{"id":830,"date":"2012-03-26T15:19:36","date_gmt":"2012-03-26T20:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/?p=830"},"modified":"2015-02-24T15:20:12","modified_gmt":"2015-02-24T20:20:12","slug":"830","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/articles\/830\/","title":{"rendered":"NECIR: Lottery budget a \u2018lifeline\u2019 in Mass."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In its most recent report, The New England Center for Investigative Reporting looked at how small Massachusetts towns are increasingly relying on shrinking lottery funds for some of <a href=\"http:\/\/necir-bu.org\/\">their most basic functions<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In Lynn, where 2010 Census data show that nearly 20 percent of residents live in poverty, two years of cuts in \u201cunrestricted aid\u201d totaling more than $2 million have delayed paving projects and municipal building repairs and required the careful scrutiny of all non-salary spending, said Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy. The city, however, came out of the cutbacks without any personnel layoffs.<\/p>\n<p>The town of Adams wasn\u2019t so lucky.<\/p>\n<p>When it lost $225,682 in \u201cunrestricted aid\u201d between 2010 and 2012, the impact was even more severe. The drop in funds meant 10 positions were cut, including police officers and public works employees. Staff and programs were also cut at the regional school system to which Adams belongs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor communities like us that are more reliant on state aid, it\u2019s made the budget very challenging,\u201d said Jonathan Butler, the town\u2019s administrator.<\/p>\n<p>Still, when it comes to state \u201cunrestricted aid,\u201d Bay State communities are betting the house on the Massachusetts Lottery. That\u2019s because almost all unrestricted local aid now comes from keno and lottery sales, a NECIR analysis found. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/necir-bu.org\/investigations\/thinning-ice\/\">Read the rest here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>NECIR is a nonprofit investigative reporting newsroom based at Boston University. Their mission is to ensure the survival of serious, in-depth investigative journalism in New England and to train a new generation of investigative reporters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In its most recent report, The New England Center for Investigative Reporting looked at how small Massachusetts towns are increasingly&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9874,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[355,356,357,358,359],"bu-publication":[],"discipline-type":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9874"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":832,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/830\/revisions\/832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=830"},{"taxonomy":"discipline-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/discipline-type?post=830"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=830"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}