HAWLEY — State Sen. Paul Mark discussed education funding, the prospect of a municipal and public safety building authority, and what it means for towns in the 1st Franklin District to be without a state representative during his first town hall in Hawley since becoming a senator four years ago.
Mark, who represents the 57 towns in the Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin and Hampshire District, said it was nice to be back in Hawley to hear what matters to residents. He said that when he was Hawley’s state representative, he held occasional office hours and town halls there. Since becoming a senator and gaining more towns in his legislative district, he has focused on holding town halls in communities he had not served before.
“I do one or two of these every single month and, believe it or not, this is my fourth year in the Senate, and you’re one of my final seven towns,” Mark, D-Becket, told the dozen or so Hawley residents and a few people from neighboring towns in attendance on Monday.
School funding
Attendees asked Mark about a variety of bills coming before the Legislature, along with topics that have local and statewide impacts. These topics included Chapter 70 funding and rural school aid in the draft fiscal year 2027 budget. The governor’s version of the budget includes $7.05 billion for Chapter 70, with $32,248 of that going to Hawley. The budget also includes $20 million for rural school aid. It is now before the House for review.
Robert Sears, one of Hawley’s representatives on the Mohawk Trail Regional School District School Committee, said the district is already hearing feedback that the $28.9 million budget the committee passed is too expensive for member towns, and that there are those who hope it fails to pass during Town Meeting season to show state officials they need to rethink how education is funded.
In the FY26 state budget, rural school aid was cut from $16 million to $12 million, which reduced Mohawk Trail’s allocation by approximately $180,000.
“There are some people who kind of want it to play out that they can’t pay it because they want the state to know that towns around here feel like they’re getting left behind,” Sears said. “We have costs, we have teacher salary raises, we have all those things, and it’s hard to have small towns like Hawley have to cover those expenses.”
Sears also referenced a $5 million irrigation project the state is funding at a public golf course in Weston. He argued that if the state can fund a golf course, it should be able to fund education.
Mark said he works to bring as much state funding to western Massachusetts as possible, but legislators representing the eastern part of the state are doing the same for their respective districts. He added that everyone has their own priorities for the budget.
“If I had my way, I would have the whole $62 billion come here and not vote for any of that stuff, and they would do the same, and they outnumber me,” Mark said. “If I tell them that I and [Selectboard member Hussain Hamdan] worked with Leo Roy, the former DCR commissioner, to get $1 billion that I authorized in a bond bill to fix a road through a state forest in a town of 350 people, you know what the people in Weston would say?
“For me to find something, in terms of a formula, that would work for my district is almost impossible,” Mark continued. “And so, you try to come up with a way to serve as many competing interests as possible, and so sometimes that means something falls through the cracks. … Sometimes it’s a recognition that we can’t make everybody happy.”
He added that while the FY26 budget was signed with just $12 million for rural school aid, he is advocating for supplemental appropriations to restore the $4 million that was cut.
“Now the challenge to our colleagues in the House and the Senate is we can’t let it dip a little bit. So everything I can do till July 1 to get it to $20 million or higher is what I’m going to do,” Mark said. “We’re trying to get as much money directed to our communities as possible.”
Legislative representation and a building authority
Mark also addressed representation for the towns in the 1st Franklin District and the bills filed on their behalf by former state Rep. Natalie Blais, who resigned earlier this year. Mark said he has gone through this before, as when he was a representative, state Sen. Adam Hinds stepped down before his term was complete. He said he and the other senators and representatives for Massachusetts will make sure the 1st Franklin towns are not forgotten.
“Sen. Hinds left early and we picked up the slack. Sen. [Stan] Rosenberg was required to leave early, so we picked up the slack. When Rep. Peter Kocot died in Northampton, we all kind of tag-teamed to make sure [the constituents] weren’t forgotten about,” he said. “It’s not a death blow, it just makes things a little harder. But we’re all going to work together as a region to make sure that none of these towns are left out of the House budget process.”
Hamdan asked specifically about the proposed municipal and public safety building authority, which Blais was a proponent of, and said if the authority was created, it would be a huge help for Hawley in its quest to upgrade the Fire Station, which is not Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant and does not have a bathroom.
“We put stabilization money aside every year, but a town like Hawley cannot afford to build a project like this solely with local funds,” Hamdan said. “It’s not possible.”
Mark said the building authority is a good idea, but much like the existing Massachusetts School Building Authority, it would not be able to completely fund every project, or to support every town that applies for funding. He added that the biggest challenge to getting the bill passed is finding a designated revenue stream. One cent of every 6.25 cents included in the sales tax that people pay on purchases goes to the MSBA.
“The municipal building authority idea is a good one. Of the 57 towns I have, I think 54 of them would take a new building if they could get the funding for it,” Mark said. “I think the school building authority doesn’t do more than 30 a year, so it’s not going to be a free-for-all. It’s not going to be this magic wand that’s going to cure every single community’s ills. The biggest thing we can do if we can get the language on the books to make it exist is to figure out how we get a guaranteed revenue stream.”
Both Hamdan and Hawley Selectboard Chair Will Cosby asked Mark if he could work with them to get the Department of Conservation and Recreation to give Hawley a few acres of state-owned land abutting the Fire Station property. If the town wishes to eventually build a new Fire Station with a bathroom, it will need a larger footprint and a leach field, and acquiring the adjacent field owned by DCR would provide a solution.
Mark also told attendees he supports Medicare for All, and will do what he can to support Hawley in improving cellular and internet availability.
Mark noted he can’t advocate for the community if he does not know what issues matter to his constituents, and advised attendees that his team holds monthly office hours in Buckland. Residents can also contact him at Paul.Mark@masenate.gov.
“The more I hear things, the better off the arguments I make are,” Mark said. “So it’s never not worth telling me something.”