The Massachusetts House and Senate leaders want cities and towns to know that a cut is coming in local aid.
Governor Deval Patrick drafted a budget for the next fiscal year that seeks largely to preserve state funding for schools and municipal services such as police and fire.
But legislative leaders say his plan counts too heavily on federal stimulus money and draws too deeply on the state’s rainy day account, so they have decided that the budget plans they will adopt for fiscal 2011, which begins July 1, will cut aid this year to avoid an even larger wallop next year.
