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I was surprised to learn tonight that Sheriff Jim DiPaola had dropped out of the fifth Congressional race, but perhaps the bigger surprise is how quickly the endorsements for the sheriff shifted to another candidate: According to an emailed news release from Barry Finegold’s campaign, now officially on board supporting his candidacy are state representatives David Nangle and Tom Golden; former Lowell city manager John Cox; Dracut selectmen Joseph DiRocco, John Zimini, Ken Cunha and Robert Cox; and Ron Mercier, chair of the Dracut School Committee and grandson of Lowell City Councillor Armand Mercier. It’s no shock that this pack would migrate together; many of these people were active supporters of the former city manager and have familial, historical and/or political connections going way back. What is a surprise, however, is how well-coordinated and quick the endorsements were—coming right on the heels of DiPaola’s announcement that he was dropping out of the race. 

What this influx of supporters will mean for Finegold’s campaign is anyone’s guess. The talk I’d heard before was with the two women candidates, Eileen Donoghue and Niki Tsongas, pulling from a very similar base here in Lowell, DiPaola’s chances for success were strong. Whether that will translate to Finegold’s campaign will depend (I hope) on the quality of the candidate and the competition more than anything else. 

Last week’s big news was a preliminary promise from the House and Senate to put more money into Chapter 70, the state mechanism for funding public education. This is a good idea, especially since it’s an increase in what the governor’s budget had allocated for the schools. Even with this increase, however, the state doesn’t meet its 2002 levels of education funding, nor does it do enough to alleviate the additional financial burdens placed on cities and towns amid rising fixed costs—namely health insurance. In Lowell, we expect health insurance costs to go up between 15-17%. Add to that, increased costs for special education transportation and utilities, and you’ve already bitten a major chunk out of the legislature’s planned increase for education. This leaves little resources for important initiatives in Lowell schools such as expanding student access to high school science labs (one of the requirements of our recent re-accreditation), increasing student retention, and improving student achievement, to name a few. 

House Speaker Sal DiMasi has an interesting twist to the governor’s savings proposal that will require cities and towns to join the state’s Group Insurance Commission, which will provide health insurance benefits at a much lower cost. Whenever savings can be achieved without loss of services, it leaves funding for other priorities. The governor’s municipal aid package also offers Lowell an opportunity to generate more revenue with minimal pain—especially considering our restaurant and hotel taxes would still be lower than neighboring restaurants in New Hampshire and other states. The Governor’s proposal enables cities to decide for themselves–up to 2%–how much added tax to put on restaurant and hotel bills. That means for a $50 dinner, you could end up paying at the most, an additional dollar tax that would go directly into local services for our community. When you consider the number of out-of-towners who stay in our hotels or dine in Lowell restaurants after theater, concerts and sporting events, it’s a much better way to generate funds than putting additional burdens on local property owners. The fact remains: Lowell needs help providing services that directly impact our quality of life here and the quality of education our children receive; both men offer interesting ideas about how to do it.