Fitchburg Discovers Tax Money Is Actually Finding Its Way Back Home – Sentinel and Enterprise

Many are probably wondering how a $58 billion state budget actually benefits us, the taxpayers.

The spending plan for the 2025 budget year meets many concrete needs, but it also comes with targeted assistance at the municipal level.

And thanks to Senator John Cronin, the residents of Fitchburg received a detailed breakdown of how much of those billions came back to the Twin City.

In short, the state budget signed by Gov. Maura Healey in late July included millions in funding for Fitchburg, increasing investment in public schools and housing production in the city center.

“This year’s budget was about making investments that move Fitchburg forward and position the city for long-term success,” said Senator Cronin. “… I am grateful to Representative Kushmerek for his excellent partnership and leadership throughout this process.”

Fitchburg Public Schools will receive just under $78 million in Chapter 70 funding, the state’s primary method of supporting the day-to-day operations of all public schools. That’s more than a $3.2 million increase over the previous fiscal year’s allocation.

The city will also receive more than $10.5 million in unconditional local aid to support municipal services and initiatives during the current budget year, which runs through the end of June.

As for Fitchburg’s housing allocation, it’s divided into two separate funding streams. One of them, totaling $750,000, will be distributed to the Fitchburg Redevelopment Authority (FRA), which helps the city build housing, support businesses, and repurpose vacant or blighted properties for housing production in the city’s downtown.

This is the second year in a row that the FRA has received funding from the Senate budget to expand housing stock in the city centre.

The remaining $250,000 will be allocated directly to the City of Fitchburg for the construction of housing in the city center.

Thanks to the efforts of elected officials and community stakeholders, several properties have been converted into housing in recent years. One of these is the former BF Brown School, which will house 68 mixed-income housing units geared toward artists.

The budgeted funding for higher education and transportation also benefits residents of Fitchburg and other communities.

Under the bill, the spending plan provides permanent, free community college for students across the state, and also invests $30 million to maintain free bus service for regional transit authorities — including the Montachusett Regional Transit Authority — across the state.

It is helpful for residents of this state to know that some of the tax money actually comes back home.

In Massachusetts, switchblades are no longer just production tools

West Side Story, an award-winning 1957 musical, followed a few years later by a film of the same name, likely helped introduce the butterfly knife (retractable pocket knife) to the American public, or at least to those who were not members of street gangs such as those found on Broadway and the silver screen.

That production, featuring music by Lawrence’s own Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, coincidentally coincided with a Massachusetts law banning possession of the potentially deadly instruments.

But 67 years later, state residents are once again allowed to arm themselves with butterfly knives after the Supreme Court lifted that restriction.

It is a direct result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 decision on gun rights and the Second Amendment.

The state Supreme Court applied new guidelines from the Bruen decision, which held that citizens have the right to carry firearms in public for self-defense. The court concluded that butterfly knives do not merit special restrictions under the Second Amendment.

“Nothing in the physical qualities of butterfly knives indicates that they are uniquely dangerous,” wrote Judge Serge Georges Jr.

That means there are only a handful of states left where butterfly knives are banned.

The case stemmed from a 2020 domestic disturbance in which police seized an orange, spring-loaded, firearm-shaped knife. The suspect was charged with carrying a dangerous weapon.

In his appeal, he argued that the knife was protected by the Second Amendment.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court examined the history of knives and pocket knives dating back to colonial times to determine whether gun restrictions fit with this country’s “historical tradition” of gun regulation.

Justice Georges concluded that this broad category, including spring-loaded knives, are “weapons” under the Second Amendment. “Therefore, carrying butterfly knives is presumptively protected by the plain text of the Second Amendment,” he wrote.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell criticized the ruling.

“…The fact is that butterfly knives are dangerous weapons and the legislature made a wise decision to pass a law banning people from carrying them.”

The Bruen ruling changed gun laws across the country.

In California, a federal judge has struck down a state law banning the possession of baton-like weapons, reversing a previous ruling three years ago that upheld a ban on batons and similar blunt instruments. The judge ruled that the ban “unconstitutionally infringes on the Second Amendment rights of American citizens.”

Whether butterfly knives will remain in our “West Side Story” past or become part of the arsenal of criminals – or used by law-abiding citizens in self-defense – remains to be seen.

But it is clear that a wound caused by a concealed knife can be just as damaging as a wound caused by a firearm bullet.