State Auditor Suzanne Bump's report on Western Mass detailed how it is shortchanged when it comes to infrastructure. Rural towns often struggle to maintain roads and public buildings.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire Regional Planning Commission plans to submit a comment letter in support of State Auditor Suzanne Bump's rural rescue plan that was released on Tuesday.

Bump has called for a number of measures to aid Western Massachusetts' public infrastructure after her recent study, "Public Infrastructure in Western Massachusetts: A Critical Need for Regional Investment and Revitalization," showed deficiencies in the west as compared to the eastern part of the state.

The study analyzed roadways, culverts, and bridges; municipal buildings; and broadband internet as public infrastructure categories and found they were all under-resourced in Western Mass.

"It really documents how Western Mass has been getting the short end of the funding stream for a long time,"
BRPC Executive Director Thomas Matuszko said about the report.

Bump debuted her findings to the Legislature's Joint Committee on Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday and will advocate for infrastructure investment in these counties.

She proposed an increase of state Chapter 90 road funding from $200 million to $300 million annually, the creation of a public infrastructure agency to assist communities with project designs and funding applications, and expanded access to broadband internet while lowering costs for customers.

Matuszko highlighted the importance of supporting Bump's rural rescue plan and the need to do it quickly, as American Rescue Act (ARPA) Funds — which she proposed as a source to fund the initiative — will soon be allocated by the legislature.

"I think we need to support her efforts and working with our legislative delegation, to try to make that happen, I'm going to be getting some material that I'm going to send out to everybody about steps to make that happen," he said to BRPC in the panel's meeting on Thursday.  

"And that has to happen pretty quickly because the Legislature will be making their final decisions pretty soon and we want to make sure that we get our comments in there."

The coordinated effort that Matuszko had in mind to support Bump's proposal includes delegates and alternates from BRPC, department of public works superintendents, town managers, the business community, and the police because municipal buildings are a large part of it.

He mentioned hopefully coordinating with 1Berkshire to get local businesses involved.

Another member suggested getting the support of the Berkshire County Selectmen's Association.

"The one thing that she said that talked about the Chapter 90 formula was that they need to count more road miles versus population in order to increase the Chapter 90 funding," Lanesborough delegate Barb Davis-Hassan said in regard to Bump's presentation.

"And one thing that might work well is to get the selectmen that the DPW and anybody else that represents the towns to do a joint coordinated communication that everybody has a signature for it sort of like a blank letter on behalf of it and have all the signatures on it."

Sheffield alternate Rene Wood thought that this was probably one of the most important reports that have come out of Western Mass from an official of Bump's level.

"One of the things that in that report, that really struck me also was the very clear recognition of a lack of resources that most small towns have to go after these grants," she added, detailing her own town's struggle with the process.

Matuszko suggested requesting some of the state ARPA money to fund support services for grant writing.

Williamstown alternate Roger Bolton emphasized Bump's sentiments on the commonwealth's payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) program for state-owned lands (SOL,) which she says is underfunded and negatively affects smaller rural communities in Western Mass.

In July, Bump joined state and local elected officials and stakeholders to tour two sites in Franklin County that demonstrate the disadvantaged effects of the program and begin a conversation that she hopes will spark change.

Matuszko said that will be further discussed at Friday's Rural Policy Advisory Commission meeting.

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