HANSON – The stark message on Hanson Public Library’s web page made the problem clear – maybe.
“The state Senate recently passed an Economic Development Bond bill that would prohibit municipalities from receiving library construction grant funds if they are not in compliance with the MBTA multi-family zoning requirement,” the message reads.
“We’re not saying anything about MBTA one way or the other,” Hanson Library Director Karen Stolfer said. “Our main concern is, it’s tied into our grant.”
She pointed to the important role the public library plays in a small community like Hanson – as an educational resource second only to the schools, a community resource.
“Just to have that in jeopardy of losing funding …” she said.
Stolfer said that, with the failure of the House and Senate committees to reach a compromise, the funding issues could get pushed to next year. The MBTA Communities Act could impact other funding for town grants and funding sources.
“That’s kind of good news for us because, obviously, it could come up again,” she said. “The senate version of the Economic Bond Bill says you have to be in compliance [with MBTA Communities], the House version doesn’t. … they couldn’t come to an agreement.”
Another point of concern for Stolfer is that the funding comes in two pieces.
The one now pending, up to $100,000 in matching funds for what has already been spent, will reimburse expenses laid out for preliminary work such as planning, including schematics for a potential library, and a second phase after a project attains all the necessary approvals, comes by way of a construction grant in the “millions of dollars.”
The first grant, which has already been applied for, stands to reimburse for the more than $77,000 already spent on the new library project planning, including grant money and trust funds the library already had, Stolfer said, stressing it was not all town money.
“We had to spend that money to meet the requirements to apply for the grant,” she said. “We just have to let them know our concerns and say, ‘This is what can happen – that Hanson could lose a new library and it’s a needed resource in town.’”
She said the alert was posted, along with state officials’ contact information as a way to give residents a way to voice their opinions on the funding issue.
“That [second grant] wouldn’t be until further down the line,” she said.
While Stolfer said there may have been other sticking points, the MBTA Communities portion’s effect on grants is, and has been, her main concern, with hopes for funding of a library building project riding on it.
“The town isn’t in compliance and the potential for this version [of the bill goes forward, then we would not be eligible for a grant,” Stolfer said.
The next round of grants will be announced in October and the status of the bills, combined with any potential impact of a lawsuit some towns are pursuing against the MBTA Communities program cloud the future for Hanson’s library plans.
“There’s so much work that we’ve obviously put in, and when the application deadline was May 31, we met all the requirements, and now, the possibility that that could be changed, just seems really unfair,” Stolfer said.
Select Board Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett said the issue is not that clear-cut and pointed out that the MBTA Communities article, which was rejected majority of voters at the May Town Meeting did not involve the library grant at the time.
“Quite frankly, we didn’t anticipate that [the state] would pull the MBTA Communities card on us,” she said. “Although, ironically, at Town Meeting we were talking about MBTA Communities, at the time there was a list of grants that were off the table if we didn’t pass it. We were aware of those 13 grants. This was not one of them.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett said the town was also aware the grant sought by the library was a competitive one.
“With the financial shape that we’re in right now, even if we get that grant, I don’t know – the way that that grant works is that it’s a reimbursable grant, which means we’ve got to come up with the money up front and then get reimbursed,” she said. “I don’t think it’s happening.”
While the House passed a similar bill in June, that legislation does not link the library construction grants to the MBTA Communities requirement. The Senate version of the bill retains the language, and a joint conference committee session on Monday, Aug. 6 was unable to reach a compromise, the Mass Municipal Association was reporting, according to Stolfer said as she encouraged residents to call state legislators “if you would like to express your opinions regarding this matter.”
According to the MMA, the Senate bill (S. 2856) includes many of the same investments as the House bill (H. 4804), including:
- $400 million for MassWorks grants for local infrastructure
- $100 million for the Rural Development Fund
- $150 million for the Public Library Construction Program to help municipalities update and rehabilitate these essential facilities
- $100 million for grants, through the Seaport Economic Council, to provide support for the state’s 78 coastal municipalities to withstand and adapt to the impacts of climate change
- $400 million for climate technology bonding authorizations.
A House-Senate conference committee also was unable to reach agreement on a proposed multi-billion-dollar economic development bond bill, including these provisions, which the governor filed in March as the Mass Leads Act.
“In the closing hours of the formal legislative session for the year, the Legislature enacted a $5.16 billion housing bond bill, but couldn’t reach an accord on a multi-billion-dollar economic development package or a climate bill aimed primarily at promoting clean energy,” the MMA reported. “The housing bill is intended to kickstart housing production across Massachusetts, and the House and Senate had passed different versions in June.”
Hanson residents had been advised at the May Town Meeting that a grant for programs at the Multi-Service Senior Center was in danger of a clawback or denial if they rejected the MBTA Communities Bylaw, but FitzGerald-Kemmett pointed to the actions of the Healey administration as bearing some of the fault for the situation, clapping back at municipalities unwilling to go along with the MBTA Communities program.
“This isn’t going to be the last of it,” she said. “I’m sure there’s going to be other little ‘gotchas’ along the way.”
She would have preferred the administration had approached it differently – adding grants beyond the ones already planned and applied for, that would have been attached to the MBTA program, instead of taking away grant programs for which municipalities would have been eligible.
“Sometimes, I swear, these guys don’t think about [the] basic psychology of people,” she said. “You’re going to take something away from somebody for not complying with something they didn’t know they had to comply with.”
Gov. Charlie Baker may have passed it, but Gov. Maura Healey is the one enforcing it – which is the real issue, FitzGerald-Kemmett argues.
There are few, if any alternatives for the town’s fronting the money, FitzGerald-Kemmett argues.
“I guess we could look for federal grants or there are private grants that we might be able to get, but of course, they would be competitive too,” she said. “But, if we don’t get the state money, this is just absolutely not happening. We don’t have the money for that.”
The $70,000 already spent in the planning stages of the library project now represent funds that could have been spent on something else, FitzGerald-Kemmett noted.
“We’ve got a million other things we could have spent that money on, a generator for the senior center/library – a bunch of other stuff,” she said.
Opponents of the MBTA Communities, incensed by the apparent overstep of state government rejected the bylaw, vowing to fight it in the courts.
But there is no class action lawsuit, FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
“We’re going to have to put money away because we’re probably going to end up getting sued by the state,” she said. “Not only are we losing money and we’re going to have to defend ourselves.”
While the law only requires towns to establish a district defined as “a zone of reasonable size in which an allowance for as of right multi-family housing is permitted” within a half-mile of public transportation, must comply with all Hanson building codes or be denied, and has been discussed at multiple public hearings by the Planning Board and the Select Board, which were sparsely attended and “when asked for input, the Planning Board received input from one office,” according to Campbell.
At the May Town Meeting Town Administrator Lisa Green said the Attorney General has required towns to comply with the law or risk lawsuits and classification as ineligible for forms of state funding, including grants.
“We don’t even have an estimate of what it would cost to fight this,” she said. “They are very serious with this. We’re trying to preserve the grants we’ve received in the last couple of years totaling $2 million.”
Stoler, meanwhile, has been hoping for compromise language to salvage a $100,00 grant to fund the planning stages of a new Hanson Public Library, expressing concern that the nearly $75,000 in funds already invested in the project might go to waste, to say nothing of additional grants, potentially totaling more than $1 million for actual construction.