Patrick campaigns for new income sources for towns

FRAMINGHAM -- Speaking in a community so cash-strapped that officials are considering charging $270 a year for students to take the school bus, Governor Deval Patrick began a statewide campaign to gather support for a series of proposals aimed at giving towns new sources of income and reducing property taxes.

"Skyrocketing healthcare costs, growing pension commitments, energy bills, the cost of education . . . all of those and other strains are present on local budgets, here in Framingham and elsewhere," Patrick said during a press conference at Town Hall yesterday after meeting privately with local officials. "And the burdens for those new costs are falling increasingly on homeowners."

Patrick is pushing legislation to allow communities to collect a tax of up to 2 percent on hotel and restaurant tabs, require some local pension funds to join the State Retirement Board, allow communities to buy health insurance through the state's Group Insurance Commission, and eliminate a property tax exemption for telecommunications firms. Communities levying the hotel and meals tax would be required to dedicate at least a quarter of the revenue to reducing residential tax bills.

State Representative Pam Richardson, Democrat of Framingham, said a meals tax would help her town, which has dozens of restaurants lining Route 9. But she said the initiative could face a tough battle on Beacon Hill.

Patrick said that he is launching the statewide push because he knows passage of the initiative is not a sure thing.

"I take nothing for granted," he said. "There are all sorts of forces at work . . . on Beacon Hill. I want to make sure people understand what's at stake."

Patrick said he decided to go forward with the proposal to end a long-standing property tax exemption on telecommunications equipment, despite warnings from the companies that doing so would force them to increase consumer rates and curb advances toward universal broadband service.

"There is no correlation between taxes paid by the phone company and rates," Patrick said.

Framingham is struggling to close a projected $2 million gap in its school budget next year.

Other communities have turned to Proposition 2 1/2 overrides, which give officials permission to increase taxes more than the state limit of 2.5 percent.

While many local officials have called for changes to the tax-limit law, Patrick said he preferred to focus on alternative revenue sources. "For years, the people of Massachusetts have been paying more and getting less, and we have just got to turn that around," he said.

John C. Drake can be reached at jdrake@globe.com.