Editorial
Collective voice

Former Ashby selectman Mike McCallum arrived at a recent select board meeting armed with charts and graphs that delivered a simple, but ominous, message: the town can not sustain its spending trend.

McCallum wasn't criticizing the way the town is being run. On the contrary, he made it clear that Ashby was operating as efficiently as possible - so lean is the budget, he warned, that there's nothing left to reduce. The next cut hits bone.

It's the same story across the state. A slowdown in new growth in many towns coupled with rising expenses - for schools and health insurance, among others - have officials struggling to find ways to fund basic day-to-day operations, never mind plan for long-term initiatives.

Recently, Ashburnham Selectman Jonathan Dennehy gained the support of his fellow board members for a resolution asking legislators to commit the same percentage of the state's revenue to the local cities and towns every year. The measure had been discussed at the Massachusetts Municipal Association annual meeting in January.

Dennehy thinks the only way to keep up with town and school services is to increase the percentage of money returning to the towns from the state and return state aid to the towns sooner in the budget cycle.

That's a reasonable request. Towns are finding it increasingly difficult to meet the needs of their residents without all the cards on the table. Gov. Deval Patrick's budget proposal is only the first shot across the bow; the House and Senate have yet to produce their versions, and the conference committee will still have to hammer out the final numbers. In the meantime, the towns are already setting town meeting warrants based on fuzzy state figures.

There's power in other kinds of numbers as well. A resolution holds little weight if it's pursued by individual communities. A critical mass is necessary, not just from Ash-West, or North Middlesex, but from Worcester, Fitchburg, Wachusett - a collection of voices is heard more readily in Boston than are scattered voices, especially those coming from the "wilderness" of Central Massachusetts.