taxes or some combination of the two.
Miler said the solution could be "creating an environment that leads to more economic activity."
Greene pressed Miller about his intent in proposing the resolution.
"Are you advocating for cuts like what is happening at the federal level, just cutting agencies?" Greene asked.
"Yes," Miller responded. "There are certain programs that are luxuries. What I'm saying right now is it is not a long term solution to spend money you don't have.
"It is very easy to spend money on every program. You're not going to upset anyone. But the bill is going to have to be paid at some point."
Bowen asked Miller if the resolution, if advanced, would be a home-grown idea or part of some national movement of which she was not aware.
"I've been advocating for something like this for a year," Miller said.
"But you've been advocating we not spend on immigrant populations … " Greene began.
"Illegal, illegal," Miller interrupted. "I'm not putting any of that in [the resolution]."
Miller said he found it "interesting" to be getting resistance to a resolution that he later characterized as "symbolic" since, even if passed by MASC it likely would be ignored on Beacon Hill.
"This is the weakest ask I can think of: Don't spend money you don't have," Miller said.
Just prior to casting the second "nay" to kill the resolution, Greene told Miller she appreciated the work he did on it and supported the spirit of it. She also encouraged any of the School Committee members concerned about the issue to reach out to legislators on their own.
Miller wrapped up the conversation by making an agenda request for the "sustainable budget" resolution to be brought back to a future meeting and saying he plans to make it a standing agenda request at every regular School Committee meeting.
The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, June 12.
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