By K.B. Sherman, Contributing Writer
Shrewsbury – The rising costs of healthcare was discussed by the Shrewsbury Board of Selectmen at its Feb. 10 meeting. In a graphic chart developed by Town Manager Daniel Morgado, meeting attendees were shown the impact on rising healthcare costs for the period of fiscal year (FY) 2009 to FY 2015.
Labeled “State Healthcare Crowd-Out” — according to the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission — for this six year period, healthcare costs were up 25 percent, to $3.1 billion. Conversely, local aid was down 34 percent, to $518 million. Money for housing and economic development was up 35 percent to $551 million. There was little or no change to the percent of the state budget spent on the environment, human services, education, or law and public safety.
In other business, the board discussed its attempt to clarify what is required of towns to meet the mandated minimum low- and moderate-income housing mandate, specifically, the 40B Statutory Minimum Land-area Calculations under section 20 of the law. (Under this section, a town is in compliance with its Affordable Housing Plan if at least 10 percent of all housing units in the community are on the Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI); or the proposed project would result in constructing SHI housing on more than .3 percent of land available for development or 10 acres (whichever is larger) in one calendar year. The other option is if at least 1.5 percent of the total land area available for residential, commercial or industrial use is currently classified as “SHI Eligible Land Area.”)