As Chair of the Municipal Affairs Coordinating Cabinet, Lt. Governor Murray has led more than 30 listening tours in communities across the Commonwealth. In September 2011, Lt. Governor Murray requested an updated Executive Order, amending the Cabinet to formally include efforts to promote regionalization within the Cabinet’s mission. This updated Executive Order then led to a series of forums with the Cabinet focused on regionalization and ultimately the release of the state’s new Community Innovation Challenge Grants.
Our new fiscal reality demands that we find new and more efficient ways to deliver local services, much as we are doing at the state level to change the way government does business. The Patrick-Murray Administration’s new Community Innovation Challenge Grant Program invests in and incentivizes innovation among local governments through regionalization and other reforms and efficiencies to maintain critical local services and stretch every tax payer dollar as far as possible.
As Chair of the Municipal Affairs Coordinating Cabinet, Lt. Governor Murray also leads policy discussions with municipal managers and local planners that have helped to implement key initiatives and assistance for cities and towns. These discussions helped to form the Municipal Partnership Act, proposed by Governor Patrick and Lt. Governor Murray during their first term. The initiatives originally introduced in the Municipal Partnership Act have provided critical relief for communities on issues like municipal health care cost containment, pension reform, and local option meals and hotel tax. During very challenging fiscal times, Governor Patrick and Lt. Governor Murray have also continued to make Chapter 70 education funding for cities and towns a top priority.
Contact
For more information about the cabinet please contact the Division of Local Services at 617-626-2300 or dlswebcontacts@dor.state.ma.us