State Senator Sal DiDomenico met with the Common Council Monday night to highlight his legislative efforts on behalf of the city of Everett, which included a creative effort to keep trains full of dangerous Ethanol from moving through the city, and increases to local aid figures that help the city fund its annual budget.
According to DiDomenico, he and Senator Anthony Petrucelli of East Boston co-sponsored a legislative effort that essentially made it illegal for Global Energy to blend Ethanol with gasoline at their Massachusetts facility, thus removing the need to transport Ethanol on rail lines and ending the danger to Everett residents.
“As I said when we were debating the bill, we are not going to sacrifice public safety for the sake of expanding profits,” Senator DiDomenico said after the meeting.
The bill is likely to be appealed in court by attorneys for Global. However, in the meantime, the transportation of Ethanol on railways in Massachusetts has been halted.
Of more interest in the budget process was the senator’s efforts to secure additional state funding through the state budget.
Though the final state budget numbers have not yet been voted on, Senator DiDomenico did note that the state’s local aid formulas were largely agreed to by both chambers of the state legislature, meaning that the city can be confident that it is set to receive $5 million in addition state Chapter 70 funding for education over last year, as well as another $137,000 in unrestricted local aid for Everett over last year, which raises the city’s total local aid allocation to more than $30 million, for both city and school funding.
In addition, the senator noted efforts to increase the funding for items like Veterans Services, senior services and the state’s gap funding for education aid.