By CHRIS COLLINS
(undated) — The state’s auditor’s ideas for spending a windfall of federal COVID relief money could be good news for Western Massachusetts.
Auditor Suzanne Bump suggests using some of the billions in relief funds to pay for infrastructure upgrades in more than 100 mostly small communities in Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden counties. Bump says the “rural rescue plan” would help level the fiscal playing field in a region which has often been short-changed when it comes to certain types of state funding.
Bump testifies today in front of a committee charged with helping develop a plan to spend the commonwealth’s $5 billion allotment of American Rescue Plan Act funds.