Report: Mass. Communities Still Facing Fiscal Woes

Massachusetts cities and towns still face fiscal woes after struggling through their worst two-year stretch since the adoption of a 1980 ballot question limiting property tax increases.

A new report by the business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation found that during the 2010 and 2011 fiscal years, property taxes collected by cities and towns rose to their highest share of local spending in 30 years.

In 2011, property taxes accounted for more than half of total municipal revenues. A decade earlier, property taxes accounted for 49 percent of local revenues.

One reason for the increased reliance on property taxes is reductions in the amount of state aid that communities have received compared to their expenses.

The question known as Proposition 2 1/2 radically changed the way cities and towns raise taxes.