State Treasurer Tim Cahill, in a letter to Governor Deval Patrick, has advocated for an application of federal dollars to the Massachusetts School Building Authority that would minimize, or erase, the need for local contributions to school projects in the pipeline for construction. The State House News Service has reported the letter, and the potential impacts on localities that could stem from federal participation in school construction.

In a letter sent Thursday to Gov. Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, and House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, state Treasury officials proposed bypassing the current rules that demand communities provide 20-60 percent of each project’s funding, arguing that the time constraints likely imposed on the federal assistance should override the traditional process of local opt-in votes.

That change, withdrawing the requirement that each local and regional district front a large share of the project cost, would essentially allow many of them to build and renovate schools entirely on the state and federal dimes.

Treasurer Timothy Cahill and Mass. School Building Authority chief Katherine Craven wrote, “Targeted investment of the federal stimulus funds to support the local share for projects in the MSBA pipeline would eliminate the uncertainty of local funding vote outcomes, stimulate local jobs, and preserve the reform and oversight of the needs-based system for distributing school construction taxpayer dollars.”

This proposal needs to be examined in more detail than I have today, but Cahill is on the right track here. A building program that relieved the pressure on the property tax to fund a local percentage would go a long way towards fulfilling the promise of property tax relief. I do believe that any federal assistance in this area should be funneled though the MSBA, who have the infrastructure in place to properly allocate these dollars. I will do more on this important Cahill initiative as more detail becomes available.